William Calthorpe

Who was William Calthorpe?

Sir William Calthorpe, Knight of the Bath, and Lord of the Manors of Burnham Thorpe, and Ludham, in Norfolk. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1464 and 1476.

Calthorpe is recorded on 28 June 1443, when he manumitted one of his villeins, and set him free from all future services. He became locum tenens and Commissary-General to the late most noble and potent William, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Ireland and Aquitaine, during the minority of the Duke's son and heir, Henry, Earl of Exeter. In 1469 Sir William described himself as Sir William Calthorp of Ludham, a manor which he owned, as well as that of Burnham Thorpe. In 1479 he was Steward of the household of the Duke of Norfolk.

Calthorpe was made a Knight of the Bath in the Tower of London, by King Edward IV, on the Coronation of his Queen, Elizabeth Wydville, Ascension Day, 26 May 1465.

Calthorpe's first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Reynold, 3rd Baron de Grey of Ruthin, &c., by whom Sir William had a son and two daughters. His second wife was Elizabeth, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Miles Stapleton, Knt., of Ingham, Norfolk, who settled the manor of Hempstead, Norfolk, upon Elizabeth. Her husband, Sir William Calthorpe, was subsequently found to be lord of three parts of it in 1491; his second surviving son, Sir Francis, died possessed of it in 1544, and his son William next inherited it, and sold it about 1573.