Person Page - 116

      "Anne Underhill was born circa 1470; she died in 1506 or earlier, when her husband remarried. She married, circa 1490, Thomas Knighton of Bayford, co Hertford, probably a son of John Knighton, steward of Sir John Say. Thomas Knighton was born circa 1470 or possibly earlier and died, probably in Bayford, on 7 April 1544; his burial is not found in the Bayford parish registers, which begin in 1538 but have very few entries for the 1540s.
     
      The printed sources are wrong about his marriages. Study of the contemporary evidence indicates that he married first Anne Underhill and second in 1506 Joan (Gascoigne) Collope, who was buried at Bayford on 24 November 1539. He married third at Bayford on 28 July 1540 Margery, whose surname is not in the record, but the Inquistion post mortem on Andrew Baynton shows that she was a sister of Edward Baynton. She died at Hatfield Peverell, co. Essex, on 16 November 5 Edward VI [1551] as late wife of John Allen of Hatfield and former wife of Thomas Knyghton of Bayford.

     
      One of the pedigrees in Harleian Manuscript 1541 makes Anne (Underhill) Knighton a granddaughter of Thomas and Thomasine (Caldebeck) Underhill by giving them a son also named Thomas. This is followed by the Knighton article in East Herts. Archaeological Society Transactions, which postulates that the second Thomas was married to a woman named Anne. (East Herts. Archaelogical Society Transactions, 8:45 fn. pg 45 (1928)) The 1561 Suffolk Visitation, however, does not include such a son. (Visitation of Suffolk, 1561, pg 85) That leaves no room for an added generation and supports the statements made in Visitation.
     
      In demonstrating that Anne Knighton was indeed a daughter of Thomas and Thomasine (Caldebeck) (Turnor) Underhill, we must depend upon later evidence:
     
      1. Most important is the 1561 Suffolk Visitation pedigree of "Knighton of Little Bradley," which states that "Thomas Knyghton of Bayford in the counts of Herford esquyre maryed Anne daughter and one of theyres of Thomas Underhill of Harveys in lyttle Bradley in the counte of Suff esquyre and had yssu Thomas Knyghton sonne and heyre John Knyghton second sonne" (Visitation of Suffolk, 1561 pg 85) The Source of the information was apparently Francis Knighton of Little Bradley, grandson of Anne (Underhill) Knighton.
     
      2. The Knightons' possessions in Little Bradley clearly descended from the Underhills. Thomas Knighton the younger, son of Thomas and Anne (Underhill) Knighton, used "Underhill" as a surname, as we shall see below, and the Knightons of Little Bradley quartered the Underhill arms indicating descent from an heiress. (Visitation of Suffolk, 1561 pg 87-88)
     
      The question is not whether Anne (Underhill) Knighton was a daughter of Thomas Underhill of Little Bradley, but whether she was a daughter of Thomasine (Caldebeck) Underhill. The editor of the recent edition of the 1561 Suffolk Visitation in discussing the Stuteville pedigree accepts that Thomasine Caldebeck's Underhill husband was of Little Bradley, (Visitation of Suffolk, 1561 pg 86) but that fact is not stated explicitly in the Visitation itself. That he was of Little Bradley is confirmed by an elaborate shield in Little Bradley church including the arms of Underhill quartered with Harvye and Mauvesin, impaling Caldebeck, quartered with Hinkley, Nutbeane, Peche, and b. Peverell; this shield is above the brass of a man and woman, which undoubtedly commemorates Thomas and Thomasine (Caldebeck) Underhill. ( Suffolk Institute of Archaelogy Proceedings 45-46)
     
      Anne Knighton's grandson said that she was a daughter of Thomas Underhill of Little Bradley; the Thomas Underhill who married Thomasine Caldebeck is memorialized at Little Bradley. The marriage of Thomas Underhill and Thomasine (Caldebeck) Turnor apparently occurred in 1464 or later; Anne (Underhill) Knighton's husband Thomas Knighton was born about 1470 and presumably Anne was born around the same date. Geography, chronology, and the inheritance of lands in Little Bradley by the Knightons all indicate that Anne (Underhill) Knighton wa a daughter of Thomas and Thomasine (Caldebeck) Underhill."
     
      (David L. Greene (TAG.))
     
     





Anne was born circa 1470 at Little Bradley, county Essex, England.¹ She was the daughter of Thomas Underhill and Thomasine Caldebeck. She married Thomas Knighton circa 1490.^2,3 Anne died circa 1506.