Norman
Conquest
1066  

[Richard I Coeur de Lion]
[John]

Robert Powtrell is recorded as the lord of the manor in (nearby) Cotes and Prestwold
[Henry III].

Henry Putrell, with the Consent of Willimina his Wife, settled the capital Mess. and eight Virgats of arable Land, in Thurmeton, upon Robert his Son and in Defect. of Heirs of him, to Henry, Geoffry, Richard, and Walter, his other Sons respectively, and their Heirs, paying the said Henry, their Father £20 per Annum, during his Life.

[Edward III]
John and Robert Powdrell recorded in Kegworth in the Table of Knights' Fees.

A unit of Feudal Tenure, the Knight's Fee, originally used as a straightforward measure of land, had become the basic measure of Knight's service due as applied to the individual Baron as opposed to his property. In other words, two Barons, both due e.g. ten Knights' Fees, might actually hold different amounts of land. The basic service in the field, due of the individual knight was a minimum of 40 days per year - a bit like the Territorials. I understand it to have originally been a practical "measure" of the land supposedly needed to support one knight+horse+wife, in pretty much the same way as a carucate was a practical measure of ploughable land (one plough year - approx 120 acres). This is the familiar meaning of the term but, just to catch out newbie geneologists like myself, Fees were also paid by all knights who continued to participate in tournament, the practice of which was now discouraged by the King partly because of the unnecessary loss of life and especially since it had become more of a public spectacle than anything else. The knights maintained that without the practice, the horses would not be prepared for battle.

Agincourt - (Proof positive that history can be a bit muddy). John Poutrell, apparently, took prisoners, at Agincourt, worth 96 bonds?? in ransom (see image below - 1434). 500 years later, his descendent, Daniel Grainger, was fighting at the Somme (still muddy)!

13 Henry VI - Receipt by Thomas Leuesham, king's remembrancer, to John Poutrell for 96 bonds relating to the ransom of prisoners taken at Agincourt.

[Plantagenet, Edward V]
[Plantagenet, Richard III]

Luther's "Thurmerlebenis"
Luther's theses against Indulgences.

Luther's attack upon the abuses within the Church soon found widespread favour. Although he is still widely believed to have been a reformer, a reform of the church does not appear to have been his intention and it certainly was not what he achieved. Maybe I've been reading from the wrong sources - I'm interested in the history but I'm not a Catholic (nor anything else) - but his efforts seem to have been directed not inward to push for reform but outward i.e. appealing to the public, to challenge and to undermine that which was the real focus of his resentment: the authority of the church.

The Church, by its failure to deal with practices which were open to corruption, had left itself vulnerable to such an attack and, had his campaign been directed toward the Church leaders rather than the public, Luther's rejection of Indulgences could certainly have been construed as an attempt to push for reform but his subsequent actions seem to betray, rather, a commonplace resentment of authority. An unconscious agenda of self-aggrandisement by rebellion against that authority soon becomes evident. He rejects the Mass, Transubstantiation, vows of chastity, pilgrimages, fasts, the Sacraments, the powers of the priesthood, and the jurisdiction and supremacy of the Pope.

At the core of it all, he premised the doctrine of individual judgment upon which the so-called reformed church is based - a sort of DIY morality - the idea being firstly an implicit rejection of the value of the structures and foundations of the RC Church, of its traditions and continuity since the days of Christ, together with the establishment of the written word as the only valid source of Christian teaching i.e. that any man of "faith" can properly interpret the scriptures for himself. The obvious contradiction was that, like Henry Ford, who offered to supply any colour of car provided it was black, Luther advocated individual judgement, provided the individual's judgement agreed with his own.

Leo X. published the Bull, Exsurge Domine giving Luther sixty days to submit to Papal authority before being excommunicated.

Some flavour of the times can be had from the following excerpt (mentioning John's brother, Walter Powdrell) from the book Vaux of Harriden.

On 29 October the Privy Council ordered the Attorney General and others to examine Campion and the other prisoners in the Tower "upon certain matters, and to put them unto the rack." This was carried out on the 31st, and Campion was so brutally dealt with that three weeks later he was still unable to lift up his hand. It was after this racking that, asked how he felt his hands and feet, he replied: "Not ill, because not at all." On 7 November Mendoza writes that Campion has not yet been brought to trial "as he is all dislocated and cannot move." It was not until 14th November that he and his companions were arraigned. They all pleaded not guilty.

The following day, Wednesdav 15th, Lord Vaux and the other prisoners were brought to the Star Chamber. Among those present were Sir Thomas Bromley, Lord Chancellor, The Earl of Sussex (Thomas Radcliffe), The Earl of Leicester (Robert Dudley), Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Christopher Wray, Chief Justice of England, Sir James Dyer, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron, and Sir Francis Knolles, Treasurer of the Queen's Household.

"The prisoners at the bar were Lord Vaux, Sir Thomas Tresham, Mr Walter Powdrell, of Hallam (Derby), Mrs. Jane Griffin, of Bucks., and her husband's brother, Mr. Ambrose Griffin. All these came from the Fleet together, and were brought to the bar between nine and ten o'clock in the morning. Sir William Catesby was brought from the King's Bench; whose warning of coming thither was very late. The Lord Vaux and Sir Thomas Tresham had been heard before his coming to the Star Chamber.

"The Queen's Counsel was Popham the Attorney-General, Egerton the Solicitor-General and Mr. Serjeant Anderson. After the usual tirade against the Pope, Popham proceeded to the charge of contempt of court. Then against the lord Vaux, Sir Thomas Tresham and Sir William Catesby, Popham further did give in evidence that they being examined thereof did deny it; who being required by the counsel to confirm it by an oath, refused it; who then charged them, upon their allegiance to swear, but they refused it: whereupon he urged the contempt, but he neither produced for it warrant of law or precedent . . .

"The evidence read in that behalf was a confession of Mr. Campion's at the rack, the [blank] of August last etc. before the lieutenant of the Tower, Norton and Hammon. The content whereof was that he had been at the house of the Lord Vaux sundry times, at Sir Thomas Tresham's house, at Mr. Griffin's of Northamptonshire where also the Lady Tresham then was, and at the house of Sir W illiam Catesby, where Sir Thomas Tresham and his lady then was. Also at one time when he was at the Lord Vaux's he said that the Lord Compton was there, but not mentioning conference with them or the like.

"Mr Powdrell admitted harbouring Campion but protested it was the 8th January not the 12th, as Lord Shrewsbury (who examined him) had set down.  This was important for the proclamation against the Jesuits was published on January 12th.  But he denied that he came "to the latter ending of the Mass," but said, "I have received Mr Campion.  I have confessed it and I have not offended therein for bestowing a night’s lodgings on him who sometimes did read to me at University and in whom I never did know evil."
  
[This from Burghley's notes] "... Powdrell gent. himself confesses to being with Gervase Pierrepoint and Gilbert after Christmas last when Campion said Mass."

"Powdrell fined 30 marks (about £350) and sentenced to a year in the Fleet Prison."

Walter Powdrell of West Hallam is one of the brothers of (11xGGF) John Powdrell of Lockington, (1579) the physician. Thoroton doesn't list all of the family of Thomas Powdrell and Dorethy Basset (only naming Walter) but Mrs Norman has found that there were several children and John, it would appear, was one of these. Anyway, it was Walter's sons, Thomas and John, who conveyed Thrumpton to Gervase Pigot after the Gunpowder Plot. Also interesting, perhaps, that Walter and his wife Cassandra died on the same day.

circa
Feb 1857

Talbot Papers - Folio 123
John Harpur to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl Marshal and Privy Councillor, n.p1. [Swarkeston], 4 February 1587/8. On the receipt of the Earl's letters, he went to Mickleover and found [Philip] Draycott in bed. Draycott declared himself no recusant but Harpur insisted upon him and his wife attending a service in church. He went on, with the Earl's servant, Thomas Ball, to the house of Mr. Powtrell, which was locked - Powtrell said it was because of suits for £10,000 between him and Thomas Markham - but Mrs. Powtrell, her gentlewoman and two servants were away overnight; Mr. Powtrell said that he did not know where they were. At Sawley, Mrs. Edmundson was away, according to her daughter visiting her sick brother in Rutlandshire. Harpur suspects that these people were forewarned because Mr. Manners and Mr. Leake [cf. folio 121] began their searches the day before. He did not go for William Brownlow, because he knows that his absence from church is not for recusancy but for fear of executions for debt. He has seen [John Manners, fourth] Earl of Rutland twice in the last week and knows that 400 men are raised in Nottinghamshire and others could be ready at short notice; he advises the Earl to be as ready in his lieutenancy. 2pp. Endorsed. (Printed in part, Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History (second edition, 1838), ii.342)

Indenture, feoffment, marriage settlement.
1) Thomas Powtrell of West Hallam Derbs., esq.
2) John Manners of Nether Haddon Derbs., esq. Reciting indenture of 9 Nov. 1599:-
1) Thomas Powtrell, as above.
2) George Shirley of Staunton Leics., esq. John Willoughbie of Risley Derbs., esq. Robert Brokesbie of Sholbie Leics., esq. Raphe Sacheverell of Staunton (?) (DD.), esq. Reciting will of Walter Powtrell, father of (1), devising property to younger son John, and his future wife, and to (1) and heirs in tail male, now (1) agreed to convey to (2) manors of West Hallam and Breidston Derbs., and lands in same and Maperley, Stanley Grange, Stanley Dreicott, and Laciefeilde in Heinor Derbs., and manors of Chillwell and Thrumpton, with lands in same and Bramcott, Adenborough, and Eastwait Notts., to stand seised of same, the manor and lands of Breidston, messuage and lands in Eastwait alias Eastwood and 2 fields called Laciefeilds in Langley, to be to use of (1)'s brother John, for life, then his widow, then as specified, rest of lands and manors to use of (1) for life, then heirs in tail, otherwise to J.P. and heirs in tail, otherwise to Ellioner, Dorothie, or Jane Powtrell, sisters of T.P., in tail, subject to alteration by appointment of T.P. of provisions for lands settled upon him. Now (1601), for marriage of T.P. and Ellioner, daughter of Sir Thomas Manners, knt., (dec. brother of J.M.), annulment of above settlement, and for £1000, J.P. to J.M. Stanley Grange, with tithes Derbs., and manor of Chillwell, and lands in Stanley, Chillwell, Adenborough and Bramcott, to use of T.P. and E.M. and heirs in tail. Sig. and armorial seal of T.P. Lacking livery of seisin endorsement. Endorsed: "Thomas Powtrell, Esq. his Settemt. of the Mannors of West Hallam etc Upon his Marr' with Mrs Eleanor Manners"

One of the so-called "conspirators" and, as the leader of the Roman Catholics in Britain, one of the government’s principal targets, was leading Jesuit, Father Garnet.  The Powdrells' part in the affair was that they concealed him in a priesthole in their home, Thrumpton Hall, in consequence of which, an Act of Attainder was allegedly brought against the family [at this point, - March 2006 - I haven't seen any record of the Act].  They were fined a sum equivalent to the value of their property (which was then sold to one Gervase Pigot, who was later to become High Sheriff of Nottingham) and they, and their descendants, allegedly lost the right to bear the Powdrell coat of arms.

The priest-hole in Thrumpton where Father Garnet was concealed after the "discovery" of the plot.

(Jimmy)