Who lies here ?? - Monkleigh Devon

South chapel tomb now reputed to be for Sir William Hankford / Hankeford (c. 1350 – 1423), was an English lawyer who acted as Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1413 until 1423 who left monies for the church to complete construction of the south aisle in his will. He stipulated that this should be reserved for him and his heirs burial.

He came from a minor gentry family who took their name from their estate of Hankford, near Bulkworthy in the Devon parish of Buckland Brewer. The names of his parents are unknown, and he had a younger brother named John who died before him.

He was educated at the Middle Temple and then practised law, from 1388 he was retained as counsel by the Earl of Devon. Appointed a serjeant-at-law in that year, he was raised to king's serjeant in 1389. In addition to pleading in the central courts at London, he acted as a royal judge in many provincial courts around southern England. In 1394 he accompanied King Richard II to Ireland where he apparently served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland from 1395 to 1396.

In 1398 he was one of the judges asked by Richard II to pronounce on the validity of the opinions given in 1387 by the judges who decided that the actions of the Lords Appellant were unlawful and treasonable. He declared that the responses were sound and loyal and that he would have given the same answers himself. Shortly after, he was appointed to succeed his friend Sir John Wadham as Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

When King Henry IV replaced Richard II in 1399, he reappointed Hankford to the bench and at his coronation made him a Knight of the Bath. In the following years he was active as a judge and royal commissioner, at times also attending Parliament and the Privy Council. On the accession of King Henry V in 1413, he replaced Sir William Gascoigne flic.kr/p/dMqHdf as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, an appointment that was renewed under King Henry VI in 1422.

He m by 1380 Christine, who died before him and whose parents are unknown.

Children

1. Richard Hankford 1419 twice MP for Devon, m Thomasine Stapleton

(parents of Sir Richard Hankford 1931 - 1431 of Hankford in Bulkworthy, who became his grandfather's heir ; he m1 Elizabeth 8th Baroness FitzWarin 1427 daughter of Fulk 6th Baron FitzWarren 1407 & Alice Botreaux 1420 daughter of William de Botreaux & Elizabeth de Saint Lo (Alice was the sister of William Botreaux at North Cadbury flic.kr/p/5YPN2n ; & Thomasine Hankford buried at Bampton, whttps://flic.kr/p/2o2imUe )

2. Jane 1448 m (2nd wife) Sir Robert Cary dsp 1431 ; m2 1433 Sir Theobald Gorges 1470 having 3 children

 

Sir William died on 12 December 1423 and was buried here in the aisle he gave money to finish provided his & his family's burial was here,

A legend claims that he had ordered his gamekeeper to shoot intruders on sight and that, wandering in his woods at night, he was shot dead. As the same tale is told of another Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir Robert Danby who died 51 years later in 1474, it seems improbable that two heads of the English judiciary should die in the same unusual way in the same century.

In his will made two days before his death, in addition to family bequests (including provision for the education of two illegitimate grandsons), he left generous sums to churches, charities, and religious foundations in North Devon. Sir William Cheyne, his successor as Chief Justice, was one of his executors.

 

LATER In 1537 Anne St. Leger who m2 James Coffin 1566 +++ of Monkleigh & Alwington www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2m38UqPuN4 endowed the south chapel for the repose of the soul of her 1st husband Sir George St. Leger / Ledger 1536 and commissioned a new screen, new bench ends, and even a new roof, all adorned with his arms and those of his antecedents. His tomb , however, is nowhere to be found .

 

In 1877 William Hamilton-Rogers in his Ancient Sepulchral Effigies and Monumental and Memorial Sculpture of Devon expressed the view that the masonry is of a much later style than the early 15c. Also the presence of Tudor roses on the tomb leads to a date later than 1485 at the earliest - such tomb were popular around 1500. Indentations carved into the tomb to receive brasses were empty, but that local wisdom held that it was the tomb of the Chief Justice. Hankford was a prominent character in local history, perhaps Monkleigh’s most famous son, and a man whose death was the stuff of folklore, so it would be natural for the inhabitants of the village to assume that the largest tomb in the church was his.

If the tomb is not that of Sir William Hankford, whose might it be?

Could the tomb said to be for Sir William Hankford actually contain the remains of Sir George St. Leger?

 

To add to the mystery, on the two gravestone slabs in front of the tomb, one has the shields of St Leger impaling Butler (parents of George St Leger 1536 - his father James has a brass memorial elsewhere www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/93GG493a5D ) & the other with modern inscription to Sir William Hankford 1423 , the arms of Hankford)

Here also is recorded by Risden in early 17c, a gravestone with the lost brass of Sir Richard Hankford 1419 in armour & tabard kneeling opposite his wife in heraldic dress.

Curiously It is very like the tomb at Heanton Punchardon for Richard Coffin 1523 of Alwington www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/52L8xX6523 grandfather of James Coffin 1566 +++ 2nd husband of Ann St Leger - Could this date & family connection swing it more to Sir George St Leger 1536 ? Could Anne have copied this for George ??

- Church of St George, Monkleigh Devon

Picture with thanks - copyright Ian www.cornishchurches.com/Monkleigh%20Church%20Devon%20-%20...

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