Shiers of Wreningham, and Christian wife to Thomas Foster, Gent. had legacies. In the said chapel, is a gray marble with a brass plate, on which is this,
Jane Knyvet resteth here, the only heir by Right, Of the Lord Berners that Sir John Bourchier hight, Twenty Years and three, a Widdows Lyft she ledd, Always keeping Howse, where Rych and Poor were fedd, Gentyll, just, quyet, void of Debate and Stryft, Ever doyng Good; Lo ! thus she led her Lyft, Even unto the Grave, where Erth on Erth doth lye, Gn whose Soul God grant of his aboundant Mercy The rvii of February Ao Dni. MDLII.
John Knevet of Plumpstede, Esq. their eldest son and heir, was 22 years old at his father's death; and died in his mother's lifetime; in 1537, he married Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, and Elnhale in Staffordshire, Knt. who remarried with William Bowyer, Gent. of Wimbleton in Surrey. On this match, the manors of Horham, Thorp-hall, and Barneholt in Suffolk, and Thetford in Ely isle, were settled on them; and in 1342, they sold to Robert Reynolds, Esq. all their part of the manor of Illarys, alias New-hall, in Estbergholt, Stratford, WenhamMagna, Capel, Butley, Holton and Brantham in Suffolk; she died in 1579, and
Sir Thomas Knevet of Ashwell-Thorp, her eldest son and heir, succeeded, and in the year 1616, having petitioned the King for the barony of Berners, descended to him from Jane his grandmother, he obtained a certificate (upon a reference of his petition by King James I. to the lords commissioners for the office of Earl-Marshal) of his right and title to the said barony, but died the 9th of Feb. following, before he could obtain the King's confirmation thereof. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in her progress into Norfolk; in 1579 he was high-sheriff of the county; his will was proved in 1617; by which it appears, that Thomas Knevet, Esq. his grandchild, was his heir; Abigail Mundeford, Katherine Paston, and Muriel Bell, were his three daughters; Eliz. Ashfield was his sister, and had a daughter named Abigail; he settled an annuity for life, on Edmund his son, out of Hapton manor, and was buried at Ashwellthorp Feb. 9, 1617. He married Muriel, daughter of Sir Thomas Parry, Knt. master of the court of wards and liveries, and treasurer of the household to Queen Elizabeth, sister and coheir of Sir Thomas Parry of Welford in Berkshire, Knt. chancellor of the dutchy of Lancaster, and ambassour-leidger in France, in the time of Queen Elizabeth; she was buried here.
