Another excellent research report from Michael Andrews-Reading:

Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.medieval
Subject: Welles of Welles Hall in Exning, Great Sampford, Fordham etc
Date: 20 Nov 2005 10:41:23 -0800

I have been discussing off-list the Welles family of Suffolk, Essex &
Cambridgeshire who are ancestral to the later Coggeshalls of
Coggeshall.  They had inherited considerable properties through
marriage with the Kemesek heiress (the Kemeseks being in turn heirs of
the Polstead family).

Herewith a brief stemma:

1. Sir Philip de Welles, bore arms: "de or, a un lion de sable od la
couwe forchie e un baston de goul" [Parl. Roll, suggesting he was from
Lincolnshire - and thus possibly related to the family of Lord Welles,
whose estate was chiefly in that county]; Lord of Fordham, Cambs, 1316;
Knight of the Shire (i.e. MP) for Cambs, 1320; summonsed from Essex to
the Great Council at Westminster, 1324; died 27 February 1332, holding
lands by the courtesy of England of his late wife, Isabel, daughter and
heiress of Edmund de Kemesek, of Fordham, Cambs, born circa 1294,
married by 1313, dead by 1325 [all from Knights of Edward I, very
kindly extracted by Kelly Leighton].  Issue:

2. Sir William de Welles, born circa 1309; of Great Sampford, Essex,
and Well Hall, Exning, Suffolk; his mother's heir, 1325, then a minor;
his father's heir, 1332, then aged 22; died 1349; married Agnes; issue:

3. Joan de Welles, born circa 8 September 1335; baptised at Great
Sampford, 8 September 1335 [her Proof of Age]; heiress of Great
Sampford, Well Hall in Exning, Fordham and East Tilbury, Essex; married
by 23 June 1351 Sir Henry de Coggeshall, MP; both died in 1375, leaving
numerous issue [see Roskell, HoP].

Is it known whether Sir Philip ties in with the family of Lord Welles,
who was seated in Lincolnshire but also held lands, eg, in Essex?  What
coat of arms did they use?

MAR
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