Agnes was born about 1469, the daughter of Thomas Hill and Elizabeth Tylor. The place is not known.
Her husband was Croke, who she married in 1490. The place has not been found. They had no known children.
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Event | Date | Details | Source | Multimedia | Notes |
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Birth | ABT 1469 |
Note 1
!Source: THE RICARDIAN JOURNAL OF THE RICHARD III SOCIETY, ISSN 0048 8267 VOLUME XXXIII, 2023, YORKIST PEOPLE: Essays in Memory of Anne F. Sutton, Published by the Richard III Society, Edited by Caroline M. Barron and Christian Steer, Index by Heather Falvey, Published by the Richard III Society, © 2023 Richard III Society
https://www.academia.edu/106963908/Wardship_Wealth_and_Widows_in_Late_Fifteenth_Century_London?auto=download
Elizabeth Hille and Agnes Forster: the Long Widowhood,…,
137
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alderman’s wife and a lady mayoress, Elizabeth Hille would have been a very attractive
prospect on the London marriage market. Rather, she chose to remain in widowhood
for the sixteen years of life remaining to her and she took it upon herself to manage her
family’s affairs. As well as actively taking the lead in the execution of her husband’s civic
legacy [the establishment of a new conduit in Gracechurch Street and contributions
to the building of kitchens in the new Guildhall], Elizabeth is personally named in
notable transactions involving the moveable wealth and property left to Thomas’s
heirs, suggesting that she was directly involved in the management of the children’s
inheritance until their coming of age.67
Elizabeth and Thomas Hille had eight surviving children. The eldest, William,
was born before 1463 and at least seven others followed: sons Richard, Robert and
Edward, and four daughters; Elizabeth, Alice, Agnes and Joan. At the time of their <<<<
father’s death in 1485, all eight were alive with seven of them under-age.68 By the time
Thomas’s estate was settled in 1488, the children’s portion amounted to a combined
£1,885 12s. 4d. Elizabeth chose to pass the capital worth of the estate through the
civic trust process, but have it loaned back out to her. Like Elizabeth Denys before
her, this meant that it was she who was bound under a legal recognisance and financial
bond to return the sum of £1,885 12s. 4d. to her children upon their coming of age/
marriage with appropriately accrued interest. Her guarantors were family: her brother-
in-law, Ralph Tilney, now an alderman, her husband’s nephew and former apprentice,
John Hille, and her two eldest sons, William and Richard Hille, now both grocers.69
There is nothing in the civic records to suggest that Elizabeth defaulted in any way on
the loan. Two daughters, Alice and Joan, had died while still underage and Elizabeth
oversaw the division of their portions [£300 each] amongst their surviving siblings
as well as paying out due money to the husbands of her two surviving daughters:
Agnes married John Croke, a draper, in 1490 and Elizabeth married Ralph Latham, a <<<<
goldsmith related to the Shaa family, in 1498.70
This personal approach is further reinforced by Elizabeth’s name appearing
specifically in property and land transactions concerning a feckless eldest son for
over a decade. William Hille was his father’s heir and inherited Thomas’s lands in
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67 Cal. Letter Bk, L, p. 280; The Great Chronicle, p. 320. For Elizabeth Hill and the Guildhall
legacy, see C.M. Barron, The Medieval Guildhall of London, London 1974, p. 120.
68 Richard had come of age by 1488 but Robert was only seven when his father died in 1485 and
Edward was younger. Of the girls, Alice and Joan were alive in 1485 but they had died in minority
by 1494 and 1498. Agnes and Elizabeth married, but not until 1490 and 1498 respectively. <<<<
Richard died in 1500 and his will refers to deceased brothers as well as his two sisters: Cal. Letter
Bk, L, p. 249; CIPM Henry VII, ii, p. 299; CCR 1500-09, p. 24.
69 Cal. Letter Bk, L, pp. 234, 237, 249.
70 Cal. Letter Bk, L, p. 249. It has been suggested that Agnes Hille was the widow of a William <<<<
Chester when she married John Croke. It is probable, however, that John had a first wife, also
named Agnes, who was Chester’s widow. Croke claimed Agnes Hille’s patrimony from Elizabeth <<<<
in 1490, upon their marriage. Had she been a widow this would have been claimed by her first
husband. See K. Lacey, ‘Margaret Croke [d.1491]’ in Medieval London Widows, pp. 143–64.
THE RICARDIAN VOLUME XXXIII, 2023