♂John de Grey

John de Grey^W (29 October 1300 – 1 September 1359) was an English nobleman and soldier of Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire who rose to be Steward of the King’s Household^W under Edward III. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Maud Grey (died 1394).

Early life

John was born at Rotherfield Greys on 29 October 1300, the son of John de Grey and Margaret de Oddingseles, and was baptized in the church there three days later. His father died in 1311, when John was ten. When he came of age, the witnesses at his proof of age^W dated his birth to the morrow of the feast of Saints Simon and Jude in the twenty-eighth year of Edward I. Several remembered it by his mother’s churching^W: the great feast his father gave for it at Rotherfield on St Andrew’s Day was still talked of in those parts, because the abbots, the priors and almost all the leading men of the neighborhood had come.

Lord Grey of Rotherfield

He is said to have gone with the King to Scotland in 1322 and overseas in 1325. A quarrel once landed him in prison. He and William de la Zouche of Ashby were at odds and had been commanded to do no violence, but hot words are said to have passed between them in front of the King and his Council, and Grey put his hand to his knife and partly drew it. Both men were imprisoned. When the matter came before Parliament in March 1332, the Lords found Zouche not guilty and advised that Grey be held at the King’s pleasure, though they begged the King’s mercy for him, and he seems to have been pardoned not long afterwards.

From 1338 he was summoned to Parliament, and he is reckoned the first Lord Grey of Rotherfield. In 1342 the King reportedly wanted him to keep the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In 1346 he is said to have served in the Crécy campaign^W, and that December he was licensed to crenellate^W his houses at Rotherfield and at Sculcoates in Yorkshire.

When Edward III founded the Order of the Garter, John de Grey was reportedly one of its first knights. He was Steward of the King’s Household in 1356, and is said to have held the office since 1350. In that office he sat as a judge on commissions of oyer and terminer^W, in Northumberland and, as chief justice, in Sussex and Kent.

Marriages and family

He is said to have been married first, before March 1312 and while still a boy, to Catherine FitzAlan, a daughter of Brian FitzAlan, Lord FitzAlan; their son John succeeded him as Lord Grey.

John de Grey married Avice Marmion, as his second wife, probably after 1335. Their two sons, John, born about 1343, and Robert, are said to have taken their mother’s family name, Marmion. Maud Grey, most likely their daughter, was married first to John Botetourt, shortly after November 1358, and then to Sir Thomas Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire.

Death

John de Grey died at Rotherfield Greys on 1 September 1359. At the Sussex inquest on his lands, taken on 25 October 1359, the jurors found that he and Avice had held the manor of Berwick jointly, and that she, who survived him, held it “as of her right”. As one of his executors, Avice is said to have received the King’s protection on 25 September 1359 in consideration of his good services as Steward of the Household.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his daughter Maud Grey. One comes down through Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844); the other reaches Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825). The two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Birth and baptism

The proof of age, taken at Rotherfield in the fifteenth year of Edward II and calendared in the Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 6, no. 336 (pp. 204-205), gives that he was “born at Rutherefeld on that day [morrow of SS. Simon and Jude] 28 Edward I”, which is 29 October 1300, “and on the third day after baptized in the church there”. One witness knew it “because he was present at the banquet when Margaret mother of the said heir purified herself from her childbirth”. Six others spoke of “the great feast which John de Grey made at Rutherefeld on the day of St. Andrew”, “when the said Margaret purified herself from the said heir”, “which feast is still notorious in those parts”, for “the abbots, priors and almost all the other good men (probi homines) of those parts were present.” The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, 1926, p. 145) dates the baptism to 1 November 1300, and summarizes the proof of age: “The feast of the churching of his mother, Margaret, was still talked of in those parts, because the Abbots, Priors and almost all the ‘probi homines’ of the neighbourhood were present.” The same work gives his father’s death as 17 October 1311.

The quarrel of 1332

The Complete Peerage (vol. 6, pp. 145-146), citing the rolls of Parliament, records that on 16 March 1331/2 Sir Geoffrey le Scrope, making the King’s speech, declared that John de Grey of Rotherfield and William de la Zouche of Ashby, “then at variance”, had been commanded to do no violence, “but nevertheless hot words passed between them in the presence of the King and his Council, and Grey put his hand to his knife and partly drew it.” Both had been imprisoned; Grey had been given into the custody of William de Clinton. The Lords thought Zouche not guilty and that Grey should be imprisoned during the King’s pleasure, “but begged the King’s mercy for him”. The Complete Peerage adds that he “appears to have been pardoned not long after”.

Career

The Complete Peerage (vol. 6, pp. 145-146) gives his military summonses from 1322 to 1341, his letters of protection of 18 July 1322 and 1325, his summonses to Parliament from 15 November 1338 to 15 December 1357, the urgent summons of 20 January 1341/2 concerning his men’s stay at Berwick-on-Tweed, “the King desiring that he should have custody of that town”, his service in the Crécy expedition of 1346 in the second division, and the licence of 10 December 1346 to crenellate his dwelling-places of Rotherfield and Sculcoates. It states that he “was made K.G. at the institution of that order” and was Steward of the Household “certainly from 1350 to 1356”. Exchequer records name him Steward of the King’s Household on 11 January 1356, with a commission of oyer and terminer in Northumberland (The National Archives, E 156/28/112), and as steward chief justice of oyer and terminer in Sussex and Kent in the thirty-third year of Edward III (E 37/27). The Complete Peerage also notes a licence of 1337 to give a plot of land to the Franciscan friars of Oxford.

Marriages and children

The Complete Peerage (vol. 6, p. 146) gives his first marriage, before 1 March 1311/2, to Catherine, younger daughter and co-heir of Sir Brian FitzAlan, Lord FitzAlan, and makes the second Lord Grey of Rotherfield his son and heir “by 1st wife”. It gives his second marriage to “Avice, da. of John (Marmion), Lord Marmion … and sister and coh. of Robert, Lord Marmion”, and their sons as Sir John de Grey, “who assumed the name of Marmion”, aged 16 and more in 1359, and Robert. The first edition (vol. 5, 1893, p. 259) dates that marriage “after 1335” and says Avice “had two sons, both of whom took the name of Marmion”. Douglas Richardson’s Plantagenet Ancestry (p. 345) makes Maud his daughter “by his 2nd wife, Avice”, and has her marry John Botetourt “shortly after 28 Nov. 1358”. No record naming Maud’s parents survives; her parentage rests on these compiled works.

Date of death

The Staffordshire inquest after his death states: “He died at Retherfeld on 1 September this year” (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 10, no. 518). The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 4, 1892, p. 104) notes that the date “is given variously as 26 Aug., 1 Sep., and 1 Oct., but the date of 1 Sep. in the return for Oxfordshire, where he died, is probably the correct one”. The protection granted to his widow as executor is given in the Complete Peerage (vol. 6, p. 147).