Sir William de la Pole [a], Knight, Mayor of Hull, Baron of the Exchequer, b 1302, of Hull, Yorkshire, England, d 21 Jun 1366. He md Katherine de Norwich abt 1320, daughter of Sir Walter de Norwich and Katherine de Hedersett. She was b abt 1307, d 1381.
Children of William de la Pole and Katherine de Norwich were:
- Katherine de la Pole b abt 1324, of Hull, Yorkshire, England, d 1366. She md Constantine de Clifton abt 1339/40, son of Adam de Clifton and Eleanor de Mortimer.
- Margaret de la Pole b abt 1330, d 1366. She md Sir Robert de Neville abt 1344, son of Sir Robert de Neville, Knight, and Joan de Atherton.
NOTES:
a. Of his origins it is claimed that he was son of a certain Elena by her first husband; she secondly married John Rotenheryng, a prosperous inhabitant of Hull, who in his will of Dec 1328, appointed William de la Pole one of his executors, and therein describes him as Elena's son. Another source states that he was the son of William de la Pole, a merchant of Hull, and yet another source, for which no evidence is cited, states he was cousin german to Sir William de la Pole of Powysland. In 1327, grants were made to he and his brother Richard (the King's butler) towards the King's indebtedness to them, and thereafter they constantly appear as advancing money to the King. In May 1329, with his brother, he was gauger of wines throughout the kingdom. In Dec 1330, described as King's serjeants, they were granted that they should have for life the custody of the town of Hull. William was MP for Hull in 1328, 1332 to 1336, and 1338. In 1331 he is described as the King's yeoman and merchant, and in 1332/33, Henry de Beaumont and Isabel de Beaumont, Lady of Vescy, were licensed to demise to him for ten years the manor of Barton, Lincolnshire. On 23 Sep 1334, he had his writ de expensis for attending Parliament at Westmorland on 20 Sep, and on 7 Oct 1337, he was summoned to be at London to give counsel. He was summoned three times in 1338 to be before the Council, in London in Feb and Nov, and in Northampton in Jul. In Jun 1338, for a sum of 6,000 pounds, the King enfeoffed him of certain manors for ten years. In Oct he was with the King overseas, and on 26 Sep 1339 he was appointed second Baron of the Exchequer. From 1339-1349, he is described as Lord of Holderness, knight, and merchant. In Aug 1340 he had license to go overseas to sell wool, in return for one of his frequent loans to the King. But in Nov of that year, upon the King's return from Flanders, he ordered that several judges and officers of state be arrested, among them William de la Pole, who was then ordered to go before the Treasurer and Barons to render his accounts. Claims were made against him and several others in 1344 and a commission appointed to consider whether they should be relieved. That he was under suspicion by his peers is apparent, but in May 1355 it is recorded that for his great services in advancing money to the King, he had been made knight and banneret, but in the preceding Feb he had been imprisoned, when the Treasurer and the Barons of the Exchequer were ordered to release him. In Mar he had surrendered certain manors, and on 6 Aug he had executed a release to the King from all debts up to the preceding 20 Nov. In 1360 he was in France, and Jun of that year he and his wife had a grant of escheated land in Yorkshire, in consideration of his great services to the King. He was styled chivaler in May 1363. While Ancestral Roots and other sources identify his wife as Katherine de Norwich, Complete Peerage states she must have been coheir with her sister Margaret, wife of Robert de Ufford, "which she certainly was not".
CP: Vol XII/1[434-437]; AR: Line 218[33], Line 247[30].
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