The Wood/Wode Family

The Wood/Wode Family:

 

First Generation

 

1.  Thomas Wood / Wode¹ was born circa 1445 in England.¹ He died on 31 Aug 1502 at the age of 57 in Childrey or Tidmarsh, Barkshire, England.¹ He was buried in Reading Abbey, Berkshire, England.¹ Thomas Wood or Wode was probably born in London or near the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border. His father may have been the Thomas Wood who sat on a Berkshire commission in 1473.
It is believed that Thomas received his legal education at the Middle Temple Inn of Court in London. He was a "jurer" in Oxfordshire in 1470 and 1473, when he was recorded as a "gentleman of London." Wood appeared in legal year books as a counsel in 1477, but had already assumed that position at Winchester College in Hampshire in 1475. He continued at Winchester for another 10 years.

By 1475, Thomas had married a woman named Isabel, who was probably the mother of his daughter Anne. By 1478, he had purchased an estate at Childrey, Berkshire. That year he was appointed justice of the peace for Berkshire and was a member of Parliament for Wallingford.

In 1486 the barrister was a member of the King's Sergeants-at-law, a member of Sergeant's Inn in Fleet Street and later at Whitefriars. He traveled the western circuit as an assize* judge from 1487-1500.

Through his friendship with Sir Robert Elyot, Queen Elizabeth of York's attorney general, Thomas met Elyot's sister-in-law, Margaret Leynham of Tidmarsh. She was the widow of Robert Lenham [who died 5 April 1490] and daughter of Thomas De la Mar of Aldermaston House. [Most sources give Margaret as the mother of Anne Wood. The time frame makes this impossible.]
On 24 November 1495, Wood was made a Puisne** Justice of Common Pleas and was promoted to Chief Justice of the Puisne Court on 28 October 1501. He was knighted in 1501.
Margaret died 5 December 1499 and was buried at Tidmarsh Church. Thomas died in 1502, but chose to be buried at the entrance to the lady chapel of Reading Abbey.

*[assize = periodic criminal court]
** [puisne = equivalent of an associate justice]

Thomas Wood / Wode and Isabel [Wood / Wode] were married before 1475 in probably London, Middlesex, England.² Isabel [Wood / Wode] was born circa 1455 in England.² She died circa 1491 at the age of 36 in Childrey,Berkshire, England.²

 

Thomas Wood / Wode and Isabel [Wood / Wode] had the following child:

 

              2              i.   Anne Wood / Wode, born ca 1476, Childrey,Berkshire, England?; married Sir Thomas Stukeley, ca 1495, Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England.

 

Second Generation

 

2.  Anne Wood / Wode (Thomas-1) was born circa 1476 in Childrey,Berkshire, England?.²

Anne Wood / Wode and Sir Thomas Stukeley were married circa 1495 in Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England.³ Sir Thomas Stukeley⁴, son of Nicholas Stukeley and Thomasine Cockworthy, was born on 24 Jun 1475 in Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England.⁴ He died 30 jan 1541/2 in Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England.⁴ Thomas was the eldest son and heir of Nicholas. At the time born of his mother’s Inquisition post mortem in 1478, Thomas was four years old. He held manors of Affeton, East and West Wolrington (both with advowsons*), Mewshaw (with advowson), Bridgerule, Drayford, Huntshaw, Thelbridge (with advowson), Studlegh, Bradford Tracy, and Pyllaven. All were located in Devonshire.  Stukeley was Sheriff of Devonshire in 1520-21. [http://kristinhall.org/fambly/Stuckley/StuckleyRegisterReport.pdf]

*ADVOWSON, or ADVOWZEN (through O. Fr. advouson, from Lat. advocatio, a summons to), the right of presentation to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice, so called because the patron defends or advocates the claims of the person whom he presents. [1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Wiki]

 

Thomas Stukeley and Anne Wood / Wode had the following child:

 

              3              i.   Margery Stukeley, born ca 1500, Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England; married Charles Farringdon, ca 1516, Farringdon, East Devon, Devonshire, England.

 

Third Generation

 

3.  Margery Stukeley (Anne Wood / Wode-2, Thomas-1) was born circa 1500 in Affeton, West Wolrington, Devonshire, England.²

Margery Stukeley and Charles Farringdon were married circa 1516 in Farringdon, East Devon, Devonshire, England.² Charles Farringdon⁴, son of John Farringdon and Elizabeth Wilford, was born circa 1499 in Farringdon, East Devon, Devonshire, England.^2,4 Charles was "15 years or older" at the time of his father's death in 1515, placing his birth sometime during the late 1490s. He was the second son and heir of John Farringdon.

 

Charles Farringdon and Margery Stukeley had the following child:

 

              4              i.   Anne Farringdon, born ca 1522, Farringdon, East Devon, Devonshire, England; married Thomas Dowrish IV, ca 1536, Dowrish, Sandford Parish, Devonshire, England.

 

Sources:

        1. David Nash Ford, "Sir Thomas Wood [c1445-1502]," database, Nash Ford Publishing, Royal Berkshire History (http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/twood.html: accessed 19 August 2011), Thomas Wood.

        2. "Selected Families and Individuals", database, Hal Bradley, Bradley, Collette, Gillespie & Opp Ancestry (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hbradley/index.htm#TOC : accessed 18 August 2011), "Farringdon," Farringdon lineage; submitted 1997–2010 by Hal Bradley, [contact information for private use].

        3. Simmons Family, Roy W. Simmons online [http://www.storycapsule.com/simmons/familytree/pedigree.php], accessed 29 Oct 2009.

        4. Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 2004), p. 696-697 [Stukeley].