♂John Marmion

John Marmion^W (born before 1292) was an English knight who in 1322 inherited his father’s manors in five counties, from West Tanfield in Yorkshire to Berwick in Sussex. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Avice Marmion.

The Marmion inheritance

His father, John Marmion, died in 1322. At the inquisitions post mortem^W taken on his lands that year, the juries found that “John his son, aged 30 and more, is his next heir”. The inheritance took in Tanfield, Wath and Eskelby in Yorkshire, Wintringham and Wolyngham in Lincolnshire, Berwick and Wyngeton in Sussex, Luddington in Northamptonshire and Quinton in Gloucestershire. About ten years before, his father had given Quinton to him and his wife Elizabeth and their heirs, so he was married by about 1312.

He is said to have been summoned to Parliament as Lord Marmion^W from 1326, and to have served in the Scottish wars in 1327. He was still living in May 1333, when Thomas de Beltoft acknowledged that he owed £20 to “John Marmyon, knight”, in Lincolnshire, and he most likely died in 1335.

Family

He had a son, Robert, and two daughters, Joan, who married John Bernak, and Avice, who became the second wife of John de Grey, Lord Grey of Rotherfield^W. Robert is said to have died without children, and the Marmion lands went to his sisters. By 1359 Avice and her husband held Berwick, Quinton, Wintringham and the Tanfield manors, with the remainder after Avice’s own heirs going to Joan and John Bernak. Elizabeth is the only wife of his named in the records; whether she was the mother of his children is not known.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his daughter Avice Marmion and her daughter Maud Grey (died 1394). 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

The inquisitions of 1322

The Yorkshire inquest on his father, under a writ of 7 May 15 Edward II (1322), was taken on the Friday after the feast of St John the Baptist and covered “Tanfeld … Wath, Langeton and Wirton … Eskelby”; it found “John his son, aged 30 and more, is his next heir” (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 6, no. 294). The inquests in the other counties (vol. 6, no. 350, “John Marmyon alias le Marmion”) found the same heir and listed Berewyk and Wyngeton in Sussex, Wyntryngham and Wolyngham in Lincolnshire and Ludington in Northamptonshire; in Gloucestershire “he gave the manor of Quenton to John his son and Elizabeth his wife and their heirs”, ten years before. “Aged 30 and more” places his birth before 1292. The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 5, 1893, p. 259) has him “aged 30 in 1323 when he suc. his father”.

Identification and his daughters

He is tied to Avice by the descent of the same manors. The Sussex inquest of 1359 on John de Grey found Berwick held by Grey and Avice jointly, she holding it “as of her right”; Quinton, Wintringham, West and East Tanfield, Eskilby and Wath were settled by a fine of 17 Edward III on the couple and “John Marmyon their son, with successive remainders to the heirs of the body of Avice, John Bernak and Joan his wife and the heirs of her body, and the right heirs of Avice” (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 10, no. 518). The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, 1926, p. 146) calls Avice “da. of John (Marmion), Lord Marmion, and sister and coh. of Robert, Lord Marmion”. The first edition (vol. 5, p. 259) makes Robert his “only s. and h.”, “of an infirm constitution”, who “d. s.p. when the Barony fell into abeyance” between his two sisters, Joan, the wife of Sir John Bernack, and Avice. That Joan was a daughter rests on that work and on the order of the remainders.

His wife

The 1322 inquest names his wife Elizabeth. The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 5, p. 259) states instead: “He m. Maud, said to have been a da. of Lord Furnivall.” No record names the mother of his children.

Parliament and death

The Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 5, p. 259) has him summoned to Parliament by writs from 8 December 1326 to 1 April 1335, serving “in the Scotch wars in 1327”, and dying in 1335 (9 Edward III). The debt of £20 is entered on the Close Rolls (Calendar of Close Rolls, 1333-1337, p. 113), in the words “Thomas de Beltoft acknowledges that he owes to John Marmyon, knight, 20l.”.