THE
BATTLE ABBEY ROLL.

WITH SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE NORMAN LINEAGES.

BY THE
DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND.

IN THREE VOLUMES.—VOL. III

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1889.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

Belknape :

In the church chest at Clapham in Sussex, there remains a loose brass with the following inscription: “Hic jacet bona et virtuosa Griselda, nup. ux. Joh’ is Cargyll, una filiar’ Henr’ Belknap, armigeri, consanguinii et unius heredu’ Rad’ i Boteler, militis, d’ i de Sudeley, que obiit xi die Julii a d’ni m cccclxxxxviii, cujus anime propitietur Deus. Amen.” This Henry Belknap was the son of Sir Hamon Belknap, by Joan, one of the sisters and co-heirs of Sir Ralph Boteler, created Lord Sudeley, of Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire in 1441. The Belknaps were seated at Knelle, in the parish of Beckley, Sussex, and Sir Hamon is mentioned among the captains in the retinue of the Duke of Bedford at Agincourt. He was the son of Sir Robert Belknap, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the time of Edward III., and one of the Judges called before the King at Nottingham, “where the King’s many Questions were resolved into this, ‘Whether he might by his regal Power revoke what was acted in Parliament?’ To this all the judges, Sir William Skipwith alone excepted, answered affirmatively, and subscribed it.

“This Belknap underwrote unwillingly, as foreseeing the Danger, and putting to his Seal, said these words: ‘There wants nothing but a Hurdle, a Horse, and a Halter, to carry me where I may suffer the Death I deserve; for if I had not done this, I should have died for it; and because I have done it, I deserve death for betraying the Lords.’

“Yet it had been more for his Credit and Conscience, to have adventured Martyrdom in the Defence of the Laws, than to hazard the death of a Malefactor in the Breach thereof. But Judges are but Men; and most desire to decline that Danger which they apprehend nearest unto them.

“In the next Parliament, all the Judges were arrested in Westminster Hall of High Treason: when there was a Vacation in Term-time, till their places were re-supplied. Sir R. Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, was executed; the rest, including Sir Robert Belknap, had their Lands (save what were entailed) with their Goods and Chattels, forfeited to the King; their persons being banished; and they, by the importunate Intercession of the Queen, hardly escaping with their lives.”—Fuller's Worthies. Belknap went to Ireland, and though eventually suffered to return home, remained under attainder for the rest of his life. The family ended with Sir Hamon’s grandson Edward, who was seated at Weston in Warwickshire, and was “a man of much public action,” distinguished as a soldier, and of the Privy Council both to Henry VII. and Henry VIII. He died in 1520, leaving his four sisters his co-heirs.

There had been a Kentish branch of the Belknaps, seated at the Moat, near Canterbury; of whom Philip was Sheriff of Kent in 1456, and Mayor of Canterbury in 1458. His only child, Alice, married Henry Finch of Netherfield; and the Moat afterwards became the residence of her descendant, John, Lord Finch of Fordwich, the Lord Keeper by whom (according to Clarendon) the “errors and mischiefs of the Star Chamber were introduced” in the time of Charles I.

The manor of Belknap in Wiltshire must owe its name to this family, though I can find no record of its having been in their possession. That of Belknap in Essex was, according to Morant, “probably acquired by marriage into the family of Somery.”