♂Sir William Harcourt

William Harcourt (about 1300 – 6 June 1349) was an English knight, the lord of Ellenhall in Staffordshire, Bosworth in Leicestershire and Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, who died in the summer the Black Death^W swept through England. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Thomas Harcourt (1341–1417).

Heir of Ellenhall

William was the son of John Harcourt, and his mother is said to have been John’s first wife, Ellen la Zouche. By 1324 William was a knight and married to Joan, and his father had passed a share of the manor of Pleasley in Derbyshire to the couple. About two years later John gave them the manors of Bingley and Helyghfeld in Yorkshire as well. William is said to have lived at Bosworth while his father was alive. They had at least two sons, Richard, born about 1328, and Thomas, born about 1341.

His father died in 1330, and the inquest^W on John’s lands at Ellenhall, Bosworth and Stanton Harcourt named “William his son, aged 30 years” as his next heir. That November a fine in the king’s court, made through Nicholas de Harecourt, parson of Shepeye, settled Bosworth on William and Joan and the heirs male of their bodies, and Stanton Harcourt was settled on the couple in the same way. Such an entail^W tied the land to the male line, and it decided who inherited it long after William was dead. A history of the family published in 1914 judged that he “played no part in the history of the country”.

Death

William died on 6 June 1349, and he may have been one of the Black Death’s victims. The inquest held at Oxford that July named his elder son, Richard, “aged 21 years and more”, as his heir, and Joan survived him; she is said to have married again. Richard died before his mother, so when Joan died in 1369 the entails split the family’s lands: Stanton Harcourt and Bosworth passed to William’s younger son, Thomas, while Pleasley and Bingley went to Richard’s daughter Elizabeth.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Thomas Harcourt (1341–1417) and grandson Thomas Harcourt (1377–1420) 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 parents

The inquisition taken after John de Harecourt’s death in 1330 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 7, no. 298; writ of 2 May 1330) lists Ellenhall, Bosworth and Stanton Harcourt and states: “William his son, aged 30 years, is his next heir”. The birth year of about 1300 follows that age. A second record names the same father: the York inquest of 1369 (vol. 12, no. 360) says Bingley was held “by gift of John de Harecourt, lord of Boseworth, to William de Harecourt his son and the said Joan”. His mother rests on compiled histories only: The Harcourt Papers, vol. 1 (1880), pp. 63–64, give John’s first wife as “Ellen, daughter of Eudo la Zouch, and Milicent his wife”, by whom he had “an only son, William”, and J. C. Wedgwood’s “Harcourt of Ellenhall” (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 1914, p. 195) calls her “Ellen, daughter of Eudes la Zouche of Mellesentre, mother of his heir Sir William”. No record of Ellen herself survives.

Marriage and the settlements

A Chancery inquisition of 17 Edward II (1323–4; The National Archives, C 143/161/10) concerns “William de Harcourt, knight, and Joan his wife” retaining half of Pleasley, acquired from John de Harecourt; another of 1325–6 (C 143/182/7) concerns Bingley and “William son of John de Harcourt and Joan his wife”. The 1369 inquests (vol. 12, no. 360) give the Bosworth fine, levied “in the octave of Martinmas, 4 Edward III”, “whereby Nicholas de Harecourt, parson of the church of Shepeye, granted the manor to William de Harecourt and Joan his wife and the heirs male of [their] bodies”, and say Stanton Harcourt was held “in joint feoffment with William her husband, to them and the heirs male of their bodies, by a fine”. Wedgwood (p. 195) calls William “of Bosworth” and writes that “he probably lived there during his father’s lifetime”, and adds: “This man played no part in the history of the country. As to him the Rolls are silent.”

Death and heir

The Oxford inquest of 3 July 1349 (vol. 9, no. 139) states: “He died on 6 June last. Richard his son, aged 21 years and more, is his heir”; the Leicestershire inquest names “Joan his wife, who survives”. The records give no cause of death. Wedgwood (p. 196) writes that “the Black Death of 1349-50 seems to have killed the Harcourts”. He also writes that Joan “re-married in 1350 Sir Ralph Ferrers”; the 1369 inquests call her only the late wife of William.