[Table of Contents]

Mainwaring

1 William Mainwaring (III) = Mary Davenport
2 William Mainwaring (IV) = Elizabeth Leycester
3 Randall Mainwaring = Margery Venables
4 Ralph Mainwaring = Margaret Savage
5 William Mainwaring = Margaret Tytley
6 George Mainwaring = Juliana Spurway
7 Oliver Mainwaring (I) = Margaret Torbock
8 Oliver Mainwaring (II) = Prudence Esse
9 Oliver Mainwaring (III) = Hannah Raymond

The gentry ancestry of Oliver Mainwaring, who came to Connecticut by 1669, was recognized by Howard Mendenhall Buck, who published accounts in some British publications which we have not yet seen,^[1] and a brief summary thereof in the New England Genenealogical and Historical Register in 1925.^[2] These papers identified their subject’s paternal grandmother as the aristocratically-connected Margaret Torbock, whose royal descent, according to a valuable bibliographic survey published by Gary Boyd Roberts in 1987,^[3] was worked out by Robert Behra of St. Louis, Missouri. Roberts published this line in full in his 1993 Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants.^[4] For further discussion of the royal descents of the Mainwaring family see the general introduction to this collection of pedigrees.
    As noted in the general introduction, the ground we cover here has been traversed at least twice before, in Robert Behra, “Ancestor Table of Margaret Torbock, Wife of Oliver Mainwaring of Windleshaw, Co. Lanc., Gent.,” M.S., and in Glenn H. Goodman, “The Ancestry of Oliver Mainwaring of New London, Ct., compiled from Published Sources,” n.d.^[5] Despite considerable effort, we have been unable to procure copies of either of these works, and can only hope that our efforts have not merely duplicated theirs.
    In 1965, Donald Lines Jacobus suggested that Oliver Mainwaring’s brother, Richard, was the Richard Mannerings of Hempstead, Long Island.^[6] However, as pointed out by Douglas Richardson, against this theory is the fact that the Dawlish parish registers contain a burial entry for a Richard Maynwaringe in 1643.^[7]
    With specific reference to the paternal line shown here, the most important secondary source is Ormerod. Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire (1883), gives a rather derivative account of generations 1-4, borrowing heavily from Ormerod without acknowledgement; no. 4, Ralph Mainwaring, the purchaser of Kermingham, co. Chester, was, through his eldest son John, ancestor to an extinct line of baronets. Regarding the William Mainwaring with whom we begin this line, if there is any grain of truth to the descent from Henry I ascribed to the him in Pedigrees of some of the Emperor Charlemagne’s Descendants, 3:206-8, the line is surely missing at least three generations.
    We are grateful to Patrick Nielsen Hayden for catching a missing generation in the statement of the parentage of Margaret Savage, wife of no. 4.

1.  William Mainwaring (III), of Over Peover, co. Chester, died “about 12 or 13 Edw. III” (i.e. 1338-40).^[8] He married before 1335,^[9] Mary Davenport, living 1325 (19 Edw. II), said by Ormerod to have been a daughter of Henry Davenport.

2.  William Mainwaring (IV), of Over Peover, co. Chester, born before 1335 (8 Edw. III), died 1364-65 (in 38 Edw. III). He used as his coat of arms three bars, a lion passant in chief, as evidenced by his seals.^[10] He married (1) Joan, daughter and coheiress of William Praers, of Baddiley, near Nantwich, by whom he had one son and one daughter. He married (2) before 1355,^[11] Elizabeth Leycester, living 1404 (6 Hen. IV), daughter of Nicholas Leycester, of Nether Tabley, by the latter’s wife Mary Mobberley, living 1405 (6 Hen. IV), sister and coheiress of Sir Ralph Mobberley, and daughter of William Mobberley, of Mobberley, sheriff of Cheshire in 1319-20 (13 Edw. II).^[12] They had five sons and three daughters.

3.  Randall Mainwaring, of Over Peover, co. Chester, heir to his elder brother John (d. 1410).^[13] He was born no later than 1363,^[14] and died 1456-57 [35 Hen. VI]. According to Ormerod,

He petitioned the king for enjoying the dower of Margery his wife, because he had married her without the king’s licence…. This Randle was also a courtier, stiled armiger regis, the king’s servant, et sagittarius de coronâ [royal archer], 21 Rich. II [1397-98]. He had the office of equitator forestæ de Marâ et Mondrum granted unto him for his life, 6 Hen. IV [1404-05] and two parts of the serjeanty of Maxfield Hundred, which were Raufe Davenport’s, till John Davenport came to age; dated 3 Hen. V [1401-02]. And he had also (with others) the custody of the manor of Kerincham in Cheshire, 13 Hen. IV [1411-12]. This Randle Manwaring of Over-Pever [sic], stiled commonly Honkyn Manwaring in the language of those times, died 35 Hen. VI…. [He was] buried at Over-Pever, in the stone chappel on the south side of the church.^[15]

He married (as her second husband) in 1392-93 (16 Ric. II), Margery Venables, died 1448-49 (27 Hen. VI), widow of Richard Buckley (or Bulkeley?), of Chedill, co. Chester, and daughter of Hugh Venables, Baron Kinderton, by his wife Margery de Cotton.^[16] This couple was ancestral to Oliver Mainwaring in two distinct lines:

• the paternal line, continued below;
• through their daughter Cecily Mainwaring, wife of Thomas de Fouleshurst

4.  Ralph Mainwaring, the purchaser of Kermingham, co. Chester, his parents’ third son, died probably in 1473-74 (13 Edw. IV).^[17] He married Margaret Savage, widow of John Maxfield, and daughter of John Savage (III), Knt., of “Rock Savage” in the parish of Runcorn, Bucklow Hundred, co. Chester, by the latter’s wife Eleanor (or Elizabeth) Brereton.^[18]

5.  William Mainwaring, probably of Wichmalbank (or Wych Malbank), in the parish of Nantwich, co. Chester. The statement made by a grandson in the 1620 Visitation of Devon, that he was “William Manwaring of Namptwich, 3[^rd] son of Randle [recte Ralph]” is in pretty good agreement with a statement made by a great-grandson, in the 1613 Visitation of Cheshire (1909), 159, that he was “William Manwaring of Wichmalbanke, sixt[h] son of Randall [sic] Manwaring of Carincham,” and they concur in making his wife a Titley or Tytley.^[19] He married Margaret Tytley, said in the 1613 Visitation of Cheshire to have been daughter of Humphrey Tytley, of Titley, in the hundred of Nantwich, Cheshire, armiger.^[20] Unfortunately, little seems to be known about this family, and no connected pedigree can be proposed.^[21]

6.  George Mainwaring, of Exeter, Devon, his parents’ third son.^[22] He married before 29 March 1548, Julian Spurway, daughter (but not, as stated in Mainwaring pedigree in the 1620 Visitation, heiress) of Thomas Spurway, Mayor of Exeter, Devon (1540-41), M.P. for Exeter (1542), and Receiver-General to the Marquess of Exeter, by one of his two wives, the uncertainty being unfortunately not clarified by his will.^[23]

7.  Oliver Mainwaring (I), Gent., of Exeter, Devon, and of Windleshaw, co. Lancaster, born say 1545-50, living 1587 but died by 1634 (for it was his son, Oliver, rather than he, who was served heir to his older brother Christopher in that year). Buck and PA2 [? and other eds.?] suggest that he was probably identical with “one Olyver Manwayringe, servant to the right wo[rshipful] Sr George Peckham, Knight, [who] being authorized for that purpose came in and declared the pretence and orger of a voyage pretended to the western parte of America” in 1583. He married by 1587,^[24] Margaret Torbock, born not long after 14 May 1558,^[25] living 1586, second surviving daughter and coheiress of William Torbock, Esq., of Torbock Hall, co. Lancaster, by Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard. She is mentioned in the 1575 will of her maternal grandmother, Jane (Legh) Gerard. They were probably the parents of Mary Mainwaring, wife of Benjamin Gill of Maryland.^[26] Three of their younger sons became Roman Catholic priests, and were required to make depositions concerning their family and education on their admission to the seminary. The eldest of these, George Mainwaring (b. 1589-90) writes,

As to my parents, both are of high family. My father, Oliver Mainwaring, was the youngest of seven brothers, deriving his origin from the house of Over-Peover, Cheshire. My mother was a relative of the Gerards. Their circumstances, both on account of the multitude of their children, as of the injustice of the times (for my father was more than once in prison, and always suffered from the malice of the wicked), must be reckoned among the more moderate. I have four brothers, and the same number of sisters. All brought up Catholic, and educated politely and liberally, as far as the condition of my parents would allow. My relations and connections, thank God, as far as I know, all profess the Catholic faith, except a paternal uncle, named Christopher, who, following a worse lord on account of his paternal estate, and to curry favour with the magnates, obtained honours from the late Queen.

The next of three, Christopher Mainwaring (b. 1595-97) writes,

I was born and brought up by my parents in Lancashire, who are of the upper class, and my father is of the ancient family of Mainwaring. My mother is of the illustrious house of Torbock; both are Catholics, and strong defenders of the faith, and have been repeatedly spoiled of nearly all their property on that account. My father was cast into prison for the faith, and remained there for some time, all of which, thank God, they endured with constancy. I have four brothers: three are Catholics, I am uncertain about the fourth. The same number of sisters, all Catholics. My relations are mixed, some Catholic some Protestant, the chief ones Protestants.

The youngest of the three, Edward (b. 1602-03), writes,

My parents were always excellent Catholics, and are of high families, but in consequence of the iniquity of the times, they were not only reduced from their high position, but likewise encountered other sufferings for the cause of the faith. I have three brothers, one of whom, deceived by the darkness of heresy, or rather schism, reposes in this error, in false security; and four sisters, all well-instructed Catholics. My principal relations on both sides are chiefly schismatics, some are heretics, and some likewise Catholics.^[27]

8.  Oliver Mainwaring (II), Gent., of Exeter and Dawlish, Devon, was born about 1587 (in a deposition of 1666 he is stated to have been “aged 79 and upwards”), and was heir to his father’s older brother Christopher Mainwaring, who died intestate and s.p. in 1634. He died (apparently intestate) 14 March 1672, and was buried at Dawlish.^[28] He married 1618 (an entry in the LDS Ancestral file says 21 June) at Heavitree, near Exeter, Prudence Esse, baptized 23 December 1599 at Clyst Formison (alias Sowton), Devon, died shortly before 1 October 1643, when she was buried at Dawlish, Devon, daughter of Henry Esse (or Aishe), Gent., of Clyst Formison, by Loveday, daughter of Richard Moyle, of St. Austle, Cornwall.

9.  Oliver Mainwaring (or Manwaring) (III), baptized 16 March 1633/4 at Dawlish, Devon, died 3 November 1723, aged 89 years, at New London, Connecticut. His 1723 will mentions, among others, “the heirs of Elizabeth Harris,” who had predeceased him.^[29] He married by 1662 (in which year Richard Rayment deeded land to his “son-in-law Oliver Manwaring”),^[30] Hannah Raymond, baptized 12 February 1643 at Salem, Massachusetts, died 18 December 1717 at New London, Connecticut, daughter of Richard Raymond, of Salem and of Saybrook, Connecticut, by the latter’s wife Judith ____.

Notes

The content of this page first appeared as part of an ancestor table, under the now-defunct URL http://johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/AT/view_AT.cfm?ID=29, on 21 August 2002
This page was last revised 2 July 2014