BIGOD, Sir Ralph

1457 - 1515  (58 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	BIGOD, Ralph
  Prefix	Sir
  Birth	Apr 1457	Settrington, Yorkshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Burial	Apr 1515	Settrington, Yorkshire, England   [1]
  Death	7 Apr 1515	Settrington, Yorkshire, England   [1]
  WAC	8 Jun 1937  [2]
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I30608	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	BIGOD, Sir John ,   b. Abt 1433, Settrington, Yorkshire, England Settrington, Yorkshire, Englandd. 29 Mar 1461, Towton, Yorkshire, England (Age 28 years)
  Mother	SCROPE, Elizabeth ,   b. Abt 1439, Bolton, Yorkshire, England Bolton, Yorkshire, Englandd. 12 Jun 1503, Stoke, Buckinghamshire, England (Age 64 years)
  Family ID	F17362	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	CONSTABLE, Margarey ,   b. 1459, Flamborough, Yorkshire, England Flamborough, Yorkshire, Englandd. 1525 (Age 66 years)
  Marriage	1473	Flamborough, Yorkshire, England   [3]
  Children	2 sons and 2 daughters
  + 1. BIGOD, Sir John ,   b. 20 Jan 1475, Settrington, Yorkshire, England Settrington, Yorkshire, Englandd. 9 Sep 1513, Northumberland, England (Age 38 years)   2. BIGOD, Ralph ,   b. Abt 1477, Settrington, Yorkshire, England Settrington, Yorkshire, England   3. BIGOD, Agnes ,   b. 1479, Settrington, Yorkshire, England Settrington, Yorkshire, Englandd. 14 May 1503, Settrington, Yorkshire, England (Age 24 years)   4. BIGOD, Elizabeth ,   b. Abt 1481, Settrington, Yorkshire, England Settrington, Yorkshire, Englandd. Abt 1550, England (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F17037	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Notes

  Ancestral file. There were two closely related Ralph Bigods of a similar age: - Ralph Bigod (died 1476 aged around 24) younger son of Sir Ralph Bigod and Anne Greystoke; and - Sir Ralph Bigod (d 1515 aged about 60), son of Sir John Bigod and Elisabeth le Scrope, and grandson of Sir Ralph and Lady Anne. ---- Sir Ralph Bigod [1457-1515] is one of those ‘minor’ historical figures we don’t hear much about. He may have been of little interest to the world at large had not another one of those minor figures, Henry Parker, Lord Morley, immortalised him in an account of Margaret Beaufort’s household presented to Queen Mary I when Morley was in his seventies. The Bigods of Settrington descended from the old earls of Norfolk, settling in Settrington around 1302. Some time before 1410 Sir John Bigod married Constance, daughter of the seventh Peter de Mauley. The de Mauleys are rather famous for their first Peter, ‘evil’ councillor of King John. When Constance’s brother, the last Peter de Mauley died and the male line came to an end, she inherited a considerable share of the de Mauley lands. These went to her son, Sir Ralph Bigod. About a decade later, in 1461, Sir Ralph and his heir Sir John were killed at the Battle of Towton. The next male heir was our Ralph Bigod, great-grandson of Constance, grandson of Sir Ralph, son of Sir John and Elizabeth Scrope. Ralph inherited the estate at the tender age of four and was placed in the wardship of his uncle Lord Scrope of Bolton. Sometime after 1479, when he had reached his majority, Ralph joined Richard Duke of Gloucester’s household. He earned both his knighthood and the office of Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1482. After Richard’s succession Sir Ralph joined Anne Neville’s household as a carver. During his reign Richard placed Sir Ralph on various commissions and also appointed him as Richard’s master of ordinance.1 In 1482 another of Richard’s loyal servants, Sir William Parker, was knighted. His two year-old son Henry would meet Sir Ralph later on. Both Sir Ralph and Sir William would go on to fight for Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Sir William may have spent some time in prison after Bosworth.2 Sir Ralph fared somewhat better. Because Elizabeth Bigod had married into the St. John family, kin to Margaret Beaufort, Sir Ralph was taken into Margaret’s household after being injured at Bosworth and given a ceremonial position as her carver. Sir Ralph led a fruitful life, having a long and successful career, marrying three times, and having a total of seven children, five legitimate and two illegitimate. He was unswervingly loyal to all three of his kings and queens. After Bosworth and under Henry VII he was appointed to royal offices in the North as early as 1486. Sir Ralph kept out of the Lambert Simnel rebellion his uncle Lord Scrope was implicated in. In 1503 Elizabeth of York gave him sixty shillings for bringing her a New Year’s gift.3 Sir Ralph would accompany Princess Margaret into Scotland for her wedding to King James IV later that year. The young Henry Parker would have met Sir Ralph when he was no older than 15, no later than 1496. Henry Parker joined Margaret Beaufort’s household in his youth, and it seems Sir Ralph left a lasting impression on him. Six decades later, in the New Year of 1556, Henry Parker, Lord Morley, would present his beloved Queen Mary I with his Account of the Miracles of the Sacrament, where he described: A wonderful tale that a gentleman that was servant with your gracious great grandame, my most noble mistress, did oftentimes tell as well unto her grace/as to us that were her servants. The said gentleman was named Bygott4 and was carver to your said noble great grandame, and in that office I think he had no fellow within this realm. He had been afore in that service with Queen Anne that was King Richard’s wife and after her death served the said King Richard so truly that unethes [with difficulty] he might abide that any man should dispraise him. Which doing your said good great grandame took so well that she would often say to us, he being absent, that Bygott was worthy to be praised, that once having a master and sworn unto him, as he was to King Richard, to be ever more so true a servant to him 5 Perhaps both Margaret Beaufort’s admiration for loyalty and Sir Ralph’s devotion to his kings, and his countess, resonated with Lord Morley. Morley’s low-key career as a minor noble and scholar may have remained untarnished, but his loyalty to the tyrannical Henry VIII must have been sorely tested. His son-in-law George Boleyn and his daughter Jane were both executed for treason in the space of a few years. His good friend Thomas Cromwell and Margaret Beaufort’s spiritual adviser John Fisher both lost their lives to Henry’s wrath. A devout Catholic, Morley watched 200 Catholics executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace, for which he was required to furnish men. Sir Ralph’s cousin Robert Aske would lose his life in that rebellion, and his grandson and heir Sir Francis was also executed in the aftermath. He would have seen countless friends and peers suffer alongside him in Henry VIII’s reign. Yet Morley risked his own standing with Henry VIII to support Henry’s beleaguered daughter Princess Mary. One of the remarkable things about Lord Morley is his steadfast devotion to Mary Tudor, from Mary’s teenage years until Morley’s own death. And when he presented his Account of the Miracles of the Sacrament to Queen Mary, some six decades after his service to her grandmother, he remembered another loyal servant, Sir Ralph Bigod. 1. Warnicke, Retha M. ‘Sir Ralph Bigod: A Loyal Servant to Richard III’ The Ricardian Vol VI No 84 1984 p. 301. 2. Carley, James, Henry Parker, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 3. Ibid. 4. Retha Warnicke notes the name Bigod had various spellings, including Bygot and Bygoff ‘Sir Ralph Bigod: A Loyal Servant to Richard III’ The Ricardian, Vol, VI No 84, 1984, p. 300 (full article pp. 299-303). 5. Axton, Marie, Carley, James P. Triumphs of English: Henry Parker Lord Morley, British Library 2000 p. 262. SOURCE: Olga Hughes, "After Richard III: Sir Ralph Bigod and Henry Parker, Lord Morley," Nerdelicious (March 24, 2015), online: http://nerdalicious.com.au/history/after-richard-iii-sir-ralph-bigod-and-henry-parker-lord-morley/ ---- Sir Ralph Bigod will (proved York 22 Jan 1514-5 T.E. Vol V 1884 p. 55) mentions his wives ‘Margaret and Alice late departed’, wife Agnes, Sir Raufe Eury knt, son John, feoffee: Sir William Constable, Petir Bygod esq, Thomas Constable, William Constable of Settrington, Sir Thomas Franke clerk, John of Lecestre and William Wood. and Sir Ralph Eure, his brothers in law, and his widow Agnes (although it is believed he married Margery). St George (1591, p. 612) suggests Agnes was the daughter of Robert Constable of Drumonby.

  
  

• Sources

  [S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index. Ralph Bigod; Male; Birth: 1457 Of, Settrington, Yorkshire, England; Death: 07 APR 1515; Burial: Settrington Church, , Yorkshire, England; Father: John Bigod; Mother: Elizabeth Scrope; Spouse: Agnes Constable; Sealing to Spouse: 21 DEC 1966 Manti, Sanpete, Utah; Film Number: 471424 Record submitted by a member of the LDS Church Search performed using PAF Insight on 16 Aug 2004 [S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index. Ralph Bigod; Male; Birth: About 1457 Settrington, Yorkshire, England; Death: Before 07 APR 1515; Baptism: 15 APR 1995 BOUNT; Endowment: 29 JUN 1995 BOUNT; Sealing to Parents: 17 AUG 1995 BOUNT; John Bigod / Elizabeth Scrope; Father: John Bigod; Mother: Elizabeth Scrope; No source information is available. Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church to request LDS temple ordinances. Search performed using PAF Insight on 16 Aug 2004 [S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index. Margery OR Margaret Constable; Female; Birth: About 1461; Spouse: Ralph BIGOD; Marriage: 1480 , Yorkshire, England; No source information is available. Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church. Search performed using PAF Insight on 16 Aug 2004