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To continue working backward from my previous two postings, I would like to present a little information about Sir William Mallory (c. 1386-1445), the father of the Thomas Mallory of Papworth St. Agnes who has sometimes been suggested as having been the author of "Le Morte Darthur", the best English writer between Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Sir William was the second son of Sir Anketill Mallory whose father (also Anketill) sold Kirkby Mallory in 1361. Sir William's mother was the wealthy and influential Alice Driby, who previous to being married to Anketil (often also called Anthony or Antoin in the records of the time) was married firstly to the Sir Robert Tuchet and secondly to the last baron Basset of Sapcote. Alice Driby will be discussed in more detail later, but, as the Lady of Castle Bytham, she helped manage the household in which the future King Henry IV was raised for a certain period of his childhood.
Sir William had one half sister, Elizabeth Basset, who was married to Ralph Grey, baron Grey of Codnor, an important general of Henry IV and Henry V. Of his two full sisters, Beatrice married a Bagot of Staffordshire who also had a long and distinguished military career and the other married a Moton of Peckleton, a family with which both the Bassets and the Mallorys had associated with in Leicestershire for hundreds of years. His older full brother was Sir Thomas Mallory who had a daughter Elizabeth who became her grandmother Alice Driby's heir.
Sir William's father died when he was around six years old. As his father had no property of his own, other than his personal effects, he willed his best suit of armour to his oldest son Thomas and his second best suit of armour to William. Before dying, though, he had made arrangements for William to be made the heir of his first cousin twice removed, Sir William Papworth of Papworth St. Agnes, in preference to his first son Thomas who was to be the heir of his mother, the very wealthy Alice Driby.
Although it is not part of the record, this William Mallory was probably Sir William Papworth's godson and surviving deeds and charters from the late 1300s and early 1400s indicate a continuing concern for the young William Mallory by the elderly Sir William Papworth and his second wife, Alice, who had the same name as William Mallory's mother.
William's mother passed away around 1412, Sir William Papworth around 1414, and Alice Papworth around 1416. Sir William must have been married in the 1410s and had at least one daughter, Margaret, who later married Thomas Palmer a locally influential political figure. Another daughter from this period could be Anne Mallory who figures in his son Thomas's will of 1469. Anne, however, could have been a daughter by his second wife, Margaret Burley, the widow of Robert Corbet of Corbet Moreton.
Sir William Mallory's second wife came from a prestigious family which had been immensely influential during the second half of the 14th century and, through her father (John Burley), brother (Walter Burley), and nephew-by-marriage (Sir Thomas Littleton) continued to exercise an often crucially important behind-the-scenes voice in determining the course of English constitutional history.
Sir William became a father figure for his many Corbet stepchildren who were all quite young when he married their mother and was considered a respected associate by his wife's family and by the local gentry of Shropshire. He also served in the wars in France, being called to serve in Bordeaux region of France when his son Thomas was still a boy. The fact that William's stepson Roger's widow raised at least one of his son Thomas's younger children after he passed away in 1469 indicates that relations with William and his stepchildren and between his own children and their half-siblings were good.
In fact, not only with his step-family, but with the Papworths and with his associates in Shropshire, it is his talent for pleasing people and inspiring love and respect which consistently shines through during his life history. Even if his son, Thomas, were not the author of "Le Morte Darthur", Sir William would have still been admirable example of what a knight should be.
Sir William divided his time between his wife's estates in Shropshire and his own properties elsewhere in England. Though he, himself, was never a member of parliament, in his lifetime, his oldest stepson was, as was his wife's brother, and his oldest daughter's husband.
Thus far, I have not provided any new genealogical material, but in succeeding continuations I will be refining the genealogy of the Papworth St. Agnes Mallory family as well as providing as much of the flesh and bones of their histories as I can briefly, in a non-academic fashion, provide.
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