Sir Hugh De Peshall, son of Hugh de Peshall, married Juliana, widow of John Sandford and daughter of Sir Roger Corbet of Moreton Corbet Castle, Salop.
Child:-
1. Humphrey Peshall
Excerpts from Pearsall Genealogy Vol. II; pg. 790-
Sir hugh took part in the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, where he was one of the four who were knighted on the field.
The following appears in the Harleian MSS. No. 1241, published in volume 29.
The Visitations of Shropshire 1623, page 431.
Rex vicecom 'Salop precip Ric'o Sandford qd reddit Hugoni Peshall ar. et Juliana uxor eius quae fuit uxor Joh'i de Sandord rationabilem dotem in Brockton Roughall et Iuietes Ano. 10 E. 4.
Translation: The King orders the vice count of Salop Richard Sandford that he give to Hugh Peshall, armiger, and Juliana his wife who has been the wife of John de Sandford her reasonable dower in Brockton, Roughall and Iuietes, anno 10 Ed. 4 {1471).
Hugh Peshale, knight, of Horseley. Keeper and Justice of the Peace of Staffordshire, 1485-1489, {Staff. Hist. Col, vol. 1912, page 317.}
November 4, 1488, Hugh Persall, knight, sheriff of Staffordshire (account rendered by widow of Horseley). {ibid., vol. 1912, page 283.}
Sir Hugh Peshall resided at Horsley, Staffordshire, and he makes the fourth generation of our ancestors who were associated with the house of Lancaster in its efforts to get and to hold the throne of England. As to the house of York, while nominally reigning twenty-four years, nevertheless, so strong was the opposition made by the party of the Red Rose that at no time could it be said that the king of the White Rose was firmly seated upon the throne of England and that peace and harmony prevailed throughout the realm. In fact, in 1470 Edward IV. was driven into exile and Henry VI., the Lancaster king for a very brief period, was restored to the throne only to be speedily replaced by the young York King. At no other period of English history were such cruelties and barbarities practised as in the Wars of the Roses.
On April 9, 1483, Edward IV, after a troubled reign of twenty-two years, died, and left as his heir a son Edward, who was only thirteen years of age, to succeed him on the throne of England. All that came to him of his father's fortune, rank and estate was lost, as his uncle Richard usurped the throne, and murdered the lad, his nephew, although he was the real king of the house of York. This murder was perpetrated because of an effort to release the young king from prison and place him upon the throne instead of his uncle.
The news of the murder excited throughout the country strong feelings of grief and indignation. But to those implicated in the conspiracy for the liberation of the princes it was more espeically alarming. A new object, however, was presently supplied to them. The male issue of Edward IV, being now extinct, a project was formed for marrying his eldest daughter Elizabeth to Henry, Earl of Richmond, a refugee in Brittany, who was regarded as the head of the deposed House of Lancaster; and Buckingham wrote to the earl to cross the seas, while he and others in England should make an insurrection in his favor. (The Houses of Lancaster & York, by J. Gairdner, page 222-224. Staff. Hist. Col. Vol. 6, pt. 2, page 249.)
The rebellion took place as planned but Richard was cognizant of it all; perhaps he abetted it and so he easily put it down. If the first king of the house of York enjoyed the opposition of the nobles allied with the house of Lancaster the new one had added to this the secret enmity of many of his brother's best friends. King Richard, however, made every effort to get and keep friends.
In Staffordshire most of the gentry were in sympathy with the house of Lancaster. As a result, in the Commissions of the Peace for Staffordshire, issued by Richard III, in the first and second years of his reign, most of the names are those of well known Yorkists. The names of most of the principal gentry of the county are conspicuous by their absence from these lists, the only names of Staffordshire landowners on them being:-John Sutton, Lord Dudley; John Blount of Mountjoy; John Gresley; Richard Wrottesley; Humphrey Persall of Kinlet (he and his son Hugh supported the house of York); Nicholas Mountgomery; Ralph Wolseley and John Cawardyne.
But whatever arts Richard used--cajolery, promises, bribes, or threats--to turn enemies into friends or to defeat the plans of his opponents, they never were successful except partially and for a time.
Richmond, however, had sent messages into England by which he was assured of a considerable amount of support; and he borrowed money from the King of France with which he fitted out a small fleet at Harfleur and embarked for Wales where his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, possessed great influence. Richard, knowing of the inteded invasion, but being uncertain where his enemy might land, had taken up his position in the center of the kingdom.
Following a plan first put in use by his brother Edward during the Scotch war, he had stationed messengers at intervals of twenty-miles along all the principal roads to the coast to bring him early intelligence. But Henry landed at Milford Haven at the farthest extremity of South Wales, where, perhaps, Richard had least expected him; and so small was the force by which he was accompanied that the news did not a first give the King very much anxiety. He professed great satisfaction that his adversary was now coming to bring matters to the test of battle. The earl, however, was among friends from the moment he landed. Pembroke was his native town, and the inhabitants expressed their willingness to serve his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, as their natural and immediate lord. The very men whom Richard had placed to keep the country against him, at once joined his party, and he passed on to Shrewsbury with little or no opposition. { Ibid., page 231-232}
The King's unsteadfast friendships on the other hand were now rapidly working his ruin. Richard, however, was very naturally suspicious of Lord Stanley, his rival's stepfather, who though he was steward of the royal household, had asked leave shortly before the invasion to go home and visit his family in Lancashire. This the King granted only on condition that he would send his son, George Lord Strange, to him at Nottingham in his place. Lord Strange was accordingly sent to the King; but when the news arrived of Henry's landing, Richard desired the presence of his father also. Stanley pretended illness, an excuse which could not fail to increase the King's suspicions. His son at the same time made an attempt to escape, and being captured, confessed that he himself and his uncle Sir William Stanley had formed a project with others to go over to the enemy; but he protested his father's innocence and assured the King that he would obey the summons. He was made to understand that his own life depended on his doing so, and he wrote a letter to his father accordingly. {Ibid., page 232-233}
Richard having mustered his followers at Nottingham went on to Leicester to meet his antagonist and encamped at Bosworth on the night of August 21. The Earl of Richmond had arrived near the same place with an army of 5,000 men, which is supposed to have been not more than half that of the King. That day, however, Lord Stanley had come to earl Richmond secretly at Atherstone to assure him of his support in the coming battle. He and his brother Sir William were each at the head of a force not far off, and were only temporizing to save the life of his son Lord Stanley. This information relieved Henry's mind of much anxiety, for at various times since he landed he had felt serious misgivings about the success of the enterprise. The issue was now to be decided on the following day.
At this time the Earl of Richmond asked for four knights to be detailed as his special body guard. Hugh Peshall was one of those selected for this purpose and it was agreed that the Earl and his special guards should lead the hosts of Lancaster in the battle the following day.
Richard, despising the supposed weakness of his adversary, yet desiring effectually to crush him, led his army, on the 16th, in great regal state, from Nottingham castle to Leicester, which town he entered in open pomp, the crown-royal on his head; and, on the 17th, quitted it in the same manner, expecting to meet his rival at Hinckley. That night he passed at Elmsthorpe, where he pitched his camp on ground call The Bradshaws, where he continued till Sunday the 21st, when both armies came in sight of each other. In the evening Richard removed to Anbein Hill, where he pitched his field, refreshed his soldiers, and too his rest.
At this place King Richard III., as the report hath gone, was entertained here with two unwelcome accidents; the one a prediction, the other a vision. For the first, it was foretold that if ever King Richard did come to meet his adversary in a place that was compassed with towns whose termination was in ton, that there he should come to great distress; or else, upon the same occasion did happen to lodge at a place beginning and ending with the same syllable of An, as this of Anbian, that there he should lose his life, to expiate that wicked murder of his late wife Anne, daughter and coheir of Richard Nevile, Earl of Salisbury and Warwick. The vision is reported to be in this manner: King Richard lying in his tent, there appeared unto him divers fearful ghosts, running about him, not suffering him to take any rest, still crying revenge; which vision he related to his friends in the morning. But Polydire Vergil, in his English History, in the life of Richard III. will not have this to be any vision or dream at all, but only a guilty conscience. Another accident here happened to John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, a chief friend of King Richard; who having a caveat given him by a rhyming distich, as the vulgar Chronicles say, fixed upon his pavilion, which reads,
Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold.
For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.But as the more received report goeth, the warning was by a letter thrown in his tent, discovering the falling off of the puissant Lord Stanley and the revolt of many other of the nobles; which he, whether upon a strong assurance of the king's power, or the touch of his own allegiance, or, perhaps, deferment of the reading thereof to some fitter time, neglected the perusal, and consequence thereof; and so, with the king, was there slain.
The next morning early, bringing all his men out of the camp into the plain, Richard ordered both horsemen and footmen to be drawn up in a length of line, that their numbers might appear as large as possible. The archers were placed in the front under the command of the Duke of Norfolk and his son the Earl of Surrey. This long vanguard was followed by Richard himself with a chosen band, supported on each side with wings of horsemen. The whole number exceeded 16,000.
To be continued
Sir Robert Tunsall, a Noble Knight
&come of royall anceytree;
Sir Iohn Savage, wise &wight,
Sir Hugh Persall; there was 3---115.460
SEE:
Pictures taken by Brian Bowers:
#1-the stone monument at the well where Richard III is said to have taken a drink during the battle. (click here)
#2- The photo with the sheep show the overall battlefield. (click here)
#3- the site where Richard was slain. The blob in the middle is a stone marker and the rectangular shape to the right is a sign that says Bosworth Field and has a picture of a white boar, the sign of Richard. (click here)
Link The Ballad of Bosworth Field 16th C
