THE FOURTH GENERATION
Henry Winchcombe and his wife Agnes produced eight children

   
John Winchcombe was born in 1557 and died in 1610. He married Marjorie Saunders in June 1573 at Brightwell Baldwin in Oxfordshire. Marjorie was the daughter of Ambrose Saunders and his wife, Mary (nee Goodwyn). They had two children John and William. This family remained staunchly Catholic through troubled times and  in 1591 John was reported by a spy as being a harbourer of priests. He described a hiding place used by fugitive clergy in a great hollow oak in the hedgerow near John's home (Henwick Manor).  The spy also reported that 'church stuff' was hidden upstairs in a cupboard "by the pickling trough for pig's offal". John(3) is buried at Thatcham in Berkshire. He was his father's son and heir and succeeded to the Lordship of Bucklebury in Berkshire

   Thomas Winchcombe
was born around 1558 and married (perhaps) Jane Rondall. He was a clothier in Marlborough, Wilts. Thomas had three children - John, Alice and Edward. When he died he named his wife as Susan in his Will. Nothing
further is known of this family.

   Henry Winchcombe was born in 1560 and presumably died young as there is no mention of him in his father's Will.

    
Walter Winchcombe was born in 1562 and died just eight years later.

     
Hester Winchcombe - Nothing is known about Hester and the only information on her comes from a mention in her brother's Will. 

   Alice Winchcombe - no details.

    
Mary Winchcombe married William Lacey and had a son also called William and the information stops here!

 
   Ann Winchcombe married into the Gifford family. Which Gifford is not known and, as in the case of Mary and William Lacey information stops here!

Thomas Winchcombe from his marriage to Christian Bradshaw had three children.

 
  Benedict Winchcombe was, it seems, quite a character. I have no details of his birth date but he died in 1623 and legend has it that he still haunts the village of Noke in Oxfordshire where he lived in the Manor House and was known in his latter years as "Old Winchcombe". The story goes that he was a very keen huntsman - so keen that he would even take to horse and  hounds on a Sunday. His haunting consists of the sound of those same horse and hounds as his ghost rides around the
village. He married
Anne Fawconer (or Falconer) of West Lavington, Wiltshire, she being the daughter of William Fawconer and Jane nee Udall. Anne was a known, but unconvicted, Catholic Recusant. Benedict was a Catholic and would appear to have lost lands etc to sequestration but he managed to retain a good deal along with his respectability and wealth.  He became High Sheriff of the County and bought back West Gringe which his father had sold in 1571. His Will is lengthy and suggests a patriarch determined to control his family from beyond the grave! A lot of the clauses concern his niece, Mary Hall, with stipulations as to her inheritance and how it would be affected should she not marry with the approval of her family. On first reading it rather looked as though Mary was, perhaps, a flighty young thing liable to elope with the stable lad but no doubt Benedict wanted to ensure her marriage into a select and probably Catholic family. She pleased everyone, I'm sure, on her marriage into the staunchly Catholic Fermor family, though whether she had any choice in the matter is open to question! Benedict, himself, died childless and was murdered by poachers on his land. He is buried at Noke, Oxfordshire. His Memorial reads:_
"We know thou art not lost but sent before
Thy friends all left thy absence to deplore.
Nor can thy Virtues ever be forgotten
Tho in thy grave thy corpse be dead and rotten.
For ill tongued Envy to the World must tell
That as thou livdst thou didst and that was well."

 
  Mary Winchcombe married William Hall of High Meadows in Gloucestershire. He was the son of Christopher Hall and Joan nee Hiett. William and Mary produced four children - Benedict, Henry, Cicely and Mary.

   
  Anthony Winchcombe died in 1556 and as his mother died in 1557 it rather looks as though he died at birth and his mother succumbed to the rigours of childbirth shortly after.

John(3) Winchcombe and Helen Taylor had four children.

   
  Francis Winchcombe succeeded to the Lordship of Bucklebury in Berks and an inscription at the Church of St Mary's there proclaims that he built the church in 1591. A little carving on the outside wall is thought to be a rebus for the name "Winchcombe".. There appears to be no record of his first wife and the mother of his children but various clues point to the fact that she may have been of the Norreis (Norris - Norreys) family of Bray in Berkshire. Mary Norreis who died in 1598 mentions two sisters Anne and Elizabeth Winchcombe in her Will and her son, Henry Norreis, in his Will of 1605 refers to them as his nieces.  The only sisters so named and of the right period  are two daughters of Francis. Another link with the Norreis family crops up in a deed of 1609/10 in which Sir John Norris and Francis Winchcombe leased property from Sir Richard White (the husband of Francis' daughter Dorothy). This deed, made as Sir Richard was dying, would appear to be some sort of security for Dorothy and it is more than tempting to accept that the Norrises would be concerned enough about one of their relatives to be involved in business ensuring her financial security. Another link to the connection is the engraving on the tomb of William (Francis' son) of the Winchcombe Coat of Arms, impaled with Norreys. As William married into the Dunch family it suggests that the Arms are those of his father.
Francis' second wife was quite definitely
Joan Knollys. She was the widow of  Richard Knollys  Esq of Stanford in the Vale. A daughter of this marriage, Lettice, married John Hampden The group of military thinkers who masterminded the defeat of the Spanish Armada included not only Sir Francis Knollys but also Sir John Norris (see previous para. Re. Norris). Interestingly, Francis who died in 1619, some twelve years before Joan, makes no mention of her or her family in his Will and Joan, apart from referring to herself as the wife of the late Francis Winchcombe, makes no mention of his family. Francis and his first wife had seven children, Joan or Jane,Anne Henry, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Thomas and William.

     
John Winchcombe - nothing known except that he died early.

    
Anne Winchcombe - this is probably the Anne who married John Chock (Choke) on the 19th January 1557.

    Henry Winchcombe - nothing known except that he died 26 Feb 1603.

     Mary Winchcombe - married John Goddard (son of Vincent Goddard and his wife who was a daughter of Sir Thomas Verney) of Water Eaton in Wilts. Mary and John had two
children, Edward and Bridget.
Benedict Winchcombe - the ghost of Noke  Oxfordshire........................
1. Jack of Newbury
2. Second Generation
3. Third Generation
4. Thomas 1520-1574
Can you solve the mystery?
5.  Fifth Generation
6. Sixth Generation
7. Seventh Generation
The Boleyn Connection
8. Eighth & Ninth Generations
9. Genealogical Site Ring
10. Really Useful Stuff (Links)
11.The Gloucestershire Winchcombes
12.Nathaniel Winchcombe 1757-1817
SOURCES:-
www.familysearch.org
Documents Gloucs Reg Office
Thames Valley Recusants by T.Hadley
Will of  Benedict Winchcombe d.1623
Will of John Winchcombe d.1610
Victoria History Berks
Victoria History Oxon
Victoria History Gloucs
Will of Maryt Norreis d. 1598
Will of Henry Norreis d. 1605
Will of Joan Winchcombe
Will of John Goddard d.1560
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