Willingham St. Mary Parish

Willingham St. Mary or Werlingham

Elizabeth Aslack, widow, daughter and heir of Thomas Bardolf, Esq., and Alice his wife, daughter and heir of Sir Edmund Berry, by deed without date, granted to Robert Clare, Robert Drury, and Edmund Jenney, Knts., and others, the lordship of this parish, to hold for the use of the said Elizabeth, for life: after to William Aslack, her son, and his heirs; remainder to Thomas, her son: and by an inquisition, taken the 23rd of King Henry VIII., William Aslack was found to die seized of the said manor, in 1531; and Thomas, son of Christopher Playters, and Elizabeth his wife, sister of the said William Aslack, was his heir.

From the Playters family it was purchased by Sir Thomas Robinson, Bart., and so passed to the Sparrows: it is now the estate of the Earl of Gosford, having passed as the following parish of Worlingham.

Robert Bumpstede, of this parish, died in 1480, and was buried in the chancel of Sotterley church, in this hundred. He appointed John, his eldest son, and Robert Bumstede, chaplain, another son, his executors; and gave his manor in Willingham St. Mary, to Marion his wife.

The Earles, who for many generations were lords of Hey don, in Norfolk, a family of great antiquity, that had its origin in the adjoining parish of Salle, in the same county, appear to have divided about 1350; for Alexander le Erie was owner of an estate in this parish and Sotterley, and was seated here at that period, whilst William le Erie, his elder brother, continued at Salle.

ARMS. Aslack: sable; a chevron between three Catherine wheels, argent. Bumpstede: argent; on a bend engrailed, gules, three mullets of the field. Earle: azure; a fess, between two bars gemelles, or.

County of Suffolk

Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page

British Isles Genealogy

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