History, tradition and descent of great English knights.

 

 

The "KEEN" family, according to the historical records sent, originates from the "FLETCHER" family, its grandfather Sir Thomas Gifford of Chillington being the link between the "KEEN" "FLETCHER" and "GIFFARD" families.

 

Giffard meaning ‘chubby cheeks’ in Norman French is pronounced ‘jiff-ard’

 

The Giffards have held Chillington since the year 1178. The family originated in Normandy and three brothers, Walter, Osborne and Berenger came to England in 1066 with Duke William of Normandy. As a reward for their services, the family received many English Manors and Osborne, from whom the Giffards of Chillington are descended, received the Barony of Fonthill in Wiltshire. In the Domesday book Chillington (Cillintone) is entered under Warwickshire as forming part of the estates of William Fitz Corbucion, and it was the latter’s grandson, Peter Corbusun of Studley, who granted Chillington to Peter Giffard, his wife’s nephew, for “a sum of 25 marks and a charger of metal.”

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Family tree:

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Thomas Giffard, of Chillington

https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2056.htm#i61773

Thomas Giffard Last Edited 17 Nov 2001 M, #61773, b. circa 1370 Father John Giffard b. c 1340 Mother Mary Whitmore b. c 1335

Thomas Giffard was born circa 1370 at of Chillington, Staffordshire, England. He married Joyce Fraunceys, daughter of Sir Robert Franceys, Sheriff of Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire and Isabel Brumpton, circa 1410.

Family Joyce Fraunceys b. c 1390 Child Robert Giffard, 11th Lord Chillington+ b. c 1425, d. 4 Jun 1486

Robert Giffard, 11th of Chillington (grandfather)

https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2010.htm#i60383

Robert Giffard, 11th Lord Chillington1 Last Edited 30 Jan 2004 M, #60383, b. circa 1425, d. 4 June 1486 Father Thomas Giffard b. c 1370 Mother Joyce Fraunceys b. c 1390

Robert Giffard, 11th Lord Chillington was born circa 1425. He married Cassandra Humphreston, daughter of Thomas Humphreston and (Miss) Pickford, circa 1465. Robert Giffard, 11th Lord Chillington died on 4 June 1486 at of Chillington, Staffordshire, England.

Family Cassandra Humphreston b. c 1445, d. Jan 1527 Child Sir John Giffard, 12th Lord Chillington+ b. 1466, d. 13 Nov 1556 Citations [S11570] Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, by Sir Bernard Burke, p. 880. _______________________________________________________________ _

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148770174
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jul 13 2020, 8:39:42 UTC

Sir John Giffard, 12th of Chillington (father)

Family and Education b. 1465/66, 1st s. of Robert Giffard of Chillington by 2nd w. Cassandra, da. of Thomas Humphreston. m. (1) 1483, Jane (d. 8 Dec. 1491), of Thomas Horde of Bridgnorth, Salop, 2s. inc. Thomas 7da.; (2) by Apr. 1515, Elizabeth, wid. of Sir John Montgomery of Cubley, Derbys., 4s. 1da. suc. fa. 4 June 1486. Kntd. 25 Sept. 1513.1
Offices Held

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J.p. Staffs. 1501-d., Derbys. 1515-d.; gent. usher by 1509; sewer of the chamber by 1509; ranger, the Seven Hayes (Cannock forest), Staffs. 2 June-21 Nov. 1509, Cannock forest 21 Nov. 1509-d.; sheriff, Staffs. 1509-10, 1517-18, 1522-3, 1526- 7, 1530-1, 1541-2; jt. bailiff, Wolverhampton 1512; commr. subsidy, Staffs. 1512, 1514, 1515, 1523, 1524, tenths of spiritualities 1535, musters 1539, relief 1550; other commissions 1521-47; knight of the body by 1533.2

Biography An early 17th century epitaph described Sir John Giffard as ‘a noble courtier, one of the best bowmen and horsemen in England, a man in great favour’ with Henry VIII. He came from one of the principal families in Staffordshire, and his whole life was spent in public service. His career at court, to which his father-in-law Thomas Horde perhaps introduced him, may have preceded his advent in local government, but he is first heard of there in 1509 when he attended the funeral of Henry VII and the coronation of the new King.

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For three decades Giffard frequented the court and there is no sign that his attendance was interrupted by the King’s separation from Catherine of Aragon, with whom he had been on friendly terms. He was present at most of the great occasions, the meetings with Francis I at the Field of Cloth of Gold and with Charles V at Gravelines, the coronation of Anne Boleyn and the reception of Anne of Cleves. He served the King in war as well as peace. In 1513 he bore the arms of England before his royal master in the Tournai campaign and he was among those knighted when the town fell; ten years later he may have served in southern France, as on the eve of the expedition’s departure he obtained the grant of a standard; and in 1536, when the north rebelled, he was called upon to help restore order. His otherwise excellent relations with the King were marred briefly in 1515 when he took Elizabeth Montgomery as his second wife without first obtaining royal approval, but after an apology and payment of a fine he was restored to favour.

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Giffard’s local prestige and standing with the King made him an obvious choice as a knight for Staffordshire in Parliament, and his return in 1529 was probably not his first experience of the Commons: the inclusion of his name on subsidy commissions between 1512 and 1524 gives colour to this supposition, but if he sat in either of the Parliaments of 1510 and 1523 it must have been outside Staffordshire as he was sheriff there on these two occasions. In 1529 he was the leading man in the county after George, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, and he took precedence over his fellow-knight and younger neighbour Edward Littleton. While attending this Parliament Giffard was one of the group of Members which used to meet at the Queen’s Head for discussion of parliamentary affairs, and a further hint of his attitude is his inclusion, with Littleton, on a list believed to be of Members opposed on religious or economic grounds to the bill in restraint of appeals enacted during the fifth session early in 1533. His appearance in both contexts may not have been unconnected with his son Thomas’s marriage to a sister of Sir George Throckmorton, who besides being one of the Queen’s Head group is also named on the list of 1533. (It was probably in the course of this session that Giffard was also joined in the House by his former ward Sampson Erdeswick, whose by-election for Stafford he doubtless promoted.) At the close of this session he attended the coronation of Anne Boleyn but on 5 June he obtained a licence to go abroad with his wife on a pilgrimage to Amiens. How long they remained abroad is not known but if, as is likely, Giffard attended the later sessions of the Parliament he probably sat also in its successor of 1536 in accordance with the King’s request for the re-election of the previous Members.5 Giffard was then about 70 years of age and it is not surprising that he made no further appearances in the Commons: in 1539 his son Thomas took one of the places for Staffordshire. Early in 1540 Giffard acted as a whiffler at the reception of Anne of Cleves at Blackheath and he used the opportunity to ask for some ex- monastic property in Derbyshire and Staffordshire which he did acquire later that year. So far as is known he spent the remainder of his long life in semi-retirement at Chillington, where he died on 13 Nov. 1556. He was buried in Brewood church and a monument bearing his effigy and those of his wives was erected there.6 Ref Volumes: 1509-1558 Authors: L. M. Kirk / A. D.K. Hawkyard Notes 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s death, Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. (n.s.) 1902, p. 111. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. iii(2), 80-83; v(2), 146; (n.s.) 1902, pp. 110, 121; (ser. 4), viii. 84. 2. CPR, 1494-1509, p. 659; 1553, p. 357; LP Hen. VIII, i-iv, viii, xiii-xv, xxi; Statutes, iii. 88, 117, 170. 3. J. C. Wedgwood, Staffs. Parl. Hist. (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc.), i. 299. 4. Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. iii(2), 84; (n.s.) 1902. p. 112; LP Hen. VIII, i- iii, vi, xi, xv. 5. LP Hen. VIII, vi; ix. 1077 citing SP1/99, p. 234; xiii. 6. LP Hen. VIII, xv; Leland, Itin. ed, Smith, ii. 170; Trans. Birmingham Arch. Soc. lxx. 17; C142/110/143; Pevsner, Staffs. 

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Sir John Giffard (c.1465-13 November 1556), of Chillington in Brewood, was a soldier, courtier, member of the English Parliament and Staffordshire landowner, who made his mark mainly during the reign of Henry VIII.
• from Wikipedia

Giffard was the eldest son of Robert Giffard of Chillington by his second wife, Cassandra Humphreston, daughter of Thomas Humphreston. The Giffard family had been settled at Chillington since the late 12th century.
Little is known of his early life. He married Jane Horde, daughter of Bridgnorth's wealthiest landowner, in 1483, when he was about 17 years old. About the age of 20, in 1486, his father Robert died and he inherited the substantial Giffard estates, centred on Brewood. 

Sources

• GIFFARD, Sir John (1465/66-1556), of Chillington, Staffs.

• [S11570] Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, by Sir Bernard Burke, p. 880.

• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 447-448.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 175.

• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 706. Links

• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi- bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2295065&id=I8535

• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner- ancestors.com/p1830.htm#i55008

Sir. Thomas Gifford of Chillington (Son)

Sir Thomas Giffard (c.1491-27 May 1560) was a Tudor courtier, Staffordshire landowner and Member of the English Parliament.
Family and Education

• from GIFFARD, Thomas (by 1491-1560), of Caverswall and Chillington, Staffs History of Parliament
b. by 1491, s. of Sir John Giffard by 1st w. educ. Strand Inn; I. Temple, adm. 11 Nov. 1512. m. (1) by 1519, Dorothy (d. by 1529), da. of Sir John Montgomery of Cubley, Derbys., at least 1da.; (2) settlement 20 Oct. 1531, Ursula (d. 15 Mar. 1581), da. of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, Warws., at least 4s. inc. John 5da. suc. fa. 13 Nov. 1556. Kntd. 22 Feb. 1547.3

• from Wikipedia

Thomas Giffard' father was Sir John Giffard of Chillington Hall, near Brewood, Staffordshire. Sir John was a notable courtier and soldier, as well as one of the county's wealthiest landowners, and his family had lived at Chillington since the late 12th century.[1] Thomas Gifard's mother was Jane Horde, daughter of Thomas Horde, the most important landowner in the Bridgnorth area. She died in childbirth in 1491, within a short time of his birth, although, as his exact birth date is not known, it is unclear whether it was while giving birth to him or a subsequent child.
His father remarried by 1515 to Elizabeth Gresley, widow of Sir John Montgomery of Cubley, Derbyshire. At the same time or a little later, Thomas Giffard married his step-mother's daughter, Dorothy, who was about two years younger than himself. As Dorothy was the heir to the Montgomery estates, Giffard was able to set himself up in modest comfort and security, independently of his father. Marriages and Family

Dorothy Montgomery was Thomas Giffard's first wife. She was the daughter and heiress of Sir John Montgomery of Cubley, Derbyshire and Elizabeth Gresley. He married Dorothy at, or shortly after, his father's second marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Gresley, around 1515. She brought him substantial estates in Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Dorothy had died by 1529.

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They had at least one surviving child, a daughter named Elizabeth, but no male heir.
Ursula Throckmorton was Giffard's second wife. She was the daughter of Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, and Elizabeth Baynham. Her brother, George Throckmorton, was an MP and prominent politician of strongly Catholic sympathies. Giffard had at least nine children with Ursula:

• John Giffard, Thomas's heir.

• Edward Giffard

• Humphrey Giffard

• Robert Giffard

• Dorothy Giffard

• Isabella Giffard

• Cassandra Giffard

• Elizabeth Giffard

• Anne Giffard
  Sir Thomas died on 27 May 1560 and was buried in Brewood parish church. An impressive tomb was later constructed, with life-sized effigies of himself and both his wives.