Nicholas Gainsford, also written Gaynesford or Gaynesforde, (about 1427–1498) of Carshalton, Surrey, of an armigerous gentry family established at Crowhurst, was a Justice of the Peace, several times Member of Parliament and High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, Constable and Keeper of Odiham Castle and Park, Hampshire, who served in the royal households from around 1461 until his death in 1498. Rising to high office during the reign of Henry VI, he was an Usher to the Chamber of Edward IV and, by 1476, to his queen Elizabeth Woodville. Closely within the sphere of Woodville patronage, he was a favourer of Edward V, and was a leader in the Kentish rising of 1483 against Richard III. He was attainted in 1483, but was soon afterwards pardoned, and fully regained his position and estate as Esquire to Henry VII and Elizabeth of York after the Battle of Bosworth Field. He established the Carshalton branch of the Gainsford family.
The Gainsfords of Crowhurst
Through several generations the senior Gainsford heir was named John, each becoming John 'senior' (the elder) in turn. The Gainsford familyO. Manning and W. Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, 3 Vols (London 1804, 1809, 1814), II, pp. 364–66; III, p. 174. acquired manorial estates at Crowhurst, Surrey, during the 1330s, and in 1338 obtained licence to hold divine service in their oratory there. They held the manor of Chellows by 1359.H.E. Malden, 'Crowhurst', in A History of the County of Surrey, Vol. 4 (VCH, London 1912), pp. 274–81. (British History online. Retrieved 3 October 2016) The moated site of Crowhurst Place was purchased in 1418, and the hall was rebuilt later in the 15th century.A. Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500, Vol. 3, Southern England (Cambridge University Press 2006), pp. 328–29 (Crowhurst Place and Old Surrey Hall). A further estate, 'At Grove', was assimilated in 1434.'Crowhurst', V.C.H. Surrey Vol. 4.
During the later 14th century the marriage of John Gainsford to Margery, daughter of Sir John and Mabel de la Poyle, led to a great extension of the Gainsford estates.B.W. Greenfield, 'The descent of the manor and advowson of Hampton-Poyle, in the County of Oxford', in J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Herald and Genealogist I (J.B. Nichols, London 1863), pp. 209–224. Sir John's grandson John de la Poyle (died 1424),M. Stephenson, A List of Monumental Brasses in the British Isles (Headley Brothers, London 1926), p. 406. having only an infant grandson as heir, before dying enfeoffed various kinsmen including a younger John Gainsford with his valuable manors and appurtenances of Hampton Poyle in Oxfordshire, Poyle at Tongham near Guildford in Surrey, Poyle in Middlesex, and several other manors.K. Parkin (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem XXII, 1–5 Henry VI (1422–1427) (Boydell Press/P.R.O, London 2003), p. 267, no. 278. (HathiTrust). G. Wrottesley, 'Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls', The Genealogist, New Series XVIII (1902), p. 180. The infant's mother Elizabeth Warner, meanwhile, remarried to Walter Green, M.P., of Middlesex,C. Rawcliffe, 'Green, Walter II (d. 1456), of Hayes, Middx.', in J.S. Roskill, L. Clark and C. Rawcliffe (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421 (Boydell and Brewer, 1993 (History of Parliament online). Will of Walter Green (P.C.C. 1456). who already had children (including daughters Joan, wife of Miles Windsor of Stanwell, and Katherine). Her father Robert Warner was among Poyle's feoffees who in 1438 granted the right in remainder of these manors to John Gainsford and his son John.Feet of Fines CP 25/1/292/69, no. 215. Hampton Poyle was transferred fully by the father to the younger John Gainsford and wife Katherine in 1447.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, Vol V, 1446–1452, p. 66. (HathiTrust)
Family and early career John Gainsford 'senior' made his will in 1448 and died in 1450.Will of John Gainsford of Crowhurst (P.C.C. 1450). Writ of diem clausit extremum, 1 August 1450, Calendar of Fine Rolls, XVIII: Henry VI, 1445–1452 (1939), p. 133. He had then three sons, John, William and Nicholas.W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, Harleian Society XLIII (London 1899), pp. 91–95. (Internet archive) The eldest, John (1419–1460), of Crowhurst and Hampton Poyle, married first Anna (daughter of Richard Wakehurst of ArdinglyL.S. Woodger, 'Wakehurst, Richard (d.1455), of Wakehurst in Ardingley, Suss. and Ockley, Surr.', in J.S. Roskell, L. Clark and C. Rawcliffe (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421 (Boydell & Brewer 1993), History of Parliament online.), mother of John Gainsford (died 1491) the senior Gainsford heir.J.C. Wedgwood and A.D. Holt, History of Parliament. Biographies of the Members of the Commons House 1439–1509 (HMSO 1936), p. 367, unaccountably twice contradict the text of John's will, written 1460 (P.C.C. 1464), which requests a marble tombstone 'super me et Annam nuper uxorem meam filiam Rici Wakehurst' – duly repeated on John's memorial inscription – while making bequests to 'Katerina uxor mea', who survives him. His second wife (by 1447) was Katherine (daughter of Walter Green, and widow and executrix of William Stalworth)J. and M. Stevens, 'CP40/751: Michaelmas term 1448', in Court of Common Pleas: the National Archives, Cp40 1399–1500 (London, 2010), CP 40/751 rot. 231. (British History Online. Retrieved 16 October 2016). View original at AALT. by whom he had two daughters and two sons, one of whom, George Gainsford, eventually inherited Hampton Poyle.Will of Dame Katherine Reed, widow (P.C.C. 1498), naming her children, George, William and Elizabeth Gainsford. Inquisitions, Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, Henry VII, II (HMSO 1915), pp. 156–58, nos. 237 and 238. (Internet archive).
The second son, William (born c. 1421), is associated with the parish of Lingfield, near Crowhurst. Sir Reginald Cobham of Sterborough, 3rd Baron Cobham, founder of the collegiate church of St. Peter at Lingfield, appointed Sir William Gainsford, knight (possibly uncle of this William), an executor of his will of 1446; his widow Dame Anne enfeoffed John Gainsford the elder and William, with Richard Wakehurst, in 1447–8, but only John and Richard in 1453.T. Stapleton (ed.), De Antiquis Legibus Liber. Cronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum Londiniarum, Camden Society Vol. XXXIV (London 1846), p. cxciii and p. cxcvi (Internet archive); T.N.A. Discovery catalogue, Piece description C 143/451/1. In 1453 Joan (daughter of John Symond of Toppesfield (Essex) and Margaret Gobion),Calendar of Fine Rolls, XVII: Henry VI, 1437–1445, pp. 305–06. wife of William Gainsford, was buried at Lingfield.Memorial inscription, J. Aubrey and R. Rawlinson, The Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (E. Curll, London 1718–19), III, pp. 61–62.(HathiTrust) William (presumably the brother of Nicholas) was M.P. for Surrey in 1449–1450.Wedgwood, History of Parliament, p. 369. One William is concerned in the manor of Chevening in the late 1440s,T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece description U1590/T5/41-47 (Kent History and Library Centre). and one in 1463 in the manor of Westerham, both in Kent.T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece descriptions U908/T212/1 (Kent History and Library Centre) and LM/342/2 (Surrey History Centre). One is 'deceased' in 1466.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward IV: 1461–1467, p. 538. Richard, son of William, was holding the manor of Blockfield at Lingfield (near Crowhurst) in 1477;'Lingfield', in H.E. Malden, A History of the County of Surrey IV (V.C.H. 1912), pp. 302–11, at note 87. (British History online) Richard's brother and heir John was only 24 – too young to be Joan's son – when inheriting tenure of the Gobion manors in 1484.Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem: Henry VII, III (HMSO 1955), item 622, p. 363.
There were also sisters, possibly Emma and Matilda, whose children received the first legacies in John Gainsford's will, and also Agnes Gainsford, a wife of Sir John Culpeper of Bedgebury in Goudhurst, Kent.G.W.E. Loder, Wakehurst Place, Sussex: An Account of the Manor and its Owners (Spottiswoode & Co., London 1907), pp. 24–26. By 1448 their mother was already dead, and Nicholas, although named an executor, in 1450 reserved his powers at probate. His father's high tomb was raised on the north side of the chancel of Crowhurst church with a brass figure in armour, inscription and shields including the arms of Gainsford impaling Poyle set into the upper slab.M. Stephenson, 'A List of Monumental Brasses in Surrey', Surrey Archaeological Collections XXVIII (1914), pp. 21–87, at pp. 27–29 (with figure).
Nicholas, born about 1427, was appointed Controller of petty customs in the Port of London in October 1449,Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, Vol V, 1446–1452, p. 304. and in 1452–53 he and his brother John were admitted to Lincoln's Inn,The Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Vol. I: Admissions, 1420–1799 (Lincoln's Inn, 1896), p. 12. (Internet archive) 'for services of their family to the profession', their uncle William Gainsford being then its Governor. In that year Nicholas was returned to Parliament for Bletchingley (Surrey) while his brother John was Knight of the Shire, in which Nicholas followed him in 1455–56. At about that time Nicholas married Margaret Sidney (possibly daughter of William Sidney of Cranley, armiger, who died in 1449Memorial inscription, Cranley, Surrey: J. Aubrey and R. Rawlinson, The Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey, (E. Curll, London 1718–19), IV, p. 85. (Google books)). Soon afterwards he acquired the manor of Burghersh alias Stone Court, Carshalton, formerly in the hands of the Green family, and settled there. In November 1457 he was appointed Escheator for Surrey and Sussex, and in November 1460 to his first term as High Sheriff for those counties,Calendar of Fine Rolls, XIX: Henry VI, 1452–1461 (HMSO 1939), pp. 197, 289. and concurrently Knight of the Shire. Following the formal accession of Edward IV the following March he, with Sir Thomas Cobham, at once received a Commission to imprison Nicholas Carew (formerly Escheator) and others.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, 1461–1467 (HMSO 1897), p. 32.
Edward IV: Yorkist ascendancy
John Gainsford, Nicholas's elder brother, made his will in late May 1460, appointing his wife Katherine, his two brothers and John Elmbridge (of Merstham) his executors, leaving Crowhurst to his son John, and died soon afterwards.Will of John Gainsford (P.C.C. 1464). Katherine at once (by 1461) remarried to Sir Edmund Rede of Boarstall (1417–1489).Greenfield, Descent of the manor of Hampton Poyle, pp. 211–13. The National Archives Discovery Catalogue, Piece descriptions C 142/5/109-110, C 1/222/113 (Chancery); Covenant, DD/FJ/1/129/1 (Nottinghamshire Archives). (Rawcliffe, 'Green, Walter II', reverses the sequence of Katherine's marriages, following Richard Mundy, 'Burbage of Park Hall', in G.J. Armytage (ed.), Middlesex Pedigrees collected by Richard Mundy, Harleian Society LXV (1914), pp. 78–80, at p. 79..) In 1462, following the accession of Edward IV, the Barony of Hastings (into which the fee including Crowhurst and Carshalton alias Burghersh was confirmed) was granted to William Hastings.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1461–1467, pp. 137–38.