on the 7th of July, 1320. The altar of St. Thomas was in the new work on the north side of the cathedral, where the testator intended to be buried. He had most likely made some arrangement with the Dean and Chapter for that purpose.
Of Sir Nicholas de Wokyndon and Joan his wife little is known. His family derived their name from North Wokyndon, or Ockendon as it is now called, in Essex, in which parish, and in Chadwell that is near it, they appear to have held property from an early period under the bishops of London.[1] His father was, in all probability, the Sir William de Wokyndon who witnessed the grant by Sir William le Baud in 1275 to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's of a buck and a doe annually,[2] which led to a remarkable procession and an offering of a buck and a doe every year in St. Paul's until the time of Camden and Stow, both of whom speak of having seen some part of the ceremony.[3] The confirmation of that grant by Sir Walter le Baud, son of Sir William, in 1302, was witnessed by Sir Nicholas de Wokyndon himself and some other knights of Essex.[4] He was evidently a person of some importance in the county; for, though I do not find him among the King's tenants in capite, he was enrolled for military service in Essex in 24 Edw. I. (1296), and summoned to serve against the Scots in 29 Edw. I. (1301);[5] and he and his consort, doubtless the above-mentioned Joan, were invited among the nobility and other distinguished persons to attend the coronation of Edward II. and his Queen in 1308.[6] He was one of the knights returned for the perambulation of the forests in 1316, and was, in the same year, one of the conservators of the peace.[7] He and also a cadet of the family named Thomas de Wokyndon, probably a brother, appear in the Roll of the Arms of Bannerets in the time of Edward II. under Essex; where his own arms are given as, "de goules a un lion de argent corone de or," and those of Thomas "de goules a un lion barre de argent e de azure." He died, it should seem, on the 8th of May, 1320; for on that day was his obit to be kept, as appears by the endowment, which we have seen, took place by the grant of his widow in January 1320-1.[8] He left no male issue; an only daughter named Joan married Thomas de Halughton, and had issue a son, Sir Nicholas de Halughton, who died in 1338, seized of estates at Ockendon Chadwell,
- ↑ Morant's Essex, i. pp. 102, 230.
- ↑ Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, p. 17. Stow's London.
- ↑ Camden's Britannia, edit. 1590, p. 330. Stow's London.
- ↑ Dugdale and Stow, ubi supra.
- ↑ Parl. Writs, i. pp. 273-4, 352.
- ↑ Rymer, ii. p. 31.
- ↑ Parl. Writs, ii. p. 161; App. p. 103.
- ↑ Deeds in the possession of the Armourers' Company.
