Fettiplace is an English family name, allegedly of Norman descent, originating with a landed gentry family chiefly of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, from which came a baronetical line, extinct.
English family
The first recorded member of the Fettiplace family was Adam Feteplace or Fettiplace, Mayor of Oxford for eleven terms between 1245 and 1268. His family lived at North Denchworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). Adam Fettiplace was one of seven townsmen imprisoned in 1232 for injuring clerks of the University in a town and gown incident. Adam Fettiplace owned Drapery Hall in Cornmarket Street, and probably lived there, as he had his own stall in St Martin’s Church at Carfax, Oxford. He also owned Shelde Hall in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East, and in 1253 he heads a list of the names of the “maiorum burgensium Oxonie”. His wife was the widow of Peter fitz Geoffrey and their eldest son was Philip Fettiplace. They also had a son called Walter Fettiplace. Adam Fettiplace was first elected Mayor of Oxford for 1245/6, the first of eleven times between then and 1267/8. In 1265 Simon de Montfort the Younger marched through Oxford on his way to Kenilworth Castle, and was accused of imprisoning Adam Fettiplace until he granted his (de Montfort’s) tailor ten marks’ rent in Oxford. On 22 August 1265 letters patent (United Kingdom) were issued of protection to Adam Fettiplace until Michaelmas.
Sir Philip Fettiplace, son of Adam Fettiplace, was knight of the shire for Berkshire in 1302. Sir Philip bore for his arms: on a field (gules) two chevrons (argent), quartering the coat of the Lord St. Amand, as is evident from a seal used by him with his name around it, in the time of Edward I.
An increase in their status occurred with the marriage of Sir Thomas Fettiplace (d. 1442), of East Shefford, Berkshire (the exact nature of whose descent from Adam Fettiplace has not been established) and a Portuguese noblewoman named Beatrix (d. Christmas Day 1447), the young widow of Gilbert, 5th Lord Talbot. Their tomb is in the parish church.
Their three sons were William, of Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire, James, of Maidencourt, Berkshire, and John. John Fettiplace was a London draper, who became a member of the household of Henry VI and carried the insignia of the Order of the Garter to the King of Portugal. He possessed the manors of East Shefford and of New Langport, Kent.
John Fettiplace (d. August 1464) of East Shefford married Joan Fabian, widow of Robert Horne of London. They had four sons- Richard, Anthony, Thomas, and William, and a daughter, Margaret. From Richard and Anthony descend all branches of the landed Fettiplace family aside from the original family of North Denchworth; all of these branches were extinct by 1806.
Richard Fettiplace (died 1511), of East Shefford and Besselsleigh, Berks., married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Bessels of Besselsleigh, Berkshire, by his wife Alice, daughter of Sir Richard Harcourt. Richard Fettiplace and his wife, Elizabeth, had five sons and four daughters. The East Shefford estate remained in the family for five generations, then sold on the extinction of this line; a branch of this family were the Fettiplaces of Fernham, Berkshire, also extinct by 1720. One of its members was the politician John Fettiplace. Anthony Fettiplace (died 1510), of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire and Childrey, Berkshire, was Esquire of the Body to Henry VII, and Sheriff of Berkshire in 1497. His wife, Mary, was sister of Sir Adrian Fortescue and granddaughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London. Anthony Fettiplace's descendants included the baronetical line established with John Fettiplace, extinct in 1743. Anthony's grandson William was founder of the cadet branch of Swyncombe, Oxfordshire, extinct at the death of Francis Englefield Fettiplace. Thomas Fettiplace, of Compton Beauchamp, Berkshire, a knight, accompanied the King to the Field of the Cloth of Gold to meet the French King, Francis I in 1520. His only issue was a daughter, who married the courtier Sir Francis Englefield. William Fettiplace, of Letcombe, Berkshire, married Elizabeth Waring, widow of John Kentwood, but had no issue.
The main Fettiplace family of North Denchworth, from which all the above branches descend, was extinct in the male line at the death of Thomas Fettiplace of Denchworth, Pusey, Oxfordshire and Charney Bassett in the reign of King James I; Thomas's sister and heiress, Margaret, married Christopher, a younger son of Alexander Fettiplace of Swinbrook and Childrey (descended from Anthony Fettiplace of Swinbrook and Childrey, as above), and the North Denchworth estate was sold in around 1809 to a farmer named Frogley.