Name Prefix: Sir
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Weis, Frederick Lewis, with additions and corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard,Jr, Assisted by David Faris, Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who came to America before 1700, 7th Edition, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1992.

RESEARCH NOTES:
Sheriff of Oxfordshire & Berkshire [Ref: Weis AR7 #50]

Member of Parliament [Ref: Weis AR7 #50]

Sources for this Information:
date: 1442/6 [Ref: Weis AR7 #50]

Fettiplace of East Shefford from Heralds' Visitation of Berkshire, 1566. Sir Thomas Fettiplace of East Shefford in the county of Berkshire, knight, married the Lady Beatrice, Countess of Shrewsbury, and daughter to Alphonso, King of Portugal and had issue, Richard, his eldest son ex relacone Robert Yate of Oxford, gentleman.

Sir Thomas Fettiplace of East Shefford and Childrey married Beatrice, widow of Gilbert Talbot, Baron of Archenfield and Blackmere, K.G. 'Unfortunately, no pedigree indicates the branch from which Sir Thomas derived his descent, but as he and Peter Fettiplace of North Denchworth - the then representative of the original line-were contemporaries, each High Sheriff of Berkshire within a few years of one another, and jointly appointed Commissioners of Array for the same county in 1436, it has been suggested that, though probably first cousins, it is quite possible they were brothers, Sir Thomas being the younger, as his arms are known in at least one instance to have been differenced with a martlet, the mark of a fourth son. His marriage with a daughter of the Royal House of Portugal infers that he was a man of recognised position, and suggests the idea of his being of a bold and resolute temperament and well-favoured in person, a conjecture not unconfirmed by his sculptured effigy in East Shefford Church.

The death of Sir Thomas Fettiplace could not have occurred before 1442, for in that year a Commission was issued to him and others "to treat with spiritual and secular persons in the said County (Berks) for a loan to the King in his present necessity, and to bring the same to the receipt of the Exchequer "-and this appears to be the last mention of his name in official documents. He left three sons, William of Stokenchurch, Oxon, James of Maidencote, Berks, and John, the first of whom had an only daughter and heir, Sybella, married to Hugh Unton of Wadley, Berks, and who, no doubt, largely contributed to the fortunes of that house, which evidently attached much importance to the match. This is indicated in the Unton Chapel in Faringdon Church, where the Fettiplace arms axe to be seen in all directions, quartered with those of Unton. The great-grandson of Sybella, Sir Alexander Unton, married Anne, Countess of Warwick, daughter of the Protector Somerset, and first cousin of King Edward VI., the marriage taking place with great pomp at Hatford Church, Berks, "the third calends of May in the first and second years of the raignes of Phillip and Marie," as recorded in the Hatford Parish Register.

James, the second son, settled at Maidencote, Berks, and his line, in the fourth descent, terminated in a female heir who was married to Edmund Dunche, of Little Wittenham, Berks, in the Church of which place a fair monument was erected to her memory, recording, not only her many virtues, but, also, her descent from Sir Thomas Fettiplace and his wife Beatrice, daughter of the King of Portugal. Her son, Sir Williain Dunch, married Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, and Aunt of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector.

See The Fettiplace Family, Article by J. Rentyon Dunlop at http://www.berkshirehistory.com/articles/fettiplace_family.html