Research Notes:

Of Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, Tyrley, Staffordshire, etc., Justice of the Peace for the West Riding, Knight of the Body for King Richard III, son and heir, born about 1450....

In 1480 he obtained a licence to fortify his house at Gawthorpe, Yorkshire, and impark over 2,000 acres of his demesne. He was knighted by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (afterwards King Richard III), on campaign near Berwick in 1481. He was present at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. ²

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It was William Gascoigne V who firmly established the Gascoigne family as the most powerful resident family in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He had strong ties to the city of York: he entered the Corpus Christi Guild in 1473, and attended the city council meetings with some degree of frequency in the decade before his death. He also served frequently on the West Riding peace commission (from 1472 - 1475 and from 1481 - 1485), and on commissions of array. He was a Knight of the Bath in 1478, at the marriage of Richard, Duke of York, and Knight Banneret in 1482 by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The following year he was made a Knight of the Body for Richard III. It was William V who began an extensive redesign of the Gascoignes' principal possession, the Gawthorpe estate; he gained permission from Richard III to rebuild Gawthorpe and Harewood mills, imparked two estates - one of roughly 400 acres surrounding Gawthorpe manor, and the second, a neighbouring park of 2200 acres - and in 1480 he was granted a licence to crenellate Gawthorpe manor itself.... William V held no public offices before 1472, after which he became closely associated with the young Henry Percy (c. 1449-1489) and fortunes improved.... ³