Mark Lindley‑Highfield of Ballumbie Castle has several ancestral links to Suffolk through medieval families associated with the county.

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His ancestor Sir Miles Stapleton married Ela de Ufford, a connection recorded in Mark’s documented pedigree to Sir Miles Stapleton, KG, a Founder Knight of the Order of the Garter. This pedigree has been formally enrolled in the archives of the Friends of St George and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter at the College of St George, Windsor. Ela de Ufford was the daughter of Sir Edmund de Ufford and granddaughter of Thomas de Ufford, a younger son of Sir Robert de Ufford of Ufford, Suffolk. Through this line, Sir Robert de Ufford is Mark’s 20th great‑grandfather.

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The Ufford family were succeeded as Earls of Suffolk by the de la Pole family. Through the same line of descent, Sir Miles Stapleton of Ingham married Katherine de la Pole, granddaughter of Sir Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, who is Mark’s 17th great‑grandfather. Mark is also a distant collateral relative of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (16th great grandnephew).

 

Sir Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, was the son of Sir Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk, and Katherine Wingfield of Wingfield Castle, Suffolk. Mark has DNA matches to members of the Wingfield family, consistent with this ancestry.

 

In the Tudor period, Mark’s ancestor Sir Robert Drury, Lord of the Manor of Hawkstead and his thirteen‑times great‑grandfather, served as Speaker of the House of Commons in 1495.