Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to right sidebar Skip to footer

A Stump Descendant

Tony Mcaleavy

Summary

A fascinating story, of hard work, opportunism, murder, and the rise to power of the successful family of a weaver from North Nibley. This was the story of William Stumpe

A fascinating story, of hard work, opportunism, murder, and the rise to power of the successful family of a weaver from North Nibley. This was the story that the Stinchcombe History Society was told by Historian Tony McAleavy last Friday 8th in the Village Hall. The story was of a man called William Stumpe who was a just poor weaver in North Nibley but set off to make his fortune in the 1500’s.

The King is a direct descendant of a man from North Nibley!

In around the year 1500 William Stumpe moved to Malmesbury where he became extremely wealthy as a result, first, of his successful business making wool cloth and, second, by the way he obtained control of much of the property of Malmesbury Abbey after the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1539. Tony McAleavy, a local historian from Malmesbury, has investigated William Stumpe’s family tree and discovered that King Charles III is a direct lineal descendant of the man from North Nibley. Some seventeen generations separated the King from his North Nibley ancestor. The following chart supplied by Tony shows the direct line of descent from Stumpe to our King today.

GenerationDecendant
1stWilliam Stumpe of North Nibley (died 1552)
married
Joyce Berkeley
2ndSir James Stumpe (died 1562)
married
Bridget Baynton
3rdElizabeth Stumpe later Lady Elizabeth Knyvett (died 1587)
married
Sir Henry Knyvett
4thKatherine Knyvett later Countess of Suffolk (died 1633)
married
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk
5thLady Katherine Howard later Countess of Salisbury (died 1673)
married
William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury
6thLady Elizabeth Cecil later Countess of Devonshire (died 1689)
married
William Cavendish 3rd Earl of Devonshire
7thWilliam Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (died 1707)
married
Lady Mary Butler
8thWilliam Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire (died 1729)
married
Lady Rachel Russell
9thWilliam Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire (died 1755)
married
Catherine Hoskins
10thWilliam Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (died 1764)
married
Lady Charlotte Boyle
11thLady Dorothy Cavendish, later Duchess of Portland (died 1794)
married
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
12thLord Charles Bentinck (died 1826)
married
13thRev. Charles Cavendish-Bentinck (died 1865)
married
Caroline Burnaby
14thCecilia Cavendish-Bentinck later Countess of Strathmore (died 1938)
married
Claude Bowes-Lyon, Earl of Strathmore
15thLady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon later Queen Elizabeth (died 2002)
married
King George VI
16thQueen Elizabeth II (died 2022)
married
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
17thKing Charles III
The Stump Family Tree
Skip to content