Sir Richard Guildford Banneret

  General Notes:

Sir Richard Guylforde was a person of known eminence; of a good family and one of those who,upon the usurpation of Richard the Third, quickly espoused the cause of the Earl of Richmond. Polydore Vergil mentions him expressly among those whom Sir Reginald Bray brought into his lure, taking an oath from them to be true and secret but Sir Richard Guylforde's father had been comptroller of the house- hold to Edward the Fourth, and it is more probable that, knowing as they well did the means by which Richard had mounted the throne, they fell readily into defection, without the necessity of previous lure.

Father and son, at the same moment, raised forces for the Earl of Richmond in Kent; and on the Duke of Buckingham's defeat were both included by name in the act of attainder of the Duke and his fol-lowers. Of Sir John Guylforde, the father, we hear nothing at the moment. But Richard is stated to have fled immediately to the Earl in Britany, and to have returned subsequently with him to Wales, when at the landing at Milford Haven he receivedthe honour of knighthood. There is no mention of him at Bosworth but through the reign of Henry the Seventh, as far as his twenty-first year, Sir Richard Guylforde was the object of continued favour. On 29th September 1485, he received the custody of the royal manor of Kennington, where Henry took up his residence previous to his coronation. On the 2nd of October following he was made one of the Cham-berlains of the Exchequer; subsequent to which, on the 8th March, we find him Master of the Ordnance and of the King's Armoury. He was likewise one of those whom the King made choice of for his Privy Council. In the 2nd of Hen. VII. he received the bailiwick of Winchelsea in grant from the Crown: on the 1st of October that year the manor of Higham in Sussex, to him and his heirs male, with power to build and embattle; and on the 31st December the King gave him the marriage of Elizabeth, the heir of Robert Mortymer. Collins says, on the 15th of April this year, by the name of the King's right trusty counsellor and knight for his body, Sir Richard Guyl-forde was appointed to take care for the building of a ship of seven hundred tons, to be like a ship called the Columbe of France: and that on the 5th October, 3rd Hen. VII. the sum of one hundred marks was ordered to be paid to him for preparing requisites for the jousts against the Queen's coronation. In the 5th Hen. VII. we learn, upon the same authority, that he covenanted by indenture to serve the King upon the sea with five hundred mariners and soldiers for two months from the 12th July in three ships; on the 13th May it is added, probably in the 6th Hen. VII. he had given him three hundred marks of the first money arising from the subsidies in the port of Chichester. On the 30th March, 7th Hen. VII. the King, reciting that he had granted 40l. yearly, besides the fees belonging to the offices of Master of the Ordnance and of the Armoury, orders 20l. thereof to be immediately advanced, for his good and acceptable service, and that "now specially, in this our great journey to our royaume of France, to him right ponderous and chargeable." In the 8th Hen. VII. the marriage of Thomas de la Warr was granted to him. In the 9th Hen. VII. a hundred pounds were given to him toward the maintenance of his charges in being Sheriff of Kent: and in the same year, he and his son Edward had a re-grant of the Office of the Armoury in the Tower of London for the lives of each of them. In the 11th Hen. VII., 21st April, he received the stewardship of the manors and lands in Surrey and Sussex which had belonged to the Duchess of York; and on June 17th in the same year, 1496, he aided in discomfiting the Cornish rebels on Blackheath; on which occasion he was made a Banneret. In the 12th Hen. VII. the mar-riage of Catherine Whiteside was granted to him; and in the same year money was granted to him, being then comptroller of the household, for keeping St. George's feast; on which feast, in the 14th year, his name occurs in the scrutinies, in both the classes of barons and of knights. In the 15th Hen. VII. he was elected into the Order of the Garter: his garter-plate may still be seen fixed within one of the stalls of St. George's Chapel. In the 21st Hen. VII. free warren was granted to him in his manor of Cotmanton. This was the last of the royal grants.

Collins says, in the 22nd of Henry VII. he went beyond sea. His will, however, bears date 7th April 21st Hen. VII. the day before his departure for the Holy Land. "On Wednesday, at night," says the Chaplain, "in Passion-week, that was the 8th day of April, in the 21st year of the reign of Henry the Seventh, the year of our Lord God 1506, about ten of the clock that night, we shipped at Rye, in Sussex; and landed at Kyriell in Normandy the next day about noon."

The only person of comparative importance who accompanied Sir Richard Guylford on this journey, was the Prior of Giseburn, in Yorkshire; who, as far as the mention of him is concerned, is noticed only by his official title. His name was John Whitby. From the Register of the See of Lincoln he appears in fact to have resigned his office of Prior of Giseburn, 13th March, 1505, three weeks before he went upon this pilgrimage.

Sir Richard Guyldeforde had scarcely reached the land of his hope in August, 1506, when he fell ill upon the road between Jaffa and Jerusalem.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Address: Hempstead, Kent.

Richard married Anne de Pympe, daughter of John de Pympe and Phillippa St Leger.