I have always suspected that Inskip bowmen went to France with Henry V and that was a reason for their appearance in Sussex in the fifteenth century. So, Henry’s muster lists have always been on my list of documents to look at.
However, thanks to a collaboration between Dr Adrian Bell of the ICMA Centre and Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, who have been building a database of medieval soldiers to challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453, I now have confirmation that an Inskip archer did go to France with Henry V in 1415.
His name was Roger de Inskyp, and he served as an archer under a captain called Sir James Harrington, and commander Henry V. In 1422 he is listed as a foot archer under captain John Harpeley at a garrison – where is not given.
In the Normandy garrison database for the years 1415 – 1453 there is listed two archers, Roger and Richard Inskip, both serving in 1429 and 1430 at the Rouen town plus bridge garrison, under Lieutenant Richard Curson and Captain Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.
So was Roger one of the bowmen at Agincourt who raised the two fingered salute? That and the background to both men is still to be established
(Information on soldiers has been taken from from the AHRC-funded ‘The Soldier in Later Medieval England Online Database’, www.medievalsoldier.org, August 2009)
Jennifer Inskip
Terry Inskip
mikeinskip
