2»<i S. IX. Mat.. 24. 'GO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



227 



NICHOLAS UPTON. 

 (1 st S. x. 437.) 



In " N. & Q." some time since .appeared a short 

 notice of Nicolas Upton, the writer on heraldry, 

 wherein it is stated that it is supposed that he was 

 a native of Devon, and a younger son of the family 

 of Upton of Puslinch, and a cadet of the still 

 older family of Upton o^Trelaske in Cornwall. 



In this statement your correspondent most na- 

 turally follows the authority of the worthy Prince 

 (p. 743., Prince's Worthies of Devon), who says 

 that of the two seats of the Upton family in De- 

 von, Lupton, and Postlinch, it is most likely 

 Nicholas Upton might be born at the latter. 



Now I should not be indisposed to appro- 

 priate the honour of being able to attribute to 

 the good old Doctor that spot as his birth-place, 

 which so many assign him ; but I fear the truth 

 will not bear us out in so doing. 



On the authority of Prince, who follows Ful- 

 ler, Dr. Nicholas Upton, having spent his younger 

 years at Oxford in study, was, in 1428, with Thos.- 

 Montague Earl of Salisbury at the siege of Or- 

 leans, where the latter fell on Nov. 3. After this he 

 returned to Oxford, and, being taken under the 

 patronage of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, was 

 made canon of the church of Wells, into which 

 office he was admitted in 1431. He finally held 

 the living of Stapulford in Sarum diocese in 1434, 

 and was admitted canon of Salisbury, and in 1446 

 was installed as chauntor of the same church, and 

 died at Salisbury in 1457. 



It is clear from these facts that Nicholas Upton 

 must have been born near the commencement of 

 the fifteenth century ; and if so, the question is at 

 onCe settled with regard to his being born at 

 either Puslinch or Lupton. At that early period 

 the family of Upton had not settled in Devon, 

 and in proof of this it may interest your readers 

 to give a slight sketch of the family anterior to 

 that time. 



The old family of Uppeton or Upton had its 

 origin at their seat Uppeton or Upton in the 

 parish of Lewannick, near Launceston in Corn- 

 wall, where about the time of King Richard I. 

 John Upton was seated. To him succeeded An- 

 drew Upton his son, who was followed by his son 

 Hamlyn, and he by his son John ; to John suc- 

 ceeded Richard Upton, who married Agnes the 

 daughter of Walter Carnother of Carnother, Corn- 

 wall ; to him succeeded John Upton, who mar- 

 ried Margaret, sister and coheiress of John Moels 

 of Trelaske, by which match, I imagine (although 

 the old family pedigrees give the heiress of Tre- 

 laske as wife to one of the earlier generations of 

 the house of Upton), the Uptons became possessed 

 of the manor of Trelaske ; for I find in 1276 that 

 John de Mules and Mirabella his wife, sister and 

 heir of Laurentius Trelloske, redeem the lands of 



Trelloske, Trescawell, and Northill in Cornwall, 

 the lands of the said Laurence, of the yearly value 

 of xiiii/. 



John Upton and Margaret Mules his wife had 

 issue Thomas Upton, who in divers deeds * styles 

 himself Dominus de Trelaske. He married Joane, 

 daughter and heiress of Sir John Trelawny (she 

 died 1464), leaving three sons and one daughter 

 Isabel.f 



His first son John Upton died in his father's 

 lifetime leaving a son William, who became heir 

 to his grandfather in 1470 j, and who styled him- 

 self Dmus de Treloske.§ He appears to have been 

 unjustly kept out of his inheritance by his uncle 

 William ; for in 1474 there is a process of eject- 

 ment against William Upton carried into execu- 

 tion at Trelaske by John Fortescue the sheriff.|| 

 He did not however long survive, for in 1477 

 (his son Thpmas having died in his father's life- 

 time), he leaves by will Trelaske, Uppeton, Tre- 

 wynne, Hayes, Treswin, and Penventon, to his 

 uncles William and John Upton. 



William Upton, the second son of Thomas Up- 

 ton and Joana Trelawny, on this succeeded to 

 Trelaske and St. Winnowe, and by the daughter 

 and heiress of Richard Palmer left a son and heir, 

 John, who left a son and heir Galfrid Upton of 

 Trelaske, who joins in a fine^f passed in 1556 on 

 Trelaske, Uppeton, Trewyn, Lawannecke, Tre- 

 wyn-down, Vowell-more, and Northill, with his 

 cousin William Upton of Poselynche, grandson of 

 his great uncle John Upton, third son of Thomas. 



This Trelaske branch did not flourish much 

 longer at the old family seat ; for at the end of 

 the sixteenth century two heiresses brought Tre- 

 laske to one brother, and St. Winnow to another 

 brother of the family of Lower, both branches of 

 which have long since alienated this moiety of the 

 property. 



John, the third son of Thomas Upton and 

 Joana Trelawny, was the first of the Upton 

 family who settled in Devon. The cause of this 

 was his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and 

 heiress of Sir AVilliam Mohun of Poselynche in 

 Newton Ferrers parish, and in the Hundred of 

 Ermington in 1460. He died in 1489, leaving 

 issue two sons John and William, and he left 

 Poselynche in Devon and Uppeton in Cornwall 

 to his son John Upton. His second son William 

 Upton** married Eganys, daughter and heiress of 

 John Pennelles, or Peverel of Lupton "ft, and be- 

 came the ancestor of the Uptons of Lupton. This 

 branch in the fourth generation had three brothers, 



* Penes John Yonge of Puslinch. 



f Vide her will, penes John Yonge. 



+ Copy of Chancery suit, penes J. Y. 



§ Penes John Yonge of Puslinch. 



|| Deed, penes J. Y. 



f Ibid. 



** His will, penes John Yonge. 



tf Chancery suit copy, penes John Yonge. 



