Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameRichard Lybbe MP 
[56, Oxon of 1566, '74 &1634, pub Harleian 1871, Lybbe p. 174]
[56, Oxon of 1566, '74 &1634, pub Harleian 1871, Lybbe p. 174]BirthTavistock, Devon
Death7 Oct 1527
BurialShinfield, Berks
GeneralMP For Tavistock. Purchased manor of Hardwick Ho., Whitchurch, Oxon.
FatherRichard Lybbe (-1504)
MotherJoanna
Spouses
Notes for Richard Lybbe MP
Martin P-L writes:
RICHARD, eldest son of RICHARD in Q
For the earlier mentions of him, see previous section.
1511 At a parliament holden on the morrow of the Purification of the BVM, Lybbe was chosen Chief Butler by the whole company (Story Maskelyne Papers). This suggests he was already an MP. It also heralds his son's position of Sewar to Queen Mary.
1515 MP for Tavistock (Dev. Assoc. xlvi, pp.162-3). We know this only from a scrap of official parchment, there being no parliamentary records from that period.
c.1520 married Bridget, daughter of Wm. Justice, who had been MP for Reading 1509, Mayor in 1514 and 1517.
1524/5 in a marriage settlement, gave his wife all his lands in Taunton and Tavistock.
1526 bought Hardwick and seven houses elsewhere for £60-4-0.
1527 died. Buried at Shinfield, where he had previously lived. There used to be a monument in the floor, but it was destroyed c.1880. His will survives, ref. PCC (ie. at the PRO) Porch 28, 1527/8. Some quotations:-
Item, I bequeath towards the marriage of Mary my daughter 40 marks sterling .... and a pair (=necklace) of silver beades that were my mother's that be in my wife's keeping, this to be delivered to Maisters (Mrs) Trepenell's keeping till the wench be of full age. I will that they be married when they be of the age of xix or xx yeres at the furthest.
__________________
Found in a notebook in RCLP-L's hand:
From Ashmole's History & Antiquities of Berkshire:
In the middle of the chancel of Shinfield Church on a brass plate fixed to a gravestone:
ORATE PRO ANIMA RICHARDI LYBBE DE TAVISTOKE IN COM DEVON GEN: QUI OBIIT 7o DIE OCTOBR Ao D'NI XVCXXVII CUJUS ANIME PROPICIENTUR DEUS
Then:
RICHARD LYBBE who was buried at Shinfield bought the Manor of Hardwick in 1526. He was M.P. for Tavistock in 1515. He leaves many small legacies for masses etc for the benefit of his soul especially to Englefield and Shinfield. His brother is a priest and has debts at Oxford. All his children Richard Mary & Elizabeth are under age at his death. Provision is made in his will for son Richard to succeed him. Provision for his wife Brigitt (daughter & Co-hr of William Justice, Mayor of Reading 1513) out of rents etc of Hardwick, Stoke and Ipsden. Apoparently he has a sister who married John Sorrell had had a sone John (Brigitt must have been an heiress). He leaves Alice Preston 20 marks. Alice Preston was Alice Cruchfield and married Preston before 1519 in which year she was 16. She was one of the three who sold Hardwick to Richard Lybbe.
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Martin P-L also writes:
Devonshire Lybbes post 1520
There seem to have been few of substance. There was a John Lybbe, vicar of Hatherleigh, and a William, rector of Down St mary. Parish registers reveal other Lybbes at Hatherleigh in 1680-1700, and also at Modbury and Coffinswell.
The Subsidy Rolls of 1524 show three Lybbes. These rolls were tax assessments, instituted by Wolsey to pay for a war against France. People were asked to state on oath the value of their Wages, Goods or Land, the tax being 1% of that value. There was further enquiry only if the tax commissioners (local men) were suspicious. Only the richest taxpayers (5% of the total) were taxed on land. Most were taxed on Goods, £6 being the average value. These three Lybbes, living at different places, were all rated on Goods, from £1 to £7. They were Roger, William and John, the last being of Tavistock.
There was also a John Lybbe - perhaps the same one - churchwarden in Tavistock in 1540.
Between 1568 and '78 a Thomas Lybbe was frequently one of the Eight Men (members of the parish elected to manage the town's affairs). Another Thos. Lybbe, together with an Edward Lybbe, had the same position in 1593. In 1597 Thos. Lybbe the Elder, gent., is a feoffee. In 1605 he is interred at the parish's expense (presumably in honour, not destitution).
There were no Lybbes on the Muster Roll of 1569, nor in the Protestation Return for 1641 (though 55 of the 468 Devon parishes are missing).
The parish registers show no Devon Lybbes after 1700, though there were Libbys (which had become the normal spelling). In 1711, for instance, A Thos. Libby was trustee administering an annuity left to Tavistock by Lady Mary Knivett.
Earlier, in Nov.1636, a John Libby sailed from Plymouth aboard the Hercules, bound for America. This was a time of economic depression and political unrest (just before the Civil War). John is singled out in the ship's log as being teetotal. They arrived at Maine in Feb. next year, where he was given a tract of land (though he was by trade a fisherman). As well as crops, he raised a dozen children, from whom virtually all the Libbys in America are descended, including a nobel prize winner, Willard Libby. They cover many pages in the current Maine telephone directory, and there is a flourishing Libby society. Its secretary, the Rev. Libby, and his sister come frequently to G.B. to research the family. I met him on one of these visits, and we correspond. He has a fireback with the Lybbe arms on it.
Cornish Lybbes
1509-46 Star Chamber Proceedings, vol.1, p.151. A Henry Lybbe of Lansalowes (Lansallos, about 15 miles into Cornwall, near the coast) styling himself pitifully your poor goodman, sought protection against Wm. Kendale, gent., who had bullied him into paying maintenance for his daughter's two year old child, and was pestering him again. Henry denied paternity, and said the girl would bear him out, but he admitted terror.
1524 Subsidy Rolls showed four Lybbes at Plenynt (Pelynt, pron. Plynt, near Lansallos). John sen. had goods valued at £6: 13: 4; John jun. had goods valued at £4; Robert had goods valued at £10; Henry was taxed on his wages, at £1 p.a. (the amount of all wages, for the purposes of this tax).
By 1660, both in Lansallos and Pelynt, the spelling had changed to Libby, which was not found in the previous century.
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RICHARD, eldest son of RICHARD in Q
For the earlier mentions of him, see previous section.
1511 At a parliament holden on the morrow of the Purification of the BVM, Lybbe was chosen Chief Butler by the whole company (Story Maskelyne Papers). This suggests he was already an MP. It also heralds his son's position of Sewar to Queen Mary.
1515 MP for Tavistock (Dev. Assoc. xlvi, pp.162-3). We know this only from a scrap of official parchment, there being no parliamentary records from that period.
c.1520 married Bridget, daughter of Wm. Justice, who had been MP for Reading 1509, Mayor in 1514 and 1517.
1524/5 in a marriage settlement, gave his wife all his lands in Taunton and Tavistock.
1526 bought Hardwick and seven houses elsewhere for £60-4-0.
1527 died. Buried at Shinfield, where he had previously lived. There used to be a monument in the floor, but it was destroyed c.1880. His will survives, ref. PCC (ie. at the PRO) Porch 28, 1527/8. Some quotations:-
Item, I bequeath towards the marriage of Mary my daughter 40 marks sterling .... and a pair (=necklace) of silver beades that were my mother's that be in my wife's keeping, this to be delivered to Maisters (Mrs) Trepenell's keeping till the wench be of full age. I will that they be married when they be of the age of xix or xx yeres at the furthest.
__________________
Found in a notebook in RCLP-L's hand:
From Ashmole's History & Antiquities of Berkshire:
In the middle of the chancel of Shinfield Church on a brass plate fixed to a gravestone:
ORATE PRO ANIMA RICHARDI LYBBE DE TAVISTOKE IN COM DEVON GEN: QUI OBIIT 7o DIE OCTOBR Ao D'NI XVCXXVII CUJUS ANIME PROPICIENTUR DEUS
Then:
RICHARD LYBBE who was buried at Shinfield bought the Manor of Hardwick in 1526. He was M.P. for Tavistock in 1515. He leaves many small legacies for masses etc for the benefit of his soul especially to Englefield and Shinfield. His brother is a priest and has debts at Oxford. All his children Richard Mary & Elizabeth are under age at his death. Provision is made in his will for son Richard to succeed him. Provision for his wife Brigitt (daughter & Co-hr of William Justice, Mayor of Reading 1513) out of rents etc of Hardwick, Stoke and Ipsden. Apoparently he has a sister who married John Sorrell had had a sone John (Brigitt must have been an heiress). He leaves Alice Preston 20 marks. Alice Preston was Alice Cruchfield and married Preston before 1519 in which year she was 16. She was one of the three who sold Hardwick to Richard Lybbe.
___________________
Martin P-L also writes:
Devonshire Lybbes post 1520
There seem to have been few of substance. There was a John Lybbe, vicar of Hatherleigh, and a William, rector of Down St mary. Parish registers reveal other Lybbes at Hatherleigh in 1680-1700, and also at Modbury and Coffinswell.
The Subsidy Rolls of 1524 show three Lybbes. These rolls were tax assessments, instituted by Wolsey to pay for a war against France. People were asked to state on oath the value of their Wages, Goods or Land, the tax being 1% of that value. There was further enquiry only if the tax commissioners (local men) were suspicious. Only the richest taxpayers (5% of the total) were taxed on land. Most were taxed on Goods, £6 being the average value. These three Lybbes, living at different places, were all rated on Goods, from £1 to £7. They were Roger, William and John, the last being of Tavistock.
There was also a John Lybbe - perhaps the same one - churchwarden in Tavistock in 1540.
Between 1568 and '78 a Thomas Lybbe was frequently one of the Eight Men (members of the parish elected to manage the town's affairs). Another Thos. Lybbe, together with an Edward Lybbe, had the same position in 1593. In 1597 Thos. Lybbe the Elder, gent., is a feoffee. In 1605 he is interred at the parish's expense (presumably in honour, not destitution).
There were no Lybbes on the Muster Roll of 1569, nor in the Protestation Return for 1641 (though 55 of the 468 Devon parishes are missing).
The parish registers show no Devon Lybbes after 1700, though there were Libbys (which had become the normal spelling). In 1711, for instance, A Thos. Libby was trustee administering an annuity left to Tavistock by Lady Mary Knivett.
Earlier, in Nov.1636, a John Libby sailed from Plymouth aboard the Hercules, bound for America. This was a time of economic depression and political unrest (just before the Civil War). John is singled out in the ship's log as being teetotal. They arrived at Maine in Feb. next year, where he was given a tract of land (though he was by trade a fisherman). As well as crops, he raised a dozen children, from whom virtually all the Libbys in America are descended, including a nobel prize winner, Willard Libby. They cover many pages in the current Maine telephone directory, and there is a flourishing Libby society. Its secretary, the Rev. Libby, and his sister come frequently to G.B. to research the family. I met him on one of these visits, and we correspond. He has a fireback with the Lybbe arms on it.
Cornish Lybbes
1509-46 Star Chamber Proceedings, vol.1, p.151. A Henry Lybbe of Lansalowes (Lansallos, about 15 miles into Cornwall, near the coast) styling himself pitifully your poor goodman, sought protection against Wm. Kendale, gent., who had bullied him into paying maintenance for his daughter's two year old child, and was pestering him again. Henry denied paternity, and said the girl would bear him out, but he admitted terror.
1524 Subsidy Rolls showed four Lybbes at Plenynt (Pelynt, pron. Plynt, near Lansallos). John sen. had goods valued at £6: 13: 4; John jun. had goods valued at £4; Robert had goods valued at £10; Henry was taxed on his wages, at £1 p.a. (the amount of all wages, for the purposes of this tax).
By 1660, both in Lansallos and Pelynt, the spelling had changed to Libby, which was not found in the previous century.
___________________
Will notes for Richard Lybbe MP
His will is quoted in Cooke’s Early History of Hardwick by Whitchurch.
Will of Richard Lybbe 07 February 1527 PROB 11/22
Will of Richard Lybbe 07 February 1527 PROB 11/22
Mon Inscripts notes for Richard Lybbe MP
From Ashmole's History & Antiquities of Berkshire, Vol 2, p.369:
In the middle of the chancel of Shinfield Church on a brass plate fixed to a gravestone:
ORATE PRO ANIMA RICHARDI LYBBE DE TAVISTOKE IN COM DEVON GEN: QUI OBIIT 7o DIE OCTOBR Ao D'NI XVc XXVIIo CUJUS ANIME PROPICIENTUR DEUS
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In the middle of the chancel of Shinfield Church on a brass plate fixed to a gravestone:
ORATE PRO ANIMA RICHARDI LYBBE DE TAVISTOKE IN COM DEVON GEN: QUI OBIIT 7o DIE OCTOBR Ao D'NI XVc XXVIIo CUJUS ANIME PROPICIENTUR DEUS
_________________________________________________________________
Arms Generally notes for Richard Lybbe MP
From the 1566 visitation of Oxfordshire, p. 174:
Arms: Ermine a bend between two lions rampant gules.
Crest: On a wreath an arm embowed in mail holding a halbert erect proper.
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Arms: Ermine a bend between two lions rampant gules.
Crest: On a wreath an arm embowed in mail holding a halbert erect proper.
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Armorial Blazon notes for Richard Lybbe MP
Arms: Ermine a bend between two lions rampant gules.
Crest: On a wreath an arm embowed in mail holding a halbert erect proper.
Crest: On a wreath an arm embowed in mail holding a halbert erect proper.
Blazon source notes for Richard Lybbe MP
1566, 1574 & 1634 visitations of Oxfordshire, p. 174.
It is not clear whether this Richard ever bore or used these arms. The note from the 1574 visitation definitely give his son, also Richard, these arms but say nothing on when they were first used, or, possibly, granted. I even wonder if they might have been the arms of Crutchfeld, the previous ownser of the Hardwick manor? But there are no Cruchfields in those visitations of Oxford. Alternatively the de Hardewicks may have had arms and to whom the Cruchfields were heirs. However thee arms are not included in the Dictionary of British Arms, Medieval Ordinary, vol 1.
The 1871 trancription from sundry copies of the visitation clearly names this Richard, then his son and grandson under the blazon of arms, thereby implying that all three were armigers. Perhaps I should ask the College to provide informaiton from the original documents in their possession.
Meantime, I reckon it is highly probable that this Richard was armigerous and that the arms date from before his death in 1527.
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It is not clear whether this Richard ever bore or used these arms. The note from the 1574 visitation definitely give his son, also Richard, these arms but say nothing on when they were first used, or, possibly, granted. I even wonder if they might have been the arms of Crutchfeld, the previous ownser of the Hardwick manor? But there are no Cruchfields in those visitations of Oxford. Alternatively the de Hardewicks may have had arms and to whom the Cruchfields were heirs. However thee arms are not included in the Dictionary of British Arms, Medieval Ordinary, vol 1.
The 1871 trancription from sundry copies of the visitation clearly names this Richard, then his son and grandson under the blazon of arms, thereby implying that all three were armigers. Perhaps I should ask the College to provide informaiton from the original documents in their possession.
Meantime, I reckon it is highly probable that this Richard was armigerous and that the arms date from before his death in 1527.
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