Arms of Hody of Pilsdon: Argent, a fess per fess indented vert and sable between two cotises counterchanged of the fess a bordure engrailed (or?), as seen on the
monumental brass in
Haccombe Church, Devon, of his granddaughter Mary Hody (d.1589), wife of Thomas Carew (d.1586) of Haccombe[1]
He was a
Member of Parliament for
Totnes in 1472, and for
Bridgwater in 1483.[3] His name is first mentioned in the year-books in 1476. He procured a reversal of the attainder of his uncle, Sir Alexander Hody (of Bowre, Somerset), who had been attainted at Edward IV's accession for adherence to the
House of Lancaster during the
wars of the Roses.[4]
William Hody married (1st) Eleanor Malet, daughter of Sir Baldwin Malet of 'Corypool' (now
Curry Mallet) in Somerset,
Solicitor General to King Henry VIII, who was the second son of Thomas Malet (died 1502) by his wife Joan Wadham, daughter of Sir William Wadham. By his wife he had two sons and two daughters:
William Hody of Pilsdon, 2nd son,[5] who married twice: (1st) to Margery Keyne, daughter and heiress of Anthony Keyne, of Kent, by whom he had three sons: Richard, John and William;[2] He married (2nd) Anne Strode, daughter of John Strode, of Chalmington, Dorset, by whom he had a daughter Mary Hody (d.19 November 1588), wife of Sir Thomas Carew (1518-1586) of
Haccombe in Devon.[2] The separate
monumental brasses of Mary Hody and her husband survive in Haccombe Church. Mary's brass shows the arms of Carew impaling Hody and is inscribed in Latin as follows:
Hic jacet Maria Carew uxor Thomae Carew de Haccombe, Arm(igeri) & filia Will(elmi) Huddye de com(itatu) Dorset, Arm(igeri), quae obiit 19 die Nov(embris) A(nno) D(omini) 1588[6] ("Here lies Mary Carew, wife of Thomas Carew of Haccombe, Esquire, and a daughter of William Huddye from the county of Dorset, who died on the 19th day of November in the year of our Lord 158
Joan Hody, wife of Sir Richard Warre (died 1601) of
Hestercombe;
Agnes Hody (other variations include Huddye). second wife of
Robert Cary. Issue:
William Cary who married Joan Herle. Issue: William Cary of Ladford who married Jane Goch (other alias Gove, Gough), Robert Cary (born 1533) who married Christian Dennis and Agnes Cary. [7][8]
^The bordure engrailed (tincture unknown), as shown on the brass, of which the lower half is missing, appears to be a difference of the arms of the senior branch of the family, Hody of Stowell, Somerset: Argent, a fess per fess indented vert and sable between two cotises counterchanged of the fess (Source: Burke's General Armory, 1884, p.515
[1] Also p.496, Hody). The Haccombe brass shows a mullet in chief, the difference of a 3rd son, although most sources state William Hody, father of Mary Hody, to have been a 2nd son