Chaucers Official Life | Page 5

no facts appear in the records to
connect any one of them with the esquire of that name. At any rate
from the accounts given in Gage [Footnote: Gage's History of Suffolk:
Thingoe Hundred, p. 419.] and Morant [Footnote: Morant's Essex, vol.
2, p. 321.] the following pedigree is clear:
------------------------------------- Thomas de Clopton Sir William de
Clopton (20 Edw. III) | ----------------------------------------- Sir William,
Edmund, John, Walter, Thomas William
The elder Sir William, according to Gage, married first Anet, daughter
of Sir Thomas de Grey, and secondly Mary, daughter of Sir William
Cockerel. With his second wife he received the manor and advowson of
Hawsted and lands in Hawsted, Newton, Great and Little
Horningsherth and Bury St. Edmunds. Morant speaks of the family as
an ancient one and traces it back to the time of Henry I.
Robert de Corby was son of Robert and Joan de Corby [Footnote: Pat.

Roll 291, mem. 1.]. His father had been yeoman in the King's court and
had received a number of grants from the King [Footnote: Cal. C. R., p.
496 (1345). Cal. Rot. Pat. Turr. Lon. 38 Edw. III, p, 1'78 b.].
Collard, or Nicholas, Dabrichecourt was a son of Nicholas
Dabrichecourt, brother of Sir Eustace Dabridgecourt of Warwickshire
[Footnote: Visit of War (Harl.) p.47, Beltz Mem. of Garter, p. 90.]. The
latter had won the favour of Philippa in France and had come to
England when she was married to Edward III. George Felbrigge was,
according to Blomefield's Norfolk, [Footnote: Vol. 8, p. 107 ff.]
descended from a younger branch of the Bigods. The head of this
family was the Earl of Norfolk.
Sir Simon, third son of Hugh, Earl of Norfolk | Sir Roger
----------------+----------------- Sir Simon John le Bigod Sir Roger Roger
le Bigod Sir Simon Sir George
The younger branch of the family had assumed the name of Felbrigge
from a town of that name in Norfolk. As will be seen, George Felbrigge
came from the younger branch of a younger branch of the family, and
his ancestors seem to have been neither influential nor wealthy.
Robert de Ferrer's pedigree was as follows: [Footnote: Baker's
Northampton, vol. 1, p, 123.]
John Ferrers = Hawise d. of Sir Robert Muscegros. Baron Ferrers
Robert, 2nd baron = Agnes ( 8) d. of Humphrey Bohun, | Earl of
Hereford ----------+------------------ John, 3rd baron Robert obit. 2 Apr.
1367 died 1381
Since his brother died only a year before the date of the first of the lists,
it is very likely that Robert became a member of the King's household,
while still a younger son. His father, Robert, second baron Ferrers, was
one of the Knights of the King's Chamber. He fought in the campaigns
in France and Flanders.
Thomas Frowyk was probably a member of a prominent London family
of merchants. Lysons writes of the family as follows: [Footnote:
Parishes in Middlesex, etc, p. 228.] "The manor of Oldfold was at a
very early period the property of the Frowyks or Frowicks. Henry
Frowyk, who was settled at London in 1329, was sixth in descent from
Thomas Frowyk of the Oldfold, the first person mentioned in the
pedigree of the family. ... Thomas Frowyk, a younger brother of Henry
above mentioned, inherited the Oldfold estate, which continued in the

family till his grandson's time." This Thomas Frowyk is mentioned in
the Close Rolls between 1351 and 1353 as Justice of the Peace for
Middlesex, and in [Footnote 1: Ancient Deeds A 9086.] 27 Edward III
as lieutenant of the Queen's steward.
The connections of Thomas Hauteyn are not quite so clear but
apparently he likewise was derived from a family of London merchants.
Blomefield's Norfolk [Footnote 2: Vol. 10, p. 426 ff.] tells of a family
of Hauteyns of knightly rank. Sir John Hauteyn probably became a
citizen of London in 16 Edward II and was subsequently receiver of the
King's customs of wool at London. Even earlier than this, in 15 Edward
I, a Walter Hawteyn was sheriff of London [Footnote 3: Ancient Deeds
A 1625]. In 7 Edward III a John Hawteyn was alderman of a ward in
London [Footnote 4: idem, A 1472]. We can suppose some connection
between Thomas Hauteyn and this family because he held certain
tenements in London [Footnote 5: idem, A 7833].
John de Herlyng, who was usher of the King's chamber and the most
important of the esquires in Chaucer's time, came of a family settled in
Norfolk. Blomefield gives a pedigree of the family beginning with this
John de Herlyng [Footnote 6: Vol. 1, P. 319], but, is unable to trace his
ancestry definitely. He finds mention of a certain Odo de Herlyng, but
is forced to the conclusion that the family was an unimportant one
before the time of John de