William Faunt Esq (abt. 1496 - 1559)

Born about 1496 in Huntingdonshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Vincent — married 1546 in England

Descendants

Died 1559 at about age 63 in Foston, Leicestershire, England

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Biography

William was the second son of William Faunt^[1] of Wistow, Huntingdonshire and (according to Doulas Richardson) Isabel Sayer. (See his father's profile for the uncertainty about who his mother was.) He was born in about 1496.^[2][3] He was likely to have been born in Huntingdonshire, where his father lived.

William married twice. His first wife was Anne Fielding, widow Richard Cave of Leicestershire and daughter of William Fielding of Warwickshire. They had no children.^[1][2][3]

Anne Fielding died by 1546, when William remarried, his second wife being Jane Vincent, widow of Nicholas Purefoy of Drayton, Leicestershire and daughter of George Vincent of Pickleton, Leicestershire.^[1][2][3][4] They had the following children:

• William ^[1][2][3]
• Anthony^[1][1][2][3]
• Arthur, who became a priest of the Jesuit Order,^[2][3][5] wrote religious works, and taught at a Jesuit college in Poland^[6][7]
• Vincent^[2][3]
• Dorothy, who married Ralph Burton^[1][2][3]
• Frideswide, who married John Hales and Roger Cotton^[2][3] and who was named after one of the ladies in waiting of Mary I^[8] (named Griswold in the Harelian Society edition of the 1619 Leicestershire Visitation^[1])
• Alice, who married Humphrey Purefoy^[1] and John Plumbe^[2][3]
• Mary,^[1] who married George Corbin^[2][3]

William was a lawyer and a member of Inner Temple. When Thomas Cromwell was Henry VIII's chief minister, William acted for him in Leicestershire. In 1542 he was made a Justice of the Peace for Rutland;^[9] the next year he became one for Leicestershire.^[8]

William held property at Foston and Newton Burdett, Leicestershire.^[2][3] In the 1540s he embarked on a series of land purchases,m which led to his being a substabntial landowner at his death.^[8]

William stayed a Catholic during the reign of Edward VI.^[8]

William sat twice in Parliament, representing the city of Leicester in 1553 and the county of Leicestershire as senior knight of the shire in 1555.^[8]

William was buried at Foston, Leicestershire on 4 September 1559.^[2][3] His Will, dated 16 August 1559,^[10] was proved on 10 November 1559.^[3] In it he:^[10]

• named, among others:
  • his son and heir William
  • other children Anthony, Vincent, Arthur, Dorothy, Frideswide, Mary and Alice
  • Alice Purefoy, his wife's daughter from her first marriage
  • his trusted friend Frideswide Shelley (Mary I's lady in waiting)
  • George Vincent, Edward Vincent and George Purefoy
• sought to protect the poorer inhabitants of Newton Burdett, Leicestershire: he gave instructions that common land was not to be enclosed, and farm rents were not to be increased.^[8]

William's second wife survived him, dying in 1585.^[2][3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} John Fetherston (ed.). The Visitation of the County of Leicester in the year 1619, Harleian Society, 1870, p. 28, Internet Archive
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} 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, p. 534, CORBIN 14, Google Books
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. II, p. 296, CORBIN 18
4. ↑ George William Marshall. The Visitations of the County of Nottingham in the years 1569 and 1614, with many other descents of the same county, Harleian Society, 1871, p. 139, Internet Archive
5. ↑ George Oliver. Collections towards illustrating the biography of the Scotch, English, and Irish members of the Society of Jesus, W C Featherstone, 1838, p. 74, Internet Archive
6. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 18, p. 247, entry for 'FAUNT, ARTHUR, in religion Laurence Arthur (1554–1591)', Wikisource
7. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by G Martin Murphy for 'Faunt, Arthur [name in religion Laurence]', print and online 2004
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5} History of Parliament Online, entry for FAUNT, William (1495/96-1559), of Foston, Leics.
9. ↑ 'Henry VIII: June 1542, 26-30', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 17, 1542, ed. James Gairdner and R H Brodie (London, 1900), pp. 245-266, British History Online (entry 57), accessed 23 January 2023
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} The National Archives, ref. PROB 11/42B/627, Discovery Centre catalogue entry

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Michaerl Cayley on 23 January 2023.

William Faunt Esq appears in Magna Carta Ancestry in a Richardson-documented trail from Gateway Ancestor Henry Corbin to Magna Carta Surety Barons Hugh le Bigod and Roger le Bigod (vol. I, pages 533-535 CORBIN). This profile was originally badged by the Magna Carta Project in 2015 as part of a trail to Surety Baron Robert de Ros and was later connected to project-approved trails to the Bigods, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, John de Lacy, and Saher de Quincy. The trails are set out in the Magna Carta Trails on the Gateway's profile.

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".