William Fortescue

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹⁶⁰
William Fortescue, lord of Whympston, co. Devon, son of William Fortescue, lord of Whympston and his wife Alice Strechlegh, daughter of Walter de Strechlegh, married Eliazabeth Beauchamp, daughter and eventual heir of Sir John Beauchamp, knight. In 1401, William and Elizabeth sued her sister Joan's husband, Sir Robert Challons, re. tenements in Oulescombe and Buckerell, co. Devon, which had been possessed by Elizabeth's brother Sir Thomas Beauchamp. In 1419, license for an oratory was granted by Bishop Stafford to William Fortescue, senior, and Elizabeth his wife, and also to William Fortescue, junior, and Mabilla, his wife, for the mansion of the said William (senior) at Whympstone.

~Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 246E:33

• Background Information. ¹⁴⁵⁹
Three Adam Fortescues follow Richard, son of Sir John Fortescue. The third Adam married Anna, daughter of "William de la Port, of Old Port," and they had sons, Richard, Nicholas and their heir William Fortescue, of Wimpston, who paid his "knith's fee in 1345, at the ceremony of the knighthood of the 'Black Prince." Wimpston was being held by him as "of the honor of Tremation" in Cornwal, which had also belonged to Robert, Earl of Corwall and Mortain, and was one of the two castles and the head of his honour in that county. This William Fortescue married Alice, daughter of Walter Strechleigh, of Strechleigh, in the parish of Erminton and thus obtained lands in Tamerton. In 1360, by grant of William's kinsman, Richard Malduit, aliam Somaster, whose mother had been a co-heir of de la Port, he had a further extension of property in the form of tenements at Old Port, in Modbury, and Painston.

~Devonshire Wills, pp. 456-460

• Background Information. ¹⁴⁶²
William Fortescue, senior, had a grant with Sir Philip and Sir Peter Courtenany, Knts., from Richard Mauldit, called Somaister, of lands in Smytheston, Wimpell, and Thurverton. By his wife Alice, he had issue of William, son and heir, who married Elizabeth, sister and coheir to Thomas Beauchmp, of Ryme in the county of Dorset, widow of Richard, son of Adam Branscomb, of whom Richard and Elizabeth had no issue. There was an assignment of dover made in 18 Richard II, made at Over-Aller, the Tuesday next after the feast of St. Martin, to William, styling himself junior, and Elizabeth his wife, of all land which were the Richard Branscomb's, his wife's late husband. William, junior, and his wife Elizabeth had at least two sons, William, his successor at Winston, from whom descended the Fortescues of Winstone, Pristone, Spireliston, Falapit and Hext were descended; and John who became Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief-Justice of England.

Collin's Peerage of England, Vol. II, 391-395

William married Elizabeth Beauchamp, daughter of Sir John Beauchamp Knight and Margaret Whalesburgh, By 1394 ^160,1459.^,1462 (Elizabeth Beauchamp was born before 1349 and died after 1410 in Wimpston, Modbury, Devonshire, England.)