The Derehaughs and the Great Bromley Cardinalls

I have for some time been intrigued by the connection of the Derehaughs with the Cardinalls. Cardinall is a fairly unusual surname, however, Derehaugh is even more unusual and now appears to be extinct.

I first saw the name when I was trawling through anything that mentioned Cardinalls, which led me to the Chancery cases that followed the death of Francis Derehaugh – it mentioned his sister Mary, the wife of William Cardinall. I subsequently realised that he is one of the East Bergholt Cardinalls, rather than one of his cousins in and around Great Bromley.

After spotting the name Derehaugh, I went back to the 1558 Essex Visitation for Cardinall, which mentions that William Cardinall of Great Bromley and his second wife Lettice Knightley, had a daughter Julian who married Robert, son of Thomas Deranger. Could Deranger be wrong, and the surname in fact be Derehaugh? The same visitation said that Faith, William’s daughter by his first wife Joan Gurdon (although the 1612 Visitation says Faith was Lettice’s daughter) married Henry Appleton. Although on the same day as William’s daughter Rose married George Sayer at Great Bromley, Henry Appleton married Faith Derehaugh. What was going on?

What appears to have happened is that two of William Cardinall’s daughters were married to Derehaughs – Faith and Julian.

And in fact, the Derehaughs and Cardinalls knew each other before those marriages took place – Robert Dereaugh was one of the witnesses to William Cardinall of Great Wenham’s will.

Julian Cardinall

The only reference I’ve found to Julian is in the 1558 Essex Visitation for Cardinall. She appears nowhere else (yet). Bearing in mind that the Visitation appears to get her husband’s name wrong, is Julian even her name? But it’s the only name we have for her so it will have to suffice.

William Cardinall of Great Bromley (c1509-1568) appears to have been the son of William Cardinall of Great Wenham, whose will was written in 1543 and proved in 1551. William married Joan – daughter of John Gurdon of Dedham and his wife Anne Coleman, and widow of John Cole of Dedham, clothier – in 1535.^[1]Marriage settlement at SRO, Bury St Edmund’s branch. Their first child appears to have been their son William (1536-1598).^[2]William Cardinall’s memorial at Egmanton church says that he was 62 when he died in 1598. As William (d1568) didn’t leave a will, there’s only the Visitations to go on when it comes to his children.^[3]Feb 2021: I intend to get a copy of his inquisition PM (C 142/112/152) from TNA once their reprographics services is up and running again. The 1558 version is: Faith, Rose, Joan and William by Joan, then by Lettice: Julian, Charles, Stephen, John and Robert.

Lettice Knightley’s first husband, William Clippesby of Oby, Norfolk (right next door to the village of Clippesby, where the Clippesby chose to be buried), wrote his will in 1540 and it was proved in 1541,^[4]William Clippesby’s will is held at NRO. so it seems that Lettice married William (d1568) in the early 1540s. Lettice’s son John Clippesby mentions his nephew William Derehawe, son of Edward Derehawe, in his will, which further demonstrates that Julian was Lettice’s daughter. John said that he was gifting them the cup he owned that had the “Derowes” arms on it, so he was evidently quite close to them. Julian must’ve been a teenager when she married Edward.

On 28 June 1561, William Deero, son of Mr Edward Deero, gentleman, was baptised at Great Bromley. In this part of the register, mother’s names aren’t given with baptisms, and a couple of years later no parents’ names appear at all. But this baptism gives us enough information to identify Edward Derehaugh, who was living in Markshall, Essex, when he wrote his will in 1598. He mentions only one son, William. And in the church at Orford, which serves the parish of Gedgrave too, as it lost its church in the 1550s, there is a memorial slab to William, son of Edward Derehaugh of Markshall, who was 63 when he died in 1613. This points to him being the William Deero baptised at Great Bromley in 1561.

Edward had another son, Edward, who predeceased him and was buried at Markshall, but he wasn’t mentioned in his will and I cannot find his baptism. ^[5]Morant, under Markshall in vol 2 of History of Essex, says that Edward was Edward’s son. William Clarke, Edward’s stepson, mentions his “brothers” William and Edward Derehaugh … Continue reading

Julian died before 1580, and Edward remarried.^[6]Markshall registers start 1582. Only 71 burials survive in Great Bromley’s registers, between 1585-1731. Edward Derehaugh’s second wife, Margaret, is referred to as “my sister … Continue reading

There appears to have been a link between the Cardinalls and Derehaughs, and the family of Edward’s second wife, Margaret, before their marriage. Her second husband, John Cole of Markshall, wrote his will in 1567, and it was witnessed by William Cardynall, Robert Veysey and John Betune. William is presumably either William (c1509-1568) or his eldest son (c1536-1598), and Robert is perhaps the wife of William and Joan’s daughter Joan. As we’ll see when looking in more detail with the Derehaugh’s connection with the Cardinalls, Robert’s father William married Joan Cutler (widow of John Walton) and Joan was the half-sister of Edward Derehaugh. Bearing in mind that William’s (c1509-1568) first wife Joan was the widow of John Cole of Dedham, who had a son called John, I wonder if that provides the connection.

Faith Cardinall

As mentioned, Faith is William Cardinall’s (c1509-1568) daughter. Her mother was either Joan (according to the 1558 Visitation) or Lettice (according to 1612). As yet, no further clues exist to tell us more, although bearing in mind that Lettice and William married in the early 1540s, it seems likely that Faith was Joan’s daughter, given that she was on her second husband by 1561.

There was once a brass at Great Bromley, commemorating William Derrhaughe – it showed him with a wife, and an infant in swaddling clothes, and gave his date of death as 5th August 1560 – the year before Faith Derehaugh married Henry Appleton.^[7]Lack, Stuchfield, Whittemore, The Monumental Brasses of Essex, part 1, page 106 describes the indent in the floor of the church, showing a civilian and his wife with an infant in swaddling clothes. … Continue reading The antiquarian Richard Symonds visited the church of St George’s in 1639 and recorded the inscriptions, and drew the heraldic devices on them. Bearing in mind that the arms of Derehaugh are, unofficially, the design with three martlets, it’s interesting to note that of the two shields Symonds, neither shows the martlets! Perhaps there was a third shield showing that design which for some reason he didn’t record. One shield shows a goat salient, with what looks like a sort of plant on the left-hand side, and the other is blank on the dexter side (presumably it showed the goat), and on the sinister, the Cardinall arms – three cardinal knots with a fess. So this shows that William did indeed marry a Cardinall. The fact that Lettice Knightley’s arms aren’t included suggest that Faith was Joan Gurdon’s daughter rather than Lettice’s. Symonds tells us that the same coat – the Cardinall’s – is on Great Bromley Hall, which comes as no surprise as it had been the Cardinalls’ home. By 1639, it was the home of Sir Thomas Bowes, stepson of Charles Cardinall.

The transcription of William’s inscription is written in Latin, and isn’t easy to make out. It seems to say that he and someone else died on the same day, and it could be that this was the child in swaddling clothes who was also depicted on the brass.

But what about the goat? The only similar arms I’ve been able to find are those of the Bardwell or Berdwell family. I’ll be sharing my thoughts about that in The Bardwell’s leaping goat.

So Faith Derehaugh, who married Henry Appleton of South Benfleet at Great Bromley in 1561, on the same day that her sister or half-sister Rose Cardinall married George Sayer, appears to have been William Derehaugh’s young widow.

The records of the manor of Gedgrave tell us that William Derehaugh was the son of Robert Derehaugh.^[8]Coppinger, The Manors of Suffolk, vol 4, pages 133-4. It seems very possible that this is the same man who witnessed the will of William Cardinall of Great Wenham in 1543. Robert died in 1558, when the manor was inherited by his son William. William alienated the manor to William Cardinall and Edward Derehaugh.^[9]Coppinger says that Edward Derehaugh was William’s “son and heir.” I wonder if it was actually his heir, and Coppinger has assumed this means his son, when it’s actually his … Continue reading

In 1566, Edward was called to show by what right he held the manor, and then, with Faith and her husband Henry Appleton, alienated the manor to William Cardinall junior and Mistress Clerke, as trustees. I think William Cardinall jnr must be William (1536-1598), and there is a possibility that Mistress Clerke is Margaret, Edward Derehaugh’s second wife – she was married to Clement Clarke until his death in 1562. Although that said, she may well have married John Cole before 1566.

At some point between 1558 and 1579, there was a Chancery suit between Robert Derehawgh as plaintiff, and Henry and Faith Appleton as defendants, over land in Sudbourne, near Orford.^[10]The National Archives C 3/55/6: Derehawgh v Appleton This presumably isn’t Gedgrave Manor. The Robert is presumably either William’s father, just before his death, or William’s supposed brother, Robert Derehaugh of Gray’s Inn. The dispute is probably over land that had once belonged to Faith’s first husband, William Derehaugh, and that she assumed ownership once he had died.

Neither Faith nor her husband Henry left wills, but it seems from the records of Gedgrave Manor that Edward Derehaugh retained ownership and it passed on his death to his son William. This leads to the East Bergholt branch of the Cardinalls.

Bradlaugh alias Jacob

There’s yet another link between the Derehaughs and the Cardinalls. Lettice’s father William Knightley married again after the death of Lettice’s mother. Wife #2 was Agnes Hare, widow of William Bradlaugh alias Jacob. She was his second wife – his first was Agnes Derehaugh,^[11]Her first name appears in a manorial document as William’s wife a daughter of Robert Derehaugh (died about 1525 in Bruisyard). Robert Derehaugh’s will mentions the son of his daughter, Thomas Jacob, and the will of John Derehaugh (Agnes Derehaugh/B alias J’s nephew) names a cousin called Thomas Jacob.

George Knightley, Lettice’s half-brother, refers to a Michael Heydon as a cousin in his will. Michael’s parents were Thomas Haydon and Margery Bradlaugh alias Jacob, and appears to have been a daughter from William Bradlaugh alias Jacob and Agnes Derehaugh.

William Cardinall of Great Wenham wrote his will in 1543, Robert Derehaugh was one of the witnesses. William Cardinall’s son William jnr must’ve been married to Lettice by then, and Lettice’s father must’ve been married to his second wife by then too. So did William Cardinall jnr marry Lettice because his father already knew Robert Derehaugh, and Robert Derehaugh knew the Knightleys? Or did Robert Derehaugh witness the will because he’d come to know William Cardinall senior via the marriage of WC’s son to one of the Knightleys?

First published: 25 January 2021
Edit 5 April 2021: Information about William Derehaugh’s brass at Great Bromley, from Richard Symonds’ manuscript, added.