• Re: Royal descent of Samuel Levis

    From Leslie Mahler@21:1/5 to Leslie Mahler on Tue Jun 14 23:10:28 2022
    On Thursday, December 11, 1997 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Leslie Mahler wrote:
    I was a bit hesitant about posting this at first, but I will be
    publishing it eventually anyway, so I may as well just give it out.
    1.Samuel Levis b 20 july 1649 at Harby, Leicestershire
    mar 4 may 1680 to Elizabeth Claytor - both items from the Quaker
    registers
    2. Mary Need b 18 apr 1625 at Arnold, Nottinghamshire
    died 16 may 1664 at Harby, Leicester (from Quaker registers)
    mar 22 july 1648 at St Peters Nottingham
    to Christopher Levis
    the will of Christopher Levis (1677, Archdeaconry of Leicester) had as executors his son Samuel
    and also Nathaniel Need, brother of the above named Mary.
    The Levis family were in Nottinghamshire as early as 1510, so they were certainly not Huguenots
    as some have stated.
    3. Humphrey Need
    bapt 15 aug 1590, died 8 nov 1668 both at Arnold, Nottingham
    He was buried at the Quakers burial ground in Arnold, but he did not
    leave a will
    wife Dorothy
    4. Mary Melford
    buried at Arnold 27 june 1631
    married 15 may 1586 at Arnold to Humphrey Need who was buried 8 sep 1591
    5. Thomas Melford, gent
    buried 9 apr 1602
    his children were probably all by Dionise, who was also likely from a
    gentry background
    his will mentions "Humfrye Neyd" as one of his grandchildren
    6. Anne de Clifford married circa 1520
    to Ralph Melford, esquire
    buried 22 apr 1546
    Ralphs will mentions his children George who inherited Ralphs lands in
    South Tawton, Devonshire,
    Thomas, who inherited the lands in Arnold, Mary Mering, Winifred and
    Anthony. Ralph mentions his
    wife soul, implying that he was only married once.The supervisor of the
    will was Sir Gervase
    Clifton, knight.
    The breakthrough came a few weeks ago when I received the will of
    Gervase Clifton from 1587.
    Gervase's will mentions his brother Thomas Melford, and George Melford.
    He also mentions his
    nephews John and Gervase Wastneys, who according to the visitation of Nottingham were the
    children of George Wastneys and Mary Melford. That would have been the
    second marriage of
    Ralphs daughter.
    Sir Gervase Clifton was one year old when his father Robert Clifton died
    in 1517, according to
    Robert's inquistion post mortem.
    The 1569 visitation of Nottingham shows that Gervase's mother was Anne, daughter of Henry Lord
    Clifford.
    According to an article from the Baronage of England, concerning the
    Clifton family, Anne, (they call
    her Agnes) the widow of Robert Clifton, was next married to "Robert"
    Melford.
    I have checked the visitation against the wills published by the Surtees Society, and also against the
    Inquistions Post Mortem, and I find no contradictions.
    7. Henry Clifford, Sherriff of Westmoreland, Lord Clifford
    died 23 apr 1523 married to Anne Saint John
    he was a wealthy man ( of course) but I have found no will for him at
    York, nor in the Publications of
    the Surtees Society.
    A pedigree of the Clifford family shows that Henrys daughter Anne
    married Sir Christopher Metcalf of
    Gisburne, Yorkshire. According to Sir Gervase Clifton's will, he had a
    nephew Metcalf, so it seems
    that Anne was married three times. I have ordered a book about the
    Metcalf family, which I should
    have in a week.
    The rest of the pedigree can be found in The Complete Peerage or in The Dictionary of National
    Biography.
    8.John Clifford
    9. Thomas Clifford
    10. Elizabeth Percy
    11. Elizabeth Mortimer
    12. Philippa Plantagenet
    13. Lionel of Antwerp
    14. Edward III
    I am continuing to work on other Quaker ancestral lines in England
    (Gilpin, Scaife,Pearce, Gayner
    amongst others), some of which go back to circa 1530, but this is the
    first which has a solid gentry
    connection.
    I have a couple of gentry ancestors in France, Sweden and Belgium, but
    the records are not as
    easily available, and those countries generally dont have reference
    works equal to The Complete
    Peerage, at least as far as I know.
    Mr Leslie Mahler


    The family connection between Christopher Levis of Harby and
    the Need family of Arnold, Nottinghamshire was mentioned in Notes and Queries, Feb. 1896:

    https://archive.org/details/sim_notes-and-queries_1896-02-15_9_216/page/128/mode/2up

    Also, the marriage of Anne Clifford, widow of Robert Clifton, to a Melford
    was mentioned in the 1600s by Gervase Holles (this reference was noticed by researcher John Dobson over 15 years ago):

    https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.231344/page/n189/mode/2up

    Leslie

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)