Raynold Tilney

Personal and Family Information

Raynold was born about 1445, the son of unknown parents. The place is not known.

His wife was Joan Tylor. They were married, but the date and place have not been found. They had no known children.

Events

Attributes

Notes

Note 1

!Source: Dame Elisabeth Hylle, in the England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5111/records/887246?tid=&pid=&queryId=8cca907b-412f-46e9-a979-161f7c7b3fb7&_phsrc=Xle409&_phstart=successSource

Name Dame Elisabeth Hylle

Residence London

Probate Date 2 Jul 1501

Death Year Abt 1501

Image: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5111/records/887246?tid=&pid=&queryId=8cca907b-412f-46e9-a979-161f7c7b3fb7&_phsrc=Xle409&_phstart=successSource

-

…, Item to my sister Tilney in money VI£ XIYs iiyd, my

violet gown lined with sarrynet js & litle cramp synge of gold upon my fyngar.

Item to my [coz?] shaa, my flat hoope of gold that I weare. Item I geve & bequeath to

my sist-h[usb]and to pay - Raynold Tilney XXs & towell & a pece of brabant cloth.

-

Notes:

…,

7. Sarrynet” - also spelled sarsenet, sarcenet, sarcenette - is a fine, soft silk fabric, lightweight and tightly woven, often with a subtle sheen.

It was used for linings, veils, and delicate garments — essentially a luxury inner fabric.

8. brabant cloth - In the 1500s, Brabant cloth was a significant export from the Duchy of Brabant, a territory in the modern-day Low Countries

[Belgium and the Netherlands. It primarily referred to a high-quality linen known for its durability and was sold in various qualities and weights,

from "light Brabant cloth" to more expensive fabrics.

- People Mentioned:

,…

10. sister, Tilney, married name

11. [cozen?, Ed?] Shaa

11. brother-in-law, Raynold Tilney

!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

Elizabeth and Agnes chose widowhood over remarriage. Both were married only

once, both reached the heights of lady mayoress and both lived many years after their

husband’s death, but the way in which they chose to manage widowhood and their

children’s inheritance is notably different.

Elizabeth Hille provides a good example of a widow who used legal systems and

civic procedure to protect, and influence the direction of, a substantial patrimony in

the face of changing circumstances over sixteen years of wardship. She was widowed

during the sweating sickness outbreak; her husband, Sir Thomas, was in office as

mayor of London when he died suddenly on 23 September 1485.60 Elizabeth, as the

incumbent mayor’s wife with eight children [six in minority], a substantial household

[befitting her husband’s civic position], the disruption of an abrupt termination to her

position as lady mayoress and her husband’s business, estates and considerable wealth to

manage, must have had quite a crisis to deal with in the aftermath of his sudden death.

57 Cal. Letter Bk, L, p. 267.

58 Sutton, ‘Agnes Don-Breton’, p. 191.

59 See especially the controlment roll for January to August 1490: TNA, E122/78/8 and The

London Customs Accounts. Part IV: The Tudor Dynasty [1485-1553]. Number 1. 3 Henry VII

[1487/88] – 5 Henry VII [1489/90], ed. S. Jenks, Lübeck 2016, pp. 171–208.

60 PCC Logge, ii, no. 225. Hille died on 23 September 1485. Sir William Stokker [brother of

John Stokker, third husband of Elizabeth Nayler, who died days before Hille] took his place as

mayor but he also died of the sweat just two days later: The Great Chronicle of London, pp. 239,

438 [at note],

THE RICARDIAN VOLUME XXXIII, 2023

136

Elizabeth’s widowhood is more traceable than that of many of her contemporaries.

Thomas Hille gained the freedom of the city as a grocer in 1448. Elizabeth was the

daughter of Thomas Garnon of Gloucestershire but had good mercantile connections <<< This is at odds with Sir Thomas Hill’s will naming her Tylor and thus most likely false.

in the city which would have been useful to Thomas, himself a first-generation

Londoner.61 She was a cousin of the established and wealthy London goldsmith, Sir

Edmund Shaa.62 Her sister, Joan, married Ralph Tilney of Hertfordshire who had <<<<

come to London as apprentice to Thomas Hille and who gained the freedom of the

city in 1464.63 Elizabeth’s family certainly seemed to be useful to Thomas Hille. Tilney <<<<

and Shaa often appear in property transactions alongside him, and Shaa was entrusted

by Thomas to oversee the execution of his will. Neither Elizabeth nor Thomas

had been married before and the nature of the surviving documentation suggests a

successful marriage, underpinned by a solid working partnership in life and a strong

bond of trust in death. Thomas evidently understood and valued his wife’s capability

and trusted her competence: he made her the principal executrix and administrator

of his substantial moveable estate, and his property.64 But Elizabeth must have had a

good working knowledge of her husband’s affairs during his life. Although his death

was a sudden one, Thomas had organised his financial affairs to the extent that he had

made a record of personal debts owed, listed and prioritised in his own hand. Within

three weeks of his death, Elizabeth is recorded as having acted on this: on 18 October

a William Langford acknowledged receipt of £50 from Elizabeth in final payment

of £266 13s. 4d. for properties Thomas had purchased in St Pancras in 1484.65 The

efficiency of this transaction, despite the upheaval she must have been facing, set the

tone for her widowhood and the wardship of her children’s inheritance.

Thomas’s trust in Elizabeth extended to the fact that he laid no requirement on her

to use the civic fiduciary process for his children’s moveable patrimony, nor made any

caveat around her potential remarriage.66 With a moveable dower and guardianship

of an orphans’ portion worth a combined £3,700, as well as her civic experience as an

61 He was from Kent: Thrupp, Merchant Class, p. 350.

62 Edmund Shaa named Elizabethe Hille as his cousin in his will of 1488: TNA, PROB 11/8/187.

63 Thrupp, Merchant Class, p. 370. In her will of 1501, Elizabeth appointed ‘her brother, Ralph

Tylney’ as her overseer. He was in fact her brother-in-law: TNA, PROB 11/12/397; CCR 1500-09,

p. 25 and CPR 1485-94, p. 221.

64 The document enrolled in the Logge register for Thomas Hille is a testament only, dealing

with the disposal of his moveable goods. His will, devising property and landed estates in

Cambridgeshire and Essex, does not survive, but is referred to in property deeds in London.

Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St

Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane, eds D. Keene and

V. Harding, London, 1987, pp. 294–8.

65 CCR 1485-1500, p. 13; Keene and Harding, Gazetteer, pp. 782–90.

66 Thomas’s testament is relatively sparse in detail concerning his family. He portions his

moveable estate into thirds but does not mention any of his children by name, nor leave any

material bequests to them. He was seemingly content to leave all such personal division of goods,….

to Elizabeth: PCC Logge ii, no. 225.

Wardship, Wealth and Widows in Late Fifteenth Century London