Thomas Hoo (died 1455), was an English landowner, courtier, soldier, administrator and diplomat who was created a Knight of the Garter in 1446 and Baron Hoo and Hastings in 1448 but left no son to inherit his title.G.E. Cokayne (ed.), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 2nd edition (London 1926), VI, pp. 561-67 (Family search viewer - registration required) (site accessed 10 May 2023).
Having served in military command in Normandy, he assisted in the negotiations for peace with the King of France in 1442–1444, and was in personal attendance on Margaret of Anjou in France during the months preceding her marriage. A servant of the Lancastrian throne, by the death of his friend the Earl of Suffolk in 1450 he lost a distinguished patron.
Origins Parents He was the son of Sir Thomas Hoo (c. 1370-1420) of Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire (son of Sir William Hoo (1335–1410) and his first wife, Alice de St Omer), by his first wife, Eleanor de Felton (c. 1361 - 8 August 1400), whom he married in about 1395. Eleanor was the widow of Sir Robert de Ufford, de jure Lord Clavering (died c. 1393)),D. Richardson, ed. K.G. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edn (2011), I, p. 498 (Ufford). and the youngest of the three daughters of Sir Thomas de Felton (died 1381), of Litcham, Norfolk,'Inquisitions post mortem: Richard II, File 14, nos. 339-343 – Thomas de Felton', in M.C.B. Dawes, A.C. Wood and D.H. Gifford, Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: Volume 15, Richard II (HMSO, London 1970), pp. 134-49 (British History Online). Seneschal of Aquitaine, by his wife, Joan Walkefare. Baron Hoo had three Ufford half-sisters, from his mother's first marriage. Sir Thomas Hoo (born c. 1370) remarried to Elizabeth Echyngham (a daughter of Sir William Echingham (died 1413/14) of Etchingham, Sussex),H. Chauncy, The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire (B. Griffin, S. Keble, D. Browne, D. Midwinter and T. Leigh, London 1700), 'The Mannor of Hoo', pp. 510-11 (Google), in confusion accords a Felton marriage to both Sir Thomases, father and son: Blomefield (1769), thus misled, misses out a generation between Sir William Hoo and Lord Hoo and Hastings, making the two Sir Thomases into one person, and making Baron Hoo first to marry his own mother. The mistake goes back to Dugdale's Baronage. by whom he had a further son, Thomas Hoo (born 1416), "the younger", half-brother to Baron Hoo.That Elizabeth Echyngham was the second wife of Sir Thomas Hoo the father (who died 1420), see D. Richardson ed. K. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition (2011), III, p. 18 item 9; Thomas the younger son is named explicitly in various sources as the brother of Sir Thomas Baron Hoo, e.g. in the 1445 concord with Lionel Welles, cf. Feet of Fines, CP 25/1/293/71, no. 308. View original at AALT; at which time his mother Elizabeth was still living.The relationship is shown thus in the Hoo pedigree given by G. Elliott, 'A monumental palimpsest: the Dacre tomb in Herstmonceux church', Sussex Archaeological Collections 148 (2010), at p. 141. (Read at thekeep.info pdf). By a typographer's error, Elizabeth's surname "Etchingham" is mistakenly printed beneath the name of Sir Thomas de Hoo (died 1420).
Sir Thomas Hoo (c. 1370-1420), the father, distinguished himself at the Battle of Agincourt as a knight to Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys, commander of the left wing of the English army.Cooper, 'The families of Braose and Hoo', at pp. 109-10 (Internet Archive), citing Sussex retinue, Pipe Series, Carlton House Ride MSS. In June 1420, Sir Thomas Hoo (c. 1370-1420), the father, and two others were entrusted to ensure the safe passage of the Duke of Bourbon to France, and in the August following, Sir Thomas died at his seat Luton Hoo. His widow, Elizabeth, remarried to Sir Thomas Lewknor (c. 1392–1452) of Horsted Keynes, as his second wife, and bore him further children.D. Richardson ed. K. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition (2011), III, p. 18 item 9. (Lewknor).
Baron Hoo succeeded his father, inheriting family estates including Luton Hoo, the St. Omer manor of Mulbarton in Norfolk, and that of Offley St Legers, Hertfordshire, which had been inherited by the Legers from the De la Mare family at about the end of the 12th century.'Parishes: Offley', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hertford, Vol. 3 (VCH, London 1912), pp. 39-44 (British History Online).
Ancestry The Hoo family was seated at Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, by 1245.'Luton' (manors of Luton Hoo and Stopsley), in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Bedford, Vol. 2 (V.C.H., London 1908), pp. 348-75 (British History Online). The descent was as follows: Robert Hoo "The Elder". By the 1290s the marriage of Robert Hoo "The Elder" to Beatrix Andevill brought him the nearby manor of Knebworth in Hertfordshire'Parishes: Knebworth', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hertford, Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1912), pp. 111-18 (British History Online). and other lands of the Andevill family:Calendar of the Charter Rolls II: 1257–1300 (HMSO, London 1906), 20 Edward I, m. 5 no. 3, p. 421 (Internet Archive).Illingworth and J. Caley (eds), Placita de Quo Warranto temporibus Edw. I, II & III (Commissioners, Westminster 1818), p. 103 (HathiTrust), Rot. 29. Robert Hoo "The Younger", son, married Hawise FitzWarin,'Margaret, daughter and heir of Ralph de Goushull', Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, VIII: 1336–1347 (HMSO 1913), p. 511: Addenda to vol. V, no 692 (Internet Archive). a daughter of Fulk FitzWarin, 1st Baron FitzWarin (Fulk FitzWarin V) and widow of Ralph de Goushull,Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, III: 1291–1300 (HMSO 1912), pp. 135-38 no. 209-210 (Internet Archive). 'Lands of Peter de Goushill and of Ralph his son', in W. Brown (ed.), Yorkshire Inquisitions of the Reigns of Henry III and Edward I, III, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Records XXXI (1902), pp. 49-50 (Internet Archive). Thomas Hoo, son of Robert Hoo "The Younger", was the great-grandfather of Baron Hoo and Hastings. In 1335 he married Isabel St Leger, a daughter of John St Leger. By this union, the manor of Offley St Legers, Hertfordshire, came to the Hoo family.'Parishes: Offley', W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hertford, Vol. 3, ed. William Page (London, 1912), pp. 39-44 (British History Online). Thomas Hoo and Isabel St Leger were buried in St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire, to which they gave an altar-frontal cloth embroidered with the arms of Hoo and St Leger.A. Goodman, 'Sir Thomas Hoo and the Parliament of 1376', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research XLI (1968), pp. 139-49 (open pdf available at oxfordacademic).Sir Thomas, who lived down to c. 1380, and his son William received letters of protection to serve beyond the sea with the Prince of Wales in autumn 1359, see C.P. Cooper (ed.), Chronological Catalogue of the Materials Transcribed for a New Edition of Rymer's Foedera (Commissioners/Record Office, 1869), pp. 47-48 (Google).
Sir William Hoo (1335–1410), son of Thomas Hoo and Isabel St Leger, married firstly Alice de St Omer (d.1375), a daughter and co-heiress of Thomas de St Omer (d.1364) of Mulbarton, near Norwich, in Norfolk, a Justice and Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk,Petition, Norwich 1365, in Liber Introit Civium, Lib.I, fol. 13; translation printed in J. Kirkpatrick, History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of the Hospitals and Castles of Norwich (Edwards and Hughes, London 1845), pp. 14-16 (Internet Archive). by his first wife Petronilla (or Pernell) Malemayns, a daughter of Sir Nicholas de Malemayns (d.1349), of Ockley in Surrey.Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem: '420: Nicholas Malemayns', Vol. IX: 1347–1352 (HMSO 1916), pp. 318-19; '79: Thomas de Sancto Omero', Vol. XII: Edward III, 1365–1370 (HMSO 1938), pp. 58-59 (Internet Archive).For this branch of Malmaynes see 'Parishes: Pagham, Manor of Aldwick' in L.F. Salzman (ed.), A History of the County of Sussex, Vol. IV: The Rape of Chichester (V.C.H., London 1953), pp. 227-33 (British History Online). This account avoids unsupported inferences found elsewhere. Alice de St Omer's share of her paternal inheritance included the manor of Mulbarton, which thus came to the Hoo familyW.D. Cooper, 'The families of Braose of Chesworth, and Hoo', Sussex Archaeological Collections VIII (London 1856), pp. 97-131, pedigree at pp. 130-31 (Internet Archive). The earlier parts of this pedigree are fictitious: see H. Hall, 'Pedigree of Hoo', Sussex Archaeological Collections XLV (1902), pp. 186-97 (Internet Archive). Petronilla's sister Beatrice Malemayns married Otho II de Grandison, and has a monument in Ottery St Mary Church in Devon. Sir William de St Omer (father of Thomas) and his wife Elizabeth earned the lifelong gratitude of King Edward III for their part in safeguarding the Black Prince and his sisters at a time of danger in their childhood.Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward III, A.D. 1333–1337 (HMSO 1898), p. 523 (Internet Archive); Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, III: 1334–1338 (HMSO 1895), p. 247 (HathiTrust). They were seated both at Mulbarton, and at Britford near Salisbury, Wiltshire (where Alice was born'336. Inquisition to find the ages of Elizabeth and Alice, daughters of Thomas de Sancto Omero, two of the heirs of Nicholas de Malemayns', Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem X: 1352–1361 (HMSO 1921), pp. 289-90 (HathiTrust).), adjacent to Clarendon Palace. They were most likely the patrons of the "St Omer Psalter", a sumptuous but unfinished illuminated book made circa 1330s-1340s. Images of the patron, wearing a tabard displaying the St Omer arms, and his wife, appear in the embellishments to the grand initial of Psalm 1.British Library, Yates Thompson MS 14 (British Library Digitised Manuscripts): View at British Library MS Viewer.
Blomefield (1807) stated that Sir William Hoo (1335–1410) was responsible for rebuilding the tower and nave of Mulbarton church and mentions that stained glass in a north window of the chancel showed, on one side, Sir Thomas de St Omer with his wife and daughter Alice de St Omer, kneeling, with the arms of St Omer and Malemayns: and, on the opposing side, Sir William Hoo and his wife Alice de St Omer, beneath the arms of Malemayns and St Omer. The Hoo arms appeared at the top of the window, and below was a prayer in Norman French: Priez pur lez almez Monsieur Thomas Sentomieris et Dame Perinelle sa femme qui fit faire ceste fenestre ("Pray for the souls of Thomas de St Omer and Dame Petronilla his wife, who had this window made").F. Blomefield, ed. C. Parkin, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Revised edition, Vol. VII (William Miller, London 1807), pp. 456-57 (Internet Archive). Alice de St Omer died in 1375Her will is dated 1375, proved in Archdeaconry Court of Norwich, Haydone Register, fol. 5. and was buried at Mulbarton: the window, therefore, embodied the transition from St Omer to Hoo patronage. No recognizable parts of this window survive among the fragments of medieval glass now re-set at Mulbarton.See 'Stained glass of St Mary Magdalen church, Mulbarton, Norfolk, at Norfolk Stained Glass website.