Sir Robert Goushill

  General Notes:

IR ROBERT GOUSHILL: Sir Robet Goushill was knighted by King Henry IV at the battle of Shrewsbury on July 21,1403. At the Battle of Shrewsbury the loyalist forces of Henry IV were opposed by the rebel army of Henry Percy (Hotspur). The army of King Henry IV won the day with the killing of Hotspur during the conflict. Casulties on both sides were high with estimates of 3000 killed or wounded on each side. Sir Robert Goushill was knighted the day of the battle for his gallantry, but was badly wounded in the side. Found lying wounded by his servant on the eve of the battle, Goushill asked that his armor be removed and a note sent to his wife Elizabeth in case of his death. The servant then stabbed and murdered Sir Robert Goushill and made off with his purse and ring. Another wounded man lying nearby recognized the servant, and he was later caught and hanged for the crime. The arms of Sir Robert Goushill would be placed in the Shrewsbury Battlefield Church erected as a memorial by King Henry IV.

Robert Goushill was the son and heir of Sir Nicholas Goushill of Hoveringham. The date of his birth is unknown, but can be estimated to be circa 1360-1365. Likewise, the name of his mother also remains unknown. The Goushill family had held extensive lands in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire since the 13th century. Walter Goushill, an early ancestor in the direct line, gained a number of these considerable holdings for the Goushills through his marriage to Maud (Matilda) Hathersage, the co-heiress of Mathew Hathersage in Derbyshire. (The early pedigree of the Goushill family of Hoveringham can be found in the History of Nottinghamshire by Dr. Robert Thoroton). In the calendar of patent rolls of Richard II on March 12, 1386, the King orders the arrest of Sir Nicholas Goushill the elder and his son Robert Goushill to answer the suit brought by William Birkes accusing the Goushills of threatning him with the loss of life and limb that he dare go about his business. On July 16, 1385, Sir Nicholas Goushill received the King's pardon. During 1387, Nicholas Goushill knight of Hoveringham and his son Robert Goushill are found in the chancery records to owe a debt of 22 pounds to Robert Wells of London. The next mention of Robert Goushill occurs in 1390 when he receives the King's pardon for alleged outlawry and other felonies through the supplication of Thomas Mowbray. Thomas Mowbray was at that time Earl of Nottingham and later would become the Duke of Norfolk. This evidences that Robert Goushill was already a supporter of Thomas Mowbray of whom he would be an employee of for the next decade. It is interesting to note that Elizabeth Fitz-Alan, the future wife of Robert Goushill, had been the wife of Mowbray since 1384.

During the 1390's, Robert Goushill would be in the retinue of Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, Marshal of England, and Duke of Norfolk, serving as Mowbray's esquire and attorney. When Thomas Mowbray received his ducal elevation in 1397, he gave to his esquire Robert Goushill a 20 pound annuity for life from his manor at Willington. This grant was confirmed by Henry IV in November of 1399. In 1398, after the Duke of Norfolk was banished by Richard II, Robert Goushill was appointed one of the attorneys for Mowbray. At the coronation of King Edward IV on October 13, 1399, Robert Goushill would make a plea for the return of the banished Duke of Norfolk as Earl Marshall, not knowing Mowbray had already died of the plague in Venice, Italy on September 22, 1399. In the mid 1390's, Robert Goushill had married as a first wife Joan Bracebrugge, who was the widow of Sir Ralph Bracebrugge of Kingsbury, Warwickshire. Joan (maiden name unknown) had married Ralph Bracebrugge in 1380 and his death occured in August, 1395. The marriage of Robert Goushill and Joan Bracebrugge likely was in 1396, and Joan would die early in the year 1400. (IPM Henry IV, 1-6). In 1397 Richard II appointed Sir William Bagot and Robert Goushill to seize into his hands the goods and chattels of Thomas the late Earl of Warwick. (Goushill served as Warwickshire sheriff in 1396/97). After Richard II was deposed, the new King Henry IV made a grant on Feb. 23, 1400 to his kinswoman Elizabeth, the wife of the late Duke of Norfolk, of the remaining goods of the late Duke as well as clearing the debts that the Duke had owed to the deposed Richard II. Others stated to share in the remaining goods of the deceased Duke of Norfolk included Robert Goushill.

Robert Goushill would marry the widowed Elizabeth Fitz-Alan, Duchess of Norfolk, in the latter part of 1400 or early 1401 without license. On August 19, 1401, King Henry IV seized the lands of Elizabeth, late widow of Thomas Mowbray, for marrying Robert Goushill without license. On September 28, 1401, Henry IV would pardon Robert Goushill esquire and Elizabeth, late wife of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, for their trespass for inter-marrying without license and that they shall have restitution of all lands assigned to her in dower with the issues from the time of their marriage. Joan Goushill, the 1st daughter of Robert and Elizabeth, would be born in 1401, and a 2nd daughter Elizabeth Goushill would be born in 1402. Many present day descendants of these two daughters trace their ancestry to the Plantagenet Kings of England through Joan Goushill who married Sir Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley, and Elizabeth Goushill who married Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham, Suffolk. (My own descent is through the Goushill-Wingfield marriage). A 3rd daughter named Joyce is now credited to Robert and Elizabeth. She was found in a 1407 lawsuit being named after older daughters Joan and Elizabeth. As she is not named in Robert Goushill's Inq. Post Mortum of 1403, she would certainly seem to have been born after Robert Goushill's death. No futher trace of Joyce Goushill has been found. After the tragic death of Sir Robert Goushill at the battle of Shrewsbury on July 21, 1403, his Inquisition Post Mortum was held August 6, 1403. His heirs are given as his daughters Joan and Elizabeth, aged two years and one year respectively. A final thought regarding the pedigree of the Goushill family of Hoveringham as given by Thoroton: the pedigree lists the Sir Nicholas Goushill dying in 1393 as the grandfather of Robert Goushill and Robert's father as another Nicholas Goushill. This 2nd Nicholas Goushill listed in the pedigree was very likely confused with the Sir Nicholas Goushill of Barlborough, Derbyshire who was also at the battle of Shrewsbury. He was certainly a relative and contemporary of Robert Goushill and either brother or first cousin, but not his father. The first 1380's records that mention Robert Goushill appear with Sir Nicholas Goushill the ELDER given as the father of Robert Goushill. I believe the evidence stongly suggests that the father of Robert Goushill was the Sir Nicholas Goushill who died in 1393 and was buried at St. Michael's church at Hoveringham.

Robert married Elizabeth Fitzalan, daughter of Richard Fitzalan - 11th Earl of Arundel and Elizabeth de Bohun. (Elizabeth Fitzalan was born in 1366 in Arundel, Sussex and died on 8 Jul 1425 in Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire.)