RICHARD MAKEPEACE (1516)
The Heralds Visitations of Northamptonshire in 1584 and in 1618/9 give pedigrees of five generations from HENRY MAKEPEACE [#4274] of Knole, Master of the Gild there, and his wife JOHANNA [#4273], and with a son RICHARD [#4272] of Chiping Warden (about 7 miles from Burton Dasset). This RICHARD died on 5th December 1584 aged 68. A memorial in the Parish Church says that he was a Yeoman and that he and his wife DOROTHY had three sons and four daughters. The three sons and one daughter are named in his will which was written on 31st October 1584 and proved in London on 10th January following. The sons were named as ABELL, WILLIAM, and HENRY, and the daughter, as yet unmarried, was DOROTHY. Another daughter is known to have been ANNE who married AMBROSE WILLIS, of Fenny Compton. AMBROSE mentions his brother-in-law WILLIAM MAKEPEACE in his will, proved 21st November 1590. He leaves his lands in England to his son RICHARD and he also mentions his Godson AMBROSE MAKEPEACE.
On 27th March 1596 a Deed was signed by Abell Makepeace, Gentleman, of Chipinge Warden. This Abell drew up his own Will on 16th June 1601 and this was proved in London on 28th September 1602. In this will he refers to himself as Yeoman. He leaves money to the Church of Chippingwarden and requests to be buried in that Church. The Executrix of his will is his widow MARY. It is known from the Visitations of Northamptonshire that this MARY was the daughter of LAWRENCE WASHINGTON of Sulgrave. ABELL mentions his son LAWRENCE, still under 21 years of age, and he requests that LAWRENCE be sent to the Inns of Court in London, there to live as a modest student. He names his married daughters as LUCY, JANE and AMY, and his unmarried daughters as DOROTHY (under 21) and BRIDGET (under 18). He also names his Godson ABELL MAKEPEACE and RICHARD, the son of THOMAS MAKEPEACE – no exact relationship being given. The Visitation records tell us that ABELL had an earlier wife, KATHERINE WESTCOTE, from Bedfordshire, and by her he had LUCY and JANE mentioned above. LUCY married BASIL TRIMNELL of Stoke, Co. Leicester; and JANE married RICHARD BUTLER of Coventry. By his second wife (MARY WASHI8NGTON he had LAWRENCE who married ELIZABETH, daughter of JOHN CROKER of Hooknorten, Co. Oxford, and they had a daughter, born about 1616, named FRANCES; AMY married EDWARD EDEN of Banbury - from the Visitation of Oxfordshire he was said to be the Town Clerk of Banbury in 1634. DOROTHY married JAMES POULTNEY of London and BRIDGET married FABIAN COLE of Sulgrave - he died before 1653 leaving a will dated in 1650. BRIDGET died in 1653, aged 77, when she was of Great Kington now known as Kineton.
ABELL’s widow, MARY [WASHINGTON] lived at least another 20 years for her will is dated 31 July 1621 when she was living at Sulgrave in Northamptonshire. From this will we know that she expressed a wish to be buried at Sulgrave, in the Church or in the Churchyard. This will names all ABELL's children and their spouses names.
LAWRENCE MAKEPEACE, ABELL's son, matriculated aged 15 on 3 April 1601, at Brasenese College, Oxford. He received his degree on 5 July 1603. His father's wish was carried out and he went to London where, in 1612, he became a Member of the Inner Temple. Within a short time LAWRENCE was using a Coat of Arms and he appeared before Rouge Rose Pursuivant of Arms asking for the Arms to be confirmed to him. This confirmation was refused as the Arms were those of other well known families.
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