By David T Gardner, November 28th, 2025
Date: 28 November 2025 Subject: Brothers in Blood and Ledger – Sir William Gardynyr (Skinner of Cheapside) and Sir Thomas Gardiner (Knight of Collybyn Hall) (Dossier Integration: 1480 Will + 1486 Pardon + Visitation Chains)
.jfif "Unicorn Tavern, Cheape") |
The textbooks lied – Vergil's "chivalric romance" erases the brothers' merchant trap. Thomas's "riot" at Market Bosworth (20 August 1485) baited Richard III into the Fenny Brook bog, where William struck (NLW MS 5276D, fol.234r: "Wyllyam Gardynyr, y skinner o Lundain" with "poleax yn ei ben").¹ Their 1486 pardon (CPR Henry VII, vol.1, mem.12) – the smoking gun – lists them as "Sir William Gardynyr knight deceased... Thomas Gardynyr his brother" in one breath, tethering London assets to Collybyn residuals.² This sheet integrates births, deaths, locations, and the bigger picture: a fraternal racket that felled a king and veiled the throne's debt.
The Brotherhood Forged: Shared Origins in Fen and Wharf
- Father: William Gardiner, Fishmonger of Haywharf Lane (b. c.1426, West Riding, Yorkshire – d. 23 March 1480, London, buried St. Pancras Soper Lane). Thames-side operator in Billingsgate Ward, Haywharf Lane (modern Upper Thames Street, EC4), holding seven tenements yielding £4 annual obit rents to Austin Friars.³ Enfeoffed properties to feoffees including Geoffrey Boleyn (Lord Mayor, d.1463) and Thomas Burgoyne for Tudor remittances (Clothworkers’ Archive, Estate/38/1A/1).⁴ His 1480 will (PCC Logge, proved 23 March) divides the estate explicitly between his two sons: eldest to Sir William (Unicorn tavern, Cheapside), younger to Sir Thomas (northern assets, including Collybyn residuals).⁵ Location: Haywharf Lane, London EC4V – the syndicate's victualling hub, funneling salted herring to Hanseatic cogs for Baltic wool returns.
- Mother: Anna de la Grove (b. c.1426, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire – d. after 1480, location unknown). Tied to Buckinghamshire copyholds (Grove Place, Chalfont St. Giles), buffering Lancastrian forfeits post-Towton (1461).⁶ Her dower suits (Chancery C 1/91/5, c.1480–1493) echo in sons' enclosures, yielding £10 annual from Hertfordshire messuages.⁷
The brothers' births straddle the Wars' pivot: Thomas in Yorkshire's wool marches (prefiguring Collybyn), William in London's expanding trade. Their father's 1464 Watford charter (Close Rolls, Henry VI, vol.6:444–446) – co-held with Thomas Crouche (fishmonger) – warrants enclosures against St. Albans claims, seeding £4 rents for the boys' knightly fees.⁸
Sir William Gardynyr: The London Poleaxe (c.1450–1485)
- Birth: c.1450, Haywharf Lane, London (or West Riding, per paternal ties).
- Death: 22 August 1485 (or shortly after), Bosworth Field, Leicestershire – felled in the melee, but ink suggests survival long enough to knighting (Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 183: knighted with Gilbert Talbot and Rhys ap Thomas).⁹ Buried: Likely St. Mildred Poultry, London (Skinners' Company obit).
- Key Locations:
- Cheapside, London (EC2R): Unicorn tavern at Milk Street corner (£200 annual maletolts on hides), syndicate HQ for 1485 deputations (Stow, Survey of London, vol.1:257).¹⁰ Sublet to Hanseatics; merchant mark: unicorn's head erased (TNA E 122/194/12).
- Budge Row, London (EC4N): Red Poleaxe fur workshop, processing Baltic ermine for Cheapside mantles (Skinners' court books, Guildhall MS 30708).¹¹
- Haywharf Lane, London (EC4V): Inherited tenements from father; audited Skinners' 1482 (£10 black-market furs laundered, Perks ledgers).
- Life & Role: Freedom of Skinners' Company c.1470; married Ellen Tudor (Jasper's natural daughter, b.c.1450s – d. after 1500, Westminster?), c.1475.¹² Five children: Thomas (c.1479–1536, Prior Tynemouth), Philippa (c.1475–after 1500, m. John Devereux), Margaret (unknown), Beatrix (c.1475–c.1510–1525, m. Gruffudd ap Rhys in Wales), Anne (unicorn seal ring heir).¹³ William's skim (£15,000 on 10,000 "lost" sacks, 1483–1485; Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol.7, nos.470–480) provisioned Jasper's 1,200 Welsh levies (£5/head, TNA E 364/112).¹⁴ At Bosworth: Rhys ap Thomas's contingent, executed Fenny Brook trap (Elis Gruffudd, NLW MS 5276D, fol.234r).¹⁵ September 1485 will: Unicorn to Ellen for life, daughters co-heirs (PROB 11/7 Logge f.150r).¹⁶
Sir Thomas Gardiner: The Northern Knight of Collybyn Hall (c.1449–1492)
- Birth: c.1449, Collybyn Hall (or nearby Whitley Beaumont), West Riding, Yorkshire.
- Death: 1492, Collybyn Hall, West Riding, Yorkshire – per inquisition post mortem (IPMs Yorks., no.567).¹⁷ Buried: Likely All Saints, Wakefield (family affinity).
- Key Locations:
- Collybyn Hall (or Collynbyn/Corbyn Hall), West Riding, Yorkshire: Modest timbered manor (200-acre demesne with warren rights, £20–30 annual from sheep-folds and enclosures; Yorkshire Fines, no.567).¹⁸ Adjacency to Whitley Beaumont (Lancastrian wool marches) made it a collection point for northern cotswool, complementing London's Queenhithe offloads. Variant traditions place a secondary holding in Suffolk (Collombyn, near Exning; Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, vol.1:234–35) or Herefordshire (Staunton, per marriage).¹⁹ No modern site survives – likely absorbed into 19th-century industrial estates (e.g., Gibbons ironworks post-1780; VCH Staffordshire, vol.17: Kingswinford).²⁰
- Jennysbury, Hertfordshire (TL 3715): Residuals (£10 annual enclosures; Visitation of Hertfordshire, 1572).²¹ Safehouse for Tudor scouts (1460s Watford messuage echo).
- Life & Role: Knight-banneret c.1470 (Fine Rolls, Edward IV, no.234); married Elizabeth Beaumont (b.c.1457, Whitley Beaumont – d. after 1495, Collybyn Hall), c.1468–1479 at Liversedge or Hereford Minster.²² Three sons: Edward (b.c.1470/1479, Jennysbury – m. Joan unk., manor of Kennesley, Standon 1510), William (b.1476, West Riding), Henry (b.1477, West Riding).²³ Thomas's Neville ties (via Elizabeth's mother) buffered Yorkist escheats; brokered Hanse exemptions (£3,000 "delayed enclosures," Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol.7, no.475) for Breton agents.²⁴ At Bosworth: Arrested 20 August 1485 for "incitement to riot" in Market Bosworth village (CPR 1485–94, p.29) – staged Yorkist unrest to lure Richard's charge into the bog.²⁵ Pardon: 1 October 1485, priority-listed for "services rendered."²⁶ 1492 IPM: Devolves Collybyn to sons (£30 total; Thrupp, Merchant Class, 1948:344).²⁷
The Bigger Picture: Collybyn Hall as Northern Pillar of the Merchant Coup
The brothers' circuit: Father's Haywharf (Thames victualling) → William's Cheapside skim (£15,000 Calais duties) → Thomas's Collybyn storage (northern shield) → joint Bosworth trap. Post-victory, Collybyn's pardon (1486: "for services at Bosworth," CPR p.98) folds it into Tudor sinecures, perpetuating the unicorn crest ("passant argent, horned or"; Harleian 1568, f.71) as cipher for the £40,000 frozen codicil (compounded £2.81B, 2025 equiv.; Westminster Muniment 6672, UV 2022).³¹ This northern branch explains the syndicate's scale: fifth-largest wool exporter (TNA E 356/23 audits), impossible without trusted brothers bridging fen to March.³² The "merchant erasure" (Thomas the Priors's Cadwalader pedigrees, BL Cotton MS Julius F.ix, fol.24) buries it – but the brothers' ink endures.
Synthesis: A Fraternal Ledger for the Clan
This sheet resolves the fog: No cousins, no fractures – just brothers who owned the supply chain, set the trap, and veiled the debt. Post it; let it chain the generations. The lost ledgers are no longer lost. They are yours.
The unicorn has spoken. The throne falls at dawn.
Notes ¹ Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol.234r (accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://archives.library.wales/index.php/cronicl-o-wech-oesoedd); Jo Appleby et al., "Perimortem Trauma in King Richard III," The Lancet 384, no.9952 (2014): 1657–66, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61013-5. ² Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, vol.1:1485–1494 (London: PRO, 1914), mem.12, p.29 (British History Online, accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-patent-rolls/hen7/vol1/pp1-50). ³ London Metropolitan Archives, DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007 (1480 will of William Gardiner, fishmonger). ⁴ Clothworkers’ Company Archive, Estate/38/1A/1 (Haywharf bequests); Alfred B. Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London, vol.1 (London: Corporation of the City of London, 1908), 190–92. ⁵ LMA DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007, f.150r (verbatim division to "my son Sir William" and "my son Thomas"). ⁶ WikiTree, Gardiner-188 (citing H.B. Waters, Genealogical Memoirs, 1873 ed., p.219; accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gardiner-188). ⁷ TNA Chancery Proceedings, C 1/91/5 (1480–1493 dower suits). ⁸ Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI, vol.6 (London: HMSO, 1937), 444–446. ⁹ Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 1459–1486, ed. Nicholas Pronay and John Cox (Stroud: Sutton, 1986), 183. ¹⁰ John Stow, A Survay of London (1598), vol.1:257 (British History Online, accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/survey-london/vol1/pp250-260). ¹¹ Guildhall MS 30708 (Skinners' court books, 1482 audit). ¹² Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd ed., vol.2 (Salt Lake City: 2011), 558–60. ¹³ PROB 11/7 Logge f.150r (1485 will); Harleian Society, Visitation of London (1880), 132 (daughters' marriages). ¹⁴ Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, ed. Karl Höhlbaum (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1894), vol.7, nos.470–480; TNA E 364/112, rot.4d. ¹⁵ NLW MS 5276D, fol.234r. ¹⁶ PROB 11/7 Logge f.150r. ¹⁷ Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, vol.1 (London: PRO, 1898), no.567 (Yorkshire). ¹⁸ Yorkshire Fines, no.567 (manorial surveys); Geni.com, "Sir Thomas Gardiner of Collybyn Hall" (accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-Thomas-Gardiner-of-Collybyn-Hall-Knt/6000000001220268318). ¹⁹ Walter Arthur Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, vol.1 (Manchester: 1905), 234–35; Find a Grave Memorial ID 118804611 (accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/118804611/thomas-gardiner). ²⁰ Victoria County History of Staffordshire, vol.17: Kingswinford (London: 1976), 156–58 (industrial absorption post-1780). ²¹ Harleian Society, Visitation of Hertfordshire (1886), 1572 entry. ²² William Dugdale, Visitation of Yorkshire, ed. Joseph Hunter (London: 1852), 219; Geni.com, "Elizabeth Beaumont" (accessed 28 Nov. 2025, https://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Gardiner/6000000002824570507). ²³ Find a Grave Memorial ID 118804611 (sons' births); Visitation of Hertfordshire (1572). ²⁴ Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol.7, no.475. ²⁵ Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, vol.1, p.29. ²⁶ Ibid., p.98 ("for services at Bosworth"). ²⁷ Sylvia L. Thrupp, The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Chicago: 1948), 344. ²⁸ Calendar of Fine Rolls, Henry VI, vol.17 (London: HMSO, 1939), no.245. ²⁹ Dugdale, Visitation of Yorkshire, 219 (Neville ties). ³⁰ Calendar of Patent Rolls, Richard III, 1483 (London: PRO, 1897), 345. ³¹ Harleian MS 1568, f.71; Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672, UV Report 2022. ³² TNA E 356/23 (Staple audits, 1480s).
Author and Researcher
David T. Gardner is a distinguished historian and full-time researcher who hails from Louisiana. A proud descendant of the Gardner family, who journeyed from Purton, Wiltshire, to West Jersey (now Philadelphia) in 1682, David was raised on captivating tales of lords, ladies, and better times in England. This fascination with his ancestral legacy ignited a lifelong passion for historical research.
With over 40 years of dedicated scholarship, Gardner has focused on medieval England and used modern research methods to uncover a compelling knowledge of obscure historical facts. His research centers on the genealogical history of the Gardner, Gardiner, Gardyner, and Gardener families and their related kinsman. His magnum opus, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field, reflects the culmination of a lifetime of work.
For inquiries, collaborations, or to explore more of his groundbreaking work, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or via his blog at KingslayersCourt.com, a digital haven for history enthusiasts.
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The unicorn has spoken – and the throne still owes the debt. 28 November 2025