John Clopton, Esq., Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk

was the 4th great-grandfather of FRANCIS CLAPHAM of Hunslet (born 1663) and the 12th great-grandfather of ELIZABETH ANN JOHNSON (1875-1948), mother of WILLIAM HENRY FLUEN (1906-1969).

JOHN CLOPTON was born in c. 1423 at Kentwell, Long Melford, County Suffolk, died and got buried 1497 in Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford co. Suffolk.

He was the son and heir of SIR WILLIAM CLOPTON and his second wife MARGERY FRANCIS.

NOTE: The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death, his will (proved 16. Nov 1497) made provision for the Clopton Chantry Chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there. The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.

The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.

John Clopton was married to Alice D'Arcy, the daughter of SIR ROBERT D'ARCY of Maldon in Essex and Lady Alice Fitzlangley, daughter of Henry Fitzlangley and widow of Robert Ungoe. She was baptized at All Saints' Church, Maldon, about eight miles east of 'Chelmsford', and died bef. April 1454 in Long Melford.
NOTE: SIR ROBERT D'ARCY was lord of Maldon, and one of the most powerful men in the east of Essex. D’Arcy was the MP for Maldon six times, a lawyer by trade, and had become a rich and powerful man as legal advisor to the king and local gentry. His family held part of the Manor of Little Maldon. In 1422 D'Arcy married a wealthy heiress, Alice Fitz Langley, and decided that he needed a new dwelling to emphasise his power and importance in the area.

At that time all the other major buildings on Maldon's High Street were built of timber, so D'Arcy decided to build his new dwelling of red brick to the highest possible standards by Flemish bricklayers. In the early 15th century brick was a prestige material, and only those who were wealthy could afford
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  (Maldon Moot Hall in the early 20th century)

to build in brick. So Robert D'Arcy's new house was not just an impressive new structure, it was a statement. The building now is the surviving fragment of a much larger dwelling known as the D’Arcy Mansion or Master D’Arcy’s Tower which has stood in some form on Maldon’s High Street since the early 15th Century.

In 1539 the D’Arcy family sold off most of their Maldon property in order to fund other interests and broke up the mansion. In 1550 they finally surrenderd the brick tower to the king in part payment for the dissolved priory at St Osyth and severed their last links with Maldon. The neglected tower was purchased by the Borough of Maldon in 1576 for the princely sum of £55, and it became the 'Moot Hall'.

John Clopton and Alice D'Arcy had five children:
(1)   Sir William Clopton, Knight and heir
(2)   Sir Edmund Clopton, "Knight of the Rhodes"
(3)   EDWARD CLOPTON of Glemsford, Suffolk
(4)   Anne Clopton married to Thomas Rokewood of Kentwell,
(5)   Dorothy Clopton (memorialized in a stained glass window at Long Melford) married to Thomas Curson of Billingford, Norfolk

Being a widower with five children, John Clopton, courted young Elizabeth Paston (1429-1488). A particularly interesting reference to John is found in 'The Paston Letters', edited by Richard Barber, a collection of correspondence between members of the Paston Family of Norfolk from 1422-1509, now preserved at the British Museum. A marriage contract is being discussed between daughter Elizabeth Paston and John Clopton. John seems almost to have agreed to terms presented in 1454 by John Paston, her brother, and her mother, Agnes. A draft settlement was drawn up granting Elizabeth 400 marks on her marriage and John's share was to be lands worth 40 pounds a year. But she refused his marriage proposal in the end, and her parents locked her in a dark room without food and almost beat her to death. A cousin, Elizabeth Clere, became so concerned and wrote to Elizabeth's brother in London: "Your sister was never in so great sorrow as she is nowadays. She has since Easter for the most part been beaten once a week or twice, sometimes twice in one day, and her head broken in two or three places." Bloody but definitely unbowed, she held her ground. Elizabeth did finally marry at the age of thirty; firstly Sir Robert Poynings, slain at the Second Battle of St Albans on 17. February 1461, and secondly Sir George Browne of Betchworth Castle (beheaded on Tower Hill 04. December 1483). She became one of the wealthiest women in England.

(Illustration of the Battle of Barnet (14 April 1471) on the Ghent manuscript, a late 15th-century)

During the War of the Roses (1455-1487), John, a staunch Lancastrian, remained loyal to King Henry VI, after his Yorkist cousin, who was crowned as King Edward IV, had defeated him. After having lost at the Battle of Towton, King Henry retreated to Scotland, and his wife, Queen Margaret, fled to the continent in search of allies. It was rumored she had raised an army of 120,000 men, which soon would invade England. Considered politically important and accused of corresponding with Queen Margaret, John Clopton was arrested, charged with treason and sent to the Tower of London. Arrested with him were his fellow East Anglian magnets, John, Earl of Oxford and his son, Aubrey deVere; Sir Thomas Tuddenham, Sir John Montgomery, and Sir William Tyrrell. Sir John Montgomery and Sir William Tyrrell were Alice D'Arcy's brother-in law. John was acquitted but his four companions were beheaded February 22, 1461.

After his arrest John Clopton abandoned his Lancastrian leanings and embraced the Yorkist cause quickly and with much enthusiasm. He organized men and ships in East Anglia to protect the coast should there be an invasion along the Suffolk coast. This saved his life and placed him in a position of favor with the court. This action carried with it no stigma, as trading sides was a common practice.

In 1485, John was summoned to attend the coronation of Edward V on the 22nd of June to be made a Knight of the Bath, the second highest Order of Chivalry in England. However, while John was shining his armor, his kinsman, the nephew of his wife, Sir James Tyrrell, was busy plotting murder. Upon the death of Edward IV on April 9, 1483, the 12-year-old Edward became king and his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was made protector of the realm. But he was never crowned as he and his younger brother were caught in a conflict between Gloucester and his mother's nobles. Edward's 86-day reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and Lord Protector, who succeeded him as Richard III on 26 June 1483. The two princes were taken prisoners in the Tower of London, and John Clopton's chances of becoming a knight died along with the little Princes in the Tower.



The residence of the family Clopton was Kentwall Hall (picture above) in Long Melford, Suffolk. Most of the current building facade dates from the mid 16th century, but the origins of Kentwell are much earlier, with references in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Successive generations of Cloptons occupied Kentwell Hall from c1375 when Sir Thomas Clopton married Katherine Mylde, daughter of William Mylde of Clare, Suffolk, then the owner of the estate. The estate, then named Lutons, is included in the will of this Sir Thomas Clopton, dated 8 March 1382. Clopton died the following year. The Cloptons were a respected local family with some family members becoming distinguished nationally in the 15th and 16th centuries. The family is named in the Domesday Book of 1086 as feudatories of the Honor of Clare and various members of the "de Clopton" family appear in church and Abbey records over the following 200 years. The Clopton family transformed the manor into its current recognisable form. Successive members of the family remained at Kentwell until 1661, when the last resident Clopton died there.

Constant mention is made of "the Hall" or "the Place of Lutons" in wills and documents of successive Cloptons until 1563, at which point the first references are made to "the new mansion-house of Kentwell Hall". The current Hall was constructed by several generations of the Clopton family. The oldest structure is the Moat House (picture), which is estimated to have been built in the early 15th century. The individual who commissioned the building of the Moat House is unknown; but the preferred candidate of many historians is SIR WILLIAM CLOPTON, son of Sir Thomas Clopton and Katherine Mylde. The main house at Kentwell was built in three phases until the 1560s, but the main block was constructed by JOHN CLOPTON in the late 15th century.

His father, SIR WILLIAM CLOPTON is known to have died in 1446. His is set into an alcove of the Clopton Chapel in the north east corner of Holy Trinity Church. The red rose is the annual rent for Market House, Hadleigh, Suffolk – paid since 1438 and believed to be the oldest continuous rental arrangement in the United Kingdom.

SIR WILLIAM CLOPTON fought in the Battle of Agincourt under the banner of the Duke of Gloucester on October 25, 1415 along side his uncle, Sir Thomas Erpingham. This date marked a stunning victory of the English over the French during the mid-point of the Hundred Years' War. Following an unexpectedly long march in an attempt to find a practicable ford over the Somme, the exhausted invaders of 6000 were caught at Agincourt (Azincourt in the Pas-de-Calais) by a French force numbering between 20,000 and 30,000 men under the constable Charles I d'Albret. But because of the land and serious tactical errors committed by the French their numerical advantage was forfeited. The English archers led by Sir Thomas Erpingham repelled preliminary attacks by the cavalry and three hours of battle ended in disaster for the French.

SIR WILLIAM CLOPTON married twice:
(1)   Margery Drury, of Rougham, daughter of Roger Drury and Margaret Naunton. She was born in Rougham, County Suffolk, about 3 miles southeast of Bury St. Edmunds and possibly baptized at St. Mary, and died June 19, 1420 in England buried Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford in the North Aisle of the Clopton Chancel.
NOTE: It is thought a plague visited the countryside and William's first wife Margery Drury, their son William, and two of their daughters, Margery and Anne, died in 1420. Plagues were a constant threat, and during the great epidemic plague known as the Black Death of 1348-1949, entire villages disappeared.
(2)   MARGERY FRANCIS, of County Norfolk Bef. 1423 in County Norfolk, probably, daughter of Elias Francis, Esq., Armiger, of County Norfolk. She died June 12, 1424 in Long Melford, County Suffolk, England, and got buried in the North Aisle of the Clopton Chancel.

The Clopton family as such can be traced back to GUILLAUME PECHE, Lord of Cloptunna and Dalham, who was born in Normandy, and died after 1088 in Wickhambrook co. Suffolk.
NOTE: "William Peccatum who held lands in Cloptunna in the 20th year of William the First". (Domesday, Volume II, Sutfuctit, p. 25.)

But very little is known about these first Cloptons as only scraps of information contained in a few legal documents. The survey of land holdings in England ordered by William the Conqueror and published in 1086 A.D. lists the estate of Cloptuna in Wickhambrook, Suffolk. The estate was a league (3 miles) long and 3 quarentines (six tenths of a mile) wide and held approximately eleven hundred acres. It had five parcels of land, three of which were granted by King William to RICHARD DE BIENFIATE (c. 1020-1090) son of Earl Gislebert. The "Earl Gislebert" referred to was GILBERT, COUNT OF BRIONNE (c. 1000-1040) in Normandy, France. Gilbert was son of GEOFFREY COUNT OF EU AND BRIONNE (b. 962), who was an illegitimate child of Richard I, Duke of Normandy (933-996). He inherited Brionne, and became one of the most powerful landowners in Normandy. Gilbert was a generous benefactor to Bec Abbey founded by his former knight Herluin in 1031.

When Richard I's grandson, Robert I 'the Magnificent' (born 1000), Duke of Normandy died in 1035 his illegitimate son William I ' the Conqueror' (c. 1028/30-1087) inherited his father's title. Several leading aristocrats, including Gilbert of Brionne, Osbern the Seneschal and Alan of Brittany, became William's guardians.

Count Gilbert was a cousin of Duke William I. In 1040 A.D. he was killed by Ralph de Wacy in Duke William's bed chamber while protecting the boy from would-be assassins. Gilbert's sons Baldwin de Meules et du Sap and RICHARD DE BIENFIATE et d'Orbec fled with their guardians to Baldwin V, Count of Flanders; they returned to Normandy when William married Baldwin's daughter in 1053, and William took them into high favour.The Duke repaid Count Gilbert's sons by granting them huge tracts of land in England after the Battle of Hastings. He was rewarded with 176 lordships and large grants of land in England, including the right to build the castles of Clare and of Tonbridge. He served as Joint Chief Justiciar in William's absence, and played a major part in suppressing the revolt of 1075. On the Conqueror's death, Richard and other great Norman barons led a rebellion against the rule of William Rufus in order to place Robert Curthose on the throne. However, most Normans in England remained loyal. William Rufus and his army successfully attacked the rebel strongholds at Tonbridge, Pevensey and Rochester. He was buried in St. Neot's Priory in 1091. His widow, Rohese Giffard, daughter of Sir Walter Giffard, Lord of Longueville and Agnes Flaitel, was still living in 1113.


(Norman knights and archers at the Battle of Hastings, depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry)

Two of Duke William's companions in arms at Hastings were RICHARD DE BIENFAITE and WILLIAM PECHE (Guillaume Peche). Both are listed on the Falaise Rolls as prominant companions in arms at Hastings. It is likely that William Peche was an illegitimate son of Richard as some of his grandsons were later also known by the surname 'Peche', which is found in no other family in England. William Peche was an undertenant of either Richard or Richard's other sons - Gislebert, Walter and Robert, on many estates in Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex. In the latter county he held Netherhall of Richard de Bienfaite. Ralph Peche, perhaps his son, received about 1113 the manor of Birdbrook in Essex from Robert de Clare, the second son of Richard de Bienfaite. A son of Robert Fitz Richard named Robert Peche was bishop of Ely and still another, Simon Peche or Peccatum Fitz Robert, possessed estates in Suffolk and Norfolk in 1130/1 including probably Trillawe, Suffolk, which had belonged to Richard de Bienfaite in 1086.