Lot 303 , Two documents relating to a grant of arms to Edward Sebright of Blakeshall in Wolverley, Worcestershire, gentleman, April 1580

Two documents relating to a grant of arms to Edward Sebright of Blakeshall in Wolverley, Worcestershire, gentleman, April 1580 1. Exemplification, by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, of a charter granted by Peter Sebright of Sebrights Hall in Great Baddow, Essex, sealed with a seal of arms, 29 June 1294; 24 April 1580
Recites the delivery by Benjamin Gonston of Sebrights Hall, esquire, at the request of William Sebright, son of Edward Sebright, gentleman, of ‘sundry very notable, old and ancient deeds and charters … two of which are in the old Saxon tongue’ and of five others in the hands of Edward Sebright; Robert Cooke has agreed to exemplify under the seal of his office one of the charters, sealed with a seal of arms, ‘to remain with [William Sebright] and his posterity for ever, for that the same is a manifest proof and trial of the lawful and lineal descent of him the said William and of all others of the surname of the Sebrights of Blakesall to be descended out of the said ancient house of the Sebrights of Sebrights Hall’; Cooke considers himself bound ‘to help to further and advance to the uttermost of my skill and power the true and just proofs of the pedigrees and descents of all noblemen and gentlemen lawfully proving themselves, either by ancient evidences, matters of record or old monuments, to be lineally and truly descended from noble or worshipful parentage, as to deface, frustrate and utterly discredit for ever the vain and untrue suggestions and allegations of such as shall falsely and unjustly affirm or imagine themselves to be come of noble or gentle blood, whereas in truth they are not’.
Settlement, 29 June 1294
Peter Sebright to Ralph Naylinghurst, chaplain, John de Bosco and William Stretche, to hold to the use of Peter’s son Mabel Sebright and his wife Katherine, only daughter and heir of Ralph Cowper of Blakeshall in Wolverley [Worcestershire], and their heirs in tail, reversion to Peter’s right heirs
1 a messuage and land called Brokes Place in the vill of Great Baddow, to hold by a quitrent of 4d for all services except the service due to John de Bosco
2 a piece of his wood within the manor of Kidderminster (Ketherminster) in the fee of John de Bosco, which Manser de Bisset, great-grandfather of Peter’s father Sir Walter Sebright, gave in fee (among other estates) to Peter’s grandfather Stephen, and which Ralph Cowper of Blakeshall hold of Peter for life
Witnesses: Edward de Badewe, his son William de Badewe, Giles son of Peter Sebright; given at Sebrights Hall
Seen, perused and confirmed by William Detheck, Garter Principal King of Arms, 1580; signed and sealed by Robert Cooke, alias Clarencieulx Roy Darmes
Ink on parchment, 48 x 75 cms; elaborate strapwork forming the initials W (for Whereas) and S (for Sciant) with illumination incorporating a human head and a peacock; perfect yellow wax seal in a turned wooden skippet, with the arms of Clarenceux ([Argent], a cross [gules], and on a chief [gules] a lion passant guardant crowned with an open crown [or], augmented by a fleur de lis), flanked by cross-crosslets and surmounted by a cinquefoil (both from the arms of Robert Cooke); * S’ : OFFICII : CLARENCIEVLX : REGIS : ARMORVM : ETC : AVSTRAL’ :

2. Grant of arms by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, to Edward Sebright of Blakeshall in Wolverley, Worcestershire, gentleman; 1 April 1580
Recites: the descent of Edward Sebright of Blakeshall in Wolverley, Worcestershire, from Peter Sebright of Sebrights Hall in Great Baddow, Essex, is proved from charters and other evidence, including ‘five very fair and ancient deeds and charters’ shown to Cooke by Edward’s son William Sebright, esquire, town clerk of London, as follows: 1 a deed of 1294, exemplified as above; 2 a deed granted at Great Baddow, 29 April 1308; 3 a deed granted at Great Baddow, 1 October 1318; 4 a deed granted at Great Baddow, 7 November 1351; 5 counterpart conveyance of the property in the deed of 1294 by Edward Sebright’s grandfather John Sebright of Blakeshall to Robert Arthure of Steeple in Essex, 26 October 1490; that the family remained at Sebrights Hall until 2 December 1525, when on the death of John Sebright the estate descended to his daughter Alice, as is shown by the eschaetor’s inquest on his death; the family bore ‘this most fair and ancient coat [of arms]: the field silver three cinquefoils sable pierced of the field’; from the old records of his office Cooke finds that in the reign of Henry II, William Sebright of Sebrights Hall married Elizabeth, only daughter of Henry de Asshe, knight, who bore arms ‘the field gold a saltire gules, a fess sable’
Cooke confirms these arms, quartered; and since Edward Sebright ‘knoweth not of any crest, cognisance or badge properly belonging to neither of his said several coats (as to the greater part of the most ancientest arms there are none at all, nor any were usually borne in this realm before the wars which happened between England and France in the reign of that victorious prince king Edward the third)’ Cooke augments the arms with a crest ‘upon the helm on a wreath of silver and sable a tiger seant silver crowned and flashed gold mantled gules double silver’
Ink, colour and gilt on parchment, 51 x 70 cms; blue and red ropework to upper and right margins; achievement of arms; initial T of To all and singular in gilt; signed and sealed by Robert Cooke, alias Clarencieulx Roy Darmes; perfect yellow wax seal in a turned wooden skippet, with the arms of Clarenceux ([Argent], a cross [gules], and on a chief [gules] a lion passant guardant crowned with an open crown [or], augmented by a fleur de lis), flanked by cross-crosslets and surmounted by a cinquefoil (both from the arms of Robert Cooke); * S’ : OFFICII : CLARENCIEVLX : REGIS : ARMORVM : ETC : AVSTRAL’ :

For William Sebright (c1620) of Wolverley and the Inner Temple, MP for Droitwich in 1572, who served as Town Clerk of London (having been granted the office in reversion in 1568) 1574-1613, see The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1558-1603, 361-2.
For Benjamin Gonson (c. 1525–1577), naval administrator, see ODNB.
For Robert Cooke (c1535-1593), see ODNB. Cooke was charged with having given arms and crests ‘without number to base and unworthy persons for his private gain only without the knowledge of the E[arle] Marshall’ (Lant's observations, fol. 68v). Cooke himself answered this indirectly in a treatise on granting arms by arguing that decaying nobility possibly envied men of mean birth whose virtue none the less outshone that of the older aristocracy.
For a will of 975 x 1016 including a bequest of land at Baddow, see Sawyer 1487.
For a correspondence concerning these documents between William Holman, historian of Essex, and Sir Thomas Saunders Sebright of Beechwood in Hertfordshire, 21 March and 8 October 1723, see Essex Record Office, D/Y 1/1/172/1-2.
£250-350

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