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Peyton

Malet was predecessor of Peyton

Please also see: Malet, Predecessor of Peyton. Mallet - another spelling

The ancient and knightly family of "Peyton", as it is known to England, dates back to the first Norman period in East Anglia. By tradition and what history we know its origins were among the Norman conquerors of England.

The frater meo primogenito⁰² marriage which the knightly family of Peyton flowed out of the same male stock when the Uffords Earls of Suffolk descended albeit they assumed the surname of Peyton according to the use of that age from their manor of Peyton Hall in Boxford in the county of Suffolk The first of the family by the name of Peyton upon record was Reginald de Peyton second son of Walter Lord of Sibton younger brother of Mallet sheriff of Yorkshire.

The Norman most closely associated with the first person to bear the name of Peyton was Reginald de Peyton, second son of Walter, Lord of Sibton, younger brother of Mallet, Sheriff of Yorkshire. This Reginald held the lordships of Peyton Hall, in Ramshold, and Boxford, in Suffolk, of Hugh of Bigod; he was sewer to Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and gave lands to the monks of Thetford, to pray for the soul of Hugh Bigod. Reginald de Peyton, who died in 1136, was the son of Walter de Malet, who according to the historian, Camden, was the brother of William the Conqueror's mace bearer at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Walter de Malet, was fairly certainly a half-brother of William de Malet who was named Sheriff of Yorkshire by William the Conqueror, both being sons of Robert de Malet, Count of Normandy. PEYTON OF ISLEHAM¹ was created on 22nd May 1011 Extinct 18th Oct 1815.

Walter de Malet, on his mother's side was reportedly of the English family of Godiva, and was a childhood friend of Harold of Wessex King Edward the Confessor who died 5 January, 1066 naming Harold Wessex King. For that reason, it is said, William allowed him at Senlac to give the body of King Harold a proper burial. Walter de Malet was given many feudal estates in England. In the years following the Conquest, persons holding large manors began taking surnames from their manors, and one of these, Reginald, a younger son of Walter de Malet, who was Lord of Peyton Hall in Ramshold and of Peyton Hall in Boxford and in Stoke-by-Neyland, took the name "de Peyton".

In the year of his death, A. D. 1136, King Stephen confirmed to Reginald's son and heir, John de Peyton, the lands of his ancestors⁰¹.

King Stephen descends from William the Conqueror

King Stephen of Blois
Reigned 1135-1154

Check Normandy for information about other Norman monarchs, including the Conqueror

Reginald de Peyton is said by some authorities to have had three sons, John, Sir William, and Walter, but it is from John that the Suffolk-Cambridge line of Peytons come down to modern times. The foregoing John de Peyton's eldest son, Sir John de Peyton, "the Elder", was the progenitor of the Virginia Peytons, whereas his second son, Robert de Peyton, Lord of Ufford, took the name "de Ufford" and was the ancestor of the Earls of Suffolk.

The Peyton shield at 'this time was a simple golden cross engrailed, on a black background. Sir Robert de Ufford and his descendants carried on the arms in this design, but Sir John added a silver mullet, or star, in the upper left quadrant, and the arms used in his line thence forward have included the mullet. It has been suggested that Sir John added the mullet to indicate that he was an adherent of the Vere family, great magnates in Suffolk, whose heraldic device was a silver mullet.

During the course of history there have been many interesting and prominent Peytons in the British Isles. They had large estates and married into many leading families, and were frequently the Sheriffs of the shires of Suffolk, Cambridge or Huntingdon.

When East Anglia was the center of the wool industry the Peyton's had prominent sheep herds. They supported the Crown in warfare, in Parliament, and at Court. In 1320 Sir John Peyton, great-grandson of Reginald de Peyton, was a Crusader. By marriage to Mathilda de Bueriss he made one of the felicitous family associations mentioned above.

Thomas Peyton (1416-1484), Knight of the Shire, High Sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdon, had two marriages. First to Margaret Bernard, daughter and heiress of Sir John Bernard, of Isleham, Cambridgeshire, through whom he acquired the manor of "Isleham". And second, to Margaret Francis, widow of Thomas Garney, through whom the Bury St. Edmunds branch of the family is descended.

Isleham Hall (woodcut from ³ British History website)

Other families coming into this main line of the Peyton family have been those of de Marney, Gernon, Sutton, Bourgoyne, Langley, Bernard, Francis, Clere, Hasildon, Rich, Osborne, Calthorpe and Clifton. The composite family shield of Sir John Peyton (1560-1616), 1st Baronet of Isleham, above his tomb there includes these additional families: Sackville, Tregoz, Mallory, Benstead, Colville, Bassingbourne, Lilling and Burgh. Notable among these sheep owners was Sir Robert Peyton (d. 1518), who owned the manors of "Calthorpe" at Barnham, Suffolk; "Isleham"; "Wicken", "Leyham Hall"; "Barton"; "Water Hall"; "Baddley's"; "Chippenham"; "Peyton Hall"; "Mildenhall"; and an interest in "Caldecotte". In his will he provided sheep in the hundreds for various members of his family and made provisions for restoration work in the Isleham Church, the Wicken Church, the Boxford Church and for a memorial to his parents at St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. He was knighted following the Battle of Stoke Heath in 1487. He was High Sheriff of Cambridge in 1498. His wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Sir Robert Clere, of Ormesby, Norfolk.

St. Andrews, Isleham, Cambridgeshire

St. Giles Cripplegate, London

St. Mary's, Boxford, Suffolk

No one bearing the Peyton surname has been raised to the peerage but many have been knighted. When the order of Baronet was created in 1611 the fifth Baronet to be created on May 22, 1611, was Sir John Peyton, of Isleham. Other Baronetcies created in the Peyton family include two in the Doddington branch and two in the Knowlton branch, so named for their respective manors.

The Knowlton and Doddington branches of the Peyton family produced several interesting Peytons, one of whom, Sir Algernon Peyton, the first Baronet of Doddington, was Master of the Buckhounds to Queen Anne and another, Sir John Peyton, was Governor of the Tower of London and later Governor of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It will be recalled that Sir Robert Peyton, of the Isleham line, who died in 1518, had a son, Sir Robert, who continued the Isleham line and died in 1550, and a younger son, Sir John, who established the Knowlton branch. This Sir John had an elder son, Sir Thomas, who inherited Knowlton and carried on that line, and a younger son, Sir John, of Doddington, who founded that line. Sir John (1544-1630), a later descendant, upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, was chosen to ride to Scotland on March 24, 1603, and inform King James of Queen Elizabeth's death. He was almost immediately knighted on March 28, 1603, and shortly after the accession of King James I, was named Governor of the Island of Jersey, to follow Sir Walter Raleigh in this capacity. Sir John's kinsman, Thomas Peyton, was the author of "The Glasse of Time", a long poem from which John Milton is thought to have found the inspiration for his "Paradise Lost".

Perhaps not a branching but an extension of the Bury St. Edmunds Branch occurred when many of the Cambridge and Suffolk Peytons went west in the 16th Century because the wool trade of East Anglia sought greener pastures. One of these was Edmund Peyton of Warwick who espoused the teachings of a questionable philosopher named Adam Dainlip and became "attainted", Another established the line of Peytons who built and lived in "Cattespoole", an interesting half timbered house near Worcester.

Many Peytons have represented their shires in Parliament The most interesting Parliamentarian was Sir Edward Peyton, 2nd Baronet of Isleham (1578-1657), who clashed vehemently with King James I and the Stuart "divine right of Kings" position, and cast his lot with his boyhood friend, Oliver Cromwell. In the ensuing cataclysm he lost his fortune, including "Isleham". Among his descendants, however, have been some of England's leading naval heroes. One of the latter, Admiral John C. G. Peyton commanded the Defense, one of England's principal ships in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Sir Edward's grandson, Major Robert Peyton, immigrated to Gloucester County, Virginia, circa 1679.

Henry Peyton (1590-1656), was a very interesting person, for he made his way to considerable eminence from a modest start entirely on his own ability. He came up to London from Gloucester early in the reign of James I as a "servant" or clerk to Sir Thomas Overbury, a gentleman who had a rapid rise and a rapid fall at the Court of King James. Henry Peyton was admitted to Lincoln's Inn⁵ and then became a clerk and finally an Examiner of the High Court of Chancery. In 1633 he asked Sir Edward Peyton of Isleham, who was then the head of the family, for authorization to bear the Peyton arms, as one "branched out from his family". By a deed dated November 20, 1633, Sir Edward granted to him the right to bear the Peyton arms with a difference of a "bordure, ermine". Sir John Borough, the Garter, King of Arms of his day, confirmed this grant on July 27, 1641. By the time of his death in 1656, he had amassed a considerable fortune and had a fine residence in Chancery Lane in London. He and his sons sided with the Royalists in the Civil War, differing with Sir Edward, who espoused the Parliamentarian cause.

A fascinating soldier of fortune was Sir Henry Peyton, who died "abroad" in 1620-23 without issue. He was the son of Thomas Peyton, "Customer of Plymouth" and Member of Parliament for Dunwick in 1557, and his wife, Cecelia, daughter of Sir John Boucher (Bourchier), Earl of Bath, by his wife, Eleanor, daughter of the Earl of Rutland. King James I knighted Young Henry at Royston in May 1606. He was Gentleman of the Privy Council for Prince Henry, a member of the Virginia Company of London in 1610, and was an "incorporator" of the second Virginia Charter. According to the "Visitation" of Warwick "he long followed the wars in Ireland under his Uncle George Bouchier and lately was employed (1618) by the Venetians in their "warrens". His wife was Lady Mary, daughter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and niece of Henry VIII and two of his queens. In the commercial life of London in the 18th Century a very prominent merchant was Abel Peyton (1721-1801) of the Worcestershire branch of the family. In 1788 he became Prime Warden of the Fishmongers Company, an office now held by the Duke of Edinburgh.

Of the three Peytons who are known to have established the family in Virginia, very little is known of Philip Peyton, who came to Stafford County from Gloucestershire, considerable but not quite enough is known about Henry Peyton, who was the progenitor of the Westmoreland County line

Henry Peyton and Philip Peyton were descendants of Peytons who had moved westward to Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire. Shortly after the Protectorate was established in 1653⁴, and having a royalist view during the civil war they came to the new world at the defeat of the king and the ascension of Cromwell.

Philip Peyton was the son of Philip Peyton of Bisley Parish, Gloucester, the grandson of Thomas Peyton, Dean of Tuam Cathedral. Indentured for four years to Thomas White, 30 Aug 1665 and dispatched from Bristol 9 Sep 1665 arriving Jamestown 27 Oct 1665.

Major Robert Peyton was the grandson of Sir Edward Peyton, 2nd Bt. of Isleham, and his second wife, Jane Calthorpe, and son of Thomas Peyton (1616-1683) and Elizabeth Yelverton (daughter of Sir William Yelverton, Bt. of Rougham, County Norfolk) escaped to the new world in about 1663 at the defeat of Cromwell.

Peyton of Isleham

Isleham, Cambridgeshire

Isleham formerly belonged to the Bernards, which came to the family of the Peytons by marriage. Which knightly family of Peyton, flowed out of the same male stock, when the Uffords, Earls of Suffolk, descended; albeit they assumed the surname of Peyton, according to the use of that age, from their manor of Peyton Hall, in Boxford, in the county of Suffolk.

Reginald FitzWalter de Peyton^3,4 of "Peyton Hall," in Boxford and Stoke Neyland, temp. Henry I, was the first person of record with the Peyton name. He married unknown and had two sons, William de Peyton and John de Peyton. Peyton Hall belonged at the time of the Norman Survey to William Malet and passed to his younger brother Walter Lord of Sibton. He was succeeded by Reginald FitzWalter his son, who was living in 1135 and appears to have assumed the name of Peyton. He held both Peyton Hall in Boxford and Peyton Hall in Ramsholt of Hugh de Bigod and was dapifer¹ or server to Hugh Bigod and Roger Bigod Earl of Suffolk. He died in 1136. Please see Malet

John de Peyton to whom King Stephen confirmed, in 1136, his father Reginald's Manor of Peyton a son, Nigel de Peyton⁰¹

Nigel de Peyton⁰¹ was born about 1173 at Peyton Hall, Ramshold, Suffolk, England. He was the father of John de Peyton and William de Peyton of Boxford in the see of St. Edmundsbury. King Stephen granted to John de Peyton brother of this William all his lands in Peyton to hold as his ancestors before held the same..Nigel de Peyton died at Boxford, Stoke Neyland, England.

John de Peyton, who granted in Stoke Neyland to his brother William; He had issue: John; Robert; John Jr.; granted to "John de Peyton, 'frater meo primogenito'⁰²my land in Boxford and Stoke, etc, which belonged to my father John de Peyton and my uncle William de Peyton."

John de Peyton, of Peyton Hall, in Boxford and Stoke, etc., He had John de Peyton, Sir Knight of Peyton Hall

John de Peyton, Sir Knight of Peyton Hall married Clemence ___ in 1242. Their children were: Sir John de Peyton; Sir Robert de Ufford, Knight, Viceroy of Ireland and died 1298, who married Mary, widow of William de Say, and was the progenitor of the de Uffords, Earl of Suffolk.

Sir John de Peyton, Knight, of Peyton Hall, died in 1287. He was a Crusader 1270. He married Matilda de Bueriss, sister and heiress of Symond de Notele. They had children: John, James, Egidia, and. Agnes, who married Robert Gernon.

Sir John de Peyton, Knight, had grant of Boxford, Stoke Neyland, etc., 1298; member of Parliament, 1299-1300; made will 29 November 1317, which was probated 26 January 1318. He married unknown, and had the following children: Robert; John; Peter; Egidia; a nun at Malling in Kent; Roisia; who married Thomas de Chastelyn; and Hawise.

Sir Robert de Peyton, Knight, who was called "Chevalier," made his will 13 January 1348-9 which was probated in 1351. He married firstly, Christina, widow of William de Appleton and secondly), Joan de Marney, of that noble family in Essex, and had issue by the second marriage: John and William.

Sir John de Peyton, Knight, of Peyton Hall, and jure ux.² of East Thorpe and Wicken; He died in 1394. Sir John married Margaret Gernon, daughter and heiress of Sir John Gernon, Knight of Lees in Essex. She was born in 1350 and died 6 June 1413 and was buried at Wicken. They had a son, John.

Sir John Peyton, of Wicken, made his will in 1404 and died in 1404. He was heir to Peyton Hall, but died before his mother, so he did not receive the Gernon estate. He married Joan Sutton, daughter and heiress of Sir Hamon Sutton, Knight, of Wixoe, in Suffolk Their children were: John; Thomas, of Wixoe, who made his will 19 May 1439, which was probated 18 August 1439; Robert, who was Executor of Thomas' estate; Margery, who married Thomas D'Aubeny of Sharington, Norfolk.

John de Peyton, of Peyton Hall was born in 1390 and died 6 October 1416. He married in 1407, Grace Burgoyne, who died 6 May 1439. She was a daughter of John Burgoyne, of Drayton, Cambridge. His widow married secondly Richard Baynard, of Messing, Essex. And had issue, John, born 1412 and died October 29, 1432; Thomas; Anne, married Jeffery Lockton, and had a son, Robert.

Sir Thomas de Peyton, Knight, of Iselham, born February 1416-17, at Dry Drayton, Cambridge and died. July 30, 1484. High Sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdon, 1443, 1453. He married first, Margaret Bernard, daughter and heiress of Sir John Bernard, Knight, of Iselham, Cambridge, and his wife Ellen Mallory, daughter and heiress of Sir John Mallory, Knight, of Welton, Northants, and also grand-daughter of Sir Robert Bernard, of Iselham, and his wife who was of the family of Lilling. Their children were: Thomas, Margaret, and Grace.

Secondly, Sir Thomas married Margaret (Francis) Garney, widow of Thomas Garney, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Hugh Francis, Knight of Gifford Hall, Wickhambrook, Suffolk. Children from that marriage were: Christopher, who died June 14, 1507; he was his fathers Executor. He was High Sheriff of Cambridge, 1496.

He married Elizabeth Hyde, died November 15, 1516, a daughter of Leonard Hyde, of Hyde Hall, Herts; Rose, He died 1529; will probated May 31, 1529. She then married Robert Freville, of little Shelford, Cambridge. She died April 1521. They had children: John who died 1551; George, Baron of Exchequer, Francis, of St. Edmundsbury and Coggeshall, Essex, died 1529 and was buried at St. James Church, Bury married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter. of Reginald Brooke, of Asphall, Stoneham, Suffolk, and had issue: Christopher, of St. Edmundsburg, who married Jane Mildmay, daughter of Thomas Mildmay, of Essex, and they had issue; Edmund who was accused for holding the doctrines of Adam Dainlip and was Costumer of London, married firstly Joyce Grantham, daughter of Nicholas Grantham. Secondly, Susan Cattem, a widow: Issue: Elizabeth, no record. Anna, married. Rici Moore. Thomas Peyton, died before his father, Jureux², Calthorpe; and was buried at St. Giles, Cripplegate. He married Jane Calthorpe, daughter, and heiress of Calthrorpe, of Burnham, St. Martin, Suffolk. His widow married secondly William Manleverer.

John Peyton Esq., son of Sir John Peyton and Dorothy Beaupre, married Anne Peyton, daughter of Sir John Peyton and Alice Osborne, on 25 Nov 1602 at Isleham, Cambridge, England. They had a daughter, Anne (Marianne) Peyton.

Anne (Marianne) Peyton was married after 1635 in England to George Brent, born, 1602 in Defford, Worcestershire, England; died 1671. Please see Brent for more. Anne (Marianna) Peyton, was daughter of Sir John Peyton and Alice Osborne Peyton of Isleham; John Peyton, Knight of Doddington was her husband.

Dapifer¹, server, or seneschal: recorded in English since 1393, deriving via Old French seneschal, from Frankish Latin siniscalcus, itself from Proto-Germanic roots sini- 'senior' and skalk 'servant' (as in marshal etc.). The most basic function of a seneschal in noble houses was to supervise feasts and domestic ceremonies; in this respect, they were equivalent to stewards and majordomos. Sometimes, seneschals were given additional responsibilities, including the dispensing of justice and high military command.. The term is probably of Gothic origin. In the Holy Roman Empire this officer had the title Drussard, or Truchsess (from Old High German truhtsâzo; "sitting in front of" the truth, the "Tross"; Latin Dapifer, French Écuyer de cuisine, Dutch Drossaard, Drost, Baljuw, Swedish Drots)²

Jure ux.², or Jure uxoris is a Latin term meaning, `in right of a wife.` It is commonly used to refer to a title held by a man whose wife holds it in her own right. For example, Louis XII was `jure uxoris` Duke of Brittany, due to his wife Anne of Brittany. Category:Latin words and phrases, Encyclo on line Encyclopedia

Frater meo primogenito⁰² is A Latin phrase meaning, "A brother to my eldest son"

Ancestry notes about Reginald^3,--The first of the family on record by the name of Peyton was Reginald de Peyton, second son of Walter, Lord of Sibton, younger brother of Mallet, sheriff of Yorkshire. This Reginald held the lordships of Peyton Hall, in Ramshold, and Boxford, in Suffolk, of Hugh de Bigod; he was s steward to Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, and gave lands to the monks of Thetford, to pray f or the soul of Hugh Bigod. He had two sons, William, who held certain lands in Boxford, of th e fee of the abbey of St. Edmundsbury, as appears by charter of his nephew John, and John de Peyton. [John Burke & John Bernard Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Second Edition, Scott, Webster, & Geary, London, 1841, p. 408, Peyton, of Isleham]

Note: Domesday book lists Suain⁴(Swein) of Essex as holder of Peyton.The first of the family on record by the name of Peyton was Reginald de Peyton, second son of Walter, Lord of Sibton, younger brother of Mallet, sheriff of Yorkshire. This Reginald held the lordships of Peyton Hall, in Ramshold, and Boxford, in Suffolk, of Hugh de Bigod; he was steward to Roger Bigod , Earl of Norfolk, and gave lands to the monks of Thetford, to pray for the soul of Hugh Bigo d. He had two sons, William, who held certain lands in Boxford, of the fee of the abbey of St . Edmundsbury, as appears by charter of his nephew John, and John de Peyton. [John Burke & John Bernard Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Second Edition, Scott, Webster, & Geary, London, 1841, p. 408, Peyton, of Isleham] 09/10/10
PEYTON OF ISLEHAM was created on 22nd May 1011 Extinct 18th Oct 1815 The frater meo primogenito marriage which knightly family of Peyton flowed out of the same male stock when the Uffords Earls of Suffolk descended albeit they assumed the surname of Peyton according to the use of that age from their manor of Peyton Hall in Boxford in the county of Suffolk The first of the family by the name of Peyton upon record was Reginald de Peyton second son of Walter Lord of Sibton younger brother of Mallet sheriff of Yorkshire This Reginald held the lordships of Peyton Hall in Ramshold and Boxford in Suffolk

The Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn⁵ is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond those of the other three, by tradition, none of the Inns claims to be the oldest of the four. It is believed to be named for Lincoln de Lacy, the third Earl of Lincoln. Lincoln's Inn is situated in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden, just on the border with the City of London and the City of Westminster, and across the road from Royal Courts of Justice. For more, consult Wickapedia.

Sources:
¹A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies By John Burke Esq. and Sir Barnard Burke, Esq, London , England 1838
http://www.stepneyrobarts.co.uk/134774.htm
²Wikapedia,Internet
³British History Website
⁴The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell

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Edited 10 August 2011