Notes: His biographical entry in House of Commons 1386-1421, after conceding that he had energy and ability, says his "predilection for violence and thuggery was extreme even by medieval standards." Sir Philip Courtenay's career began in the service of the Black Prince, who knighted him after the battle of Najera in 1367. Later he became an admiral, though not a conspicuously successful one. On a naval expedition in 1378 he was captured by Spaniards off the Breton coast and held to ransom.
Back in England he married Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Wake, and was given a wedding present from Richard II of two drinking cups and two gilded silver ewers (at a cost of £22 17s 4d from a London goldsmith). According to House of Commons 1386-1421, this and similar favours, such as an earlier grant of £100 a year for life from Edward III, show that the Courtenay family's advancement was due to close kinship with the king rather than political activity.
He seems to have been on intimate terms with the young king's great-uncle, John of Gaunt, who once ordered a steward at one of his manors to supply Sir Philip with "deux deyms de grece" and to provide him with all the sport he required. Some years later, Sir Philip demonstrated his appreciation in characteristic fashion when a Carmelite friar dared to accuse Gaunt of plotting against the king's life - he and five other knights seized the friar and tortured him to death.
In 1383 Sir Philip entered the House of Commons as a member for Devon, and soon afterwards was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His indenture, appointing him for ten years, declared that he should receive £1,152 from the usual profits of the office, including taxes, for which he was not required to account. This sum does not seem to have been enough for Courtenay, however, since he rapidly acquired a sinister reputation for extortion. Complaints from Ireland about his behaviour soon became too insistent for the government in London to ignore, and after less than three years he was dismissed.
This was a setback, but it didn't seriously affect his career, since he continued to be appointed to similar offices (he was, for instance, Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1388-92). He remained as rapacious as ever, but his social position in the West was so secure that any offences there went virtually unpunished. The only occasion when he was brought to book was when the Abbot of Newenham in Devon complained that Sir Philip Courtenay had attacked his house with some 60 men and held him to ransom. This was serious enough for the king's council to step in. Courtenay ignored their summons to appear before them and explain himself, but finally Parliament intervened, and in November 1402 he was imprisoned in the Tower. (He didn't languish there long, being quickly released after giving a surety of £1,000 for his good behaviour.) The settlements of the Courtenay estates during the lifetime of his father were extremely generous to Sir Philip Courtenay and the other younger sons of the family; and Sir Philip also ended up with the lands of two brothers who predeceased him, Sir Peter and Thomas. By the time of his death in 1406, he owned 17 manors and five advowsons in Devon, three and a half manors and three advowsons in Somerset, and one manor and a hamlet in Dorset, as well as a considerable number of smaller properties, one as far away as Nuneham Courtenay, Oxfordshire. All these descended to his eldest son Richard, bishop of Norwich, and after the bishop's death in 1415 to the heirs of Sir Philip's second son, Sir John.
Will probated 27 January 1669 in which he bequeathed to wife Hannah and four children; son John to be brought up by his father-in-law James Smith and mother-in-law Jone Smith; Susanna and youngest daughter Jane by wife; Hannah by his master and Mrs. Timothy Prout, Senoir; money to be sent to his brother Symon Snell of London, England. The preceding from page 424 of The Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles Henry Pope.
John was a shipcarpenter at Weymouth and Boston, Massachusetts. It seems he came from Barbadoes to this country, was born in England, and is likely the same John Snell found in Salem in 1637. (Pope)
Hannah Smith, the second wife of John Snell, married a second time, for in her father's will in 1673 she is called Hannah Parromore; but I have not succeeded in tracing her under this name. In the microfiche of Boston Records filmed by the Holbrook Institute: The records clearly show the last name to be Narramore.
Hannah Smith, the second wife of John Snell, married a second time, for in her father's will in 1673 she is called Hannah Parromore; but I have not succeeded in tracing her under this name. In the microfiche of Boston Records filmed by the Holbrook Institute: The records clearly show the last name to be Narramore.
Joseph was a widower when he married Persis.
Resided first on Union Street, and then on Pleasant Street. He was known as "Governor Curtis."
Mary HATCH was his second wife. He first married MERCY ROBINSON, in March 1699.
[GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF THE HATCH FAMILY: DESCENDANTS OF
THOMAS AND GRACE HATCH OF DORCHESTER, YARMOUTH AND
BARNSTABLE, MASS. By the Hatch Genealogy Society, 1925]William Weeks, the father of Benjamin Weeks, first married Mercy Robinson and upon her death then married
Mary Hatch. Because there are some important dates unrecorded in this sequence of events, it is impossible to determine which of William's wives was the mother of his eight children.He was a witness to the will of Jonathan Hatch in 1710/11, in which Jonathan mentions his daughter, Mary
"Weaks." It was signed in 1705 and witnessed by John and William Weeks.
Second wife.
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