William Clopton (bef. 1613 - bef. 1671)

Born before 9 Apr 1613 in Boxted, Essex, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Sutcliffe) Clopton — married before 1653 in Essex, England

Descendants

Died before 14 Jun 1671 at about age 58 in Eastwood, Essex, England

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Marshall Moss [send private message], Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message], and David Douglass [send private message]

Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Note: William Clopton was featured in the December 2019 Magna Carta Project Newsletter.

Biography

William Clopton was born in England.

Origins and Early Life

William was the son of Walter Clopton and his wife, Margaret Maidstone, the daughter of Robert Maidstone of Great Horkesley, Essex.^[1][2] He was baptized in Boxted, Essex on 19 April 1613,^[1] and that is likely to have been his birthplace.

William's father died in the winter of 1622/23^[1] His father's will left his children, who were under 21, in the custody of their mother and her brother Robert, who were charged with "bringing up our children in the fear of God and in some honest course of living."^[3]

Education

William was admitted on 12 April 1630 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, where he received a B.A. in 1634 and an M.A. in 1637.^[1][4]

Parish Appointments

After Cambridge, he became Rector of Great Horkesley in Essex.^[1] He filed a complaint that after serving for a quarter of a year by the order of the Earl of Manchester, he had received no compensation. A ruling on his complaint was handed down on 28 February 1646 stated that he should be given satisfaction forthwith for his services rendered. The situation in Great Horkesley was relieved the following year: on 26 November 1647 the House of Lords confirmed an application by the Assembly of Divines for authority to induct William to the Rectory of Markshall, Essex.^[4][5][6]

William's tenure at Markshall may have been uneventful for nothing further is recorded about him until 25 October 1654 when he was made Rector of Rettendon Essex^[1][4], Oliver Cromwell formally certifying him "to be a fit person to preach the gospel and have granted him admission to the said rectory of Rettendon to be Incumbent thereof". This must have been quite a promotion for William: the Rectory was described in 1610 as consisting of "... a Mansion-House, with an Entry, a Hall, a Parlour and an under Bed-Chamber, and four other lower Rooms, three upper Chambers, a Garrett, and a Study, an Out-Kitchin, with four Rooms beneath, and one upper Chamber, two Barns, two Stables, at the End of each Barn one, a Barn-Yard, a Kitchen-Yard, a Bean-Garden, a Bee-Garden, an Herb-Garden, and two Orchards, in all two Acres : eight and fifty Acres of Glebe, besides other parcels called Great-Whitfield, Little-Whitfield, and the Parsonage-Mead, the Number of Acres not Specify'd."^[7] Rettendon was also the home of the Rev. Isaiah Sutcliffe, whose daughter Elizabeth, William probably met there.

Marriage and Children

Sometime before 1653, William married Elizabeth Sutcliffe.^[1] The marriage must have taken place before 11 October 1653, the date of the will of Elizabeth's father: in the will, her father names William as the husband of his daughter Elizabeth, and he bequeaths half of his property, the Manor of Eastwoodbury, to William after the death of Isaiah Sutcliffe's wife, Elizabeth Joyle, who was granted a life interest. Isaiah Sutcliffe made provision in his will to repay a loan of £150 made by William, with the loan incurring an interest rate of 5% until it was repaid.^[8] William and Elizabeth had two children:

• William Clopton^[1]
• Margaret Clopton, who married Henry Hammond "of St. Katherine by ye Tower, clothworker".^[9]

Ejection from Rettendon

Having been appointed Rector of Rettendon during the Puritan government of the Lord Protector, William's appointment became tenuous with the Restoration of Charles II in May 1660. When Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity in 1662, thousands of ministers protested against the restrictions that the act placed on many of the common forms of worship. More than 2,000 refused to swear the oaths required by the Act, and the Church of England ejected them from their offices.^[10] Among these ejected clerics was William Clopton.^[1][4][11] Thus ended his eight years of ministry to the people of Rettendon.

Final Years and Death

William and his family moved from Rettendon to the Manor of Eastwood in Essex. He lived until sometime after 24 October 1670 when he prepared his will, naming his wife Elizabeth Executrix; she proved the will in London on 14 June 1671.^[1][12] Elizabeth died at Paglesham, Essex in 1683.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol I page 522, CLOPTON 16. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
2. ↑ Frederick Lewis Weis, with additions and corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr and William R Beall. "The Magna Charta Sureties", 5th edition, Geneaogical Publishing Company, 1999, p. 8. line 5-17
3. ↑ L L Erwin. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, privately published, 1939, p. 112, Internet Archive
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} J Venn and J A Venn (Compilers). Alumni Catabrigienses. Cambridge, England: The University Press, 1922. Part I, Vol. I, p 357, Ancestry.co.uk
5. ↑ L L Erwin. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, p. 14, Internet Archive
6. ↑ General Index to the Journals of the House of Lords, Volumes I-X, 1836, p. 364, Google Books
7. ↑ Richard Newcourt. Reportorium, &c. or an Ecclesiastical Parochial History of the Diocese of London, London, England, 1710, Vol. II, pp. 490-491, [Google Books]
8. ↑ L L Erwin. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, pp. 16 (Internet Archve) & 124-125 (Internet Archive).
9. ↑ L L Erwin. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, pp. 16-17 (Internet Archve).
10. ↑ Act of Uniformity 1662. "[1]." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 3 Aug 2018.
11. ↑ Calamy, Samuel. The Nonconformist 's Memorial: being an Account of the Ministers, who were Rejected or Silenced after the Restoration .... London, England: 1775, Vol. I, p 516.
12. ↑ L L Erwin. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, pp. 16 (Internet Archve) & 113-114 (Internet Archive).

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
• Erwin, L L. The Ancestry of William Clopton of York County, Virginia, privately published, 1939
• Weis, Frederick Lewis, with additions and corrections by Sheppard, Walter Lee Jr and Beall, William R. "The Magna Charta Sureties", 5th edition, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1999, p. 8. line 5-17
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/about/L6SQ-L3F

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

William Clopton appears in Magna Carta Ancestry in a Richardson-documented trail from Gateway Ancestor William Clopton Sr. to Magna Carta Surety Baron William de Huntingfield (vol. I, pages 520-522 CLOPTON) that was badged by the Magna Carta Project in Sep 2019. This profile also appears in badged trails (reviewed Mar 2020) to several other surety barons, including: William d'Aubigné, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, John de Lacy, Saher de Quincy and Robert de Roos. Trails from William Clopton to surety barons William Malet, Hugh le Bigod and Roger le Bigod were badged in November 2022. All these trails are outlined in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.

This profile was developed in accordance with project standards by a project member as part of the trail between William Clopton and William de Huntingfield. It was reviewed/approved for the Magna Carta project on 10 July 2019 by Michael Cayley. The trail was approved 6 September 2019.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".