The Shropshire Walcot Family (draft)

THE SHROPSHIRE WALCOT FAMILY

By Darrell Wolcott

Believed to have been of Saxon origin, we first encounter this family in the eleventh century when a large tract of land was said to have been given to the Bishop of Hereford by the owner of estates in Lydbury. A defensive castle was erected from which the present town of Bishop's Castle took its name. Eyton[1] tells us three knights were alternately assigned to "keep watch and ward for certain days" at the castle and identifies them as Walcot, Plowden and Oakley. We suspect this was in the days when Gruffudd ap Llewelyn (ob 1063) ruled all of Wales and made a number of military incursions across the border into England. Although towns later grew up in that part of Shropshire (then called Salop) called Walcot and Plowden and Oakley, nothing more is heard of the Walcot family until 1191.

A William de Walcot joined the Crusade of Richard the Lionhearted where 180 ships and 39 galleys sailed from England on April 10, 1191. After doing battle with the Saracens for several months, a truce was signed on September 2, 1192 and the crusaders set sail for home shortly thereafter. Various men of Shropshire appear as "de Walcot" in subsequent records and tax rolls, but no connected pedigree of the early family is extant.

Between c. 1600 and 1613, a "Charles Wawgod" of Buellt (then a part of Brecknockshire, Wales) gave a pedigree to Lewys Dwnn, Deputy Herald for Wales, in which he deduced his ancestry from "Tryhaiarn ap Iorwerth, Lord of Garthmil". In 1623, a "Humfridus Walcot de Walcot" of Shropshire gave his pedigree to Robert Tresswell and Augustine Vincent, deputies to William Camden the Clarenceux King of Arms. This man cited his ancestry from a John Walcot de Walcot, miles, who is said to have occurred in 1383. His pedigree includes, as the brother of his father Humphrey, Sr., a "Carolus" who is assigned the same wife as the Charles in the Welsh pedigree. Apparently Humphrey, Jr. was familiar with the descent claimed by his cousin Charles, Jr. and added a second unconnected pedigree to his own...this one beginning with Trahaearn ap Iorwerth of Garthmyl and terminating with a Roger Walcot. Side by side, the differences can be noted:

Charles' pedigree[2] Humphrey's main Humphrey's other

pedigree[3] family line[3]

Iorwerth Iorwerth

Trahaearn Trahaearn

Iorwerth Iorwerth

Rhys Rhys

David David

Ieuan Wawgwd Sir John Walcot Jeuan Walcot

Roger Wawgwd Thomas Walcot Roger Walcot

Sir Philip Wawkwd John Walcot Sir Philip Walcot

John Wawgot John Walcot John Walcot

Roger Wawgot Roger Walcot Roger Walcot

Edward Wawgod Edward Walcot (end)

John Wawgod John Walcot

Charles Wawgod Humphrey Walcot

Charles Wawgod, Jr. Humphrey Walcot, Jr.

It is clear that both Charles and Humphrey agree as to the names of their paternal ancestors back to Edward son of Roger son of John. But the Johns both men cited as the father of Roger are two different men. Humphrey says his John was living in 1416 and married Matilda Cornwall, but in his supplemental line, agrees with Charles that the John son of Philip was married to Alice ferch Dafydd Lloyd ap Sir Gruffudd Fychan. It also appears that the wife which Charles cited for his Roger (Margaret ferch Dafydd Lloyd ap Llewelyn) is the same lady Humphrey cites for his Roger and not for the Roger in his supplemental line which seems to parallel the Charles version of the pedigree. That there must have been two different men named Roger (a Roger son of John son of Sir Philip and a Roger son of John son of John) can be seen when we attempt to date the men.

1140 Iorwerth

1170 Trahaearn [4]

1200 Iorwerth

1230 Iorwerth Fychan [5]

1265 Rhys

1295 Dafydd====Jane, dau of Sir John Walcot 1310[6]

1325 Evan Walcot

1360 Roger Walcot

1390 Sir Philip Walcot

1425 John Walcot=====Alice vz Dafydd Lloyd[7] 1440

1455 Roger Walcot====Margaret vz Dafydd Lloyd[8] 1465

1320 Sir John Walcot, lv 1383

1350 Thomas Walcot

1355 John Walcot (brother, not son of Thomas?)

1385 John Walcot===Matilda Cornwall[9] 1395

1415 Roger Walcot (spouse of the Roger above claimed here)

1450 Edward Walcot===Avicia English (query as to surname)

1480 John Walcot====Margaret Plowden[10] 1490

1515 John Walcot====Maria Newton [11] 1530

1545 Charles Walcot 1550 Humphrey Walcot

1575 Charles Walcot [12] 1580 Humphrey Walcot [13]

It is not known if the Sir John Walcot whose daughter Jane married the Welshman Dafydd ap Rhys is identical to the Sir John Walcot who heads the pedigree offered by Humphrey; both would occur c. 1285 if we accept the data as given by Humphrey. [14] However, both pedigrees say that Jane was sole heiress of a Sir John Walcot which would rule out his having a son, Thomas. And that Sir John was a generation too old to have been alive in 1383. It also appears that in Charles' pedigree, he has appended his ancestor Roger to the family branch descended from Jane but that makes the pedigree chronologically unstable. The Edward Walcot from which both men descended could not be a son of Margaret ferch Dafydd Lloyd of Mathafern.

An attempt was made to reconcile the two pedigrees by Burke's Landed Gentry, which makes Edward the son of Roger, the son of John, the son of John, the son of Sir Philip. But the John who married Matilda Cornwall was born c. 1385 and could not be the son of the John ap Sir Philip who married Alice ferch Dafydd Lloyd, a lady born c. 1440.

It is generally agreed that the arms borne by the Shropshire Walcot family before 1400 was "Argent, on a cross patonce azure 5 fleur-de-lis or" and that one Walcot family thereafter bore "Argent, a chevron between 3 chessrooks ermines". The former arms probably originated with the 12th century crusader, but to whom the new arms were first granted is unproven. Humphrey, Jr. appears to claim Henry V granted the chessrook arms to the John Walcot who married Matilda Cornwall about 1416, but that is based on an anonymous note filed with the workpapers of the 1623 Visitation of Shropshire which says:

"This John Walcot plainge at ye chese with King Henry the Fift King of England gave to him the check-matte with the rouke whereupon the kinge chainged his coate of armes which was the cross with fleurs-de-lis and gave him the rouke for a remembrance thereof"

The only contemporary records show that in 1623, Humphrey Walcot, Jr. quartered the chessrook arms with those of the English family[15] whose heiress married his ancestor Edward Walcot. His cousin Charles did not mention the family arms in his pedigree given a few years earlier.

About 100 years later, in America, two men displayed the same chessrook arms without any quartering: (1) Capt. Samuel Wolcott (son of Samuel, son of Henry, son of Henry the emigrant) died in 1734 and the coat of arms was engraved on his tombstone; and (2) Governor Roger Wolcott (son of Simon, son of Henry) who lived 1679-1767 owned a silver tankard on which the coat of arms is engraved. It is known their common ancestor, Henry Wolcott, was born in Somersetshire in 1578 and emigrated to America in 1630. While that family still claims the chessrook arms today, their descent from either Shropshire Walcot family remains unproven.

You will notice in his pedigree, Charles Walcot of Wales does not include among his ancestors the John Walcot to whom Humphrey, Jr. claims the chessrook arms were granted. He does include a Sir Philip Walcot who was contemporary with that John. There is no extant record of the arms borne by Sir Philip nor of his descendants (although some of those descendants are described in pedigrees as "armiger" or one who bears a coat of arms); it seems evident that both Humphrey and Charles descended from Roger, son of John son of John, and not from Roger son of John son of Sir Philip. The possibility that the Wolcott family in America descended from that Sir Philip will be explored at another time.

We shall conclude this look at the Shropshire family with our idea of its "consolidated" pedigree:

1165 William, the crusader, lv 1191, occurs 1221

1195 Philip

____________l______________

l l

1225 John, occurs 1283[16] 1226 Roger, occurs 1255

l l

1255 John, occurs 1316 1260 John, occurs 1292

l l

1285 Sir John 1290 Philip, occurs 1327

l l

1310 Jane===David ap Rhys 1320 Sir John, occurs 1383

l l

1325 Ieuan (Evan) _______l___________

l l l

1360 Roger 1355 John 1350 Thomas[17]

l l occurs 1406

1390 Sir Philip 1385 John, occurs 1416

l l

1425 John 1415 Roger

l l

1455 Roger 1450 Edward

to ? To Charles and Humphrey

In fairness to the 17th century men to whom the Walcot pedigrees are attributed, we have not seen the Herald's actual workpapers and do not know what part of the printed pedigrees might have been added by the Herald from other information in his possession. Perhaps neither Walcot man offered a pedigree which extended back more than 6 or 7 generations, the remainder being the work of the deputy Herald. That man may also be responsible for assigning the cited spouse to the wrong Roger Walcot, and for assigning the chessrook arms to a John Walcot who occurs in 1416.

Some pedigrees of families connected by marriage are presented in Appendix A to establish our basis for the birthdate estimates shown herein.