Hello all In 2004 there was a lengthy discussion about the identity of the mother of Nichola, wife of Thomas Chaworth.[1] To recap briefly, CP XI, 568, sub Scrope, says that she was the daughter and heir of Sir Gerard Braybroke, sheriff of Essex and Herts, 5 Nov. 1406. This Sir Gerard, who died in 1429, married Eleanor de St Amand. His father, Sir Gerard who died in 1403, married 1st Margaret Longueville, whose line became extinct on the death of their great-grandson Richard Beauchamp Lord St Amand; and 2nd Isabel Meynell - who is sometimes said to be Nichola's mother. But if CP is correct in identifying Nichola's father as Sir Gerard who was sheriff in 1406, Isabel Meynell obviously cannot be her mother. In 2004 Rosie Bevan suggested that Nichola could be the daughter of the Sir Gerard identified by CP, but by an unknown previous marriage. On chronological grounds, Nichola could not be the daughter of Eleanor de St Amand (who must have been born in 1370 at the earliest, since her parents were married in or before Feb 1368/9 according to CP), as Nichola herself was married in 1394. There is a reference to Sir Gerard Braybrook, living in 1428, in VCH Bedfordshire, sub Knotting, in connection with the Bossard family, who had been subtenants of the manor since the first quarter of the 13th century. Giles Bossard was the last to hold Knotting Manor, which at his death "appears to have been divided between two co-heirs, one of whom was the wife of Gerard Braybrook, who is recorded as holding the property in 1428 [Feud. Aids, i, 38] and who in the same year surrendered his right in the manor to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. [Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 40b.] The other was possibly Alice the wife of Richard Brounder, who with her husband quitclaimed her half-share in the manor to the Chapter of St. Paul's for 100 marks of silver in the same year.[Feet of F. Beds. 6 Hen. VI, no. 25.] [3] Probably the dean and chapter were acting as trustees for Sir Gerard Braybrook's granddaughter and heir Elizabeth Lady St Amand in her own right [G.E.C. Peerage], who is later found holding the manor with her husband Sir William Beauchamp. [Harl. R. H. 14; O. 41.]" Giles Bossard's date of death is not known, but a fn adds "it was probably before 1376, in which year the patronage of the church (which followed the same descent as the manor) was in the hands of Sir Gerard Braybrook." [2] It is evident from the reference to his granddaughter Elizabeth Lady St Amand that the Sir Gerard Braybrook in question is the one who d. in 1429. Could the Bossard co-heir be the unknown wife of Sir Gerard's suggested by Rosie Bevan? Since his known wife Eleanor de St Amand was born in 1370 at the earliest, I see no chronological objection to Sir Gerard's being married to the Bossard co-heir in 1376, when he would have been about 22 years old. If Nichola was his daughter by this marriage, and was born around the time of Giles Bossard's death, she would have been 18 or so in 1394, when she was married (or already married) to Thomas Chaworth. Notes: [1] CP Correction: Scrope-Chaworth-Braybrook, soc.genealogy. medieval, 2004 [2]'Parishes: Knotting', in A History of the County of Bedford: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1912), pp. 139-142. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/beds/vol3/pp139-142 [accessed 11 June 2016]. [3] http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_6_78.shtml Regards Saba Risaluddin