[Table of Contents]

The Ancestry of Oliver Mainwaring: Shaa

1 John Shaa = ________
2 Sir Edmund Shaa = Julian ____
3 Katherine Shaa = William Browne
4 Julian Browne = Sir John Munday
5 John Munday (Jr.) = Joane ____
6 Katherine Munday = Lawrence Kendall
7 Mary Kendall = Richard Moyle
8 Loveday Moyle = Henry Esse
9 Prudence Esse = Oliver Mainwaring (II)
10 Oliver Mainwaring (III) = Hannah Raymond

Apart from what can be gleaned from biographical articles on some of its more prominent members, there seems to be little on this family in print. The visitation pedigrees are all unhelpful, either beginning too late, or evincing confusion in the early generations.^[1] The flaws in the visitation pedigrees have been widely reproduced, including in a pedigree at the Society of Genealogists.^[2] However, there is useful mention of some of these persons in works on the history of London and its churches, and brief but useful treatments in Percival Boyd’s “Citizens of London” manuscript.
    The arms used by Edmund Shaa were argent a chevron between three fusils ermines, possibly with the addition of a border azure.^[3] These are represented in an old engraving (reproduced at left), the source of which is unknown to us.^[4] These arms are close to those of argent a chevron between three lozenges ermines ascribed to Edmund Shaa’s nephew, John Shaa (see below) in all of the visitation pedigrees in which he appears, namely those of London (1568), Somerset (1623), and Essex (1634). An heraldic manuscript of 1530 states: “Schaa of Lancashire, goldsmyth of London, beryth [beareth] to his crest a shef [sheaf] of arrowes gold fethered silver a gyrdel geules bouckle and pendant gold in a wreth ar[gent].”^[5] This is probably a reference to John Shaa, and the reference to Lancashire is interesting, although it is possibly a mistake for Cheshire, with which the family had a known association.
    The will of Edmund Shaa is rich in mention of collateral relatives who have not been definitely identified:

• a kinsman of mine called Richard Shaa
• my sister Cote [Nina Green suggest she was the wife of Henry Coote]
• my sister Wode [Nina Green suggests she was the wife of the goldsmith Thomas Wode/Woode, who figures prominently in the will]
• my sister Kelke [Nina Green suggests she was the wife of Stephen Kelke]
• my sister Harding
• Henry Harsnap, and my sister, his wife
• my cousin Margaret, the wife of John Shaa
• my cousin Katherine Goodyer
• my cousin John Dilton
• my cousin, Geoffrey Downes, gentleman
• my cousin, John Shaa, Goldsmith

The will of his son Hugh mentions “my cousin, Geoffrey Downes” and “my cousin John Shaa [and] my cousin, his wife.” Possibly some of these relationships were through Edmund’s wife Julian, surname unknown.
    We are grateful to Nina Green, of Kelowna, British Columbia, for several suggestions that have improved these notes.

1.  John Shaa, of Dukinfield, a parish in the township of Stockport, in Macclesfield Hundred, co. Chester.^[6] There is no mention of this man in Ormerod’s Chester. He married ________, and he and his wife were both dead before 20 March 1487/8, when the will of their son Edmund (cited below) mentions “the parisshe of Stopford in the Counte of Chester where at my ffader and my moder lyen buryed,” and endows a grammar school there. This was at the place now known as Stockport, where the institution, dating from shortly after the proving of the will in 1488, survives to the present in what is believed to be its third location.^[7] Among their issue was:

1. Dr. Ralph Shaw (d. 1484), who was appointed prebendary of Cadington Minor in the diocese of London in 1467, but apparently ruined his career by impugning the validity of the marriage of Edward IV with Elizabeth Wydevill, in a sermon delivered in 1483. According to the version of the story in the Chronicles of Holinshed — who calls him “Iohn Shaw clearke brother to the maior, … doctor of divinitie,” mistaking his first name — “Doctor Shaw by his sermon lost his honestie [i.e. reputation], & soone after his life, for verie shame of the world, into which he durst neuer after come abroad.”^[8] To judge from the numerous bequests to friends and collateral relatives in his will, it is evident that he died unmarried and childless; the beneficiaries include his “syster Maude dwelling at Manchester [in Lancashire],” “Edmond Lathum my syster[’s] son,” his “welbelovid brother Edmond Shaa goldsmyth and late mair of the cite [city] of London,” and his “cosyn [probably meaning nephew] John Shaa citezin and goldsmith of the same cite [i.e. city].”^[9]

2.  Edmund Shaa, of Horndon House and Ardern Hall, Essex, and of London, goldsmith, Mayor of London in 1481-82 (said to be the “Mayor of London” in Shakespeare’s Richard III), possibly born say 1435-40, possibly at Mottram-in-Longdendale, Cheshire, knighted 1483, died (testate and s.p.m.s.) 20 April 1488, seised of numerous manors in Essex, his will being dated 20 March 1487[/8] and proved in June 1488.^[10] In accordance with his will, he was buried in the Church of St. Thomas of Acon (or Acre) in London, in which he had founded a chapel.^[11] Edmund Shaa was appointed by Edward IV as engraver of the king’s dies in 1462,^[12] and is attested as a citizen and goldsmith of London in 1471.^[13] By 14 November 1473 he was an alderman.^[14] On 26 April 1482 he was succeeded (for life) as graver at the mint by his “cousin” (probably meaning nephew), Sir John Shaa, who would become Lord Mayor of London in 1501.^[15] The chapel founded by Edmund Shaa was certainly still in use at the end of the fifteenth century, but the church records mention the sale of the altar in 1551.^[16] For further details of the career of Edmund Shaa see the article on him in the DNB, and the entry for his nephew John Shaa in the History of Parliament, which reflects the results of more modern research.
    He married by 1471, Julian ____, died testate 6 July 1494, whose inquisiton post mortem of 29 October 1494 shows she had remained unmarried following her husband’s death.^[17]
    Edmund Shaa’s will, dated 20 March, 1487[/8], makes charitable bequests to a number of places in Cheshire, including “Stopford” (i.e. Stockport, as noted above), Chedyll [Cheadle], and Mottrom [Mottram], and to a number of places in Lancashire, including Manchester, Assheton, Oldam, and Sadyworth. He does not however state that any of these was his birthplace, and we do not know what grounds there may for the frequent contention that he was born at Mottram. His will also mentions, along with a number of family members including his “bestbelovyed wife” Julian, “a kynnysman of myne called Rychard Shaa,” who has not been identified. The will is extremely long and repetitious, and what follows is a highly condensed excerpt from a published transcription in modern spelling:

In the name of God be it, Amen. The 20th day of the month of March the year of Our Lord … 1487 [i.e. 1487/8] and the 3rd year of the reign of King Henry the 7th, I, Edmund Shaa, knight, Citizen and Goldsmith and Alderman and late Mayor of the City of London, though I be visited with sickness of the visitation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, nevertheless being of whole mind and in good memory … make and ordain this my present testament in the form that followeth:
    First I bequeath and recommend my soul to my Lord Jesus Christ … And my body to be buried in the body of the church of Saint Thomas of Acres in London, that is to say, between the pillar of the same church whereupon the image of Saint Michael the Archangel standeth before the altar there called Saint Thomas’ altar, and the nether end of the same church…, as nigh the same pillar as my body there reasonably may be laid;
    And in consideration that I have borne the office of mayoralty of the said City, I will for the honour of the same City that my body be brought from my house to the parish church of Saint Peter’s in Cheap where I am a parishen [= parishioner], as the manner is, and from thence to my burying at Saint Thomas of Acres aforesaid in discreet and honest wise without pomp of the world….
   [There follow a number of charitable bequests, and requests for prayers for his soul.]
    And in especial I will have restitution made by mine executors of wrongs by me done … for the discharge of my conscience thereof…, that is to wit, I had to do in my dues with Master Radclif, sometime Dean of Paul’s…, in certain businesses whereof my conscience grudgeth me that I wronged him to the value of �14 or little more or little less, wherefore I will that restitution be made by mine executors….
    Item, whereas there remaineth in mine hands at this day of the goods of John à Monmouth that is dead, sometime servant with the Lord Herbert that is dead, the value of 5 marks, … to make restitution thereof….
    Item, whereas a kinsman of mine called Richard Shaa caused me 40 winter[s] past and more to go with him to a man’s ground in the Peak in Derbyshire to take a distress there, and so we took for a distress there two oxen and drave them thence, the which I am sure came never again to his possession that ought them, and because that deed was done in my wanton days when I lacked discretion, therefore I have a remorse thereof now in these days being better advised, wherefore I will that mine executors … restore to that man … or to his executors or kinsfolk … 20s for the hurts that he hath sustained by the losing of the said two oxen … and I think that Thomas Aleyn dwelling in a town called Whetstone in Derbyshire can best make enquirance what man that was….
    Item, I bequeath to the high altar of the said parish church of Saint Peter’s in Cheap for my tithes or oblations withholden or forgotten … 10s. …;
    Item, I bequeath to every house of the four Orders of Friars of the City of London, that is to wit, Minors, Preachers, Austens [= Augustinians] and Carmes [= Carmelites] called White Friars, 20s. …;
    Item, I bequeath to the sustentation of the Fraternity of Saint Gile[s] founded in the parish church of Saint Gile[s] without Cripplegate of London where I am a brother 20s. …;
    [There follow Further charitable bequests, and bequests to several apprentices and servants.]
    Item, I bequeath £200 … to the parson and churchwardens of the parish church of Saint Peter’s in Cheap … that quotidian service shall daily and perpetually be kept … for evermore by the curate there … in like manner and form as divine service quotidian is used to be kept in the parish church of Saint Laurence in the Jewry of London or in any other parish church of the same City…;
    Also mine intent is … to have a Mass of Our Lady solemnly and daily for evermore kept … in the said parish church of Saint Peter’s…;
    Also mine intent is … to have an honest obit yearly for evermore to be kept solemnly … in the said parish church of Saint Peter’s … for the soul of me, the said E[d]mund Shaa and for the soul of Robert Botteler, Goldsmith, sometime my Master … and for all Christian souls;
    Item, for as much as I have before assigned my body to be buried in the said church of Saint Thomas of Acres…, therefore I will have an honest marble stone to be provided by mine executors after my decease for to be laid upon my sepulture there, and I will also have there made at the same pillar by mine executors at my cost and charge a convenable altar for a priest to sing thereat, and also a convenable closure of iron well and workmanly wrought to close in the said altar in manner of a chapel … and I will have a priest to be found at the cost and charge of the Master and Brethren of the said place and of their successors … to sing his Mass daily for evermore at the said altar … and pray specially for my soul and for the soul of Julyan, my best-beloved wife, when God shall call her unto his grace, the souls of my father and my mother, my children, my brethren and sisters, and also for the soul of the most excellent Prince, King Edward the 4th, the soul of his noble sister, Dame ____, late Duchess of Exeter, the soul of Sir ____, late Lord Herbert, and for … all Christian souls…;
    Item … I will have two honest priests founded perpetually, that one of them to sing his Mass and say his other divine service in a chapel that I have made in Longdendale in the county of Chester, and pray specially for my soul and for the souls etc. … and … the other honest priest be a discreet man and cunning in grammar, and … sing his Mass and say his other divine service in the parish of Stockport in the said county of Chester at such an altar there as can be thought convenient for him, and to pray specially for my soul and the souls etc., and … keep a grammar school continually in the said town of Stockport as long as he shall continue there in the said service, and that he freely, without any wages or salary asking or taking of any person except only my salary hereunder specified, shall touch [sic] all manner persons’ children and other that will come to him to learn, as well of the said town of Stockport as of other towns thereabout, the science of grammar as far as lieth in him for to do … after their capacity that God will give them; and I will that the same cunning priest with all his scholars with him … shall two days in every week as long as he shall abide in that service there, that is to wit, Wednesday and Friday, come into the said church of Stockport unto the grave there where the bodies of my father and my mother lyen buried, and there say togethers the psalm of De profundis with the versicules and collects thereto accustomed after Salisbury use, and pray specially for my soul and for the souls of my father and my mother, and for all Christian souls;
    And I will that the same priest teaching grammar there shall have for his salary yearly as long as he abide in that service there £10 …;
    Item … it is my full will that forasmuch as the Fellowship of my craft of Goldsmiths have made a certain quantity or portion of the wall of this City standing on the west side of the gate called Cripplegate, that therefore if the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of this City can be contented and agreeable that for the honour and comfort of this City I do cause mine executors to do make the said gate of new in mannerly wise, so that I or mine executors may have the old stuff coming of the old gate there now standing, and do provide me lime and sand as much as shall be necessary to the same work for to make mortar thereof convenient therefore, then I will that mine executors … do take down the said old gate, and … set up there a new, substantial and mannerly gate of stone to the honour of Almighty God and worship of this City, and to the making of the same gate I bequeath 400 marks or little more or little less to be spent thereupon as the case shall require … and if they so do, then I will that mine executors do set up mine arms and the arms of the Fellowship of my craft of Goldsmiths upon the said gate … in such places thereof as they shall seem most expedient…;
    Item, I will that mine executors … do make at my cost 16 rings of fine gold to be graven with the well of pity, the well of mercy, and the well of everlasting life, and with all other images and other things concerning the same like as John Shaa and Ralph Lathim understand right well the making of them, and the rings I will that mine executors distribute unto my lovers here ensuing, praying them tenderly to have my soul in their good remembrances, that is to wit, unto Dame Anne Browne one; to Dame Elizabeth Hill another; to my Gossip Cosen another; to my sister Cote (?) another; to my sister Wode another; to my sister Kelke another; to my sister Harding another; to my daughter Margaret another; to my cousin Margaret, the wife of John Shaa, another; to my cousin Katherine Goodyer another; to my cousin John Dilton another; to Elizabeth Blakwall another; to Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, knight, Recorder of London, another; to Master William Dunthorn, Town Clerk, another; to Thomas Salle, one of the Under-Sheriffs of London, another; and to (blank) Higham, another Under-Sheriff of London, another;
    Item, I bequeath to Thomas Alumby, Steward to the Mayors [sic?] of London, to have remembrance on my soul, a signet of gold to the value of 40s.;
    Item, I bequeath to Sir John, the priest that useth to say matins and Mass afore me, 20s.;
    Item, I bequeath to Henry Harsnap, and to my sister, his wife, £10;
    [There follow further bequests to servants.]
    Item, I bequeath unto Julyan, my true, my most dear and my best-beloved wife, in the name of her part to her belonging of my movable goods, chattels and debts after the custom of the City of London, �2000 … and over that I bequeath to the same Julyan, my true wife, if she after my decease keep herself a sole widow and unmarried during her life, all my stuff of household … except … mine other legacies comprised in this my present testament, all my plate and jewels of goldsmith’s work and all my stuff and tool[s] belonging to my shop and warehouse or working houses of mine occupation;
    Item, I bequeath to Hugh Shaa, my well-beloved son … the sum of £1000…;
    Item, I bequeath to my right well-beloved daughter, Katherine Shaa … the sum of �1000…;
    Item, I bequeath to my right especial and tender loving friend, Sir Raynold Bray, knight, to the intent that it will like him to take upon him the charge of the execution of this my present testament and of my last will, £100…;
    Item, I bequeath to my cousin, Geoffrey Downes, gentleman, to the intent that it will like him to take upon himself the charge of the execution of this my present testament and last will 50 marks…;
    Item, I bequeath to my son[-in-law], Thomas Riche, Mercer of London, to the intent that he will take upon him also the charge of the execution of this my present testament and of my last will £100, desiring him to do make a … cup covered of silver and gilt and as of like value as he shall seem good to serve for him and my daughter, Margaret, his wife, for to have me the better in their remembrances upon the sight thereof;
    Item, I bequeath to my cousin, John Shaa, Goldsmith, under the same form and to like intent as for his part in all degrees £100;
    And of this my present testament I make and ordain mine executors my most dear and my most best-beloved wife, Julyan, my right especial friend, Sir Rainold Bray, knight, my cousin, Geoffrey Downes, gentleman, my son Thomas Riche, mercer, and my cousin, John Shaa, Goldsmith, citizens of London;
    In witness of all the premises to this my present testament I have set my seal the day and year above rehearsed.^[18]

An entry in the close rolls, dated 1488, states that “on 6 July this year Geoffrey Downes and John Shaa executors came to the chancery at Westminster and acknowledged that the testament of the said Edward Shaa had been carried out in all its conditions.”^[19] Edmund Shaa’s inquisition post mortem recites that his will had left his wife Julian the use of his lands so long as she did not remarry; his heir was his son Hugh, with remainder to a “cousin” (i.e. probably nephew) John Shaa, previously mentioned.^[20] Hugh Shaa dying s.p. and v.m.,^[21] his rights in the unentailed portion of estate passing to his sisters, who in his inquisition post mortem, dated 4 November 7 Hen. VII [i.e. 4 November 1491], are described as “Margaret Ryche, aged 20 years and more, wife of Thomas Ryche of London, mercer, and Katharine Broun, aged 18 years and more, wife of William Broun of London, mercer.”^[22] Some, at least, of the remaining lands, passed to their cousin, John Shaa. In the inquisition post mortem of the widow Julian Shaa, dated 29 October 10 Hen VII [i.e. 29 October 1494], the daughters, “Margaret now wife of Thomas Riche, and Katherine now wife of William Broun, both of London, mercers,” are further described as “aged 22 and more” and “aged 20 and more,” respectively.^[23] In 1506 the executors of Edmund Shaa’s estate caused a number of properties in St. Mary le Bow to pass (in a rather labyrinthine manner) to the Goldsmiths’ Company, and Nicholas Alwyn, citizen and alderman, of St. Pancras, London, by his will dated 1505 and proved 1506, left (in a modern paraphrase) “6 messuages, etc., and also 95/17, to the master and brothers of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acre, to sing and keep obits for Sir Edmond Shaa, Hugh Shaa, and others of that family.”^[24] From the will of Edmund Shaa and the descent of his lands, we see the impossibility of the attribution to Edmund Shaa of a daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Poyntz of Ockenden, Essex.^[25]
    The will of Dame Julyan Shaa, widow, of Colchester, Essex, dated 13 July 1494 and proved 20 July following, states that she was christened at Chelmsford, Essex, mentions her late husband and her deceased son Hugh, and sons-in-law Thomas Riche and William Brown/Broun. As Nina Green notes, it would appear that she was literate, as she bequeaths an illuminated book to a friend. Green’s transcription, in modern spelling, reads, in part:

The 13th day of the month of July the year of Our Lord 1494 and the 9th year of the reign of King Henry the 7th, I, Julyan Shaa, widow, late the wife of Sir Edmund Shaa, knight, citizen while he lived, goldsmith and alderman of the City of London, though I be visited with sickness, nevertheless being of whole mind and in good memory … make and ordain this my present testament in the manner and form following, that is to wit:
    First, I bequeath and recommend my soul to Almighty God … and my body to be buried in the chapel being late made at the cost of my said late husband set in the body of the church of Saint Thomas of Acres in London whereas the bodies of my said late husband and of Hugh, his son and mine, lyen buried;
    … I will that all the duties the which I owe to any manner of person of right or of conscience be first and foremost and most principally before all other things well and truly paid;
    [There follow details as to the funeral arrangements, and numerous charitable beqeuests.]
    Item, I will that mine executors do ordain placebo and dirge with Mass of Requiem solemnly … to be done daily by a month next [en]suing after my decease in the said parish of Saint Peter’s at Cross in Cheap … for my soul, the soul of the said Sir Edmund Shaa, late my husband, and of the said Hugh Shaa, late his son and mine, the souls of our fathers and mothers, and of all our good-doers, and for all Christian souls…;
    Item, I bequeath to every house of Friars of the four Orders of Friars of the City of London, that is to wit Minors, Preachers, Augustines and Carmes, 20s., under the condition … that the convent of every of the said houses as soon as they can have notice after my decease … do a trental of Masses in their convent churches of their said houses for my soul, the souls of the said Sir Edmund, late mine husband, and of the said Hugh, late our son, and for the other souls aforesaid…;
    Item, I bequeath to every servant of mine, as well male as female, dwelling with me the day of my decease to pray for my soul 20s.;
    Item, I bequeath to the wife of Richard Gadde, fustian-shearer, my large primer illumined with letters of gold, the image of Saint John Baptist standing next after the calendar with a prayer under his foot beginning with a large letter G of gold, Gaude Iohannes Bapt[ist]a;
    Item, I bequeath to every child born of the body of Joan, the wife of William Dalton of Leicester, being alive at my decease 40s.;
    Item, I bequeath unto the wife of Richard Fuller to pray for my soul 53s. 4d. …;
    Item, whereas there be divers legacies and charges comprehended severally in the … testaments of my said late husband and of the said late Hugh, our son … to the performance of … which … I have put me in my true devoir as far as a woman could do without any aid had of any other persons that owed [=&nsbp;ought] to have been aiding thereto … I require and charge mine executors hereunder written that they, as they will answer afore God at the dreadful Day of Judgment, put themselves in their true devoirs to perform the legacies and charges as speedily as they can by reasonable possibility after my deceased…;
    And the residue of all my goods, chattels and debts … I bequeath and give wholly to Thomas Riche and William Browne, my sons-in-law and mine executors hereunder written, to be evenly divided between them two as it ought to be done by them two loving brethren;
    And of this my present testament I make and ordain mine executors my said two sons-in-law, Thomas Riche, mercer, and William Browne, the son of Sir John Browne, knight, citizen of London.^[26]

The testament was proved at Lambeth on the 20 July 1494 by the oath of Master John Breton, Doctor of Divinity, and John Parker, scribe.
    Of their children, the elder daughter was:

1. Margaret Shaa, born probably in 1471 (aged 20 on 4 November 1491; aged 22 on 29 October 1494), married before the making of her father’s will on 20 March 1487/8, Thomas Riche, mentioned as “My son Thomas Riche, Lord Mayor, husband of my daughter Margaret” in the will of his father-in-law. She is named as “my sister Margaret, the wife of … Thomas Riche” in the 1491 will of her brother Hugh, cited above. It was at one time believed that she married (2) (as his second wife) after 1495, John Raynsford, Knt., of Colchester and Bradfield, Essex, and was mother of his daughter Julian, wife of William Waldegrave, Knt., of Smallbridge in Bures St. Mary, Suffolk, an ancestress of several Virginia colonists.^[27] However, the second wife of John Raynsford has been more recently identified as Margaret (Ilam) Shaa, widow of John Shaa and daughter of Thomas Ilam.^[28] Incidentally, whatever may be the evidence for the identification of Margaret (Ilam) Shaa, she could not have been a daughter of Edmund Shaa, whose will designates her “my cousin Margaret, the wife of John Shaa.”

3.  Katherine Shaa, younger daughter, born probably in 1473,^[29] living 1494 but died by 3 November 1497. She is referred to as “my right welbeloved doughter Kateryn Shaa” in her father’s 1487 will, and coupled with the fact that she cannot have been aged more than 14 years at the time, this suggests that she was then unmarried.^[30] However, she is called “my sister Katherine, the wife of William Browne,” in the 1491 will of her brother Hugh. She is also called “Katharine Broun, aged 18 years and more, wife of William Broun of London, mercer” in the inquisition post mortem of her brother Hugh, dated 4 November 1491, and “Katharine now wife of William Broun … of London, mercer … aged 20 and more” in that of her mother, dated 29 October 1494. She married therefore by 1 March 1491, William Browne, of “Flambard’s Hall,” London, mercer, Mayor of London in 1513-14, born 1468-69 (aged 30 at the inquisition post mortem of his father, taken 8 February 1499), will dated 29 May 1513, proved 1 July 1514, son and heir of Sir John Browne, Mayor of London in 1481-82, by his second wife, Anne Belwood. See BROWNE for the continuation of the line.

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 1 July 2013