William Stafford, 4th Earl of Stafford (21 September 1375 – 6 April 1395) was an English
noble
A noble is a member of the nobility.
Noble may also refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Noble Glacier, King George Island
* Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land
* Noble Peak, Wiencke Island
* Noble Rocks, Graham Land
Australia
* Noble Island, Gr ...
in the fourteenth century. He was the third son of
Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford
Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, 3rd Baron Stafford, 3rd Baron Audley, KG (c. 1342 – 16 October 1386) was an English nobleman.
Early life
Hugh de Stafford was born around 1342, the second and youngest son of Ralph de Stafford, 1st E ...
(c. 1344 – 16 October 1386); Hugh's second son
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
inherited the
earldom
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used.
The titl ...
in 1390. He died in 1392, still childless, and the title passed to William.
[Cokayne, G.E., The Complete Peerage of England and Wales (Vol. XII, part i, London, 1953), 179-80.] He was still a
minor
Minor may refer to:
Common meanings
* Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities.
* Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education
Mathematics
* Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...
, however, in the
wardship
In law, a ward is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court".
Overview
The wardship jurisdiction is an ancient ju ...
of
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, his dead brother's father-in-law, and the Stafford estates were administered by a ' group of senior officials and lawyers.' He was still so when he died on 6 April 1395 in
Pleshey
Pleshey is a historic village and civil parish in the Chelmsford district, in the county of Essex, England, north-west of Chelmsford. The Normans built a motte-and-bailey castle in the late 11th century; the motte is one of the largest of its ...
,
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
of natural causes.
[Harris, B., '' Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham, 1478-1521'' (Stanford, 1986), 245 n.4.] He was interred in
Tonbridge
Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...
,
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. William also dying childless, the Stafford earldom descended to the next brother,
Edmund
Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings and nobles
*Ed ...
, who became the fifth earl.
References
External links
Inquisition Post Mortem 1395.
{{s-end
1375 births
04
Stafford family
1395 deaths