Lord of Bramber and Gower;

ob. 16 Hen. III, by fall from horse.

See Sussex Arch. Coll.,

vol. v, pp. 5, 152.

Isabel,

da. of Gilbert

de Clare, E. of Glouc.

1st wife.

23 This John is erroneously described as the son of William of Westneston, or Wiston, in the MSS., Coll. of Arms, Vincent's Chaos, p. 225, and Glover's Quatrefoil, p. 42, where, however, in a later hand, this John is correctly stated to be the son of Peter, who

John Greville,
of Campden.

Thomas Greville, alias Cokesey;

ob. 14 June, 1498. S.P.

died 1312. The mode in which Chesworth, &c. passed, confirms the Pedigree printed above; as do also the Inquisitions P.M., on the Braos and the Grevilles, and the Tettebury Pardon, Rot. Pat. 24 Hen. VI, part 1, m. 28.

24 See Philpot's A MS., Coll. Arms, pp. 70-75, for Pedigrees of St. Pierre and Cokesey.

HOO.

THE family of Hoo had a Saxon origin, and was settled in Kent. In the Textus Roffensis, a MS. written temp. Hen. I, there is a Saxon will of Brightricus and Elswithe his wife, from which it appears that one Edrich de Ho was living in Kent in the time of Odo the Archbishop, and several of the name were donors to the Church of St. Andrew.1

They spread over many counties. At the end of the reign of King John, or at the commencement of that of Henry III, they were seated in Bedfordshire; and they were early found also at Munastoke, in Hampshire. Peter Le Neve, in a MS. note in Chauncy's Hertfordshire, in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, p. 510, is of opinion that the upper part of the pedigree down to Robert, who married Fitzwaryn, has no authority; but the first seal, now engraved, gives an authority for the marriage of his father with a daughter of Alexander Earl of Andeville; and I print the pedigree entire from Harl. MS. 381, p. 75, collated with Vincent, B. ii (p. 186), among the MSS. in the College of Arms. The Hertfordshire branch, which merged into the Keates, is descended, according to Philpot, from Eleanor Wingfield, the second wife of Sir William Hoo, whilst Clutterbuck, vol. iii, p. 73, incorrectly makes the descent from the first wife, Alice St. Omer; this could not have been according to the Bedfordshire Inquisition, 2 Hen. VII, No. 48, which I now give for the first time. Blomefield, in his Norfolk, vol. x, p. 40, makes William Hoo of Wisset, Norfolk, and Richard Hoo of Blyburgh, younger sons of Sir William and his wife Alice, and brothers by the whole blood of Lord Hoo. This also is incorrect; the Hoos of Scarning, Norfolk, were descended from Robert Hoo, who in 1418 (6 Henry V), purchased Maltlaster, Norfolk.2

In the year 1292, ROBERT DE Hoo, who married Beatrix de Andeville, obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Knebworth and Harpenden, Herts, together with a fair of three days, and a weekly market, in Knebworth; and also free warren in Hartford-Hoo, Stopesley, and Malden, Beds; Clopton, Camb.; and Livethorpe, Oxon. It would

1 MSS. of Sir Symonds D'Ewes; Hari. MS. 381, p. 77.

2 Hoo deeds in box at Chapter House,

Westminster.

3 Clutterbuck's Herts, vol. i, p. 306, and vol. ii, p. 373.

seem certain, therefore, that he had no demesne lands in Sussex; nor have I been able to find any trace in our county of his son Robert, who married Hawise Fitzwarren, and died in 1340.

The earliest notice I have discovered of the name in Sussex is in 1324 (18 Edward II), when WILLIAM atte Hoo owned the manor of Woolbeeding.*

SIR THOMAS DE Hoo, Knt., son of the last-mentioned Robert, married Isabel, only child and heiress of John de St. Leger, who died in 1326, seized of large estates in Sussex, Northamptonshire, and Herts. She was born on 25th May 1319, at Holcot, in Northamptonshire, and there baptized. Her father died when she was only seven years of age, leaving her his great estates in Northamptonshire, Herts, and Sussex. Her wardship had been granted to Roger Mortimer Earl of March, and was by him demised to Richard St. Leger. When she was only twelve years of age, an inquisition was taken to know whether she was of full age; and when she was only fifteen (9th Edw. III)8 she was already the wife of Thomas de Hoo. Two years afterwards her husband obtained grants of free warren, not only in his own patrimonial lordships of Hoo, Stopesley, and Wheathamstead, Herts, but also grants, in respect of his wife's Sussex estates, of a yearly fair, and weekly market on Tuesdays, in the manor of Wartling, and also fairs of three days each in the manors of Buckstepe and Dallington; and in 1356 (30 Edw. III), a grant of free warren in all his manors in this county.10 He was sheriff of Surrey and Sussex for six years, viz. 1348, 9, and 50, and again in 1356, 7, and 8; he was also escheator for both these counties, and represented the county of Bedford in Parliament.12 He had also land at Hoo, in this county; for on 6th May 1372, by a feoffment there dated, he and his wife made a grant to William Nott of a messuage and three acres of land called Not

4 Cal. Inq. ad Quod Dam. p. 280.

5 Rot. Pat. Inq. taken at Towcester, 20 June, 7 Edw. III. The popular pronunciation of the name was, and in Yorkshire still is, "Sellinger," hence the title of the old country dance tune of "Sellinger's Round," given in W. Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time," p. 69.

6 Rot. Pat. Inq. taken at Offley, 23 Sept., 20 Edw. II, No. 23.

VIII.

11

7 Inq. 9 Edw. III, No. 21.

s Rot. Pat. Inq. taken at Towcester, 9 Edward III, No. 21; writ dated from York, 31st May, to the sheriff of Northampton, to deliver over the estates, she being then the wife of T. Hoo.

9 Clutterbuck, vol. i, p. 306.
10 Cal. Rot. Pat., p. 221.
11 Carl. Ho. Ride MSS.

12 Willis, Not. Parl.

14

tyslond in Hoo.13 He died 18th Sept. 1380, and was buried at St. Albans, leaving his wife surviving: who died 2nd July 1393, and was buried with her husband; having obtained in 1390 (14 Rich. II) a confirmation of the grants of fairs, free warren, &c. in the Sussex lands to herself and her heirs.14 They had two sons

JOHN HOO of Knebworth, who died S.P., and

SIR WILLIAM Hoo, Knt., who was a man of considerable importance during the reigns of Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. He was a legatee under the will of Sir Thomas Wingfield (of the Suffolk family), bearing date 17th July 1378;15 but the first notice I find of his public services was in the year 1370, on the 18th of May, in which year (44 Edward III) he had an allowance of £40 for his wages whilst he was in the king's service at Calais.16 In 1387, he assisted Michael de la Pole Earl of Suffolk to escape in the disguise of a "Flemish poulterer," with his beard shaved, and to reach Calais on his flight from the imminent danger then threatening him from those in opposition to the Court.17 In the same year, Hoo was made keeper or captain of the castle of Oye, in the marches of Picardy; and on 1st October 1387, being about to proceed to the Holy City of Jerusalem, and possibly absent for two years, he obtained the king's license to appoint his son William, or his brother,

or any other sufficient person, as his deputy keeper during his absence.18 He seems to have been continued in his keeper

13 Battle Abbey Records, p. 82.

14 Cal. Rot. Pat., p. 221.

15 Anstis, Order of the Garter, vol. i, p. 223.

16 Brantingham Issue Roll, p. 136.
17 Vita Ricardi II (Ed. Hearne) p. 96.
18 Rym. Fod., vol. iii, part 4, p. 16.