Notes on sources for the Alington family

The accompanying chart and narrative pedigrees of the early Alingtons have been compiled from various sources. I have tried to indicate, with a question mark, any information which has not been verified in a primary source - in several of these cases the secondary sources are probably the only ones that have survived.

The earlier Alingtons are discussed in several secondary works:

• J.J. Howard and F.A. Crisp, eds, Visitation of England and Wales. Notes vol.7, pp.14-30 (1907)
  A very detailed pedigree of the family, from the early 15th century until its extinction in the late 17th
• E. Hailstone, The History and Antiquities of the parish of Bottisham (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, octavo series 14; 1873)
• J.S. Roskell, William Allington of Horseheath, Speaker in the Parliament of 1429-30 and William Allington of Bottisham, Speaker in the Parliaments of 1472-5 and 1478 (in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol.52, pp.30-42 and 43-55; 1959)
  Detailed discussions of their official careers, with copious references to the public records and other evidence
• C.E. Parsons, Horseheath Hall and its owners (Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol.41; 1948)
  There is also useful information in the same author's All Saints' Church, Horseheath (1911)
• Victoria County History, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, particularly Cambridgeshire vol.6, pp.71-80 (Horseheath) and Hertfordshire, vol.3, pp.183-184 (Great Wymondley)

Some additional primary sources, apart from those already mentioned in the outline history of the Argentein family, are the following:

• Numerous Alington deeds, formerly at Horseheath Hall but now presumably lost, were transcribed in the 18th century by Cole (British Library, Additional Manuscripts, particularly numbers 5802, 5807, 5808, 5823, 5826 and 5832)
• The will of William Alington (d.1446) is transcribed in the Baker manuscripts (vol.31, p.260; Cambridge University Library, Mm.1.42)
• A copy of the will of William Alington (d.1459) is at Hertfordshire Record Office, no 63519

There are several pedigrees of the family from the 16th and 17th centuries. As always, these need to be treated with caution, but their annotations do seem to preserve some evidence - particularly from monumental inscriptions - which has not survived elsewhere.

• A pedigree of the Alingtons and Argenteins, dated 1591, of which there is a copy in British Library, Additional MS 12471, fo.88-91
  The pedigree shows, as the parents of William Alington (d.1446), William Alington of Bottisham and Dionisia, daughter of William Mallet - nine earlier generations are also given. I have not been able find any contemporary evidence to support William's alleged ancestry (or, indeed, the parentage of William's wife Joan). The pedigree is annotated with a number of genealogical abstracts
• A pedigree, apparently from the Visitation of Cambridgeshire in 1619, of which two versions have been printed: Harleian Society Publication, vol.41, pp.14-17 (1897) and in Sir Thomas Phillipps' edition of the Visitation, p.2 (1840).
  The earlier generations in the printed versions are similar to those given in the 1591 pedigree
• Another somewhat similar pedigree, also with numerous annotations, was 'in the possession of George Marmaduke Alington, Squire, of Swinhope House, co Lincs'; there is a photographic reproduction of a copy of this pedigree, with some typescript notes, at the Society of Genealogists in London

Members of the family were commemorated by a number of monumental brasses. Details of the earlier monuments are as follows:

• See separate note on the lost monument at Horseheath to Joan Alington (d.1429), wife of Robert Alington
• A monument at Horseheath, now lost, to William Alington (d.1446) and his wife Joan.
  A transcript of the inscription is given in the Baker manuscripts (vol.34, p.345; Cambridge University Library, Mm.1.45), and also on the Swinhope pedigree.
  It seems probable that the surviving indent in the chancel belongs to this William (see next)
• An indent in the chancel at Horseheath, on which the figures and shields still remained in the 18th century (Cole, British Library, Additional MS 5802, fo.5).
  This was identified as the monument to William Alington (d.1459) and his wife Elizabeth Argentein by Parsons (Horseheath Church, p.38), who says that it formerly bore the arms of Alington and Argentein, citing a 17th century manuscript of Gregory King (British Library, Harleian MS 6821, fo.50). However, I cannot find this statement in King's account - possibly Parsons misinterpreted his description of the much later monument of Robert Alington (d.1552).
  Against Parsons' suggestion, there is the evidence of William Alington's will, which specifies that he should be buried at Little Wymondley Priory. It seems more likely that this indent belongs instead to William Alington (d.1446).
• An inscription in Latin verse to Mary Cheyne, the wife of John Alington (d.1480), survives at Horseheath.
  Presumably there was once a more substantial monument. Nothing else seems to have been recorded, but the date 1473 for Mary's death is recorded in several secondary sources, and perhaps this came from a monumental inscription
• The indent of a knight in armour on an altar tomb at Bottisham is usually assumed to belong to William Alington (d.1479)

The evidence for the 2nd and 3rd marriages of William Alington (d.1459) is as follows:

• William Alington's wife Mary, the widow of Henry Hayward, is so described in a deed of 1447 (Cole, Add.MS 5823, fo.226a)
• William Alington's wife Elizabeth, the widow of John Heveningham, is so described in a deed of 1454 (Cole, Add.MS 5823, fo.249b).
  For her remarriage to John Wymondham, see deeds of 1464/5 and 1473 (Cole, Add.MS 5823, fo.227a).
  Her parentage - as John Heveningham's wife - is given by Copinger (The manors of Suffolk..., vol.2, pp.93,170), and her identity is confirmed by heraldry on the monument of Thomas Heveningham (d.1499) at Ketteringham (C.M. Hood, ed., The Chorography of Norfolk; 1938).