Talk:George Rolle

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Billericay (talk) 15:38, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Which Coffyn

The quoted text does not refer to the widow of Sir Richard Coffyn. It explicitly states that Lady Coffyn's husband "is dead without issue of his body" (i.e. no children, no grandchildren, etc.). Sir Richard had three children living at the time of his death, and about a dozen grandchildren living at the time of this letter, so the man who died childless cannot be Sir Richard. Had it been Sir Richard who received the grant, to pass "to his heirs of her body begotten", Sir William never would have held it, as the letter clearly indicates he did, because Sir William was neither Sir Richard's heir (his elder brother John was) nor was he of her body begotten (Sir Richard's widow being his second wife and not the mother of his children). Likewise, "My Lady Coffyn is in Leicestershire". Sir Richard Coffyn never had property outside of the immediate area, and nothing to take his widow to Leicestershire (she returned to the home of her first husband's family at Weare Gifford following Richard's death). Sir William, on the other hand, had died in 1538 and the settlement of his estate was still a fresh issue when this letter was written early the next year (Richard had died 15 years before). Sir William died childless, 'without issue of his body', and his widow, Lady Coffyn, had just remarried at the time of this letter to Richard Manners of Garendon, Leicestershire. The reason for the dispute is that the land was granted to Sir William, with remainder to John Bassett were Sir William to die without children. William did die without children, but before he died he enfeoffed the land to his nephew (the younger Richard) and thereby deprived Bassett of control of the land that should have reverted to him. I maintain, though, that it is unnecessary to clarify to whom this phrase in the letter refers, even if it is unclear, because this article is about neither the contents of the letter nor the topic of the letter - it is just an example of a letter Rolle wrote, and leaving out the identification means we don't have to agree on whom it is referencing. 134.121.126.31 (talk) 04:40, 7 April 2016 (UTC)