Robert Aylmer

Robert Aylmer (d.1493), of Norwich, Norfolk, was an English politician.

He was a grocer, Sheriff of Norwich in 1471, Alderman of Norwich in 1480, and Mayor of Norwich in 1481 and 1492. He was married to Elizabeth (d.1518).

His will, written on 3 July 1493, included a large donation to St. Giles's Hospital.

His mark, with his initials, is in several of the South windows in the clerestory of St. Andrew's Church, Norwich. His gravestone, dated 1493, lies under the font.

Prey for the Soule of Robert Aylmer Citezeyn and Alderman of

the Moneth of July in the Yer of our Lord God m°cccc°

lxxxxiij°. on whose Soule God

Near it lies a stone with an effigies and this,

Orate pro anima Elizabethe filie Roberti Aylmer nuper Civis et

Aldermanni Norvici que obiit xv° die Sept. A Dni. m°cccc°

lxxxxiij°. cuius anime propicietur deus.

On a north isle window,

Orate pro bono statu Thome Thirsby, et Eliz. Ur. et pro aiab: Johis: et Rob. Aylmer quondam maiorum Civitatis Norwici.

Elizabeth Thursby, widow, buried in the church by alderman Robert Aylmer, her late husband, gave 10 marks towards finishing the church, and her best gilt chalice.

Children of Robert Aylmer and Elizabeth:

• Richard (d. 3rd day before the Ides of September, i.e. 11 September 1512)
• Thomas (d.1500), buried in London, according to his mother's will, though he desires to be buried in Norwich in his, and there is a plaque in the church to that effect
• Cecile/Cecily, dead before 1518, when her mother writes in her will that she wishes for prayers to be said for the souls of my children 'Richard Thomas and Cecyly'
• Elizabeth (d. 15 September 1493)

After his death his widow Elizabeth was involved in a suit with Sir William Knyvett. At some point after this suit, Elizabeth remarried. First to John Aylmer, also called Mayor of Norwich in the north isle window which commemorates Elizabeth and her three husbands. Then, by 1500, when her son refers to her as Elizabeth Thursby in his will, to Thomas Thursby (d.1510), merchant, and three times Mayor of King's Lynn and the founder and benefactor of Thoresby College, and possibly had the daughters Margaret, the wife of Francis Mountford(1474/76–1536) of the Inner Temple, London and Feltwell, Norfolk, Beatrice, who married firstly William Trew (d.1510/12) of Lynn and secondly William Coningsby (by 1483–1540) of the Inner Temple, London and Lynn, Norfolk, and Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Gibbon (Guybon) (1470/71–1531), of West Lynn, Norfolk, Ellen and Margery.

Elizabeth, the widow of Robert Aylmer, is possibly the 16-great-grandmother of Prince Williiam, Duke of Cambridge, through her daughter or otherwise her step-daughter Elizabeth Thursby. According to Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica Thomas Thursby was married several times, so there is some uncertainty as to who the mother of his children was. If the birth date given for his son of the same name, 1587, is correct, this son cannot possibly be the son of Elizabeth, as she was still the wife of Robert Aylmer (d.1493) then. However, Elizabeth's son Richard's daughter Cecily mentions ' my aunte Thorysby' in her will, leaving her a spoon of silver, indicating that at least one of Thomas Thursby's children may have been by Elizabeth. Richard Aylmer writes of "my brother ffrannces mountford", the husband of Thomas Thursby's daughter Margaret, in his will. The names of Thomas Thursby's daughters correspond almost perfectly with known Aylmer given names. Another possible and equally likely explanation is that Richard Aylmer’s second wife Elyn/Elena, the mother of his four youngest daughters, is identical to Thomas Thursby’s daughter Elyn. Robert's wife Elizabeth is not the daughter of John Burgoyne who in the Visitations of Cambridgeshire marries 'Thomas Thorseby of Norfolk', as that Elizabeth is still alive and apparently a wife in 1528, when she receives an inheritance from her mother Margaret. Nor can she be the wife of Elizabeth's third husband's son, as that Thomas Thursby was marrying Anne Knyvett in 1527.