John Fitz Simon

   Another name for John is John Fitz Simond.⁶⁷⁸

  Noted events in his life were:

• From Gen-Medieval Archives: From Sharpe Ancestry of Bulkeleys. ¹⁹³
From: Don Stone <DonStoneATplantagenet.com>
Subject: Sharpe ancestry of Bulkeleys
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 21:54:55 -0400

Here is some information on the ancestry of Rev. Peter Bulkeley of Concord, Massachusetts, and his sisters. Prof. David H. Kelley has done some work on this line (as has John G. Hunt), but Prof. Kelley is now interested in turning this over to others for further investigation. I am posting the information here in the newsgroup with the expectation that if anyone finds additional details (either confirming or disconfirming), they will share their find with the group.

The line concerns Christopher Sharpe, from whom the Bulkeleys descend as follows:

Christopher Sharpe
Robert Browne the elder Chancellor of the Exchequer, , = Isabel Sharpe, sister & heir of Sir John Sharpe of Brockdish, Norfolk; he d. 1507-8,
Sir John Browne, Lord Mayor of London, 1480
Guthlac Overton, gent., = Olive Browne d. 1536
John Irby, gent., = Rose Overton, d. 1579 d. 1553
Rev. Edward Bulkeley = Olive Irby

Main source: The Blackmans of Knight's Creek, comp. by Henry James Young, rev. edition, 1980. For Sharpe, Young cites G. F. Beaumont's A History of Coggeshall in Essex (1890), p. 128, and he gives the Sharpe arms as Argent, 3 eagle's heads erased Sable, a bordure engrailed Azure bezantee.

There are a number of Sharp(e) wills, in the generations of Christopher Sharpe, above, and his children. One from 1488 is for Christopher's brother, Robard Sharp, White fryres, Norwich, and Wikford, Essex, Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC), 17 and 22 Milles. The 1509 will of Edward Sharp, Coggeshale, Essex, regd. twice, PCC, 26 Bennett, is another; this Edward is the son of Christopher and the brother of Isabel. And, of course, the 1518 will of Edward and Isabel's brother Sir John Sharpe, mentioned above, is another.

The 1488 will of Christopher's brother Robert Sharp names (among others) his cousin Thomas Cotton, son of Robert Cotton. The latter Robert Cotton appears in the Visitations of Cambridgeshire, 1575/1619 (Harleian Soc. Pub. (HSP), vol. 41), pp. 21-22, and further information is in the Vis. of Essex, 1558 (HSP, vol. 13), pp. 100-101. Here is some of his ancestry, as given in these sources:

John Fitz-Simond = Maude, dau. & heir of Rauffe Baghott
| Thomas Staunton of Essex = Katherin, dau. & heir of John Fitz-Simond
| John Sharpe of Mauldon, Essex = Jane, dau. & coheir of Thomas Staunton
| Nicholas Sharpe = Agnes Tirrell
|Thomas Cotton, = Joane, dau. & heir of Nic. Sharpe, 2nd wife d. 1499
| Sir Robert Cotton, d. 1519.

This Sir Robert Cotton (father of the Thomas mentioned earlier) quartered the arms of Sharpe, Stanton, Fitz Simon and Bagot, which certainly lends some credence to the ancestry given for him in the visitations. The Sharpe component of the arms is Argent, three falcon's heads erased sable, two and one, within a bordure engrailed sable (or minor variations on this). Compare this with the arms given above for Christopher Sharpe.

Thus, it looks quite probable that the brothers Robert and Christopher Sharpe are of the family of Sharpe of Maldon, Essex; they might, for example, be grandsons of John Sharpe and Jane Staunton. A Thomas Sharp (perhaps son of John and Jane and brother of Nicholas, above) who had held Little Wigboro, Essex, gave it in 1452(?? -- I am inferring this from a note) to Nicholas Sharp with remainder to Thomas Sharp, Christopher Sharp, Robert Sharp and Stephen Sharp (these four perhaps being siblings, with Christopher being the father of Isabel, Robert being the brother whose will is dated 1488, and Stephen probably being the Stephen Sharpe who received a B.A. from Oxford by 1461, then an M.A., and was rector of West Hanningfield, Essex).

The 1558 Visitation of Essex gives the above John Fitz-Simond as a descendant of Sir John Fitz-Simond and his wife Alice, dau. of Lord Fitzwalters. (However, the number of generations given between these two Johns seems to be too great.) This Sir John Fitzsymond, b. ca. 1342, d. ca. 1392, of North Shoebury, Essex, is covered in the new History of Parliament, specifically, The House of Commons, 1386-1421, by J. S. Roskell, Linda Clark and Carole Rawcliffe, vol. 3, 1992, pp. 83-4. In footnote 1 on p. 84, Roskell et al. say "No evidence has been found to support Morant's statement (Essex, i. 302-3) that Fitzsymond married a da. of Lord Fitzwalter," but the source used by Morant is clearly the 1558 visitation, which constitutes evidence of a sort, though corroborating evidence would be desirable.

The Lord FitzWalter could possibly be Walter, 3rd Lord FitzWalter, b. 1345, who m. 1362 Alianor de Dagworth, a great-granddaughter of King Edward I. (See Fitz Walter 11 in Faris's Plantagenet Ancestry.) But, chronologically, a more likely candidate is Walter's father, John FitzWalter, 2nd Lord FitzWalter, b. 1315 or earlier, of Magna Charta Surety descent (according to Faris's Plantagenet Ancestry) and possibly a descendant of William Longespee, natural son of King Henry II (though, according to Ancestral Roots, line 30, this is problematical).

-- Don Stone

• Background Information. ⁶⁷⁸
In the Visitation of Essex, 1558, pp. 100-101, John Fitz Simond is given as the husband of Maude, heire to Rauffe Baghott, and they are the parents of Katherine, wife of Thomas Staunton of Essex. John Fitz Simons's pedigree is given as:

Sir John Fitz-Simons, Kinight
|
Sir Adam Fitz Simons, Knight, married to Joanne, daughter of Sir Henery Crapville(?)
|
Sir Edward Fitz Simons Knight, married to Anne de Havering
|
Sir John Fitz Simons, Knight, married to Alice daughter of Lord Fitz Walters
|
Phillip Fitz Simons
|
Sir John Fitz Simons, Knight, married to Mary Chambers, eldest daughter to Alex Adderburye
|
John Fitz Simons, married to Maude, daughter and heire to Rauffe Baghott.

• Background Information. ¹⁴⁷⁴
The Fitz Simon (Fitz Simond) family had been possessed of estates in the Rochford Parish as early as 1294. Sir John Fitz Simons had four sons, Adam, Hugh, Edward and Richard. Adam Fitz-Simon, at the time of his decease in 1328, held in Little Schobery, 1 messuage, 243 acres of land, and 40s. rent of assize of the King as the honor of Reylie, and suit a the hundred of Rochford and Court of Reyle. He had several lesser parcels near. Edmund, his so, who married Anne Havering, held in 1362, the third part of this manor, and Barflete and Shelward Harshes of the honor aforesaid, leaving John, his son, who married Alice, daughter of Lord Fitz Walter and had by her Philip, father of John, that had by Mary Chambers, his wife, two sons, Robert and John.

~The History of Rochford Hundred, p. 908

John married Maud Bagot, daughter of Sir Ralph Bagot Knight and Elizabeth de Blithfield.⁹²⁰