William Moleyns

Sir William Moleyns (7 January 1378 – 8 June 1425) was an English landowner, administrator and politician from Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire.

Origins Born in London, he was the son and heir of Sir Richard Moleyns (died 1384), of Stoke Poges. Books in the nineteenth century and self-published websites today claim that he and his paternal ancestors were barons, which is untrue as none were summoned to Parliament. Eleanor's brother is John Beaumont, 4th Baron Beaumont

Career His father died when he was only four years old and he did not inherit his father's lands until he reached majority in 1399. Shortly after, he also inherited the lands of his grandfather, the MP Sir William Moleyns (died 1381), which had been held for life by his widow Margery (died 1399), daughter of Sir Edmund Bacon. This made him the owner of ten manors in Buckinghamshire, six in Wiltshire and three in Oxfordshire, with a substantial income. and was buried in the church of St Giles at Stoke Poges. while those over the knight are blazoned: Or, three piles wavy Gules (Ancient Molyns).

Marriage and family By 29 September 1401 he was married to a woman from Cornwall called Margery, who died on 26 March 1439. Their children were: Catherine (died 1465), who married John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk. She died before 1 May 1423 when, at Ewelme, he married Anne (died 1468), possibly his first cousin, the daughter of the MP Sir John III Whalesborough (died 1418), of Whalesborough in Marhamchurch, and his wife Joan, daughter of the MP Sir John Raleigh (died 1372), of Nettlecombe, and half-sister of Maud Burghersh, wife of the poet's son and MP Thomas Chaucer. William died at the Siege of Orléans on 8 May 1429, Her daughters were: Eleanor (1426–1476), the heiress, who married Robert Hungerford, 3rd Baron Hungerford, created Baron Moleyns in 1445. One of her godmothers was Thomas Chaucer's daughter Alice. Frideswide.