Hedingham Castle
built by the de Vere family in 1140
Hooe Royal Connection
The Hooe family of Virginia traces descent from Robert Hoo (A.D. 1000) of Hoo County, Kentshire, England. "Hooe" is said to be a corruption of the Saxon "Hough" and signifies high and noble. Hooe ancestors were Saxons, a Germanic people who invaded the island of Britain about 500 A.D. after the Romans left in the 400's.
Descendants of Peter Presley Cocke and Alice Reeding Hooe have a royal connection. Alice's sixth great grandmother was Elizabeth de Echingham, who was the great, great grand daughter of King Henry III. Elizabeth's husband Sir Thomas Hoo had a brother whose daughter Anne was the great grandmother of Anne Boleyn, second Queen Consort of Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, another progenitor of today's Royal Family.
The same Elizabeth de Echingham descended from Sureties of the Magna Charta: Sir William Malet, Saher de Quincey, roger and Hugh Bigod, and Robert de Vere. (The Norman era Hedingham Castle was built by the de Vere family in 1140.) She also descended from some mentioned in the Preamble of the Magna Charta: Thomas Bassett, William D'Aubigny and William de Warenne.