Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 7 April 2026 by Allen Gurney WIP / Draft

William Gurney V (c. 1465 – before 1508)

Ancestor fact sheet for G18 in the direct Gurney line. Eldest son and heir-apparent of William Gurney IV (G19); died vita patris before his father; husband of Anne Heydon, daughter of Sir Henry Heydon of Baconsthorpe Castle and Anne Boleyn the elder. Brought the Heydon-Boleyn-Howard cousinage into the family. Updated April 2026.

Born
c. 1465 (Ancestry composite trees give c. 1468), West Barsham, Norfolk. Eldest son of William Gurney IV (G19) and Anne Calthorpe (daughter of Sir William Calthorpe of Burnham Thorpe). 1
Died
Before his father William Gurney IV — i.e., before 18 January 1508 (Old Style 1507/8). Modern Heydon scholarship reads Anne Heydon's marriages as: (1) William Gurney "shortly after 28 May 1484"; (2) Sir Lionel Dymoke. Anne survived William V and remarried. 2
Status
Heir-apparent of West Barsham, Harpley, and the cluster of Norfolk Gurney estates. Norfolk gentleman, identified in Daniel Gurney's pedigree as "of Irstead." Never inherited as the principal lord; died vita patris. 3
Buried
No surviving monument or inscription known. Most likely Norfolk; possibly Irstead. 4
Marriage
Anne Heydon — daughter of Sir Henry Heydon of Baconsthorpe Castle (Privy Councillor to Henry VII, builder of Baconsthorpe) and his wife Anne Boleyn the elder of Blickling (sister of Sir William Boleyn, grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn). Anne Heydon married William V "shortly after 28 May 1484" per modern Heydon scholarship reading Sir Henry's will of 1503/4. After William V's death, Anne remarried Sir Lionel Dymoke of Ashby, Lincolnshire, and died c. 1521. The marriage brought into the Gurney line direct kinship to Anne Boleyn the elder, the Pastons, the Cobhams, the Lestranges of Hunstanton, and the wider Heydon-Boleyn-Howard cousinage of late 15th and early 16th century Norfolk. 5

Highlights

  • Brought Boleyn descent into the Norfolk Gurney line. William V's wife Anne Heydon was a daughter of Anne Boleyn the elder of Blickling, sister of Sir William Boleyn, who was the grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn. Through Anne Heydon, William V's son Anthony G17 was a second cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn — a kinship that placed the early 16th-century Norfolk Gurneys within the wider Boleyn-Howard cousinage of the eastern counties. The connection is independently documented by Wikipedia, by the WikiTree Sir Henry Heydon profile, and by East Anglian Notes & Queries. 6
  • His father-in-law Sir Henry Heydon built Baconsthorpe Castle. Sir Henry Heydon (d. 1503/4) was a Privy Councillor to Henry VII, steward of the Norfolk estates of the Duke of Norfolk, and the builder of Baconsthorpe Castle — a moated and gatehouse-fortified country house begun in the 1480s and now an English Heritage ruin. Anne Heydon was raised at Baconsthorpe; her husband William V would have been a regular visitor. The castle is documented in detail in Francis Blomefield's History of Norfolk, vol. vi (1807), in the parish entry for Baconsthorpe. 7
  • Anne's siblings married into the highest Norfolk gentry. Through Anne Heydon, William V's children gained a remarkable network of in-laws: Anne's sister Bridget Heydon married Sir William Paston of Caister (the Paston Letters family); her sister Dorothy married a Lord Cobham (a granddaughter of Dorothy and Lord Cobham, Elizabeth Brooke, would become the second wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet); and her sister Amy married Sir Roger Lestrange of Hunstanton. The Lestrange marriage is the kinship that explains why two generations later William V's great-great-grandson Francis Gurney (G14) became the financial agent to the Lestranges of Hunstanton from 1612 to 1636 — they were distant cousins. 8
  • "Of Irstead" — the Norfolk Broads identification. Daniel Gurney's pedigree identifies William V as "of Irstead." The connection to Irstead manor came in through his Heydon father-in-law: Sir Henry Heydon had received the Irstead manors (Overhall and Netherhall) by conditional bequest from John Groos's will of 1 March 1487, per Blomefield's parish entry for Irstead in volume xi. Whether William V actually maintained a residence at Irstead or simply held it nominally during his short adult life is unclear. 9
  • Died vita patris, leaving his young son Anthony as eventual heir. William V died before his father William IV, who died on 18 January 1507/8 (per Daniel Gurney's pedigree). Their son Anthony — only nine or ten years old — inherited as a "boy lord" when William IV died, and the Norfolk Gurney estates were managed during Anthony's minority through wardship arrangements involving the Heydon kin. This is the second consecutive generation in which the senior heir died before his father, making the line skip a generation in inheritance terms. 10

Children

Name Dates Notes
Anthony Gurney c. 1499 – 4 January 1555/6 G17 in the direct line. Eldest son. Inherited as a "boy lord" of approximately nine when his grandfather William IV died in 1508. Married Margaret Lovell c. 1519, bringing Great Ellingham and the Lovell Mortimer-of-Attleborough estates into the family. Foreman of the Norfolk grand jury that indicted the Earl of Surrey in January 1547. Died 4 January 1555/6 per Blomefield. 11

No further children of William V and Anne Heydon are recorded in any source consulted. Daniel Gurney's pedigree lists only Anthony as the heir who continued the line.

Narrative

William Gurney V is one of the more lightly documented generations in the Norfolk Gurney line — partly because he died vita patris and never held the principal estates in his own right, and partly because the surviving record about him is dominated by his much more famous Heydon in-laws. He matters in the lineage less for what he himself did than for whom he married, and for the network of cousinage that his marriage brought into the Gurney family.

He was born around 1465 — Daniel Gurney’s pedigree gives no birth year, and the Ancestry composite trees give c. 1468. His father was William Gurney IV (G19), the Norfolk escheator and council member to the Duke of Norfolk; his mother was Anne Calthorpe, only daughter of Sir William Calthorpe of Burnham Thorpe, KB, by his first wife Elizabeth Grey of Ruthyn (whose own death in 1437 is independently documented in the Calthorpe family literature). Through his Calthorpe mother, William V was a kinsman of one of the leading Norfolk gentry families of the late 15th century, with connections to the Drurys of Hawstead, the Hasildens, the Stapletons of Ingham, and ultimately to the de la Poles, Earls of Suffolk.

Around 1484 — modern Heydon scholarship reads Sir Henry Heydon’s surviving will of 1503/4 as placing the marriage “shortly after 28 May 1484” — William V married Anne Heydon, daughter of Sir Henry Heydon of Baconsthorpe Castle. Sir Henry Heydon (d. 1503/4) was a Privy Councillor to Henry VII, steward of the Norfolk estates of the Duke of Norfolk, and the builder of Baconsthorpe Castle (begun in the 1480s, now an English Heritage ruin). Anne Heydon’s mother — Sir Henry’s wife — was Anne Boleyn the elder of Blickling, sister of Sir William Boleyn, who was the paternal grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn. This kinship made William V’s son Anthony G17 a second cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn through his Heydon mother.

Anne Heydon’s siblings married into a remarkably wide network: her sister Bridget Heydon married Sir William Paston of Caister (the Paston Letters family); her sister Dorothy married a Lord Cobham (a granddaughter of whom, Elizabeth Brooke, would become the second wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet); and her sister Amy Heydon married Sir Roger Lestrange of Hunstanton. The Lestrange marriage is the kinship that explains why two generations later William V’s great-great-grandson Francis Gurney (G14) would become the trusted financial agent to the Lestranges of Hunstanton from 1612 to 1636: they were distant cousins, and Norfolk gentry preferred to do their financial business with kin.

Daniel Gurney’s pedigree identifies William V as “of Irstead.” The connection to Irstead manor came in through his Heydon father-in-law: per Francis Blomefield’s parish entry for Irstead in volume xi, Sir Henry Heydon had received the Irstead manors (Overhall and Netherhall) by conditional bequest from John Groos’s will of 1 March 1487. Whether William V actually maintained a residence at Irstead or simply held it nominally during his short adult life is unclear from the surviving sources.

William V died before his father William Gurney IV, who in turn died on 18 January 1507/8 (per Daniel Gurney’s pedigree, supported by Blomefield’s mention of “William Gournay, junior” in 14 Henry VII / 1499 — see the G19 fact sheet). At William IV’s death, the Norfolk Gurney estates passed to William V’s young son Anthony — about nine years old — who inherited as a “boy lord.” Wardship arrangements during Anthony’s minority would have involved his Heydon kinsmen; given that Anne Heydon had remarried Sir Lionel Dymoke of Ashby, Lincolnshire, by this date, Anthony’s wardship was probably administered from Norfolk by his maternal uncles or by the Heydons of Baconsthorpe.

Anne Heydon survived her son’s eventual marriage and her grandson’s birth, and died around 1521. Her remarriage to Sir Lionel Dymoke and her death are independently documented in modern Dymoke and Heydon family literature.

William V’s role in the Gurney lineage is therefore primarily as a hinge: the man whose marriage brought the family into the Heydon-Boleyn-Howard-Lestrange cousinage of late-medieval Norfolk, but who himself never lived to take possession of the estates that his marriage helped to enrich. His son Anthony, his grandson Francis (who also died vita patris), and his great-grandson Henry (G15) the Elizabethan poet would all live longer in the historical record.

Citations

  1. Daniel Gurney, The Record of the House of Gournay (London: privately printed for the author by John Bowyer Nichols and Son, 1848), pedigree p. 287, "William Gurnay V. of Irstead." Birth year c. 1468 from composite Ancestry trees; not directly documented in any primary source consulted. Parents: Daniel Gurney, Record, pedigree p. 287, naming William IV and Anne Calthorpe. The Calthorpe identification is independently confirmed by multiple sources: Geni profile of Sir William Calthorpe (1410–1494), based on James Lee-Warner, "The Calthorps of Burnham," Norfolk Archaeology vol. ix (1884), pp. 1–19; Wikipedia, "William Calthorpe"; Find a Grave Memorial #81101154 (William Calthorpe, Whitefriars, Norwich); WikiTree profile Calthorpe-7. All independently identify Anne (wife of William Gurney) as Sir William Calthorpe's only daughter by his first wife Elizabeth Grey of Ruthyn (d. 1437). ↩
  2. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287, gives William V's death simply as "ob. v.p." (died vita patris). The "shortly after 28 May 1484" reading of the marriage to Anne Heydon comes from modern scholarship on Sir Henry Heydon's will of 1503/4 — see Wikipedia, "Sir Henry Heydon," and the WikiTree profile for Sir Henry Heydon of Baconsthorpe, both citing the Prerogative Court of Canterbury will. William V is therefore in his fertile years 1484 to before 1508. The terminus ante quem is set by his father William IV's death on 18 January 1507/8 (Daniel Gurney, Record, pedigree p. 287). ↩
  3. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287, "William Gurnay V. of Irstead." See "of Irstead" discussion in Research Appendix. ↩
  4. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287. No surviving monument is recorded in Pevsner's Norfolk volumes or in Cotman & Meyrick, Engravings of Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk (1838), or in any other consulted source. ↩
  5. Anne Heydon's identification as daughter of Sir Henry Heydon and Anne Boleyn the elder is independently documented in: Wikipedia, "Sir Henry Heydon," citing his Prerogative Court of Canterbury will of 1503/4; the WikiTree profile for Sir Henry Heydon of Baconsthorpe Castle; The East Anglian; or, Notes and Queries on Subjects Connected with the Counties of Suffolk, Cambridge, Essex and Norfolk, vol. ii (1866) — the family extracts of the Heydon-Boleyn cousinage. Anne's marriage history (Gurney first, Dymoke second) is given in modern Heydon scholarship as a reordering of the older Daniel Gurney sequence: Daniel Gurney's Supplement (1858), pp. 868 ff., gave the order Dymoke first, Gurney second; modern reading of Sir Henry Heydon's 1503/4 will reverses it. Sir Lionel Dymoke (d. 17 August 1519) was of Ashby, Lincolnshire, hereditary King's Champion. Anne died c. 1521. ↩
  6. Heydon-Boleyn cousinage: Wikipedia, "Sir Henry Heydon"; The East Anglian: Notes and Queries, vol. ii (1866); modern academic literature on the Boleyn family, especially Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), genealogical chart appendix — naming Anne Boleyn the elder of Blickling as the wife of Sir Henry Heydon and as sister of Sir William Boleyn, paternal grandfather of Queen Anne Boleyn. ↩
  7. Sir Henry Heydon (d. 1503/4) and Baconsthorpe Castle: Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. vi (London: William Miller, 1807), "Hundred of South Erpingham: Baconsthorp," pp. 502–513, available via British History Online. The Baconsthorpe Castle inheritance is also documented by Historic England (the modern English Heritage site) — list entry for the scheduled monument of Baconsthorpe Castle. ↩
  8. Anne Heydon's siblings: WikiTree profile for Sir Henry Heydon, listing daughters Bridget (m. Sir William Paston of Caister); Dorothy (m. Lord Cobham); Amy (m. Sir Roger Lestrange of Hunstanton). The Cobham connection: see also the WikiTree profile of Elizabeth Brooke, second wife of Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet, identifying her grandmother as Dorothy Heydon. The Lestrange of Hunstanton marriage is independently documented in Daniel Gurney, "Extracts from the Household and Privy Purse Accounts of the Lestranges of Hunstanton, from A.D. 1519 to A.D. 1578," Archaeologia vol. 25 (1832), pp. 411–569. ↩
  9. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287, "William Gurnay V. of Irstead." Irstead manor descent from John Groos to Sir Henry Heydon: Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. xi (London: William Miller, 1810), "Tunstede Hundred: Irstead," pp. 46–49, available via British History Online: "John Groos, Esq. made his will at Irstead, March 1, 1487 ... gives to her [his wife], his manors, &c. in Irsted called Overhall, and Netherhall ... for her lief, and after her decease, and the issue of his body; remainder to Sir Henry Heydon, on certain conditions." ↩
  10. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287, gives William IV's death as 18 January 1507/8 and William V's as vita patris before that date. ↩
  11. See the G17 Anthony Gurney fact sheet for the full citation chain. Primary source for Anthony as son of William V and Anne Heydon: Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 287, and the Pease/Pennyghael Gurney genealogy. The 4 January 1555/6 death date for Anthony is from Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. vii (1807), pp. 42–47. ↩