Individual Details

Marriage

Sir Robert Wingfield was born c. 1395 at Letheringham, Suffolk. His parents were Robert Wingfield and Elizabeth Russell. Letheringham had come into the possesion of this branch of the family through a marriage to a Bovile heiress in the mid-14th century. Sir Robert Wingfield was Knighted by King Henry VI in 1426. He served as an M.P. for Suffolk 1427-1439, and as Steward to the Duke of Norfolk. The earliest documented Wingfield is John de Wyngefeld in the Calender of Patent Rolls in 1279. He is closely connected or possibly related to the Braiose (Breus) family. Sir Robert Wingfield died in 1454 and left an extensive will. He was buried at Letheringham Church in a large monumental tomb with his wife. Much of the church was destroyed in the 18th century, and only a small portion remains today containing two Wingfield Brasses. Elizabeth Goushill, the wife of Robert, was the daugher of Sir Robert Goushill and Elizabeth FitzAlan. She was born at Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire in 1402. She died sometime before 1454, and was buried at Letheringham. Elizabeth Goushill had two direct lines of descent to the Plantagenet Kings through her mother Elizabeth FitzAlan. Through Elizabeth Goushill and her sister Joan, many Americans including Franklin D. Roosevelt find their direct Plantagenet ancestry.