Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse Notts

[wjhonson]

John /Digby/ of Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott; Knt
has an M.I. Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott
1684 "aged 81"

by his wife Lucy /Trygget/
whom he married 13 Sep 1624

he had four children

This family is ancestral to
Katharine Worsley born 1933, Duchess of /Kent/
among others I'm sure

There was a slightly earlier

John /Digby/ of Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott
adult by 1563
who had married as her second husband
Elizabeth /Hartopp/

I cannot seem to connect two John Digby's together although it should be he was the father, or perhaps uncle of the other.

Does anyone have a source to connect this line?

[John Higgins]

Post by wjhonson
John /Digby/ of Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott; Knt
has an M.I. Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott
1684 "aged 81"
by his wife Lucy /Trygget/
whom he married 13 Sep 1624
he had four children
This family is ancestral to
Katharine Worsley born 1933, Duchess of /Kent/
among others I'm sure
There was a slightly earlier
John /Digby/ of Mansfield Woodhouse, co Nott
adult by 1563
who had married as her second husband
Elizabeth /Hartopp/
I cannot seem to connect two John Digby's together although it should be he was the father, or perhaps uncle of the other.
Does anyone have a source to connect this line?

What's your source for the second John Digby (who married Elizabeth Hartopp) - and for the 1563 date that he was an adult?

[Vance Mead]

Digby is in the Visitation of Notts, page 168:

https://archive.org/stream/visitationscoun01britgoog#page/n180/mode/2up

[wjhonson]

Bargain and sale and feoffment from Thomas Charman of Clipston or Clipstone co. Nottingham, husbandman, to John Digby of Mannsfeld Woodhowse Mansfield Woodhouse, co. Nottingham, gent., of messuages, lands and appurtenances in the vills and fields of Sutton Colefeld Sutton Coldfield, co. War. and Colshill in Arden Coleshill, co. War. and elsewhere in the same county. Consideration: an annuity of 40s. during the life of the said Thomas. Parchment. MS 3888/A 776 20 December 6 Eliz I 1563

[John Higgins]

Post by wjhonson
Bargain and sale and feoffment from Thomas Charman of Clipston or Clipstone co. Nottingham, husbandman, to John Digby of Mannsfeld Woodhowse Mansfield Woodhouse, co. Nottingham, gent., of messuages, lands and appurtenances in the vills and fields of Sutton Colefeld Sutton Coldfield, co. War. and Colshill in Arden Coleshill, co. War. and elsewhere in the same county. Consideration: an annuity of 40s. during the life of the said Thomas. Parchment. MS 3888/A 776 20 December 6 Eliz I 1563

How do you identify this John Digby as the one who married Elizabeth Hartopp? Is this the same or a different man than the John Digby who married Elizabeth Slaughter [or Slater]?

Take a look a look at page 122 of the Vis. of Notts cited earlier, where TWO John Digbys are mentioned - almost certainly different men. One of them is one of the husbands of Elizabeth Hartopp.

The Digbys are a large and confusing family - with too many men named John. Lots of possibilities for confusion - and mis-identification. And the Digby pedigrees are generally incomplete and not reliable.

You've raised an interesting but difficult conundrum....

[wjhonson]

On the Elizabeth Slater and husband John Digby mentioned in the Vis cited, this extra detail

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol4/pp75-80

[wjhonson]

William /Hartopp/ of Burton Lazars, co Leic
died 2 Sep 1586
his only known wife was
Eleanor /Adcock/

Among their known children, there are two for whom I have exact birth dates
Thomas /Hartopp/ of Freathby, co Leic, eldest son
was born 1 Mar 1570

and
George /Hartopp/ of Little Dalby, co Leic; esq
fifth son of his father
was bap 18 Mar 1581/1582 at Melton Mowbray

So that gives us the possible birth range for the Elizabeth /Hartopp/
their sister

It is Burke's Landed which tells us that she
married Michael /Clerkson/ of Kirton, co Nott
and John Digby

She was the mother of that
William /Clerkson/ of Kirton, co Nott; esq
who by a settlement dated 7 Dec 1635
married Elizabeth /Williamson/
daughter of Robert /Williamson/ of East Markham, co Nott -1612-, d 27 Jan 1633



I don't know, as you point out, which John Digby exactly she married
but Michael /Clerkson/ of Kirton, co Nott has a Will dated 8 Sep 1615


and there's this

D239 M/T 1737 1615
These documents are held at Derbyshire Record Office
Contents:
Arbitration by John Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse, William Moseley of Carberton, Clement Holder of Southwell clerk in a suit in Chancery between George Markham of Ollerton esq., plaintiff, and Michael Clerkson of Kirton gent. et al. deforciants, over Markham's claim to certain chief rents due to him from Clerkson from lands in Boughton and Kirton. Dated 18 August

[wjhonson]

Now having said all that I realized that if she married John Digby secondly, she would be listed as a Clerkson, not a Hartopp. So I tried that and found her.

John Digby
1 Mar 1616 Kirton, co Nott (Batch M05375-2 wj)
to Elizabeth Clarkson

[John Higgins]

Post by wjhonson
Now having said all that I realized that if she married John Digby secondly, she would be listed as a Clerkson, not a Hartopp. So I tried that and found her.
John Digby
1 Mar 1616 Kirton, co Nott (Batch M05375-2 wj)
to Elizabeth Clarkson

From all of this it looks like Elizabeth Hartopp was the second wife of John Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse (d. 1624). And as her third husband (following John Digby), she married the stepson of Sir John’s sister Elizabeth. So I guess you could say this John Digby was her husband’s “step-uncle” (if such a term exists) – the brother of her third husband’s stepmother.

The 1662-4 visitation of Nottinghamshire was most recently published by the Harleian Society in its Visitation Series, as volume 5 of the “new series”. It was published in 1986 and is therefore not likely to be found online. It contains a good pedigree of the family of Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse. It shows John Digby (d. 1624) as married to Elizabeth Slaughter, but does not show a second wife – perhaps because the second marriage was late and short (and probably childless). However, it does show that his sister Elizabeth Digby was married to Thomas Flower of Langar in Notts.

If you go to the earlier visitation of Notts (Harleian Society, Visitation Series, vol. 4) that was mentioned earlier in the thread, on page 122 you’ll see that Thomas Flower had a third wife who was Elizabeth, daughter of John Digby of Mansfield Woodhouse (i.e., the father of the John Digby who d. 1624). And by his second wife Thomas Flower had a son George who was the third husband of Elizabeth Hartopp – widow of Michael Clerkson and John Digby.

The relationship of Elizabeth Hartopp and John Digby is certainly complicated. But with all the details we now know - especially the marriage record that you located – it seems to be sufficiently supported.

BTW there’s a good pedigree of the Hartopp family in John Nichols , History of Leics, vol. 2 pt. 1, p. 128. It’s available online (or was, because I downloaded it some years ago) but I don’t have a URL for it now. The pedigree (in a footnote) lists the first two husbands of Elizabeth Hartopp, but not George Flower the third husband.

[wjhonson]

Okay one more thing

On this manor of Grendon which was held by "three sisters", we can actually identify this family.

The three sisters, were the co-heiresses of
Ralph /Leech/ of Chatsworth, co Derby
by his marriage, as her second husband, with
Elizabeth /Leeke/

who just so happens to *also* be the mother of the famous Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury

The eldest of the three co-heiresses of Ralph and Elizabeth was that Jane Leech who was mother to William /Knyveton/ , 1st Bnt
and also mother to that
Mary /Knyveton/ who married George Chaworth, Viscount /Chaworth/ in Ireland 1627