(Foster, Joseph: Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, Vol. 2, West Riding. London. 1874)
The name of Leventhorpe is sufficiently
uncommon to make one believe that the task of linking up the various branches
of the family should be possible. Moreover, all the branches appear to have
used the same Arms, which supports the belief in a common ancestor. Beyond
isolated references to the name, the definite families are:
The Yorkshire Leventhorpes,
The Hertfordshire Leventhorpes,
The Essex Leventhorpes.
Of these, the Leventhorpes of Shingle Hall,
Sawbridgeworth, are the best known.
Early in the fourteenth century, Wilham de
Leventhorpe, the grandson of Adam, married Dyonisa, the heiress of Hugh de
Horton, whereby the Manors of Horton and Clayton passed into the possession of
the Leventhorpes. *None of the impalements agree with the marriages in either
the Yorkshire or Hertfordshire branches with the exception of No. 625, which
exemplifies Leventhorpe impaling - on a Chevron a mullet pierced a label of
three points. This impalement is embodied as a quartering in one of the shields, now lost, in the
brass to John Leventhorpe, who died 1488 (Plate II), which, I take to represent
the arms of Totty (Vincent's Ordinary gives Argent a chevron Azure, charged
with a mullet of the first for Totty. Glover gives the same without the
mullet.) In this case the boss
commemorates the parents of John Leventhorpe, Senr., of Sawbridgeworth (1435).
That he had some connection with Canterbury is evident from his Will, in which he leaves 100 marks to
sustain four boys at Canterbury. Mr. Griffin dates the Cloisters at 1391-1411,
which fits in quite well. Beyond knowing who the parents of John Leventhorpe
were and that he himself owned the Manor of Leventhorpe, we do not know just
how he fits into the Yorkshire Pedigree. I should not be at all surprised if
further searches did not reveal that his ancestors contracted marriages with
the Colepeppers, Cloptons, and Claverings, whose Arms are associated with Leventhorpe
on the bosses. (Kerr, P.W.: The Leventhorpes of
Sawbridgeworth, F.S.A., Rouge Croix Pursuivant)
