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Person Info

• Name: Avis HUMBERSTONE
• Sex: F
• Death: Oct 1597 in London ^d


Parents:

• Father:
  
• John HUMBERSTONE Death: 1550
Mother:

• Ceciley HEWSE

Family:
Marriage:

• Thomas CRATHORNE on 1 .^m1
  
• Thomas CRATHORNE

Children:

1. Thomas CRATHORNE
2. Henry CRATHORNE

Marriage:

• Christopher JENNEY on 1568 .^m2
  
• Christopher JENNEY Birth: Abt 1525 Death: Abt 19 Jul 1570

Children:

1. John JENNEY Birth: Abt 1570

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

parents:

[Ref: Rye Norfolk p166],

father:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p23]

Sources for death Information

date:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16],

place:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16]

Sources with Information about marriage to Thomas CRATHORNE

date:

first marriage of Avis [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16, Rye Norfolk p166],

child:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16]

Sources with Information about marriage to Christopher JENNEY

date:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p15]

second marriage of Avis [Ref: Rye Norfolk p166],

names:

___ JENNEY & Avis ___ [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p7]

___ JENNY of Knottishall & Avis HUMBERSTONE [Ref: Rye Norfolk p166],

child:

[Ref: Hovius JENNEY p26, Hovius JENNEY p7]

Research Notes:
18 Jun 1574: petitioned for administration of the remainder of the estate of her deceased husband; record places her in Norwich [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p26]

1574: first appeared in Norwich [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p25]

1576: a citywide subsidy was raised in Norwich, and in the section for "Brakendell cum Carrowe" Avis Jenney paid 13s. 4d. in tax on land valued at 100a (or 5 pounds) {Subsidy Roll, 1576, Norfolk Record Office (Norwich), NCR 71, NRO microfilm MF/RO 404}. Bracondale, an area that includes the once-proud priory of Carrow, was the hamlet immediately adjacent to Lakenham and part of the same ward of Norwich. Avis Jenney appears there again in a subsidy taken the following year, though her net worth is given as 5# 1s. 3d {Subsidy List, 1577, NRO, Case 13a/4, p. 54, sub Brakendall, NRO microfilm MF/X 29}. At Easter 1578, she is listed again in Bracondale, paying 1s. 8d. in tax on an even 5 pounds in lands; no taxable value is assigned to any household goods she may have had {Subsidy List, 1577, NRO, Case 13a/4, p. 89, sub Brakendall, NRO microfilm MF/X 29}. [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p7]

1577: appears in a subsidy list, net worth given as 5 pounds 1s3d [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p8]

Easter 1578: listed in Bracondale, paying 1s8d in tax on an even 5 pounds in lands; no taxable value is assigned to any household goods [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p8]

Final known mention of Avis Jenney in Norwich, occurs in the four-page-long will of Francis Southwell, Esq., made out on 6 October 1581. Southwell gave "unto Mrs Jenney fyve poundes to be paid her owte of suche howshold stuffe as remains at Norwiche or Lakenham" {The National Archives (TNA, formerly the Public Record Office, PRO), PROB 11/64, PCC Will Register: Tirwhite}.
Southwell died on 10 November 1582. [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p8]

another clue regarding the possible movement of Avis Homberston Jenney from Dunwich to Bracondale. It is worth pointing out again that Lakenharn and Bracondale are administratively just neighbourhoods of Norwich -- tiny ones at that. In deciding whether or not Avis Jenney of Bracondale was the widow of Christopher Jenney of Dunwich, a crucial clue may be provided by a document indicating that Avis Homberston's father owned land in Bracondale. A suit in the Exchequer brought by one William Bullock sometime after 1532 claims that John Homberston, with help from Thomas Godsalve, had improperly obtained title to lands "in Brakyndelle lyenge besydes Norwyche" {Bullock v. Homberston, Godsalve TNA, E 111/53}. Though damaged, this document also suggests that John Homberston and Thomas Godsalve had a solid business relationship in the 1530s, in light of which it is not surprising that the former witnessed the latter's will. Bullock complains that land belonging to his wife's brother had been improperly sold to John Homberston rather than passing to her after her brother's death. Somehow -- surely not through mere chance -- Godsalve became one of two commissioners initially appointed to look into the matter, and while he stalled Homberston concluded a (possibly fictitious) sale of the land to a gentleman from Ipswich, "thynkynge therebye to delaye discoverye & advoyde your seyde ? Oratours of there ryghte & interest of & in the seyde messuage & landes." Remember that the Visitations describe Avis Jenney's father as being "of Norwich" without alluding to a specific ward. Perhaps, impoverished and widowed, when Avis Jenney settled in Bracondale she was simply returning home to her father's lands.
In another Chancery suit, when discussing the provenance of his lands in Dunwich, Christopher Jenney of Lincoln's Inn stated that he had owned the lands since Francis Jenney had transferred the rights to him in about 1573 -- precisely before the widow Avis Jenney's appearance in Norwich in 1574 {Jenney v. Brooke; TNA, C 3/277/59}. Yet another circumstance in support of the Lakenham/Dunwich family connections is provided by the musters returns and tax lists for Lakenham mentioned earlier in this article. In 1598 and 1599, only one other person is recorded as having been taxed on land in Lakenham: Roger Godsalve, the son, and heir of the Thomas Godsalve who in 1570 owed #200 to Christopher Jenney of Dunwich. [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p25]

Late in his life, John (brother of Avis) and his family settled at Billockby, where Francis Blomefield records a heraldic window in the chancel of the parish church showing the Jenney arms {Francis Blomefield, "An Essay Towards Topographical History of the County of Norfolk," 11 vols. (London: William Miller, 1805-10), 11:151}, a window that surely alludes to the marriage of Christopher and Avis, as not one other link between the Jenneys and Billockby has emerged in the course of this research. [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16]

died in London in October 1597, when administration of her estate was granted to her son Henry Crathorne {Act Book 15, Folio 105, London Commissary Court, FHL microfilm 94491}. Her two eldest sons, Thomas and Henry Crathorne, had lived in England's capital since the 1580s, for they were described as being "of London" in a 1584 deed by which they sold some land in Buckenham Ferry -- a deed that was witnessed by their uncle John Homberston and their cousin, also named John Homberston [Ref: Hovius JENNEY p16]



Pedigree of Avis HUMBERSTONE
                   /-----John HUMBERSTONE
          /-----John HUMBERSTONE
         |         \-----(Unk) TURPIN
 /-----John HUMBERSTONE
|         \-----Ellen BROWNE
Avis HUMBERSTONE
|         /-----Alban HEWSE
 \-----Ceciley HEWSE



Descendants of Avis HUMBERSTONE

2nd generation


3rd generation


4th generation


5th generation