PLEASINGTON, Sir Robert (c.1369-1405), of Burley, Rutland and Ellal, Lancs.

b. c.1369, s. and h. of Sir Robert Pleasington (d.1393), of Holborn, Mdx. and Burley, chief baron of the Exchequer, by his 1st w. m. by 1394, Isabel (d.1411), prob. da. and h. of Joan Bilton of Bilton in Holderness, Yorks., at least 3s, inc. Sir Henry. Kntd. by Jan. 1397.C136/81/43; C137/54/37; C138/37/29; OR, i. 253; E. Williams, Early Holborn, i. no. 853. G.H. de S.N.P. Harrison (Hist. Yorks. 249) provides a somewhat misleading pedigree of the MP and his family, largely because of his belief that both Pleasington and his eldest son, Robert, were involved in a lawsuit over property in Holderness which reached the courts in 1406/7. Pleasington was, of course, dead by then, and Robert (who did not survive much longer) was still a child. It is, however, interesting to note that the proceedings refer to Isabel, daughter of Joan Bilton of Bilton in Holderness and wife of Robert Pleasington the younger; and there is a strong possibility that she was, in fact, our Member’s wife, or, more precisely by this date, widow. Pleasington’s younger son, Sir Henry, certainly claimed kinship with William Bilton of Holderness, Joan’s father.