Individual Details

Marriage

Henry Wingfield was born about 1440 at Letheringham, Suffolk to Sir Robert Wingfield and his wife Elizabeth Goushill. He was one of the youngest of their 12 children. Sir Henry Wingfield was Knighted along with his brother Thomas at the Battle of Tewksbury during the Wars of the Roses. They fought in the Battle Wing under the command of the Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III), and were Knighted by King Edward IV on May 5, 1471.
Sir Henry became Governor of Orford Castle in Suffolk and died there on May 6, 1494. He was buried in the Chancel of the Friars at Orford, which can be seen today only as a ruin. Henry's first wife was Alice Seckford, widow of George Seckford, whom he was married to for many years. Sometime after 1480, he married Elizabeth Rokes, daughter of Sir Thomas Rokes of Fawley, Bucks. The ancestry of the Rokes family traces to Edward Rokes in the 13th century in Yorkshire. The only children mentioned in Sir Henry Wingfield's will (written Feb. 1494), are his two young sons Thomas and Robert born to Elizabeth Rokes. Elizabeth died about 1530, and was buried at Westhorpe Church. Her once existing monument was not found on a visit in 1991.