Notes |
- Research by Hikaru Kitabayashi, as of 2007
William II was born in 1346 or thereabouts. This can be fixed fairly accurately as he appeared as a witness in the Scrope/Grosvenor trial in the mid-1380s. The statement he made is lost, but a record of his name and age remains. In the 1370s, he married a rich Staffordshire heiress, Agnes de Ridware, thus bring quite substantial properties (Hampstall-Ridware in Staffordshire, and Boyleston is Derbyshire) into Cotton hands, properties that allowed his and her descendants to play leading roles in Staffordshire for three generations. He probably died in the 1390s. Before he died, though, he made the necessary legal arrangements so that his own properties (as opposed to those he held by right of his wife) were safely disposed for the benefit of his heirs. His wife lived until 1435, dying a very old woman for her times, being over 75 and probably close to 80 when she passed away. Agnes and her husband had only one child, John, who may be identified from contemporary records. Genealogies appearing 200 years later, however, sometimes give them a daughter, too, which may or may not be right.
William's brother Robert married a less wealthy heiress who brought him the manor of Cotton-under-Needwood less than 10 miles from his brother's wife's estates. Robert's descendants daughtered out in the third generation so his line will not be dealt with further, but many quite interesting and well-known people number among his descendants, including the author of "The Anatomy of Melancholy", the first attempt by just about anyone in any language to seriously and thoroughly describe the insidious disease of depression which so many people silently and heroically suffer from.
|