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View Tree for Alexander Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon (b. 1181, d. 1236)

Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon (son of Geoffrey) was born 1181 in Boketon, County Northampton, ENGLAND then part of the new 'Holy Roman Empire', and died 1236 in Boughton (Boketon), County Northampton, ENGLAND. He married Isabelle "Lady of Boketon" de Cantilupe on 1200 in County Northampton, ENGLAND, daughter of William "Sir" De Cantilupe and Mecelina Marcelina "Lady" di Braci.

 Includes NotesNotes for Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon:
Event: Note As far as ALEXANDER DE BOKETON's ancestors, this was rec'd from LDS, so, they are NOT proven.
Event: Note His great grandfather was one of the Norman nobles who invaded England with William the Conqueror.
Burial: ABT. 1236 St. John the Baptist Cemetery, Greenes Norton, County Northampshire, ENGLAND
Immigration: BET. 1181 - 1202 Removed from the mainland in France to the British Isles (England)
Event: Title (Facts Pg) BET. 1202 - 1236 Lord, Sir, Knight (by King John), 1st Baron de Boketon
Event: Born 2 ABT. 1181 Boketon, County Northampton, ENGLAND 1 2 3
Religion: Roman Catholic
Residence: 1202 King John bestowed estate of Boughton in County Northampton (England)
NATI: Norman descendant
Note:
NOTE: The 'Holy Roman Empire', in general usage, the designation applied
to an amorphour political entity of western Europe, originated by Pope
Leo III in 800 A.D., and in nominal existence more or less continuously
until 1806. For purposes of historical accuracy, it should be noted that,
in its initial stages, the organization was styled 'Empire of the West'
and 'Roman Empire'; and that the epithet "Holy" did not appear in the
official title until 1155.
Just an interesting bit of history, apparently our ALEXANDER DE BOKETON
b:c1181 was born under the 'Hohenstaufen Dynasty' with first emperor
Frederick I reigning at his birth (c1152-1190, crowned 1155), then
emperor Henry VI (1190-1197, crowned 1191). I suspect that either his
family immigrated to the British Isles (England) during his childhood or
he left for said Isles in early manhood since his son WALTER b:Abt.
1200-1210 was said to have been born there.
SOURCE: Universal Standard Encylclopedia, Vol. 12, Pgs. 4370-4373

The Greene family is an English and American family, its history being
divided into two periods, from 1202 to 1635 in England, and from 1635 to
the present in America. In the period for 1630 to 1640, that of the great
Puritan Migration into Massachusetts, several men by the name of Greene
came to the colonies, most of them settling in New England. Of all these,
two of them are of particular interest to us. Both of their names were
John, and their wives names were Joan. They were second cousins german,
that is, one was the second cousin of the other's father. The elder of
these John Greenes settled in Warwick, Rhode Island, after a short
sojourn in Massachusetts.

He was the founder of the Warwick Greenes, who have furnished more men in
public life to the State of Rhode Island than any other family in the
state. It is from this family that General Nathanael Greene is
descended. (MY NOTE: The "Warwick Greene's" is my direct ancestry.)

The other John Greene settled at Quidnessett and became the founder of
the Quidnessett Greenes. These two related families ha ve multiplied so
that today, not even the Smiths, Joneses, or Johnsons outnumber them in
their native state. It is said to be unwise to speak ill of any Rhode
Islander to a Greene because he is sure to be a Greene or a kin of the
Greenes! Rhode Island itself might better have been called the State of
Greene because of the part the Greene family has played in its entire
history from the beginning, the two John Greenes being associated with
Roger Williams in the founding of the colony.

He who steps out into the night finds at first that all is gross
darkness, but as he gropes his way, dim landmarks begin to shape
themselves out of the darkness. The faint rays of light grow plainer, and
the traveller at last walks in a path that has familiar objects to the
right and the left to show him how far he has come and in what direction
he is going. So in this history, the beginning of the Greene family is
shrouded in the night of the unchronicled story of centuries ago. A date
or two comes down to us. The hazy figure of Lord Alexander rises like a
ghost from his seven centuries of dust. There is a certain branching and
widening out of the family.
Not until the fourth lord of the line comes more than the name of the
Lords de Greene.

All that we really know of the first Lord de Greene may be summed up in
this brief paragraph. Alexander, of the House of Arundel, a Knight of the
King's court, was the great-great grandson of Alen de la Zouche, the
uncle of William the Conqueror and Duke of Bretagne, and the great
grandson of one of the Norman nobles who invaded England with William the
Conqueror in 1066. King John bestowed the estate of Boughton in
Northampton upon him in 1202. John was the ruler of both England and
France and apparently awarded Boughton, or Boketon, to Lord Alexander in
return for the latter's support during a rebellion that raged in England
while the king was in France putting down a similar rebellion there. The
exact extent of the estate is not known, but the least a great baron
could own and hold his rank was fifty hides of land, i.e., six thousand
acres. Halstead, in his Succinct Genealogies, a very rare work done in
1585, says that at one time the Greenes were the largest land owners in
the kingdom.

Lord Alexander assumed a surname after his chief estate de Greene de
Boketon, i.e., the Lord of the Park of the Deer Enclosure. A green in the
early day was a park. Boketon is an old, old word meaning the buck's ton,
or paled-in enclosure. Centuries ago the terminal syllable, ton, had lost
its original sense and meant a town. So that Boketon, still used in the
original sense, shows that Lord Alexander came to an estate named long
before and noted for its extensive parks and deer preserves. Boketon
became Bucks, Buckston, and later Boughton, its present name. It lies in
Northampton.

For five generations the de Greenes spoke Norman-French. They were a
family that delighted in athletic sports. They hunted, hawked, and
attended tournaments, played games of tennis, cricket, and bowls. All of
them in their generations were noted for their fine bowling alleys, two
or three of which were the finest in England.

Charles I was arrested at Althorpe, where he had gone to bowl, and this
once belonged to the Greenes.

Alexander had a passionate love of horticulture that has throughout these
seven centuries dominated his entire line of descendants. There is
probably no other English speaking family today that has so many members
that delight in beautiful home grounds and in flowers and fruit and
finely kept farms.
In 1215, when the English Lords forced King John to sign the Magna Carta,
there were only seven barons that adhered to John and Lord Alexander de
Greene de Boketon was not one of them.
Therefore, he must have been one of the two thousand nobles who put their
united protests in the hands of twenty-five lords who presented the Magna
Carta to the king and forced him to sign that document that guaranteed
both the lives and the property of his subjects from arbitrary
spoliation. One of the signers was Roger, Earl of Winchester, whose
great-great granddaughter, Lucie de la Zouche, married Sir Alexander de
Greene's great-great grandson, Lord Thomas Greene (5th generation).
SOURCE: Maxson Frederick Greene,
http://www.paintedhills.org/green_family.htm


The GREENE family was a branch of the de la Zouche family of whom Gibbon,
the historian, said that they had the most royal blood and the most
strain of royal blood in all Europe. The Greene's at one time were the
largest land owners in all England. They were over fifty times descent of
Charlemagne (known as 'Charles the Great, King of the Franks and Emperor
of the West'), the greatest man of a thousand years.

There were a dozen decents from Alfred the Great and fifty from
Wittekind. They had the blood of Irish, Scotch, Saxon, English, and
Bohemian Kings; they came from ancient Parthian Emperors long before the
time of our Lord Jesus Christ; regular heathens; Russian rulers; French
Kings; Constantine the Great; and Basil the Great, the Byzantine Emperor.

Through the Royal Welsh line, they claimed a double infusion of Jewish
blood -- one line from Aaron, the first High Priest; the other from King
David himself. Queen Victoria of the same blood firmly believed this. A
dozen titular saints, a dozen signers of the Magna Charta, and over
thirty crusaders were in this descent.

Alexander, a younger son of the de la Zouche family, was given an estate
and title as a "Great Baron" by King John of England in 1202 AD. The
estate was that of de Greene de Boketon. Walter de Boketon, was in the
Seventh Crusade in 1244. Walter's son, John de Greene de Boketon, died in
the next crusade in 1271 leaving a year old son, Thomas, who became Sir
Thomas de Greene (married Alice Bottisham). Then came Thomas de Greene
(b: c1288) who married Lady Lucy de la Zouche, his relative.

Wittekind's line of descent is as follows:
Wittekind -- the German hero whom Charlemagne conquered and converted to
Christianity, and married Princess Geva.
Robert the Strong -- the grandson of Wittekind and Geva. He married
Adelaide le Debonnaire, the daughter of Emperor Louis le Debonnaire and
granddaughter of Charlemagne.
Hugh -- the King maker of France.
Hugh Capet (his son).
King Robert I.
King Henry I of France -- and through their wives from Emperors of
Germany, Czars of Russia, Emperors of Byzantine, the early Saxon Kings
and William the Conqueror.
Then eight generations more with the Royal Welsh, Spanish, Irish, and
Scotch heirs in their veins to Lady Lucy de la Zouche (b: c1279) who
married her relative Sir Thomas de Greene (b: c1288).

They remained in the royal line for several hundred years. Saher de
Quincey, Earl of Winchester, and one of the Magna Charta Barons, wrested
the Great Charter from King John on the field of Runnymede in June of
1215.

The name "Greene" was originally written "de Greene". It appears that the
Greene's assumed their name from an allusion to their principal nad
beloved manor which was Buckton, Town of Bucks, in the County of
Northampton, England. The place was known for the excellency of its soil,
its situation, and its spacious and delightful green. From Buckton, they
assumed three bucks for their coat of arms. They were Lords of hte Manor
and owned many stately castles.

In King Edward the III's reign (1327-1377), Sir Henry Greene (1310-1370)
obtained for himself and his heirs the grand of a fair to be held yearly
for three days beginning on the vigil of St. John the Baptist. Since that
time down to the middle of the nineteenth century this fair was held up
on the spacious green which gave name to the Greene family.

In the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), Sir Thomas Greene was warden of
Whittlebury Forest, an office which he "held in capite of the King by
service of lifting up his hand towards the King yearly on Christmas Day
in what place so-ever the King is."

Sir Henry de Greene was the Lord Chief Justice of England, and the
ancestor of six Sir Thomas' who succeeded one another on the estate of
Northampton without interruption. The last one died in 1506 leaving a
daughter, Mathilda or Maude Greene, who married Sir Thomas Parr.
Katherine Parr, the daughter of this Sir Thomas Parr and Mathilda or
Maude Greene, was the sixth and last Queen of Henry VIII (1509-1547). At
her death the estate passed to the Crown, but was restored t othe
Greene's in 1550 by a grant from Edward VI (1547-1553) who gave it to his
uncle, Katherine Parr's brother, Sir Thomas Parr. This Sir Thomas Parr
was a Knight of the Garter.

Robert Greene, Gentleman of Bowridge Hill, Gillingham, County of
Dorsetshire, England, was taxed on the subsidy rolls of Henry VIII in
1547 and those of Queen Elizabeth in 1558. (REF: papers from Mrs. William
B. Smith (30) of DeCatur, Georgia, as given in "A Family Genealogy" by
William Henry Beck, III).

The family name of Greene is derived, says Somerby, from possessions held
in Northamptonshire as early as the times of King Edward I. In 1320 Sir
Thomas de Greene, Lord of Broughton (or Boughton), and Norton, later
called "Greene's Norton", succeeded to the estate. His son, Sir Henry de
Greene, Lord of Greene's Norton, was Lord Chief Justice in 1353. The tomb
of the latter which remains perfect, is ornamented with many shields
showing different houses with with he was connected, and conspicuous
among them is the coat of arms of his own family.

The mother of Sir Thomas de Greene (Lady Lucy de la Zouche), was a direct
descendant of Henry I of France; of Saher (or Saer) de Quincey, Earl of
Winchester, one of the twenty-five barons who extorted the Magna Charta
from King John; and also of Alfred the Great of England. (REF: "Americans
of Royal Descent" by Charles Browning).

REFERENCES: Taken from paper from Mrs. Frank Graham of Dawson, Georgia;
arranged by Miss Mary E. Lathrop, assisted by Mrs. Henry Waterman of
Central Falls, Rhode Island; and Mrs. Mary A. Greene of Providence, Rhode
Island, as accounted by William Henry Beck, III --- "A Family Genealogy".
URL: http://www.geocities.com/pameladhudson/greenehistory.html


In the year 1202, King John of England bestowed the estate of Boketon
(Boughton) on Alexander, a knight in his court. The following year
(1203), "Alexander de Boketon recovered the advowson of the Church of St.
John the Baptist at Boketon (a seigniorial right of the Lords of Boketon)
against Simon de Hecter and Simon de Boketon.

Nothing is certain about Alexander's ancestry. Writers have suggested
that he may have been the son of William de Cantilupe, that his mother
may have been a de Cantilupe, or, as assumed here, that his wife was the
daughter of William de Cantilupe.

In 1202, there were only two titles of nobility: earls and knights. The
knights were subdivided into greater and lesser barons. The great barons
held their estates from the crown. The lesser barons held their estates
as a subdivision from an overlord or great baron. Lord Alexander was a
great and wealthy baron, and one of the largest land owners in all of
England. He had power over his estate like a petty king. In exchange for
the power granted from the king, he had to furnish many men for the
king's wars, pay a portion toward the dowry of the princesses, and
entertain the king when the king was in his territory. In addition, he
had to pay homage to the crown. The Lords de Grene paid homage from 1202
to 1506 "by lifting up his right hand toward the king yearly on Christmas
Day, in what place soever the king is." (Halstead's Genealogy, 1585). A
household account by the steward of Lord Alexander exists that states
that his master's household consisted of 166 persons, including the
forbisher who kept the armor bright, the fencing master, harper, priest,
bedesman or praying man, the almoner who looked after the poor, and the
barner who kept the 24-hour fires in the castle in order. Lord Alexander
kept an open table, and fed an average of 57 visitors a day. The knights
sat with the Lord at one end of the table, and were served the choicest
foods. The retainers and commoners sat "below the salt" and ate coarser
victuals, or as we say now, "humble pie."

The Lords de Grene lived in state. They wore rich apparel, belted with a
gold or silver girdle to which was attached a purse, rosary, pen, ink
horn, set of keys, and an elaborately chased and sheathed dagger. These
accoutrements showed their rank. When they rode, they always wore gold
spurs, and their armor was brightly polished and magnificent. They wore
robes in Parliament, hats and plumes at court and at the king's
coronation, and a crimson velvet cap lined with ermine and having a plain
gold band. Their servants wore the Greene livery, which was blue laced
with gold.

Although they lived in a period of early marriages, the Greene preferred
to marry late in life. Nonetheless, they managed to have large families,
often more boys than girls. The de Grenes had many purely family
superstitions. One of them was their dislike of having a picture made of
themselves. Even as late as 1850, some of them would not permit a picture
of them to be made.

Boughton (Boketon) lies a few miles north of the town of Northampton. It
was known as an estate before the Conquest (1088). It contained 1,400
acres of good soil. Boughton Manor remained in the Greene family until
about 1700, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, third Lord
Stafford. It later passed through other hands. In 1822, it was mostly
leveled to the ground and a large new house took its place. To this day,
the town of Boughton retains the appearance of an ancient town. A walk
through the village revealed that the houses had been carefully
modernized so as to not detract from the outward medieval appearance of
the buildings. In the rural cemetery was found the ruins of an ancient
church, a part of the ivy-covered walls still standing. This may be the
location of the original parish church at Boughton, dedicated to St. John
the Baptist. It stood on the green near a famous spring. As early as the
time of Henry VIII, it had begun to fall into decay. By 1785, nothing
remained but ruins. There seems to be no description of the interior
extant. It contained the tombs of some of the early members of the Greene
family.

Baker, in his History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire presented an
account of two of the Greene monuments. One of these bore the arms of
Greene and those of allied families of Zouche, Drayton, and Marblethorpe.
The other had "a portraiture of a man in a short gowne yt should shew hym
a lawyer, having also a s'geant's coyfe. His wyfe also lies in
portraiture by him."

On this tomb, at the head, were sculptured the arms of Greene; on the
south side they were repeated, and near them the Zouch device; on the
north, Greene between Zouch impaling Greene, and Reynes impaling Greene,
showing marriages with the daughters of Greene, who were probably here
interred. At the foot of the tomb was a shield bearing a fess between six
crosses patee, the arms of a family not named by Baker, who remarks that
this monument had been erroneously assigned to the Greene who married a
Marblethorpe; "but, as the Lord Chief Justice was the only one of the
family who attained to legal eminence, and his daughter having married
Zouch and Reyes, it may with confidence be applied to him."

SOURCE: "Colonial Families of America" by McKenzie, Volumes I and II

More About Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon:
Burial: St. John the Baptist Cemetery, Greenes Norton, County Northampshire, ENGLAND.

More About Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon and Isabelle "Lady of Boketon" de Cantilupe:
Marriage: 1200, County Northampton, ENGLAND.

Children of Alexander "1st Lord of Boketon" De Boketon and Isabelle "Lady of Boketon" de Cantilupe are:
  1. +Walter "2nd Lord of Boketon" De Boketon, b. 1202, Boughton (Boketon), County Northampton, ENGLAND, d. 1275, Boughton (Boketon), County Northampton, ENGLAND.
  2. Alexander De Boketon.
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