♂John Harcourt

John Harcourt (between 1274 and 1277 – before 2 May 1330) was an English landholder, lord of Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, Bosworth in Leicestershire and Ellenhall in Staffordshire, who in 1311 was found to be one of the two heirs of Anthony Bek^W, the Bishop of Durham. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son William Harcourt (1300–1349).

Heir of Bosworth

John was the eldest son of Richard Harcourt and Margaret Beke, and he was born in Oxfordshire, probably at Stanton Harcourt. His father died early in 1293, and the inquest^W on Richard’s lands named “John his eldest son, aged 18 at the feast of All Saints last” as his next heir. The young heir’s marriage is said to have been granted to his grandfather John Beke, lord of Eresby in Lincolnshire. A petition of about 1297 describes John as having been of age “a year or more”, although by one account some of his lands were not handed over to him until 1301.

Knight and soldier

In 1301 John is said to have gone to Scotland in the train of Ralph de Monthermer^W. The family’s histories record that he was knighted at Whitsuntide 1306 together with Edward, Prince of Wales, at the Feast of the Swans^W at Westminster, when the king’s son and a great company of young men were knighted on the same day. He is also said to have fought at Bannockburn^W in 1314 and to have gone north again in 1317 and 1319. In 1322 he was most likely returned to parliament for Oxfordshire as a knight of the shire^W, the first of the Harcourts to sit there, and two years later he was among those summoned to Westminster “to treat with the King”.

The Beke inheritance

John Beke died without a surviving son in 1303 or 1304, and John Harcourt is said to have become one of his co-heirs, with Robert de Willoughby, in Eresby and in Pleasley in Derbyshire. When Beke’s brother Anthony, Bishop of Durham, died in March 1311, the inquests on his lands found that “Robert de Wyluby and John de Harecourt are his kinsmen and next heirs”; John was then “aged 34 and more”. Part of this inheritance went down to the next generation in John’s lifetime: by 1324 he had passed a share of the manor of Pleasley to his son William and William’s wife, Joan.

Marriages

John Harcourt married Ellen la Zouche, by one account about 1300. Her widowed mother had given her the manor of Bingley in Yorkshire, to hold to her and the heirs of her body. Ellen was most likely the mother of John’s heir, William, born about 1300, for Bingley, settled on the heirs of her body, passed to him: in 1325–6 John settled it on William and his wife, Joan. After Ellen’s death John married Alice, the daughter of Sir Peter Corbet of Caus; they are said to have had no children. Both marriages are named in the pedigree of the Harcourts in the cartulary^W of Ronton Priory in Staffordshire, which ends with John and appears to have been written in his lifetime.

Death

John died before 2 May 1330, the date of the writ for the inquest on his lands. It covered Ellenhall, Bosworth and Stanton Harcourt and named “William his son, aged 30 years” as his next heir. Alice survived him, and a deed of 1330 from Nicholas de Harcourt to “Alice, widow of John de Harcourt” concerns Ellenhall and a rent at Nailstone. John is said not to have lived in Staffordshire: after his death his executors sued his bailiff there, John Alot, for waste and misappropriation.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son William Harcourt (1300–1349) and grandson Thomas Harcourt (1341–1417) and, much further down, through Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Thomas’s son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). From Samuel one line comes down to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844), and the other to Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825); the two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Birth and age

The records disagree slightly on his age. The inquisition after the death of Richard de Harecourt (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 3, no. 116; writ of 1 March 1293) calls him “John his eldest son, aged 18 at the feast of All Saints last”, which points to a birth about 1274, and the Stafford inquest there has him “born in co. Oxford”. A petition of about 1297 (The National Archives, SC 8/329/E956) says he had been of age “a year or more”. The Leicestershire inquest after the death of Anthony, Bishop of Durham, in 1311 (vol. 5, no. 274) gives “John, aged 34 and more”, which fits a birth by 1277. J. C. Wedgwood’s “Harcourt of Ellenhall” (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 1914, p. 195) heads him “BORN 1277, DIED 1330”, writes that “though called 18 in his father’s Inquisition, yet he was still a minor in 1297”, and that he “did not receive seisin of some of his estates till Jan. 31st, 1301”; it also says he “was born at Stanton Harcourt” and that “his marriage was granted to his grandfather John, Lord Beke”.

Parents and the Beke kinship

The pedigree in the Ronton cartulary (printed in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, 1883, pp. 272–273) names his father Richard as the husband of “Margaretam, filiam Domini Johannis Bek” and John as Richard’s son and heir. The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 2, p. 89) lists among the coheirs of John Beke of Eresby “Margaret, or Milisent, who m. Richard Harcourt”, and says John Beke “d. s.p.m.s., 1303-04”. The 1311 inquests (vol. 5, no. 274) name Robert de Wyluby and John de Harecourt as Bishop Anthony’s “kinsmen and next heirs” but do not say how they were related to him; the Beke descent through Margaret comes from the compiled accounts and the cartulary. Richard’s own inquisition assigned dower in 1293 to “Joan late his wife” (vol. 3, no. 117), so his widow was a Joan, not Margaret. The Harcourt Papers, vol. 1 (1880), pp. 35–36, quote an older note that John Beke, “by his will made 29 E. I, devised to Sr Rob. de Willoughby and Sr John de Harecourt the remainder of his arms, to be divided between them”, and describe a brass at Stanton Harcourt uniting the Beke and Harcourt arms, “probably in memory of Sir John”.

Career

The Harcourt Papers, vol. 1, p. 63, state that he “was knighted at Whitsuntide, 1306, with Edward, Prince of Wales, and served with King Edward the First in Scotland”; J. Horsfall Turner’s Ancient Bingley (1897, p. 67) gives the same knighting, citing Collins’s peerage. Wedgwood (p. 195) adds the rest: “In 1301 he went to Scotland in the train of that redoubtable knight, Ralph de Monthemers. He was summoned to Westminster in 1306 to be knighted with the Prince of Wales. He was at Bannockburn and survived to go north again in 1317 and 1319. In 1322 he was returned, the first of a family that has sent over fifty representatives to Westminster, Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire; and two years later he was one of those summoned to Westminster ‘to treat with the King.’” He also writes that “he did not live in Staffordshire, for after his death his executors are found suing his bailiff, John Alot, for waste and misappropriation there”.

Wives and children

The Ronton cartulary pedigree says John “primo desponsavit Alianoram la Souch, et post decessum ejusdam Alianorae, idem Johannes desponsavit Aliciam, filiam Domini Petri Corbet de Caus”; the editor of 1883 judged from the handwriting that the cartulary was compiled in John’s time, as its original pedigree ends with him. The Harcourt Papers (vol. 1, pp. 63–64) give his first wife as “Ellen, daughter of Eudo la Zouch, and Milicent his wife, by whom he had an only son, William”, and his second as “Alice, daughter of Peter Corbet of Caus Castle in Shropshire, but by her he had no issue”. Wedgwood (p. 195) says he married Ellen “about 1300”, and that Alice “survived him and lived at Plesley, Derby”. The gifts to William are in two Chancery inquisitions: of 1323–4 (C 143/161/10), concerning “William de Harcourt, knight, and Joan his wife” and half of Pleasley acquired from John, and of 1325–6 (C 143/182/7), concerning Bingley and “William son of John de Harcourt and Joan his wife”. Ellen’s mother’s grant of Bingley is set out on Ellen’s own page.

Death

The writ for his inquisition is dated 2 May 1330 (vol. 7, no. 298); the inquests name “William his son, aged 30 years” as next heir and list Ellenhall, Bosworth and Stanton Harcourt. The deed to his widow is Staffordshire Record Office D615/D/345/2 (1330), “Nicholas de Harcourt to Alice, widow of John de Harcourt”. The records give no place of death.