The first known progenitor was Sasfrid de Catesby, known to be alive in 1086 A.D., in Great Ashby, England.
Professor J.S. Roskell, M.A., D.Phil., of the University of Nottingham, published a monograph in 1959 on William Catesby, Counsellor to Richard III. He stated: "Catesby was a member of a family whose social status was not particularly outstanding. As gentry they were well found." There are, however, few families that can claim, with reasonable certainty, a pedigree as long as the one recorded for the Catesbys. There is every indication that they were flourishing Saxon gentry before 1066. They continued to be Lords of a group of manors until 1266 and another branch of the family regained this status about 1300, increasing their holdings, partly by marrying heiresses and also by purchases, until all was lost after the Gunpowder Plot. [Catesby history cont.]
The Cocke-Catesby genealogical line was created when Dr. William Cocke of Sudbury, Suffolk County, England married Elizabeth Jekyll Catesby of Castle Hedingham, Essex County, England on 4 September 1699.
Notable Cocke/Catesby ancestors include:
William "The Cat" Catesby was a knight and counselor to King Richard III and was referenced in Shakespeare's play Richard III.
Robert Catesby was chief architect of the Gunpowder Plot, a scheme to blow up and destroy the throne of King James I.
Sir John Catesby was Justice of the Common Pleas for England.
Mark Catesby was at one time the world's foremost "naturalist", creating some 35,000 drawings of fauna and flora particular to the colonies and Bahamas. The Catesby Commemorative Trust hopes to make a TV documentary of his work in the near future. Your assistance could move this project forward.
Nine Catesbys were knighted and nearly one hundred Catesby descendants have been doctors. There have been more than one hundred military officers in the British and American military, two reaching the rank of Major General, and four Brigadier General. One was a young Lieutenant second in command of the "Merrimac" (renamed "Virginia" by the Confederates) in the Civil War battle with the "Monitor." Another commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1842.
Catesby descendants from the marriage of Peter Presley Cocke and Alice Reeding Hooe are through her line related to Henry VIII. Henry VIII's wife Ann Boleyn birthed Queen Elizabeth I, ancestor of today's Queen Elizabeth II. Also through Alice Hooe's line, the family descends from five who signed the Magna Carta in 1215 and William de Warenne, mentioned in the Preamble of the Magna Carta, who descended from Charlemagne.
Today Cocke/Catesby descendants live in at least thirty-nine states as well
as England,
Puerto Rico, Canada, Italy, China, Australia and New Zealand.