Thomas Tropenell
Encyclopedia
Thomas Tropenell, sometimes Tropenelle and Tropnell (c. 1405–1488), was an English
lawyer
and landowner
in Wiltshire
in the west of England.
He acquired large estates, built Great Chalfield Manor
, and compiled the Tropenell Cartulary
.
Tropenell, later of Great Chalfield
, Neston
, and Salisbury
, was born about 1405, the son of Henry Tropenell and his wife, Edith, who was the daughter of Walter Roche.
Augustus Pugin, in a chapter on Great Chalfield in his Examples of Gothic architecture, gives a pedigree of the Tropenell family stated to be taken from "a MS
now in the possession of William Waldron, Esq." According to this, "long before the time that no mind renueth, and before the conquest" a Wiltshire knight
named Sir Osbert Tropenell was lord of the whole lordship of Sapworth
. Of his two sons, James and Walter, the second son, Walter, received lands in Sherston
, Ivy Church, Whaddon
and Combe
, and married Catherine, the daughter of Sir William Percy, sister of Sir Harry Percy, lords
of "Much Chaldefeld, otherwise called East Chaldefeld", having a son, Philip, and a daughter, Galiana. Philip married Isawde, daughter of Richard Cotell, of "Cotells Atteward, otherwise Little Atteward", and left two sons, Roger and John, dividing his land between them. Roger married Christian, daughter of Sir John Rous, lord of Immer
, and their son John Tropenell married Agnes, daughter of James Lye, lord of Liniford. Their son Harry Tropenell, who married Edith, the daughter of Walter Roche, younger brother of Sir John Roche, of Bromham
, was the father of Thomas Tropenell.
yer by profession, Tropenell turned himself into "a long-headed, thrifty business man" and was anxious to use his abilities to become a substantial landowner. He spent most of his life in the south-west of England, especially in Wiltshire.
He married firstly Agnes Ludlow, the widow of Thomas Bourton, who was cousin and heir of John Bourton the younger of Atworth
.
Lord Hungerford
conveyed the manor
of Hill Deverill to Tropenell and Agnes in December 1447. He acquired the manor of Great Chalfield in 1454, after a legal challenge based on the marriage of his ancestor Walter Tropenell with Katharine, daughter of Sir William Percy, and built Great Chalfield Manor
. During his life Tropenell acquired a large number of manors, not without battles along the way, and this prompted him to assemble his Tropenell Cartulary
, compiled in the reign of Edward IV
.
Tropenell married secondly, probably in May 1456, his cousin Margaret, the second daughter of William Ludlow of Hill Deverill and the widow of John Erley, who in 1450-1451 was Member of Parliament
for Ludgershall
.
While many others were troubled by having taken sides in the Wars of the Roses
, Tropenell gave no mortal offense to either side, and in the reign of Richard III
, about 1484, he even received a pardon from the new king, recorded as "Thomas Tropenelle of Chaldefeld in the Countie of Wiltshire Squier hathe a generalle pardonne."
Tropenell died in 1488 holding Great Chalfield from the Duchy of Lancaster
"as of the honour of Trowbridge
. He left the whole of his property to his son Christopher Tropenell, except for "one white bed" bequeathed to his daughter Mary. He was entombed in the chapel of the Blessed Mary at Corsham
, now the north chancel chapel of the Church of England
parish church
, where his large altar tomb, shared with his first wife, Agnes, survives.
of Tropenell. Apparently of the right period, it shows a burly man wearing a gown trimmed with ermine
and what may be a beaver
hat, holding what appears to be a money bag
.
of Tropenell are blazon
ed: gules
, a fess
engrailed ermine
, between three griffin
s' heads erased argent
. These appear in several places at Great Chalfield Manor
, sometimes accompanied by the family badge, a yoke
, and the motto "Le joug tyra bellement" ('the yoke drew well').
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and landowner
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
in the west of England.
He acquired large estates, built Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor is an English country house at Great Chalfield, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.The house is a moated manor house built around 1465–1480 for Thomas Tropenell, a modest member of the landed gentry who made a fortune as a clothier...
, and compiled the Tropenell Cartulary
Tropenell Cartulary
The Tropenell Cartulary is an English medieval manuscript cartulary compiled for Thomas Tropenell , a Wiltshire landowner, in the 15th century.-History:...
.
Background
Great Chalfield
Great Chalfield, also sometimes called by its Latin name of Chalfield Magna, formerly East Chalfield and anciently Much Chaldefield, is a small village and former civil parish in Wiltshire, England, now part of Atworth...
, Neston
Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in north west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south western extreme of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 which was formerly the main turnpike road from London to Bristol, between Bath and Chippenham ....
, and Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
, was born about 1405, the son of Henry Tropenell and his wife, Edith, who was the daughter of Walter Roche.
Augustus Pugin, in a chapter on Great Chalfield in his Examples of Gothic architecture, gives a pedigree of the Tropenell family stated to be taken from "a MS
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
now in the possession of William Waldron, Esq." According to this, "long before the time that no mind renueth, and before the conquest" a Wiltshire knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
named Sir Osbert Tropenell was lord of the whole lordship of Sapworth
Sopworth
Sopworth is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the county's border with South Gloucestershire.The poet Thomas Yalden was briefly rector of the parish....
. Of his two sons, James and Walter, the second son, Walter, received lands in Sherston
Sherston, Wiltshire
Sherston is a village approximately 5 miles to the west of Malmesbury in the English county of Wiltshire. The population in 2001 was 1418 .- History :...
, Ivy Church, Whaddon
Whaddon, Wiltshire
Whaddon is a hamlet in the civil parish of Hilperton, located in Wiltshire, England.- Location :The hamlet is located 2.5 miles northeast of the county town of Trowbridge. It is only accessible via Whaddon Lane that connects the hamlet to Hilperton....
and Combe
Combe
-English place names:* Combe, Berkshire* Combe, Buckfastleigh, Devon* Combe, Yealmpton, Devon* Combe, Herefordshire* Combe, Oxfordshire* Combe, Somerset-Places in England with combe as one word in part of their name:Cumbria* Black CombeDevon...
, and married Catherine, the daughter of Sir William Percy, sister of Sir Harry Percy, lords
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of "Much Chaldefeld, otherwise called East Chaldefeld", having a son, Philip, and a daughter, Galiana. Philip married Isawde, daughter of Richard Cotell, of "Cotells Atteward, otherwise Little Atteward", and left two sons, Roger and John, dividing his land between them. Roger married Christian, daughter of Sir John Rous, lord of Immer
Imber
Imber is an uninhabited village in part of the British Army's training grounds on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. It is situated in an isolated area of the Plain, about west of the A360 road between Tilshead and West Lavington, accessible only by military tracks...
, and their son John Tropenell married Agnes, daughter of James Lye, lord of Liniford. Their son Harry Tropenell, who married Edith, the daughter of Walter Roche, younger brother of Sir John Roche, of Bromham
Bromham, Wiltshire
Bromham is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. Besides the main village of Bromham, the parish includes five other settlements: St Edith’s Marsh, Westbrook, Hawkstreet, Netherstreet and Chittoe. These are essentially sub-villages and hamlets all within of the main village centre,...
, was the father of Thomas Tropenell.
Life
A common lawCommon law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
yer by profession, Tropenell turned himself into "a long-headed, thrifty business man" and was anxious to use his abilities to become a substantial landowner. He spent most of his life in the south-west of England, especially in Wiltshire.
He married firstly Agnes Ludlow, the widow of Thomas Bourton, who was cousin and heir of John Bourton the younger of Atworth
Atworth
Atworth is a village and a Civil Parish in Wiltshire, England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,280. The village is about three miles northwest of Melksham and nine miles east from Bath.-Film industry:...
.
Lord Hungerford
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford KG was an English knight, landowner, from 1400 to 1414 Member of the House of Commons, of which he became Speaker, then was an Admiral and peer....
conveyed the manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Hill Deverill to Tropenell and Agnes in December 1447. He acquired the manor of Great Chalfield in 1454, after a legal challenge based on the marriage of his ancestor Walter Tropenell with Katharine, daughter of Sir William Percy, and built Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor is an English country house at Great Chalfield, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.The house is a moated manor house built around 1465–1480 for Thomas Tropenell, a modest member of the landed gentry who made a fortune as a clothier...
. During his life Tropenell acquired a large number of manors, not without battles along the way, and this prompted him to assemble his Tropenell Cartulary
Tropenell Cartulary
The Tropenell Cartulary is an English medieval manuscript cartulary compiled for Thomas Tropenell , a Wiltshire landowner, in the 15th century.-History:...
, compiled in the reign of Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
.
Tropenell married secondly, probably in May 1456, his cousin Margaret, the second daughter of William Ludlow of Hill Deverill and the widow of John Erley, who in 1450-1451 was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Ludgershall
Ludgershall (UK Parliament constituency)
Ludgershall was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.- 1295–1640 :- 1640–1832 :- Sources :...
.
While many others were troubled by having taken sides in the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
, Tropenell gave no mortal offense to either side, and in the reign of Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, about 1484, he even received a pardon from the new king, recorded as "Thomas Tropenelle of Chaldefeld in the Countie of Wiltshire Squier hathe a generalle pardonne."
Tropenell died in 1488 holding Great Chalfield from the Duchy of Lancaster
Duchy of Lancaster
The Duchy of Lancaster is one of the two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Cornwall. It is held in trust for the Sovereign, and is used to provide income for the use of the British monarch...
"as of the honour of Trowbridge
Trowbridge
Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire, England, situated on the River Biss in the west of the county, approximately 12 miles southeast of Bath, Somerset....
. He left the whole of his property to his son Christopher Tropenell, except for "one white bed" bequeathed to his daughter Mary. He was entombed in the chapel of the Blessed Mary at Corsham
Corsham
Corsham is a historic market town and civil parish in north west Wiltshire, England. It is at the south western extreme of the Cotswolds, just off the A4 which was formerly the main turnpike road from London to Bristol, between Bath and Chippenham ....
, now the north chancel chapel of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, where his large altar tomb, shared with his first wife, Agnes, survives.
Likeness
A wall painting in the parlour of Great Chalfield Manor is traditionally claimed to be a portraitPortrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
of Tropenell. Apparently of the right period, it shows a burly man wearing a gown trimmed with ermine
Ermine
Ermine has several uses:* A common name for the stoat * The white fur and black tail end of this animal, which is historically worn by and associated with royalty and high officials...
and what may be a beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
hat, holding what appears to be a money bag
Money bag
A money bag is a bag of money used to hold and transport coins and banknotes from/to a mint, bank, ATM, milled, business, or other institution...
.
Arms
The armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of Tropenell are blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
ed: gules
Gules
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....
, a fess
Fess
In heraldry, a fess or fesse is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by a fess or other ordinary, ranging from one-fifth to one-third...
engrailed ermine
Ermine (heraldry)
Ermine is a heraldic fur representing the winter coat of the stoat . Many skins would be sewn together to make a luxurious garment, producing a pattern of small black spots on a white field...
, between three griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
s' heads erased argent
Argent
In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...
. These appear in several places at Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor
Great Chalfield Manor is an English country house at Great Chalfield, near Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.The house is a moated manor house built around 1465–1480 for Thomas Tropenell, a modest member of the landed gentry who made a fortune as a clothier...
, sometimes accompanied by the family badge, a yoke
Yoke
A yoke is a wooden beam, normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen...
, and the motto "Le joug tyra bellement" ('the yoke drew well').