♂William Harcourt

William Harcourt (about 1228 – between 1269 and 1271) was an English knight, lord of Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, Bosworth in Leicestershire and Ellenhall in Staffordshire, who married twice and whose lands were divided after his death between the daughters of his first marriage and his young son. He was the twenty-first great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Richard Harcourt (1256–1293).

Inheritance and marriages

William was the son and heir of Richard de Harecurt. When Richard died, shortly before April 1258, the inquest on his lands at Stretton, Bosworth, Aylestone, Kibworth, Newton and Shenton named “Sir William, his son, aged 30 and more” as the heir.

His first wife was Alice la Zouche, probably married about 1250. His father gave the couple the manor of Aylestone and £4 of rent in his soke of Stratton, to be held by William and Alice and the heirs of their bodies, and Alan la Zouche gave Tong in Shropshire with Alice in free marriage^W. William and Alice had two daughters, Orabel and Margery.

After Alice la Zouche’s death, William Harcourt married Hillaria Hastings, a sister of Henry de Hastings^W, and she was most likely the mother of his only son, Richard Harcourt, born on 9 December 1256. Years later a witness remembered William going to Ela, Countess of Warwick^W, and telling her that “he had a son named Richard, and he had no other than this”.

The barons’ war

William was summoned for the king’s Welsh expedition of 1263, but in the Second Barons’ War^W he and his younger brother Saer are said to have followed Simon de Montfort^W. A history of the family published in 1914 records that William held out in the Isle of Ely as one of the “disinherited”, while writ after writ ordered him to surrender and stand trial. In the end he was pardoned and allowed to redeem his lands under the Dictum of Kenilworth^W. Alan la Zouche helped him: on 27 August 1266 he obtained from the Crown a grant to William’s daughters of the redemption money for Tong and Aylestone.

Death

In the autumn of 1269 Joan, the widow of Henry de Hastings, sued William and Hillaria for her dower^W: a third of £20 of land at Hayleston in Leicestershire. The couple held that land by Henry’s charters, so they called on his under-age son and heir, John, to warrant it, and John’s attorney conceded Joan’s claim.

William died not long afterwards, and before April 1271. The king gave the custody of his lands and of his under-age heir to Adam de Monhaut. The lands settled on William and Alice and the heirs of their bodies went to Orabel and Margery, and in 1271 the sisters complained to the king that Adam would not let them have the Stratton rent they had received in their father’s lifetime; the escheator was ordered to give it to them. In 1272, as William’s widow, Hillaria sued his daughters Orabel and Margery for a third of their lands at Aylestone, with its mills, woods and a share of the patronage of the church, as her dower.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Richard Harcourt (1256–1293). They part further down the family and meet again in Sarah Dudley (1795–1839), whose parents, Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844) and Anna Smith (1764–1825), both descended from him.

Notes

Birth and parentage

The inquisition after the death of Richard de Harecurt (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 1, no. 411; writ dated 2 April 42 Henry III, 1258) names “Sir William, his son, aged 30 and more” as heir, so William was born about 1228; J. C. Wedgwood’s “Harcourt of Ellenhall” (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 1914, p. 193) gives “BORN c. 1227”. A royal mandate of Easter 1271 (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, p. 182) also names “Richard de Harecurt, the father of William”. G. Howell’s history of Kibworth Harcourt (1983, pp. 10–11) gives Richard’s wife as Arabella, daughter of Saer de Quincy, and says that Richard left two sons, William, “who held the Bosworth fee”, and Saer, “the younger son”, who received Kibworth Harcourt.

First marriage

The 1271 mandate says that Richard gave his son £4 of rent in the soke of Stratton “in frank marriage with Alice his wife, to be held by the said William and Alice, and the heirs of their bodies, to make up 40l. of land in the manor of Eyleston”. The inquisition on Henry de Penebrugge, Orabel’s husband (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2, no. 305), says that Alan la Souche “gave it [Tong] to William de Harecourt with Alice his sister in free marriage, who begat a daughter Orrabilis”. Wedgwood (p. 193) and The Harcourt Papers, vol. 1 (1880), p. 63, call Alice a daughter of Alan la Zouche, and Wedgwood dates the marriage “c. 1250”; the inquisition’s word is “sister”.

Second marriage and his son

The pedigree in the cartulary^W of Ronton Priory (printed in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, pp. 272–273) says that William “primo desponsavit Aliciam la Zouche; et post decessum ejusdam Aliciae, idem Willielmus desponsavit Illariam, quae fuit soror Domini Henrici de Hastingges”, and then names Richard as his son and heir. No record names Richard’s mother. Because the lands settled on William and Alice and the heirs of their bodies went to the daughters and not to Richard, the editor of 1883 concluded that “Richard his successor was his son by his second wife” (vol. 4, p. 183), and The Harcourt Papers (vol. 1, p. 63) say that “By his second wife, Sir William had an only son, Richard”. Wedgwood (p. 194) puts the second marriage “about 1256”. The witness’s memory of William and the Countess of Warwick is in Richard’s proof of age of 1278 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2, no. 294).

The rebellion

Wedgwood (p. 193) is the source for the Welsh summons of 1263, for the brothers’ following of Simon de Montfort and for the Isle of Ely: “Writ after writ issued from outside Kenilworth and from Westminster directing him to surrender and come and take his trial, while he lay, one of the ‘disinherited,’ in the Isle of Ely. Ultimately he was pardoned and allowed to redeem his lands under the Dictum of Kenilworth, and in this he was assisted by his father-in-law, Alan la Zouche, who obtained from the Crown, Aug. 27th, 1266, a grant to Harcourt’s own daughters of the redemption money for the manors of Tong and Aylestone.” He adds that William “never filled any of the usual judicial positions”.

Death

The dower suit is on the Coram Rege roll for Michaelmas 53–54 Henry III (October 1269), printed in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, p. 178. Its editor adds that William “died shortly after this date, for the Fine Rolls show he was dead in 54 H. III”, and (p. 272) that on the Patent Roll of the same year justices were appointed to try a plea of the Prior of Ronton “against Illaria, widow of William de Harecourt”. Wedgwood (p. 194) writes that he “was dead before April 19th, 1271 (Plea Rolls), probably just dead; he was certainly alive in 1270”, and rejects The Harcourt Papers’ date of 1278. The death is therefore given as between October 1269 and April 1271. The custody granted to Adam de Monhaut and the daughters’ complaint are in the mandate of Easter 1271 (vol. 4, p. 182); Hillaria’s dower suit of 1272 is on p. 188.