Feb 11, 2017

The makings of a grand theory medieval Mallory genealogy

Due to very heavy obligations with work-related research, both for myself and my graduate school doctor's and master's program students, I have been unable for a long time to do new medieval Mallory family research. Instead, in my free time commuting back and forth by train to and from work, I have focused on the most elegant way to tie together the disparate strands of evidence into a workable theoretical whole. As my thoughts developed, I occasionally uploaded the current state of my thinking to help others in their research. I now would like to state the outlines of what I see as the beginnings of a comprehensive theory of English medieval Mallory research, which must also tie together research on the Segrave, Zouche, Cantilupe, Grene, Russel, Pappeworth and Palmer families.

One key figure is Thomas Mallory II (roughly 1245 to 1315) of Kirkby Mallory. He figures as the 
widowed father of a daughter in whose name he sues for land as her inheritance in 1274 or 75. (I am composing this from a sometimes faulty memory.) He appears later as the father of Ralph, his successor as lord of Kirkby Mallory and of Robert, the husband of Ala, who was a daughter of Thomas Brocket, through whom Robert was endowed with certain lands in Kirkby Mallory. The surviving historical record does not clarify whether Thomas II was the father or grandfather (through Ralph) of Ralph's successor, Anketil nor does it specify the relationship of either with Anketil's contemporary Henry Mallory. A College of Arms Visitation specifies that a certain Thomas Mallory who seems to be identifiable with Thomas Mallory II, by a daughter of Lord Zouche, had a son Christopher who married the heiress of Hutton Conyers. Another visitation specified that a Thomas Mallory who would fit chronologically with Thomas II was the son of William Mallory and the brother of Roger Mallory was the father of Ellen who was a co-heiress of her father and that he was older than his brother Roger. This Roger is then shown as the father of John who was the father of Anketil (married to Alice de Driby).

Another key figure in the puzzle is Anketil Mallory who, unlike Thomas Mallory II, appears to be more than one person. There is an Anketil Mallory (lord of Tachebrook Mallory) of the second half of the 12th century who played a rather spectacular role in a revolt by King Henry II's son against his father. Then there was another Anketil Mallory who best fits the picture chronologically as the first Anketil's grandson. This Anketil seems to have gone with the earl of Leicester on a crusade. There is yet a different Anketil Mallory who must be different from the crusader but is provably the first Anketil's grandson and who was a highly trusted servant and adviser to Henry III. Then there is another Anketil (son of John son of Gilbert) who is the grandson of the preceding Anketil's brother. Then there is the previously mentioned Anketil, the husband of Alice de Driby, who is said to be the son of John the son of Roger. In addition, there is another Anketil of Sudburgh who is listed as the brother of the Archbishop William la Zouche of York. This last Anketil has a brother William who seems to have no connection with the archbishop. Finally, there is the afore-mentioned Anketil Mallory who was the lord of Kirkby Mallory, but who is recorded as having lent a sizable sum of money to Anketil Mallory of Sudburgh. These two Anketils must be closely connected, but Anketil Mallory of Kirkby Mallory is a priest who gives Kirkby Mallory to the church rather to see it inherited by his natural heirs, but who also gives other property to individuals who also must be relatives but do not bear the Mallory name. The priest must be either a son or grandson of Thomas II of Kirkby Mallory and the Anketil Mallory of Sudburgh who is the "brother" of the Archbishop must belong to the Tachebrook Mallory line of Mallories for whom the male-line ancestry is quite separated indeed.

Another key figure is the Archbishop himself, who can rather conclusively be shown to be the son of Roger la Zouche of Lubbesthrorp and his wife Juliana. There is much evidence to indicate that the archbishop was devoted to his family and their interests. The archishop's oldest brother (with whom he remained close all his life) was a Roger. He also had brothers named John and Alan who disappear from the record and may have died when the archbishop was quite young. No sisters are recorded, but this does not precude their existence. Juliana remarried as his second wife Reginald Mallory who was the son of John Mallory and the brother of one of the Anketil Mallories mentioned above. She could very well have been the mother of the Anketil Mallory of Sudburgh and therefore a half-brother of the archbishop. In such a case, the lack of interest by the archbishop in Anketil's brother William could be explained by William having been a son of Reginald by his first wife Joan. The various relationships, however, can be alternatively explained by Juliana being the mother-in-law of Anketil of Sudburgh, with Anketil's wife having been a daughter of Juliana by her first husband, Roger la Zouche of Lubbesthorpe. In such a case, Anketil and William would be identifiable with sons of those names of Reginald's father and, if so, due to the documentably long life of Anketil of Sudburgh, the sons of a later marriage than to the woman who would have been Reginald's mother. 

The archbishop's father Roger can be documented as being the son of a William la Zouche, but which William is a matter of debate. The two primary candidates would be William la Zouche of Black Torrington and the other being this man's uncle whom surviving records would indicate was the father of only one child a daughter whose descendants inherited his entire estate. Things are further complicated by precise relationship between the Zouches of Lubbesthorpe and those of the barons who descend from the older William's possibly youngest brother Eudon, the husband of the great heiress, Millicent de Monte Alto (nee Cantilupe). Lubbesthorpe, itself, was a possession of Millicent which she entrusted the care of to Roger of Lubbesthorpe's father and then deeded to Roger around the time of what would have been his marriage to Juliana, thus causing previous generations of scholars to speculate that Juliana would have been a close female relation of Millicent, possibly even a daughter, and that Lubbesthorpe constituted a dowry of sorts. Other relationships, however, remain conceivable.

The problem remains, though, of the mother of Christopher Mallory who must have had a close familial relationship with the archbishop as he was much favored by the archbishop and appears in his will. In any case, the Christopher Mallory previously mentioned, if a son of Thomas Mallory II of Kirkby Mallory, would fit best chronologically as the son of a late third marriage of Thomas to a sister of the Archbishop's father or, if not, as an unrecorded daughter of Eudon la Zouche and Millicent de Monte Alto. Thus, Ralph and Robert Mallory would have been sons of a second marriage and unconnected by blood ties with the archbishop, thus explaining his seeming lack of interest in them.

Concerning Anketil of Sudburgh who is described as the archbishop's brother, it is clear that he must have a blood connection with the Anketil Mallory who was the husband of Alice de Driby as this couple's descendants appeared to have considered lands in Sudburgh as their rightful inheritance. They also appear to have considered themselves as late as the early 17th century as the as co-heirs of Kirkby Mallory and its alienation an unfortunate whimsy of Anketil the priest.

The arguments tying these various strands together into a whole would take up a full book. The conclusions of one subset of this narrative, however, seems clear enough in my mind to justify the following theory. It is that Tomas Mallory II of Kirkby Mallory married a first time at a very early age and possibly had his first child, a daughter, at around the age of 20. His wife, an heiress, died early and he married a second time. By this marriage he had at least two children who survived him, being Ralph his heir and Robert, the husband of Ala, and with her the father of John. I assume that this wife died and that, after the age of 50 he married a sister of Roger of Lubbesthorpe or less probably a daughter of Eudon la Zouche and Millicent de Monte Alto. By the woman he had a son Christopher who would have been either a first cousin (or, less probably, a second cousin) of the archbishop. This woman might have also been the mother of Thomas's daughter Ellen Fenton.

Thomas Mallory II's daughter by his first wife would fit as a second wife to John Mallory of Tachebrook Mallory and Walton on the Wolde. She would have been the mother of Anketil Mallory of Sudbrugh and of William Mallory.

By his first wife, John would have been the father of Reginald Mallory whose second wife was the archbishop's mother Juliana. Anketil of Sudbrugh best fits if he were the husband of a daughter of Juliana by her first husband, Roger la Zouche of Lubbesthorpe. In terms of the canon law of the time, this would have made Anketil the archbishop's brother and would provide an explanation for the favoritism shown him by the archbishop.

The relationship between Anketil the priest and Anketil of Sudbrugh can be best explained by assuming that a daughter of John Mallor of Tachebrook Mallory by his first wife and, thus, a full sister to Reginald and a half-sister to Anketil of Sudbrugh married her very distant cousin Ralph of Kirkby Mallory and became the parents of Anketil the priest and Henry. Henry seems to have later died during the Black Death at the end of the 1340s and in the 1360s Anketil the priest alienated Kirkby Mallory to the church. In this scenario, Anketil of Sudbrugh would have been both a first cousin as well as an uncle of Anketil the priest. The priest, though, would have been unconnected with the archbishop who seems to have done nothing to promote his career.

Anketil had a daughter Ala who married Thomas Grene. In his old age he found himself heavily in debt and turned over his interest in the lordship of one third of Kirkby Mallory to his daughter and her husband. A John Mallory appears who must have been Anketil's son as the descendants of the Anketil Mallory who married Alice de Driby keep up for many years a fight with the descendands of Ala Mallory over the rights to 50 acres of land in Sudbrugh which they claim by inheritance. Thus, Alice de Driby's husband was the son of John who was the son of the first Anketil Mallory of Sudbrugh, a man who was more probably the archbishop's brother-in-law and less probably his half-brother. The first Anketil Mallory of Sudbrugh, thus, appears to be the son of John Mallory of Tachebrook Mallory and a daughter of Thomas Mallory II of Kirkby Mallory. 

The mother of Alice de Driby's husband can now be seen as best fitting, if she were a sister of the last Pappeworth lord of Pappeworth St Agnes rather than a distant relation as I have elsewhere previously proposed.

Going back to Thomas Mallory II of Kirkby Mallory, according my new theory, his likely father-in-law by his third wife would have been a William la Zouche and his wife's brother a Roger, thus accounting for him having a father by the name of William and a brother Roger when his real father's name can be shown to have been a Henry. The alienation of Kirkby Mallory to the church can probably be seen as a function of the black death eliminating those heirs with whom Anketil the priest would have been comfortable with. 

Though I know that the above is far too complicated for the average reader to easily absorb and that much has been left out that should have been ideally included, my hope is that, should I be unable to provide for some unexpected reason to provide my research in published form, then at least the outlines of my conclusions might be of help to other researchers and might save them time in creating a better theory.