Humphrey Kynaston (died 1534), aka ''Wild Humphrey Kynaston'',VirtualShropshire.com
Nesscliffe Country Park
was an English

highwayman A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footp ...

who operated in the

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

area.BBC News
''Sir Humphrey Kynaston: The elusive highwayman''
/ref> The son of the High Sheriff of Shropshire, he was convicted of murder in 1491. After being outlawed, he moved into a cave in the area and lived a lifestyle compared to

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...

Biography

Early life

Kynaston was the youngest son of

Sir Roger Kynaston Sir Roger Kynaston of Myddle and Hordley (ca. 14331495) was a Knight of the Realm and English nobleman. He was a member of the Kynaston family, of North Shropshire and the Welsh Marches. Early life Kynaston was the son of Griffin Kynaston (c. ...

(c. 1432/1433–1495),

High Sheriff of Shropshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibili ...

, who was thought to have killed Lord Audley at the

Battle of Blore Heath The Battle of Blore Heath was a battle in the English Wars of the Roses. It was fought on 23 September 1459, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. Blore Heath is a sparsely populated area of farmland, two miles east of the town of Market Drayton in ...

, and Roger's second wife, Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of

Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville, 7th Lord of Powys (1418/1419 – 13 January 1449/1450) was an English peer. He was the son of John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville and his wife Joan Charleton, co-heiress and 6th Lady of Powys. Life He became the ...

and

Antigone Plantagenet Antigone of Gloucester (bef. 1424 – aft. 1450) was an English noblewoman and the illegitimate daughter of Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1390–1447). She was the granddaughter of King Henry IV. She has been thought to have be ...

, the legitimised daughter of

Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (3 October 139023 February 1447) was an English prince, soldier, and literary patron. He was (as he styled himself) "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of E ...

(son of Henry IV and

Mary de Bohun Mary de Bohun (c. 1369/70 – 4 June 1394) was the first wife of King Henry IV of England and the mother of King Henry V. Mary was never queen, as she died before her husband came to the throne. Early life Mary was a daughter of Humphrey de Boh ...

) and second wife Eleanor de Cobham.Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, David Faris
''Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families''
Genealogical Publishing Com, 2004, Pg. 455 He was raised in

Myddle Castle Myddle—also formerly known as Mydle, Middle, , M'dle, Meadley and Medle—is a small village in Shropshire, England, about 10 miles north of Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire. Myddle lies in the parish of Myddle, Broughton and Harmer ...

, which Roger had inherited from his first wife Elizabeth Cobham.Gaskell Family History Website
Sir Roger Kynaston
/ref> He received his "wild" nickname from his outrageous lifestyle, which frequently got him into trouble with the law.''https://archive.org/details/transactionsofsh26shro/page/n491 Trans. Shropshire Arch. & Nat. Hist. Soc.'' 2nd Ser. 6 (1894): 209–222] ("The quaint historian of Middle says that he 'for his dissolute and ryotous liveing was called the wild Humphrey. Hee has two wives, but both of soe meane birth that they could never claim to any Coat of Armes... being outlawed in debt, hee left Myddle Castle (which he had suffered to grow ruinous for want of repaire) and went and sheltered himself in a Cave near to Nescliffe, which to this day is called Kynaston's Cave, and of him the people tell almost as many romantick storyes as of the great outlawe Robin Whood." He was outlawed in 1491, and pardoned two years later). Kynaston later inherited Myddle Castle from his father, but allowed the estate to fall into disrepair.

Marriages and children

He was married at least twice, firstly to Mariona ferch Williamus ap Griffith ap Robin. They had two children: * Edward Kynaston, who died young * Isabella Kynaston Kynaston later married Isabella ferch Maredudd ap Howell ap Morrice of Oswaldestre (

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

), daughter of Maredudd of

Glascoed } Glascoed is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It is east of Pontypool and west of Usk. Glascoed is mostly associated with the Royal Ordnance Factory nearby at ROF Glascoed. Llandegveth Reservoir A reservoir (; from French ...

and Thomasina Ireland of

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

. They had six children:Gaskell Family History Web Site
Humphrey Kynaston
/ref> * Margaret Kynaston * Edward Kynaston * Thomasina Kynaston * Robert Kynaston * Roger Kynaston * Jana Kynaston It is further thought that he married Margred ferch William on 4 August 1497, with whom he had another two children:Visitation of Shropshire
1623, Robert Treswell * Elsbeth Kynaston (b. Cochwilliam, 1502) * Edward Kynaston of Hordley (born c.1515)

Life of a highwayman

On 20 December 1491, Kynaston was found guilty of the murder of John Hughes at Stretton,The Flude Genealogy Websit
Roger Kynaston (c. 1450–1517)
/ref> and declared an outlaw by Henry VII. Some time after that, he moved from Myddle castle to a cave in Nesscliffe Rock.Subterranea of Great Britain
Kynaston's Cave
Some sources claim that the reason he moved was due to the criminal charges, and others claim that he was outlawed due to debts.Discovering Shropshire's History
''From Castle to Cave: The Story of Wild Humphrey Kynaston''
2 October 2006 From 1491 to 1518, Kynaston supposedly lived a life that would match the fictional character

. It seems he had a reputation for robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. In return, the locals protected him, and gave him and his horse ('Beelzebub') food. One time, in an attempt to capture Kynaston, the local sheriff removed several planks from

Montford Bridge Montford Bridge is a village in Shropshire, England, and also the name of the bridge in that village. It lies on the River Severn and is close to the town of Shrewsbury. Most of the village is in the Montford parish, but some is covered by t ...

, to keep him from crossing the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, but his horse managed to leap and safely clear the distance. It is also said that he was a regular patron at the Old Three Pigeons tavern at Nesscliffe in Shropshire, and his original seat is still there. He may have been pardoned by Henry VII in 1493, but some accounts state that in 1513, Humphrey provided 100 men to aid

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

in France, and in return received a royal pardon 3 to 5 years later.

Death

Kynaston left a will dated 1 May 1534, which was proved 26 January 1535. While the year of his death is well known, how he died and where are disputed. Some sources claim he lived comfortably in an estate near

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

until he died, and others claim he died of illness in his cave.Spence, Elizabeth Isabella
''Old Stories''
Longman & Co., 1822

Kynaston's Cave

Today, the cave is known as Kynaston's Cave, and is located at . It has two rooms; Kynaston lived in one, and

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

d Beelzebub in the other. The cave also featured an iron door for an entrance. This iron door is said to later have become the door for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correct ...

. There is also an

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...

in the cave, which reads H.K. 1564. Although this engraving is concluded to be made by Humphrey, he was dead 30 years before 1564. However, he did have a grandson, Humfridus (b.1530) who may have left the inscription.