Seventeenth Generation

69. Sir Adrian FORTESCUE²⁷ was born about 1476 in Punsbourne, Herts. He died on 10 July 1539.¹⁵ Beheaded Adrian was the second son of Sir John Fortescue. He married Anne Stonor, daughter of Sir William Stonor of Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames. Anne sister, and afterwards heir to John Stonor, who had married Adrian's sister Mary. Her mother was Lady Anne Neville, eldest daughter of John, Marquis of Montagu, brother of Richard, Earl of Warwick, the "King-maker".

In 1503 Prince Henry became Prince of Wales and Sir Adrian was made Knight of the Bath. In 1504 and 1505 he was fined, together with his brother John, for forming a riot. In 1509 & 10 he purchased an estate in Hampshire. In 1511 he was put into the commission of the peace of Oxford. He probably resided mainly at Stonor.

At the end of June 1513 Sir Adrian and his brother John joined King Henry VIII and went to Calais. Terouenne and Tournay fell in battle and by the end of October Henry was back in England.

In July 1517 Sir Adrian and Sir John were in the king's retinue at the royal banquet at Greenwich; Sir Adrian was a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber.

On 14 June 1518 his wife Anne died and was buried at Pyrton Church at Shirburn or Shirborne or Shirborne where afterwards Sir Adrian lived, but on 31st March 1525 she was moved to the church at the Priory of Bysham, Berkshire, to be buried among her ancestors. In 1538 the Priory was raised by Henry VIII. Sir Adrian removed Anne's remains to the neighbourhood of Stonor - to Brightwell-Baldwin Church, 2 to 3 miles from Stonor.

Sir Adrian's claim to the estates of Anne, including Stonor was presumably disputed by Anne's uncle Thomas Stonor, and a bitter and violent dispute lasted for 16 years.

In 1520 Sir Adrian was appointed by Henry to accompany him and the queen to meet Francis I at Calais Marches, at Guisner. Colleagues on the journey were Sir Walter Stonor, and Sir William Rede, his future father-in-law.

The alliance between Henry VIII and Francis I was short-lived and in 1522 England and France were at war again. In July Sir Adrian accompanied the Earl of Surrey to Picardy as a prime officer. There was no battle, but they took many towns and returned to England in October.

In 1528 the king called on Sir Adrian for support.

In about 1530 Sir Adrian married his second wife, Anne Rede, who was about 20 years old, the daughter of Sir William of Rede of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire.

In 1532 Sir Adrian was attached to Reine when Henry VIII separated, and in 1532 he was admitted as a knight to St. John of Jerusalem. This Order was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1534/5, and he journeyed to London and took his cousin Lewis Fortescue of Spridlestone (who became a Judge as Baron of the Exchequer in 1542) back home to Shirburn or Shirborne or Shirborne.

On 29th August, 26th Henry VIII he was summoned to the king and was imprisoned for failing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church.

In 1536 the king adjudicated that Stonor goes to heirs male, and Sir Adrian removed his possessions therefrom.

An Act of Parliament confirmed that Sir Adrian would keep one share of Stonor estates for his lifetime, and Sir Walter Stonor the other. Sir Adrian's part passed to his daughter by his first wife, namely Lady Margaret Wentworth, and Frances Fitzgerald, the wife of the Earl of Kildare. (The Earl of Kildare was at that time imprisoned as a rebel and a traitor. He, with 5 uncles, was executed at Tyburn, on 8th February 1537, aged 24.)

In 1539 Sir Adrian was arrested for endeavouring to raise a rebellion, and he was beheaded on 10th July. There was a portrait of him in St John's Church at Valetta, Malta.

Lady Anne Fortescue was remembered by Queen Mary, who took her into her favour in 1553, after her father's heresy. She attended the queen on 30th September, and was granted several manors in Gloucestershire, namely Pannington, Gotherington, Tredington, and Washbourne near Tewkesbury, and the Manor of Hamstead near Chipping-Sodbury. Gotherington and Washbourne were sold by her grandson Sir Francis Fortescue in 1620.

Lady Anne married again - Thomas Ap-Harry or Parry, who died in 1575. She died on 5th January 1585, aged 75, and was buried at Welford, near Newbury, Berkshire. An alabaster monument was erected there by her son Thomas.

Sir Adrian FORTESCUE and Anne STONOR of Stonor Park were married about 1502. Anne STONOR of Stonor Park²⁷ died in 1518. From Camden's Britannia Page 266 Oxfordshire.

Footnote(23) - here is Brixbond and Stonor ancient possessions of the families of Stonor's, who since the time of King Edward 3 when Sir John Stonor was Chief Justice in the common pleas, flourished with great alliance and revenues, until they were transferred by an heir
general to Sir Adrian Fortescue unhappily attainted, whose daughter, heir to her mother, was married to the first Baron Wentworth (The Wentworths came from Nettlested in Suffolk and the first Baron was created by Henry the Eighth - page 371)

Sir Adrian FORTESCUE and Anne STONOR of Stonor Park had the following children:

+122	i.	Margaret FORTESCUE of Salden.
+123	ii.	Frances FORTESCUE of Salden.

Sir Adrian FORTESCUE and Anne REDE were married about 1530. Anne REDE²⁸ was born about 1510. She was buried in January 1585 in Welford, near Newbury, Berks.²⁸ Her Son Thomas erected erected an alabaster monument to her She died on 5 January 1585. Lady Anne Fortescue was remembered by Queen Mary, who took her into her favour in 1553, after her father's heresy. She attended the queen on 30th September, and was granted several manors in Gloucestershire, namely Pannington, Gotherington, Tredington, and Washbourne near Tewkesbury, and the Manor of Hamstead near Chipping-Sodbury. Gotherington and Washbourne were sold by her grandson Sir Francis Fortescue in 1620.

Anne Rede was the daughter of Sir William Rede, Read, or Reade of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire (1470-1527) and Anne Warham. She married three times. Her first husband was Sir Giles Greville or Grevill of Wick, Worcestershire (d. April 1528), controller of the household to Princess Mary. In about 1530, she married Sir Adrian Fortescue (c.1481-x. July 9,1539), who was engaged in a long-running dispute over land with the family of his first wife, Anne Stonor (c.1484-June 14, 1518). On one occasion, according to later testimony before the Star Chamber, a party led by Sir Walter Stonor attacked Stonor Manor and dragged Anne Rede, who was pregnant, out of her chamber. Anne and Fortescue also contested the inheritance of one of Sir Giles Greville's manors by his daughter by an earlier marriage and her second husband. Fortescue, in 1532, joined the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, an order that was abolished by Parliament in 1534/5. In August 1534, for refusing to take the Oath of Succession, he was imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The family was based at Brightwell in Oxfordshire when, in February 1539, for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, Sir Adrian was arrested again and this time charged with "sedition and refusing allegiance" and beheaded. He was beatified in 1895. By Fortescue, Anne was the mother of Sir John (1533-December 23, 1607), Thomas (May 13, 1534-1611), Sir Anthony (c.1535-c.1611), Elizabeth (d.1602), and Mary. Her third husband, married in about 1540, was Sir Thomas Parry (c.1505-December 15, 1560), who entered the service of Princess Elizabeth by 1548, when he was her cofferer. He was arrested in 1549 because of his knowledge of the activities of Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour but later released. Their children were Thomas (1544-1616), Edward (b.c.1540), Anne, Frances, and Muriel (d.1616). The Parry seat was at Wallingford, Berkshire, but Anne was in the household of Elizabeth Tudor both before and after she became queen. On September 30, 1553, she was in attendance on Queen Mary. Mary granted her Pannington, Gotherington, Tredington, Washbourne, and Hamstead in Gloucestershire. Anne Parry was a lady of the privy chamber to Queen Elizabeth when she retired from the court in 1566. She received an annuity and more land in Gloucestershire. Portrait: alabaster effigy on her tomb in Wilford, Berkshire, erected by her son Thomas.

She died on 5th January 1585, aged 75, and was buried at Welford, near Newbury,

Sir Adrian FORTESCUE and Anne REDE had the following children:

+124	i.	Rt Hon Sir John FORTESCUE of Salden.
125	ii.	Thomas FORTESCUE of Donnington28 was born on 13 May 1534 in Shirbourne, Warwickshire. He died in 1611. Thomas Fortescue was born on 13th May 1534 at Shirborne, Oxfordshire. He died unmarried on the eve of Easter in 1611. MP for Wallingford No issue
+126	iii.	Sir Anthony FORTESCUE of Salden.
+127	iv.	Elizabeth FORTESCUE of Salden.
+128	v.	Mary FORTESCUE of Salden.