Marriage of Sir Simon Leek and Margaret de Vaux

Roskell in HoP 1386-1421 Vol II (sub John Leek) refers to the fact that
Sir Simon Leek, of Cotham, Notts (d c1383) had a papal dispensation in
respect of his marriage. This is the source reference, from The
Calendar of Papal Letters concerning England, Vol 3 1342-1362, p 456:

"Kal. June 1351: to the Abbot of Welbeck: mandate to dispense Simon de
Leyk, donsel, and Margaret de Vaux, so as to remain in the marriage
which they contracted without banns, knowing that they are related in
the 4th degree of kindred on both sides, first enjoining them a
salutary penance, and declaring their offspring legitimate".

mjcar...

I have been trying to ascertain the relationship between Simon Leek and
his cousin-wife Margaret de Vaux, but without luck.

As has been noted here before, Thoroton gave up trying to untangle the
skein of Nottinghamshire Leeks, and thus is of little use. The
Visitations for that county, as published by the Harleian Society,
contain a Leek stemma, but this calls Sir Simon "Sir John Leek", and
thus weakens the credence that can be placed on the further assertion
that his father was also Sir John, of Cotham. I have also searched the
published IPMs to no avail.

The only reference to this Vaux family comes from Roskell, in which he
states that the four daughters of Simon Leek, MP (the grandson of Sir
Simon) put forward a claim to be the heirs of one John Vaux; I haven't
yet chased up each of his references to see what the nature of this
claim was.

The off-spring whose legitimacy was thus preserved included Sir John
Leek (whose granddaughters and eventual coheirs married Sir Giles
Daubeney, Sir John Markham, Hugh Hercy and Richard Willoughby,
respectively), William Leek, MP, and Margaret, successively wife of
Godfrey Foljambe and Sir Thomas Rempston, KG.

mjcar...

According to Roskell in HoP (sub Rempston), Margaret was the sister
rather than the daughter of Sir John Leek. (Although, if I remember
rightly, the Visitation of Cambridgeshire sub Cheyney, calls her father
Sir John, there are other nominal errors manifest in that text eg its
treatment of the Beckering sisters). I wonder whether Payling has this
muddled?

mjcar...

This is correct: she married the elder Thomas Rempston (d 1406) and was
mother of the younger (d 1458); both have detailed entries in ODNB.

Thanks for your very informative post.

Regards, Michael