William Calthorpe

Sir William Calthorpe (30 January 1410 – 15 November 1494) was an English knight 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.

Family Sir William Calthorpe was born on 30 January 1410 at Burnham Thorpe, in the English county of Norfolk. He was the son of Sir John Calthorpe and his wife Amy (Amice) Wythe.

His father died in the life of his own father, leaving William, who was found heir to his grandfather, and eleven years of age, in the 9th Henry V, 1421/2. He is on record as High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1442, 1458 and 1464 and 1476. He served as a Justice of the peace in Norfolk from 16 March to 24 November 1460; 4 July 1461 until becoming sheriff in 1463, 24 July 1466 until becoming sheriff in 1475, and from 28 June 1483 to 7 December 1485.thumb Brass to a certain Sir William Calthorpe (d.1420 / MCCCXX) in All Saints Church, Burnham ThorpeIn June 1469, he was "sworn one of my lord of Gloucester's men", but the following year was recorded as being a supporter of the Readeption of Henry VI. He was subsequently pardoned by the Yorkists on 8 February 1471, when he was given as being as "of Ingham, alias of Ludham, late sheriff". Similar documents name him on 12 December 1471 as being "of Norwich senior", and again in February 1473. He was a supporter of Richard III.

In the church of St. Martin at Palace, Norwich, is a tablet showing that in 1550 Lady Calthorp (Sir William's daughter-in-law) gave a silver cup and a velvet carpet to that church. It appears that the Calthorpes had their townhouse in this parish for many years, and Sir William Calthorp certainly lived there in 1492, and probably long before then, for it is recorded that in 1447 the Executors of Joan Lady Bardolph, sold the old seat of the Erpinghams, in St. Martin's at the Palace, to William Calthorp, Esq., and the receivership of the Erpingham manor was vested in Sir Philip Calthorp (d. 1535 – grandson of Sir William) and his wife Joan (née Blennerhasset), in 1487.

Marriage and issue Calthorpe's first wife was Elizabeth (1406–1437 ), daughter of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, by whom Sir William had a son and two daughters.

His second wife was Elizabeth (1440

John Calthorpe, who married Elizabeth Wentworth, the daughter of Roger Wentworth and Margery le Despenser, and had issue. His son Philip Calthorpe (b. 1463/4 ) was his grandfather Sir William Calthorpe's heir when Sir William died in 1494. ) of Pokethorpe near Norwich, ), daughter of John Burney, Esquire, and had by her a daughter and heiress Anne or Amy, who married Robert Jenyson of Barnham Westgate in Norfolk Sir John Fortescue (d. 28 July 1500), Knight, of Ponsbourne in Hertfordshire, Chief Butler of England, was her second husband, Lord Edmund Howard was her last.

Richard Calthorpe, probably died young ), who married Anne Cromer (d. 1557 ), who married firstly Elizabeth Wyndham (d. 23 July 1536 Anne Calthorpe (d. before March 1558), married Sir Robert Drury, knight,