When my 11th great-grandmother, Alice Henning, married into the Talbot family she brought an ancestry that stretched back to the family of the Archbishop William Warham who crowned Henry VIII and solemnized his first marriage. That connection, however, can only be firmly established through wills and the heraldic arms of the family of her mother, Dorothy Warham; parish registers didn’t exist. The following will hopefully demonstrate that connection.

Arms of the Archbishop

When Alice Henning married into the Talbot family about 1590, she brought to the family a distinguished and ancient family of Dorset. Her grandfather was one of the early mayors of Dorchester, and her father the High Sheriff of Dorset in 1609. She is named in John Hennings’s 1617 will as his daughter Alice Talbot. (Footnote: PROB 11/130/31 - “Item I give unto every of the children of my daughter Dorothy Filloll, Thomazine Dashwood, Alice Talbott and Elizabeth Jollffe the sum of twenty shillings appece to be liykwise paid unto them within one yeare next after myself.” )

She was born about the time her grandfather purchased Poxwell Manor and grew up amongst the building of the house which remained in the family until 1695, passing to her great-grandaunt when she married Thomas Trenchard that year. (Footnote: Poxwell House at British History Online. ) Poxwell manor remained in the family until 1977 when it was sold.

The Henning Arms

Arms given by William Segar, Garter, 10 May 1611. (Footnote: Henning arms and crest: Visitation of Dorset, 1623. )

The Henning Arms and Crest has many imitators through the years, a few of them somewhat similar to the one I’ve mocked up from the one in Burke’s Family Records. There are descriptions in both Burke and Hutchins, a drawing in Burke's.

• Burke's: “Barry wavy of six. and as. on a chief arg. three besants. Crest: a sea-horse ppr. on a wreath.”
• Hutchins: “Arms. Barry wavy of 6; A. and As. on a chief A. 3 Bezants, or Plates.”

My feeble attempt at translating those has given me ‘A’ to mean Argent (silver), ‘Az.’ as azure(blue), chief as the band that holds the three bezants, gold coins, and ‘Barry’ is a field divided horizontally, in this case wavy. The imitators have no documentation that I know about, so one assumes that the College of Arms have never been consulted.

References to the descriptions: Burke's Family Records is on Ancestry.com (Footnote: Drawing: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1860/images/1860_BurkeFamilyRecs-00315
Description: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1860/images/1860_BurkeFamilyRecs-00321 )
Hutchins at Archive.org: (Footnote: Description: Hutchins, John, The History and Antiquites of county of Dorset: Henning: page 151. https://archive.org/details/b30456496_0001/page/150/mode/2up )

Wills, more than any pedigrees or secondary sources, tie together the generations of Dorothy and her great-grandfather Richard Warham of Compton Valence.

To take them in order, John Warham of Compton Valence names Dorothy Henning as “my daughter” in his 1572 will. He also names his father Richard and his mother Thomasine. Edward Warham of Osmington names John Henning his brother-in-law in his 1603 will, Dorothy having died and not mentioned. John Henning in his 1617 will names Alice Talbot as his daughter with bequests to her children. See the bibliography for links to these three wills.

The pedigrees generated by the Visitations only to confirm the right to a certain coat of arms, confuse the matter a good deal when used as genealogies. (Footnote: The 1623 Visitation of Dorset incorrectly identifies Dorothy as the daughter of Edward. He was her sister, not her father as the wills show. ) They are secondary sources, as is Burke’s Family Records when he writes that John Henning married Dorothy, “dau. of John Warham, of Osmington co. Dorset, and had issue.” (Footnote: Burke, Ashworth P. Family Records, page 306, image 16 at Ancestry, Haig-Hutton.See the bibliography. ) The “of Osmington” is referring to Edward and his son John who signed the 1623 pedigree, who were “of Osmington” after John Henning married Dorothy of Compton Valence and settled with her at Poxwell, or Osmington, which are within a mile of each other.

From the wills, then, we know that Dorothy, the daughter of John Warham of Compton Valence, son of Richard, married John Henning sometime before 1572 and died before 1603. And we know that they had a daughter Alice who married a Talbot, William, by 1617.

While the wills make the lineage connections, it is the coat of arms of the Archbishop with the description of the arms of John, his son Edward (Dorothy’s brother) and his son John in the Visitation of Dorset in 1623 that establish the connection to the Archbishop despite the unknown given name of the father of Richard of Compton Valence.

The arms of the Archbishop on his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.

The pedigree of John Warham and his son Edward in the Visitation of Dorset, 1623 which includes a description that matches that of the Archbishop's arms, but does not include a drawing.

Description in the Visitation of 1623 in the image:

ARMS -Gules (red), a fesse or, in chief a goat’s head couped argent, armed of the second and in base three escallops of the third, all within a bordure engrailed (gold); on the fesse a crescent for difference.”

CREST - "An arm embowed, habited quarterly argent and azure, cuff…the hand proper, grasping a sword by the blade, point downwards, sable, hilt or, the blade charged with three quatrefoils of the first.”

Arms of the Archbishop in the Visitation of Hampshire, 1530 - 1634.

It has been asserted that the wealth of the family had been acquired by William, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the Archbishop’s relative John of Compton Valence was apparently rather wealthy, and the Archbishop, while wealthy, died in 1532 pretty much a pauper, his wealth having been diminished by the king and the monies spent on Otford Palace in Kent. See 'The Lost Palace of Henry The VIII' for more on Otford Palace.)

Born about 1510, when he died in 1572 John left in his will money to the churches and poor of Compton Valence, Frampton, Maiden Newton and Tollar Porcorum, all communities just west of Dorchester. He leased Frome Billett, (Footnote: Dorset History Centre (DHC) Ref. D-FLO/2717, 10 June 1565 ) near West Stafford east of Dorchester, where he is supposedly buried. That farm he willed to his son Edward.

We know from his will that his father was Richard when he stipulates that he should be buried in Compton Valence next to the body of his father Richard deceased. (Footnote: 1572 Will of John Warham of Compton Valence: PROB 11/54/349 - https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D959685 ) That will leaves his estate to his wife Katherine for life and then to sons Thomas, Robert, Edward, and George. His will also identifies his mother as Thomasine. In an inquisition held 14 years after his death Thomas’ age is given as 40. (Footnote: Thomas Warham's age in 1576: DHC Ref: D-CRI/A/20/5/15 ) He names his unmarried daughters and Dorothy Hemming his daughter. A more extended examination of John’s family is that done by Mark H. Welchley, in August of 2010 and pulled from Ancestry.com: John Warham of Compton Vallence, Dorset, England.

The History of the County of Hampshire, online at British History Online, has an article on Church Oakley that states:

Two old tombs remain in the south chapel and south aisle respectively; the former has no inscription or date but dates from c. 1520, and probably commemorates the parents of the archbishop. A mid18th-century note in the register states that £5 was left 'to clean the tombe in the isle,' but it is evident that the tomb was then supposed to be that of some

The tomb is altar shaped with panelled sides and ends; on either side is an arched niche between a pair of cusped quatrefoils inclosing shields with the Warham arms, and at either end are similar quatrefoils. On the tomb are somewhat weathered alabaster effigies of a knight and lady; he wears plate armour over a mail hauberk, and around his neck is a slender chain; he has frilled cuffs at his wrists and rings on his fingers and wears square-toed sabbatons; his sword is much broken away, but the pommel remains carved with an I.H.S. The lady has a kennel head-dress, a loose sash at the waist, a full-skirted gown and a long mantle fastened across the breast by cords; about her neck a chain with a cross pendant is thrice wound. The other tomb is below the easternmost window of the south aisle set in a recess; it has a panelled front with a plainly moulded top edge and plinth; in the top slab are two small brass figures of a man in civil dress and his wife, and the inscription below the figures reads:—'Orate p[ro]. a[nim]ab[us] Roberti Warham q' obiit p'mo die me[nsi]s Octobris anno dni m°cccclxxxvii° et Elizabeth uxor' ei que eciā obiit eodē anno d[omi]ni xv° die Septēbris q'rm aîabus p[ro]piciet' de' amē.' Below are their four sons and the indent of two daughters. The recess has a four-centred arch in a square head with cusped spandrels. (Footnote: Parishes: Church Oakley A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1911. )

The above photos from a 2014 article online at Hampshire History which also provides this translation:

An overview map locating the other inset maps.

Dorchester showing the locations of the Warham family of Dorothy Warham, her brother and father.

Malshanger Farm west of Basingstoke on an 1850-1860 O.S. map.
The home of the Archbishop and his family, brothers and father.

More on Richard Warham, son of Hugh, the Archbishop's nephew:

A local historian of Oakley, Ken Smallbone, has written about Richard, the ‘clerke’ son of Hugh. Published in Link Magazine, the community magazine for the village of Oakley in April of 2017, Mr. Smallbone writes:

The other nephew was Richard Warham, a Doctor of Civil Laws (like his uncle the Archbishop), and Dr Warham had previously held, in succession, the rectories of Clapham in Sussex, Cheam in Surrey, and, lastly, Tring in Hertfordshire. He was the elder son of Hugh Warham of Malshanger and Haling (in Croydon). Richard’s younger brother, Sir William Warham, soon inherited Malshanger, had a daughter who would succeed him, and died in 1570 (buried in Oakley Church). He was still a Catholic in faith.

Richard, however, after spending numerous years serving his beloved Church, was now in a quandary, and eventually, like his cousin the former Archdeacon, had no choice but to leave his chosen career. He was in his late forties or early fifties when he became a layman, and very soon afterwards he married – and his bride was naturally decades younger than himself. The couple had five children – three sons and two daughters.

Furthermore, obviously through the influence of his brother, Richard acquired a large copyhold estate under the Manor of Manydown, which was located at East Oakley. Known anciently as ‘Rams and Germyns’ (and dating from 1365), it comprised about seventy acres. Richard the former clerk in Holy Orders had now become a farmer, and was quite successful in that role. He died in 1556, and his heriot (manorial death duties) comprised a horse, cow and wether, valued together at £2 13s 4d (a substantial amount at that time). His widow, Matilda or Maud, became tenant for the duration of her widowhood. She died in 1582, and the estate passed to her son Richard.”

Certainly, this is not the Richard, father of John, who is buried in Compton Valence. In communication with Mr. Smallbone he identified the children of Richard, one of which was named Richard, the others being Hugh, Raynold, Joan, and Agnes. And given the time frame, it is not likely that Richard, junior, was the father of John Warham.

This page, and especially the Talbot page, would never have been done without the help of Dan Talbot of Reading, England, whose extensive research into the wills and land records provided the impetus to assemble this information here.My research has been all online using documents at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.com, TheGenealogist.com and digitized libraries like Archive.org and HathiTrust.org. I’m sure there are clues and evidences deep in the British Library and other sources in England, but being 4,000 miles from those resources, this will have to do. Please contact me if you find things I’ve gotten wrong, missed or need clarification.