Margery (Despenser) Wentworth (abt. 1398 - 1478)

Born about 1398 in England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of John (Ros) Roos — married about 1404 in England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 20 Apr 1478 at about age 80 in England

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Darlene Athey-Hill [send private message] and Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message]

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

Biography

Margery le Despenser was born about "1398–1400 (age 24 or 26 in 1424)", daughter and heiress of Elizabeth de Tibetot of Nettlestead, Suffolk and her husband Sir Philip le Despenser of "Goxhill, Lincolnshire, and Camoys (in Toppesfield), Essex..."^[1] (now styled de jure 2nd Baron le Despenser).

She had no children by her first husband, Sir John Roos, 7th Lord Roos, Captain of Chateau Gaillard and Mantes, to whom she was married as a young child (Papal "dispensation for consanguinity dated 13 September 1404"). He was born in 1396 and "slain at the Battle of Beaugé in Anjou 22 March 1420/1."^[1]

Before 2 March 1422/3, Margery married (2nd) "without royal license Roger Wentworth, Esq.," son of John Wentworth of North Elmsall, Yorkshire and his wife Agnes Dronsfield.^[1] Because of the difference in social status (Roger was the landless younger son of John, a Yorkshire lawyer), they married secretly and without royal license, for which offense she is said to have been fined £1000, an enormous sum.^{[citation needed][2]} "On payment of the required fine, she and Roger were pardoned 18 December 1423."^[1]

Margery and Roger had three sons and three daughters:^[1]

Sons:

• Sir Philip Wentworth, married Mary Clifford^[1]
• Henry Wentworth, Esq., married (1) Elizabeth Howard, (2) Joan Fitz Simon^[1]
• Thomas Wentworth (clerk)^[1]

Daughters:

• Elizabeth Wentworth, married John Calthorpe^[1]
• Margaret Wentworth, married Sir William Hopton^[3]
• Agnes Wentworth, married Sir Robert Constable^[4]

Roger died 24 Octoboer 1452. Margery "died 20 April 1478, and was buried at Grey Friars, Ipswich, Suffolk. She left a will dated 30 August 1477, proved 28 May 1478".^[1] She died at Nettlestead, Suffolk^{[citation needed]} (some say Cambridgeshire^[5]).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol IV, pp 216-218 NETTLESTEAD #14., #15. Margery (or Margaret) le Despenser, #16. Philip Wentworth, Knt.
2. ↑ What needs a citation in this sentence, specifically, is that John was a lawyer and that the marriage was secret (the observation that £1000 was an enormous sum also was not attributed). The fact that she was fined £1000 and why is also stated by Richardson, but without the details just noted. In his Magna Carta Ancestry (Vol III, p 456) is found the following:
   

   His widow, Margery, married (2nd) "dishonourably without license from the king" before 2 March 1322/3 Roger Wentworth, Esq., younger son of John Wentworth, of Elmsall, Yorkshire [see NETTLESTEAD 10 for issue of this marriage]. She was ordered to pay a fine of at least £1000 for having married "so far beneath her."

3. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol III, p 314.
4. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol II, p 284.
5. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #48875313 for Margaret "Margery" Despenser Wentworth, born 1397, Suffolk, England; died 20 Apr 1478, Cambridgeshire, England (no verifiable sources; memorial notes that the picture attached is probably not her; the image of text attached is not her either [notes a Lady Margery Roos of 1469 - this Margery/Margaret married Wentworth in 1422/3])

• https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/tKi35fwkukM/m/RUzqKITjCRMJ
• Watson, G.W, article "Despenser" [1387] in Complete Peerage, 2nd edition, Vol. 4, ed. Gibbs, p. 291 - https://archive.org/stream/completepeerageo04coka#page/291/mode/2up
• Lewis, Marlyn. Margery le Despenser, "Our Royal, Titled, Noble, and Commoner Ancestors and Cousins" (website, compiled by Mr. Marlyn Lewis, Portland, OR; accessed March 26, 2016), citing Richardson
• Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Royal Ancestry series, 2nd edition, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2011), Vol 1, p 527; Vol II, pp 401, 462-3; Vol III, pp 234-5, 456; also Richardson's Royal Ancestry, Vol II, p 284; Vol III, pp 313, 403; Vol IV, pp 215-7, 496-7 and Plantagenet Ancestry, 1st edition, p 380 (all cited by Lewis)
• The Complete Peerage, by Cokayne, Vol. IV, p. 291/2, Vol. XII/2, p. 98, notes (cited by Lewis)
• Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, 4th Ed., by F. L. Weis, p. 78 (cited by Lewis)
• The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, by Ronny O. Bodine, p. 46 (cited by Lewis)
• Wikipedia: Margery le Despencer (not entirely accurate)
• Joseph Foster, The royal lineage of our noble and gentle families. Together with their paternal ancestry (1884), page 2 etc. (incorrect)
• Web: Netherlands, GenealogieOnline Trees Index, 1000-2015

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile for Margery, gr-gr-granddaughter of Margaret Badlesmere-24 was re-reviewed for the project by ~ Noland-165 20:34, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Margery (Despenser) Wentworth is a descendant of the following Magna Carta Surety Barons: William d'Aubigny, Robert de Ros, John de Lacy, Richard de Clare, Gilbert de Clare, William Malet, Saher de Quincy, Hugh le Bigod and Roger le Bigod.

This profile appears in trails badged by the Magna Carta Project to the following Gateway Ancestors:

• Marmaduke Beckwith: badged 2015, see trails HERE. Also see Jennings, below.
• Charles Barnes: badged in Jan 2923. See the trail HERE
• Nathaniel Burrough. See the trails HERE.
• William Clopton: badged in 2020. See the trails HERE.
• Anne Derehaugh: badged in June 2016. See the trails HERE.
• William Farrar: trails badged in 2015 and 2023 are set out HERE.
• Henry Isham: badged in 2015/16. The trails are set out HERE.
• Edmund Jennings: badged in 2015 and 2022. See the trails HERE.
• Kempe Gateways (Richard, Edward, Edmund and Matthew): re-reviewed/developed in 2019 and 2022. See the trails HERE.
• Robert Peyton, through his father: badged in 2015. See the trails HERE.
• William Skepper: badged 2016, trails need re-review. See them HERE.
• Jemima Waldegrave: badged March 2016. See the trails HERE.

Margery (Despenser) Wentworth also appears in unbadged trails (needing work) to the following Gateways:

• Jemima Waldegrave (MCA I:354-355 BURES): unbadged trail to the Bigods. See the trails HERE.

Margery is the ancestress of many other colonial gateways, and she is also a descendant of at least one more Magna Carta Surety Barons, Malet, through her father (but those trails are not yet badged by the Magna Carta Project).

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

Magna Carta trails

Margery was an ancestor of the following 42 colonial gateways:

• through son Sir Philip
  • through Sir Philip's son Sir Henry
    • Humphrey Davie, William and John Rodney, Henry and Charles Norwood, John and Elizabeth Harleston
  • through Sir Philip's daughter Elizabeth de la See
    • William Farrar, William Asfordby, William Skepper
• through son Henry
  • through Henry's son Sir Roger
    • Edmund Jennings, Sir Marmaduke Beckwith
  • through Henry's daughter Margery Waldegrave
    • Nathaniel Burrough, William Clopton, Anne Dearhaugh, Mary Jane Somerset, Jemima Waldegrave, 4 Kempes, 3 Butlers, Thomas Booth
• through daughter Margaret Hopton
  • through Margaret's daughter Margaret Booth
    • John and Elizabeth Harleston, Henry Isham
  • through Margaret's daughter Agnes Clere
    • George and Robert Brent, Robert Peyton
• through daughter Agnes Constable
  • through Agnes's son "Little" Sir Marmaduke
    • Philip and Thomas Nelson, Thomas Owsley
  • through Agnes's daughter Anne Tyrwhitt
    • William Bladen, Anne Skipwith and Olive Welby
  • through Agnes's daughter Margaret Eure
    • George and Nehemiah Blakiston, Anne, Elizabeth and John Mansfield
  • through Agnes's daughter Katherine Ryther
    • William Bladen, John and Philip Lightfoot

Trails = 9 x 45 = 405

Incidentally, the main reason why so many gateways descend from Margery is that Nettlestead was only a few miles from the Winthrop manor at Groton. Her descendants intermarried with their neighbours, and their neighbourhood was Winthrop's recruiting ground.