Gregory Isham

GREGORY ISHAM of Barby in Northamptonshire, esquire, was born in December 1562 and baptised on 15 December 1562 at St Olave Old Jewry, London,¹ the son of Henry Isham and Joan Bresley.^? He acquired the manor and advowson of Barby from Edward, eleventh Lord Zouche of Harringworth.^? Before settling permanently at Barby, the family lived at Piddington and Bugbrooke in Northamptonshire, where several of their older children were born and baptised.^?

About 1585 he married Elizabeth Catelyne, who was born about 1565, the daughter of Robert Catelyne of Raunds, gentleman.^? In his will, proved on 7 May 1599, Robert Catelyne bequeathed to Elizabeth a legacy of £10 and to her husband forty ewes with their lambs, as well as monetary gifts to several of their elder children, including legacies to their sons Robert and Richard.^?

From the late 1590s through the 1610s, Gregory was burdened by substantial debts and persistent litigation in the royal courts.^? He faced process in the Exchequer in 1597² and was sued in the Court of Common Pleas for joint debts alongside his kinsmen Thomas and Richard Isham of Lamport in 1604,³ as well as with William Catlyn of Raunds in 1612.⁴ In 1607 he and his eldest son Robert brought a bill in Chancery concerning mortgaged lands in Barby that had been assigned to Robert and his brother Henry in November 1606.^5,6 By 1612 and 1613, Gregory’s unpaid obligations resulted in his detention in the custody of the Marshal of the Marshalsea, where he was held alongside his son Robert,^7,8 and during this period he was also recorded appearing in London from the parish of St Mildred, Poultry.⁹

Gregory was living in 1624 when Augustine Vincent compiled his pedigree of the Isham family.^? By an indenture dated 26 June 1632, he conveyed the fee simple of lands in Barby for the benefit of John Pey of Westminster, gentleman, the husband of his daughter Anne.^? Gregory died in late 1634 and was buried on 25 November 1634 at Westminster, Middlesex.¹⁰ His widow Elizabeth survived him by more than thirteen years and was buried at Barby in April 1648.¹⁰

Gregory and Elizabeth had issue nine sons and seven daughters.^? Their eldest son and heir, Robert Isham, of the Middle Temple and Barby, was heavily entangled in his father’s debts and was buried at Barby on 10 April 1656.^10,11 Their other sons included Captain Henry Isham, a mariner and merchant associated with the Canary Islands by 1624 and later referenced in the diary of Samuel Pepys,^? who was buried at St Margaret, Westminster, on 24 January 1667/8 (administration 21 February 1667/8);¹⁰ Richard Isham, baptised at Piddington on 10 February 1594/5,^? who later appears in King’s Bench with his brother Robert as of Barby;^12,13 James Isham, named in the family pedigrees as born at Bugbrooke about 1599/1600 (he is not among the sons listed as living in Vincent’s 1624 pedigree);^? Gregory Isham, baptised at Bugbrooke on 10 June 1600 and buried at Cambridge St Botolph on 24 September 1628;^? Arthur Isham of Halstead, Essex, baptised at Bugbrooke on 25 November 1602,^? who by 1644 was married to Elizabeth (surname often given as Bloome; marriage date commonly stated as 1641, not independently confirmed here)^? and was buried on 18 January 1674/5;^? John Isham, baptised at Barby on 23 July 1604,¹⁰ who in 1635 appears as Johannes Isham of Whittington Row, London, mercator, and in the same year was licensed with Henry Isham, merchants, to export foreign corn from London;^? and two sons who died in childhood, William Isham (christened 4 January 1608/9, buried 9 February 1612) and Edward Isham (christened 15 June 1610, buried 17 February 1613), both at Barby.¹⁰ John was dead by 1673, when Arthur was Gregory’s only surviving son.^?

Their daughters were Eliza Isham, born about 1590 and buried unmarried at Barby on 27 September 1630;¹⁰ Anne Isham, baptised at Bugbrooke on 28 January 1598/9,^? who married first at Barby on 17 April 1628 John Pey of Westminster (d. 1642),¹⁰ secondly Sir Sydney Montagu of Hinchingbrooke (d. 25 September 1644),^? and thirdly Anthony Luther of Kelvedon Hatch, Essex (d. 1665),^? and who died in or about December 1676 (her will tradition; a Great Warley burial of Anne Luther on 20 January 1680 is unresolved);^? Eleanor Isham, baptised at Piddington in 1596/7,^? who died unmarried on 11 January 1676/7 aged about 80 and was buried at Barby;¹⁰ Penelope Isham, baptised at Bugbrooke on 29 September 1601^? and buried at St Margaret, Westminster, on 11 April 1667;¹⁰ Catharine Isham, baptised at Barby on 19 September 1605,¹⁰ who married the Reverend Richard Thorpe, rector of Barby (buried there 10 May 1671),^? and was living in 1676;^? Elizabeth Isham, baptised at Barby on 7 May 1607,¹⁰ who married Thomas Burrard and died at Westminster in 1680;^? and Jane Isham, baptised at Barby on 16 July 1612,¹⁰ who married Thomas Lodge at Fawsley on 10 March 1645^? and was living as Jane Lodge in 1674.^?