Person Page - 40744

     John Coningsby was the son of Sir Henry Coningsby and Elizabeth Boteler.² He died circa 1616 at Ostend^G, killed, without issue.²

     Phillip Coningsby was born circa 1563 at Brockham, Surrey, England^G.^1,2 He was the son of Sir Henry Coningsby and Elizabeth Boteler.² He married Anne Poley on 13 April 1584 at Boxted, Suffolk, England^G.^3,2
     Reference: 223.² Knight of Brookham, Surrey, and afterwards of Twigmore, Co. Lincoln
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Cluterbuck in his The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire states that the Lincolnshire Coningsby's descend from Philip Coningsby (page 463).
NEED TO CHECK OUT THIS LINE THROUGH LINCOLN ARCHIVES.
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'22 April 1595
Reigate

Richard Smyth and William Abbott of Burstow tanners, indicted for grand larceny.
At Reigate sessions, 22 April 1595, before sir William Moor, Sir Thomas Brown, Matthew Carew, Edmund Saunders, Thomas Lyfield, George Moor, Thomas Vincent, William Morgan, Richard Bostock, Edmund Bowyer, William Foster, Philip Conningsby, Francis Anger, Richard Lashford, justices of the peace, a grand jury:

Thomas Manley
Matthew Benson gent
Walter Cole gent
George Franck
Richard Hayward
William Wonham
Thomas Holmewood
John Lambert
Edward Roger
Thomas Roger
Ralph Dalton
John Eversed
Edward Constable
Robert Boughton
Thomas Cox
John Humfrey
Robert Champyon
Anthony Cowper
John Hampden
John Richardson
John Cowper
Roger Bartlott
William Yonge
William Kinge

presented that on 23 March 1595 they broke by night into Stocks Croft, the close of Thomas Jorden at Horley, and stole nine backs of tanned leather, worth £9.

Guilty:allowed clergy.

Source:Public Record Office: Assizes 35/37/8 m. 11
Title:Croydon Assizes
FONS
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     Henry Coningsby was born at St. Albans^G.² He is the son of Sir Henry Coningsby and Elizabeth Boteler.²
     1634 The Visitation of Hertfordshire - Conningsby of North Mimms
refered to as Henry Conisby, of North Mimms.²

     Theodore McKenna was born circa 15 October 1854 at Bristol, England^G.¹ He was the son of William Columban McKenna and Emma Hanby.¹ He married, firstly, Ida Ellen Hewitt on 15 January 1883 at Lewisham, Kent, England^G.¹ He married, secondly, Ethel Margaret Morell Mackenzie, daughter of Sir Morell Mackenzie and Margaret Bouch, circa September 1890 at Marylebone, London, England^G.¹ He died on 20 April 1938 at Marylebone, London, England^G.¹

     Thomas Mewtis was born at Ham, Essex, England^G.^3,2
     Reference: 226.²

     Ida Ellen Hewitt married Theodore McKenna, son of William Columban McKenna and Emma Hanby, on 15 January 1883 at Lewisham, Kent, England^G.¹
     From 15 January 1883, her married name became McKenna.¹

     Margery Whetehill was born at de Villa Calesie, Calais, France^G.² She married Ralph Coningsby, son of Sir Henry Coningsby and Elizabeth Boteler.
     Taken from 'Whethill, of Calais by Walter Godwin davies of Portland , Maine

Margery m. a Sir Ralph Coningsby of North Mimms, co. Hereford. In one pedigree this lady is called a daughter of' Whetehill of Calais, in another a 'daughter of Richard Whetehill'. Sir Ralph was knighted by James I is 1603, and made his will in 1615. Obviously he was too young a man to have been a son-in-law of Sir Richard Whetehill who died in 1537, in addition to which all of Sir Richard's children are fully identified. Nor could his wife have been a daughter of that Richard Whetehill who came to Calais as a Merchant of the Staple in the last years of the reign of Henry VIII, for the will of the latter Richard, made in 1565, discloses an only daughter, Margaret, who is well provided with husbands. Chronologically there seems to be a reasonable possibility that she was Robert Whetehill's daughter~ relying also on comparable social Rouition and the elimination of other contemporary Whetehill girls.² Her married name became Coningsby.

     Sir Francis Coningsby was born before 1590.² He was the son of Ralph Coningsby and Margery Whetehill.² He died before 9 February 1627/28 at North Mimms, Herefordshire, England^G.^3,2

     Thomas Coningsby was born in 1591 at Alton, Wiltshire, England^G.² He was the son of Ralph Coningsby and Margery Whetehill.² He married Martha Button, daughter of Jane Lawrence, circa 1610 at Hertfordshire, England^G.² He died on 1 October 1654 at North Mimms, Hertfordshire, England^G.² He was buried at Chapel at North Mimms, North Mimms, Herefordshire, England^G.²
     Thomas was high sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1638 and 1642; avowed himself a supporter of Charles 1; was arrested by the parliamentarians at St Albans early in 1643, while endevoring to execute a commission of array; was imprisoned first in London House, and afterwards in the Tower; was deprived of most of his property; was released from the Tower after seven years suffering in 1650; translated into english Justus Liapsius's 'Discourse on Constancy' of which nothing has survived; died on 1 Oct 1654
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THE PARISH OF SOUTH MIMMS
BY FREDERICK CHARLES CASS M.A.
RECTOR OF MONKEN HADLEY, MIDDLESEX

'Thomas, the next in succession, seems to have previously resided at East Barnet, where the register shows that his son Humphry was Baptised, 9 June, 1624. He became a governor of the Barnet School, 24 March, 1618. When the survey of Enfield Chace was made in 1636, it wan reported that there were two windmills within the said manor, of which one was in the tenure of Thomas Coningsby, esq. or his tenant, and in good repair.

He was sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1637, and, concerning the appointment, Fuller tells the story, that, when one told him that his potent adversary had prevailed to make him sheriff, ‘I will not,’ said he, ‘keep a man the more, or a dog the fewer, on that account.’ The royal standard was set up at Nottingham, 25 Aug. 1642, and on the following 23 Oct. was fought the battle of Edgehill. No sheriffs were nominated that year on account of the civil war, but the King wrote from Reading on the 11 Nov. requesting Mr. Coningsby to undertake the office a second time. Upon this the Parliament avowed that the sovereign power was wholly and entirely in them; and that the King himself, severed from them, had no regal power in him. They went on to declare that the sheriffs then constituted by the King were not legal sheriffs, nor ought to execute or be submitted to in that office, and ordered whomsoever the King made sheriff in any county to be sent for as delinquent. Soon afterwards Mr. Coningsby received a writ and proclamation to array the county for the King’s service. He accordingly executed the writ at St. Alban’s, and was there made prisoner by Cromwell, who plundered his house and carried him to the Tower, where he remained for several years and there died. He married Martha, daughter of William Button, esq. of Alton,Hants, who bore him six sons and twelve daughters. In the year 1658, his widow, in conjunction with her son Sir Harry Coningsby, of the Weld, sold the manor to Sir Nicholas Hide, Bart., succeeded by Sir Thomas, his son and heir, whose only daughter, Bridget, married Peregrine Osborne, viscount Dunblane, son of Thomas earl of Danby, and afterwards second duke of Leeds.
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The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire has :-

'Charles Rex,
Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well, and do hereby give you our assurance, that although we have at present made choice of you to be our High Sherrif of our County of Hertford, we have done it out of no other respect than as a mark and testimony of our Favour and Confidence of the utmost of your service in these times, wherein we intend to imploy Persons of the greatest interity, and known affectiuon to us, and the good of our kingdom; of which you have formerly given sufficient testimony: And although it may bring upon you great expence and trouble, yet we are confident you will not value it in regard of our service, and the good of that of our country, which shall not be forgotten by us on all occasions. So we bid you heartily farewell.

From our Court at Reading
this 11th November 1642

Soon after this letter; Mr Coningsby recieved a Writ and Proclamation from Oxford, which declared the Earl of Essex and his Adherants Traytors, and authorised him to array the County for the Kings Service: He executed the Writ at St albans, where Oliver Cromwell took him Prisoner .......'
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Potterells (Potterells Grove) Hertfordshire Dacorum Hundred from Victoria County History :-

'Potterells continued to follow the the descent of Brookmans, and in 1621 it is described as a manor appurtenant to Brookmans. In 1632 it was sold by Thomas son of Robert Faldo to Thomas and Martha Coningaby,'' and thus was united to the capital manor, becoming the head quarters of the Coningsby family at North Mimms. From Martha Coningsby it descended to her second son Ralph,' who died in 1703 without issue,'' and left Potterells to Roger son of his brother Thomas. Roger married Mary Fish and died in 1707, leaving Roger, his third and eldest surviving son, his heir. Roger Coningsby died in 1753 without issue and left Potterells to his cousins Charles De Laet and Catherine Dell jointly, with remainder to Charles De Laet.. '
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From Bookman's Park Newsletter North Mymms Park a short history

Four miles from Hatfield and six from St. Albans, close to the borders of Middlesex, is North Mymms Park. The house is a beautiful example of 'Jacobean' work, dating from the close of the sixteenth century. Its interior has, however, been re-modelled and altered at various times and it now houses a collection of exquisite tapestries collected by the Burns family and probably unrivalled in this part of England.
It is the original Manor of North Mymms from which the smaller Manors of Brookmans, Gobions, Potterells and possibly Parsonage became separated in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries.
Simon Swanlond, a wealthy London merchant, became the owner of this original portion and two of the sub-divided manors, by purchase in the year 1316 and a few years later he added the North or Chantry Chapel to the Church of the Manor and it was either he or his son who, about the year 1340, built the Church (except the tower) which exists today. The last of the Swanlonds to hold the property sold out in 1428 to Sir Thomas Knolles, a Lord Mayor and citizen of London, and it was a descendant of his, Elizabeth Frowyck, who, by marrying John Coningsby of Lincolnshire about the year 1530, brought the property to this family and they retained it until 1658.
We now come to the close of the sixteenth century; the threat of invasion had passed, thanks to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the increased prosperity of England under Queen Elizabeth was responsible for the era of building palatial houses and mansions on the part of the nobility and owners of manors.
By the year 1590, Elizabeth Coningsby's grandson, Sir Ralph, had succeeded in the ownership of the Manor. No doubt his position as High Sheriff of Hertfordshire and the contemporary prosperity caused him about the year 1599 to pull down the house of his ancestors which probably stood near the Church, somewhere near where the present vicarage is, and build the house known today as North Mymms.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 found Sir Thomas Coningsby, second son of Sir Ralph, not only in possession of the house and Manor but also in office as the High Sheriff of the County, a position fraught with danger to the holder because Parliament, by decree, had declared the office abolished and threatened heavy penalties for any Sheriff contravening the decree. These threats did not frighten Thomas Coningsby, staunch cavalier as he was, so when King Charles wrote from his Court, then at Reading, instructing him to rally the County of Hertfordshire to the royal cause, Coningsby proceeded to St. Albans with a party of the King's men to read the King's writ at the Eleanor Cross. At this moment Cromwell, who had recently been appointed Lieutenant-General of the Parliamentary forces in East Anglia, arrived with a troop of horses; after a short skirmish Coningsby was arrested and Cromwell came over to North Mymms and ransacked the house.
Sir Thomas was imprisoned in the Tower of London and the Manor was sequestered. About 1650 he was released, no doubt after a heavy fine had been paid. Coningsby died soon afterwards, leaving a family of eighteen children, six sons, and twelve daughters, of whom only one died in infancy.
A few years later (1658), his widow Martha and the eldest son, Harry, sold the property to Sir Nicholas Hyde; Martha went to Potterells and Harry Coningsby -he was knighted at the Restoration in 1660 - retired to The Weld, Shenley and so ended the long period of 128 years that this family had possesed the Manor.
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     Robert Coningsby was the son of Ralph Coningsby and Jane Lawrence.¹ He died circa 1689.¹
     (Could this be the Robert Coningsby Will dated 23 Aug 1654 Nuncapative Will)

TAC Coningsby asserts that this Robert buried at St Brides in 1689 so it is questionable, I am inclined to believe Clutterbuck who has Robert of North Mimms married ... Hicks. In that case the nuncapative will which has :-

Four Sons Robert, William, John and Charles, daughter Eliabeth. All children under 21. Proved at Westminster 16 Oct 1654 by oath of Susannah Coningesby, Witnesses to the Will were Gilbert Wheathill. Ann Waske and Jo Humbarston.

Sir Henry Clutterbuck has Robert Married to Susannah Hicks and having two sons Ralph and Robert

The MI's at Aldenham have Ralph having a son Robert who in turn has a son John married to Mary Aram. Thus we have Robert with sons John, Ralph and Robert, nearly but not conclusive enough.¹ Reference: 231.¹