Bio/HistorySir Thomas de Cloptone, Knight, of Kentwell Estate

Sir Thomas de Cloptone was the son of Walter De Cloptone of Wickhambrook and his first wife Alice FitzHugh. The date of his birth is not known, but his will was dated March 8, 1382 and proved October 12, 1383. The identity of his first wife has never been found and they had no children. He married in his old age Dame Katherine Mylde. Katherine was the daughter and heiress of William Mylde, Esq. of Clare, County Suffolk. She brought to the marriage the large estate of Lutons and Kentwell. Sir Thomas and Dame Katherine had one child, William de Cloptone who inherited Kentwell Estate at his mother's death in 1403. Sir Thomas lived only one year after his marriage to Dame Katherine. A free translation of his will states his wish "To be buried in St. Mary's Chippeleye in choir between my mother's and wife's graves." Sir Thomas and Dame Katherine left a legacy of some ten manors in all. Among them the Manor of Toppesfield in the Town of Hadleigh; lands and tenements in Schymplyngg, Appleton; Chyppeleye (Manor of Clopton Hall or Chapperley Manor), and Poselyngworth.

The Kentwell Estate comprises half a dozen manors. The principal manorial residence was called at that time by different names and causes some confusion. The name Kentwell Hall did not become fixed until nearly 200 years after Sir Thomas' death. In Domesday Book (1086) the old english name was Kanewella (a place where springs rise or well up to the surface) is listed, its first owner was Frodo. Frodo was the brother of the first Abbot of what became the great Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. It was also referred to as "Lutons," "Luton Hall," and "Place of Lutons." Records indicate the manor was eventually sold by Frodo's heirs to a family who took Kentwell as their name as was customary. The de Kentwells owned the manor until 1250 when it came into the hands of King Henry III. King Henry III grated it to his half brother Sir William de Valence. After his death in 1296 the Manor, now comprising some 440 acres was passed to his son Aymer de Valence, nicknamed 'Joseph the Jew.' At his death in 1323 the Manor passed to Aymer's relative by marriage, David de Strabolgie, 2nd Earl of Athol who sold it to Sir Robert Gower. Sr. Gower held the estate for a brief period, selling it to his kinsman, the poet, John Gower. In 1373 he sold it to the trustees of Dame Katherine.

After Sir Thomas' death, Dame Katherine took as her second husband Sir William de Tendring of Stoke-by-Nayland. It was from this marriage some descendants of William Clopton, Gentleman, and Ann (Booth) Dennett are linked through both the Clopton-Mylde and Mylde-de Tendring lines.

The Clopton - de Tendring - Claiborne Line

Through this marriage she became the distant grandmother of three queens of England: two of the unfortunate wives of Henry the VIII, Ann Boleyn and Katherine Howard, and Queen Elizabeth I.

Dame Katherine, who died in 1403, is buried at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Stoke-by-Nyland, Suffolk. Their memorial brasses are among the finest in England.

Contributed by :

Based on Articles Originally Appearing in the April 1988, August 1988, December 1989, and December 1990 Issues of the Clopton Family Newsletter
by Isabel Lancaster (Clopton) Steiner,
James M McMillen, mcmillen@arlington.net
and Wallace Chandler Clopton

Claiborne of Virginia, Descendants of Colonel William Claiborne, The First Eight Generations, by John Frederick Dorman and Claiborne T. Smith, Jr., MD,
Gate Way Press Inc., Baltimore, Maryland

The Ancestors and Descendants of William Clopton of York County, Virginia,
Compiled by Gene Carlton Clopton, Phoenix Printing, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia

Long Melford Through The Ages, by Barry L. Wall, East Anglian Magazine Ltd., Ipswich, Suffolk

Contributed by :

Suellen Clopton Blanton, bblanton@fast.net