John de Eure
Son of Hugh de Eure and Ellen? Bertram, born 21st of September 1277 1
Married Agnes, dau. of Sir John de Insulac (of Woodburn), by 1301
Children
John de Eure,
born c130311
?Robert de Eure, born
c 1305 9
??Ralph de Eure 12
Beheaded in Bishop Auckland late March 1322? following the Battle of Boroughbridge (16th March 1321/2) 2
Inherited property around Stokesley in North Yorkshire3 and Mitford in Northumberland from his father but developed a military career in the Scottish wars. Bought land in County Durham at Witton and nearby in the late 1310s. High Sheriff of Yorkshire 1310-1311. Supported Thomas Earl of Lancaster in his opposition to Edward II and the Despenser family, culminating in outright rebellion, the Battle of Boroughbridge and his death.
Mitford castle near Morpeth, Northumberland
see
http://www.castleduncan.com/forum/index.php?/topic/709-mitford-castle
Notes
1 John de Euer was born the same day as Henry, cousin and heir of Henry son of Conan of Kelkefelde, born 21 Sept 1277 . See IPM 28 Edw.I
2 John de Eure was executed after being on the losing side at the Battle of Boroughbridge (16th March 1321/2).
2 horses belonging to the Lancastrian knight
John Eure were found "at the park of Helagh" and "forcibly taken
away by the men of Tadecastre" (Tadcaster), and his 4 other
horses were found in the woods at Catherton. Eure's shield,
lance, habergeon, leg-guards and plate shoes were found at
Bilton. Eure himself was beheaded in Bishop's Auckland by 14 of
Edward II's supporters, without Edward's knowledge or consent.
Edward fumed that "malefactors" had killed Eure "while he was in
the king's faith and peace," asserting "that he was the king's
enemy, which he was not" (though he did pardon the killers).
Cal Close Rolls 1318-1323, pp. 430, 474; Calendar
of Patent Rolls 1321-1324, pp. 127-128.
The 1326 inquisition post mortem of John de Eure's estates in Yorkshire lists "the manor with its members, held jointly with Agnes his wife and the heirs of their bodies, of John de Claveryng by knight's service." [CIPM 6: 462.]
Reference c gives his date of death as 1327 but this is probably inferred from the date of the inquisition post mortem.
3 John's father, Hugh, died c1295/6 when John would have been a minor. It appears that his wardship was acquired by a John de Lisle (de Insula)who married him to (his daughter?) Agnes c1301, endowing her with Hugh's mother's property in Stokesley and Easby, of which he (John de Lisle) had custody.8
Following Sir John's death Agnes married Sir Roger de Burton (1306 - 1359). Agnes was the daughter of Sir John de Insula, probably John de Insula / de Lisle of Woodburn, and (Ida?) daughter of Gilbert Umfreville, lord of Prudhoe.
"The " sheriff's lady" was Agnes, dau. of Sir John de Insula. She survived her husband, and afterwards became the wife of Sir Roger Burton, Knight." b The prime source of this information is not stated.
The Crown sold Kirkley and Newton Underwood to Sir Hugh de Eure in 1267. All the remainder, including Mitford, was granted to the Earl of Pembroke, to add to the property he had bought. He did not have it long: he got married and during a tournament organised to celebrate the wedding he was killed. His successor was Aymer de Valence, the second earl, who had no use for Mitford Castle and allowed it to stand empty. Sir John de Eure, a former escheater of the Northern Counties with property at Kirkley, had no difficulty in persuading the Crown that it should play a more important role in the defence of the marches. He was permitted to garrison it with twenty men-at-arms and forty troopers in 1315. These soldiers were Eure's men and became part of the muscle of the 'Mitford Gang' which brought mayhem to Northumberland, already traumatized by Robert Bruce's post-Bannockburn attentions.
The story of the county's period of self-inflicted misery is not
one of which Northumbrians can be proud. The initiator was
probably Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, an ambitious and
unscrupulous member of the ruling clique who may have thought
more civil unrest on the Border would further highlight his
king's inability to govern, Eure, a friend of the Duke, was
certainly the master planner and behind the scenes supremo,
while the leader in the field, the man most closely associated
with the nefarious events was Sir Gilbert de Middleton of
Cramlington and Hartley, brother of John de Middleton of
Swinburn Castle and cousin of Sir John de Middleton, lord of
Belsay. He was assisted by brother John and Walter Selby and had
the active backing of several property owners.
The Gang's usual modus operandi was to call on any farmer or
squire with fields still in cultivation or who appeared to have
some money. The hapless victims were given the opportunity to
join the Gang, but a refusal or any show of resistance was dealt
with summarily. Their fields would be wasted, their stock either
killed or led away to the farm of the nearest supporter. Often
their families were killed or left to starve, but they
themselves were taken captive and put into the dungeons of
Mitford Castle, there to remain until they produced the required
ransom money.
A variation to this routine was played out in 1317 at Rushyford
in County Durham. Gilbert and Walter, with a small armed band,
waylaid a party of Church dignitaries, including the Bishop of
Durham elect on his way to Durham Cathedral for his
consecration. This man, Lewis de Beaumont, and his brother Sir
Henry Beaumont, were captured and taken to Mitford to await the
payment of a huge ransom.
Exploits such as these came to a welcome end when Mitford Castle
was taken by a trick and most of the Gang was captured in
December 1317. Gilbert and John de Middleton were sent to the
Tower of London and next month they were hung, drawn and
quartered, but Walter Selby escaped and hid for a time in Horton
Tower before flying to Scotland.
"So ended", wrote a monastic chronicler, "a year that was barren
of every crop but misery, when Northumberland, wasted by the
Scots and reduced to poverty by its own outlaws. lay between the
hammer and the anvil". In fact it was not quite the end of the
story, for Robert Bruce, in the business of keeping
Northumberland miserable, took Mitford Castle and, no doubt
relishing the irony of it, put Walter Selby in charge of it. The
English authorities were unconcerned; Selby by rights should
have been in gaol but he was virtually a prisoner anyway in his
castle so they were prepared merely to watch and wait. In 1321
he had had enough and surrendered himself and the castle to the
sheriff of Northumberland. This probably saved his life. He was
incarcerated in the Tower of London until 1327, then freed to
live an adventurous life until David Bruce executed him in 1346.
http://www.castleduncan.com/forum/index.php?/topic/709-mitford-castle
The location of the capture of the Bishop as 'Rushyford' is discussed in Archaeologia Aeliana Vol VI 1865.
"Before the end of the summer [of 1317] civil war had come so
close that [Thomas earl of] Lancaster made contact with the
Scots, in order to secure his position. He and they appear to
have connived together at the capture of Louis de Beaumont,
bishop of Durham and brother of the courtier Henry, by Sir
Gilbert Middleton near Durham in September.
M.H. Keen "England in the later middle ages - The reign of
Edward II and its aftermath".
The motivation for this kidnap is discussed in Warriors and churchmen in the High Middle Ages: essays presented to Karl Leyser By Timothy Reuter pp179-184+
1319 John de Eure given letters of protection
in July 1319 for defending Aymer de Valence's castle of Mitford
14th Century England Vol 2 by Nigel Saul, Chris Given Wilson
page 20
See also Stephen de Eure
5 INGLEBY. John de Kirkeby grants to John
de Eure and
Agnes his wife the homage and service of William del How and
his heirs for lands and tenements which he holds in Ingelbi near
Grenehou, and also the homage and service of the prioress of
Basadale
for lands, &c. in the same village, and the homage and service
of
Thomas the son of "Walter Lane far lands, &c. in the same, also
the
homage, &c. of William the son of Juliana, for lands, &c. in the
same,
(c. 1270-80.) Ch. 162, a
Hugh de Balliol conveyed it to his daughter Ada on her marriage
with John de
Fitz Robert Lord Eure. From the Eures it was purchased in 1609
by Sir David
Foulis. a
A.D. 1303
Wapentake of Langbargh.—Concerning the Fee of Balliol.—Stokesley,
Battersby,
Ingleby near Greenhow, Little Broughton, Kirby, Dromonby, Great
Busby, Little
Busby and Scutterskelf with Newby. John de Eure holds in the
same 3 fees. Here
14 carucates make a fee. a
From Burton's " Monasticon "
(p. 250) we learn that the Priory of Basedale was
endowed with lands &c. in Battersby and Ingleby Greenhow. In the
year 1304 John
de Eure quit-claimed to John, prior of Basedale, certain houses
and lands at
Ingleby Greenhow &c * He also, according to Ord.f " exempted the
nuns from suits
of courts for their possessions here." In an inventory taken in
26 Hen. III (1535)
of the lands and tenements belonging to the Priory, with their
annual value occur
these items:—"In Ingleby unum tenementum 0-18-0. In Batersby
unum tene-
£ s d
mentum - 9 - 0."J
At one period the Prior and Canons of Guisbrough had possessions
at Battersby.||
A.D. 1310
We copy the following from pp. 46 and 47 of an article entitled
" The Rise,
Extension, and Suppression of the Order of Knights Templar in
Yorkshire,"
contained in a volume of " Papers on Subjects of Archaeology and
History by the
Rev. John Kenrick, M.A., F.S.A.," 1864.
"John de Eure, Sheriff of Yorkshire, said, that before the
seizure of the
Templars, and before any scandal respecting them was in
circulation, William de la
Fenne, preceptor of Westerdale, had been invited to his house,
and that after dinner
he took a book from his bosom and gave it to the sheriff's lady.
She, who must
have far surpassed most of her sex in that age, both in letters
and theology, found
in it a paper containing very heretical propositions concerning
Christ and the
Christian faith. She handed it to her husband who, when he had
read it, questioned
the preceptor about its contents. William de la Fenne smiled,
and said the man
who wrote it was a great ribald, but would not part with the
book."
The trial at which the above trumpery evidence** was given took
place at York
in May, 1310. The house of Sir John de Eure was Ingleby Manor.
The " sheriff's
lady" was Agnes, dau. of Sir John de Insula. She survived her
husband, and
afterwards became the wife of Sir Roger Burton, Knight. a
A.D. 1316
In the " Nomina Villarum " of the date of 9 Ed. II. it is stated
that the King
is lord of the Wapentake of Langbargh, and that the towns of "
Stokesley,
Ingelby, Eseby, Batheresby et Kirkby " are in possession of John
de Eure.
6 From the records of the convent of Durham we get the first hint of
what was being prepared for Lewis de Beaumont on his approach to Durham.
There is preserved at Durham the following document. It is an Indenture,
dated 25th April, 10 Edward II, 1317, between three important personages,
Sir John de Eure, Sir Robert de Sapy, and the prior of Durham. Sir John
de Eure, a knight of Yorkshire and Northumberland, was son of Sir Hugh
de Eure, a younger son of John Fitz-Robert, Lord of Warkworth, d. 1240.
Up to this time (1240) this great family had not adopted a surname. Sir
Hugh took the name of Eure from the family manor of that name in
Buckinghamshire. About the same time as Sir Hugh took his surname, his
great nephew, John Fitz-Robert, then the head of the family, adopted the
name of Clavering, from his manor of Clavering, in Essex. Sir John had
been escheator for the district north of Trent from 1313 to 1315. Sir Robert
de Sapy was the then escheator for that same district, and also guardian of the
temporalities of the bishopric of Durham during the vacancy of the see. The
prior of Durham was Geoffrey de Burdon.**' The indenture is in French, a
full translation of it is as follows : —
" This indenture witnesses that Sir John de Eure has made a bond to
Sir Robert de Sapy, guardian of the temporalities of the bishopric of Durham,
in one hundred marks, payable to the said Sir Robert on St. Michael's day
next to come after the making of these letters ; which writing is delivered by
them both to the Prior of Durham to keep until the day aforesaid ; in this
form, that if it so happen that Sir Lewis de Beaumont be consecrated Bishop
of Durham, or that the temporalities be delivered to him, before St. Michael's
day aforesaid, that then the said Sir John shall hold himself bound to the said
Sir Robert to pay or cause to be paid to him all the expenses and costs which
he shall make, or cause to be made, for the ploughs in the lands which
belonged at any time to the Bishop of Durham, and are in the hand of our
lord the King, as well beyond the waters of Tyne and Teyse as between
them, that is to say, in livery of oxen, and in all manner of other costs duely
and fairly made by the stewards and bailifs of the places, for the tillage of
the said lands, from the 25th day of April until St. Michael's day aforesaid.
And if the said Sir John refuse to make satisfaction to the said Sir Robert for
the said expenses as before is said, he wills and grants that the bond in one
hundred marks which is in the keeping of the Prior of Durham aforesaid, be
delivered immediately by the said Prior to the said Sir Robert, so that the
said Sir Robert may take action on the said writing to demand from the said
Sir John the hundred marks aforesaid. And if it so happen that the said
Sir Lewis be not consecrated Bishop of Durham by the day aforesaid, the said
Sir Robert wills and grants that the said writing be delivered to the said
Sir John, and be accounted as void in whosesoever hand it may be found. In
witness of which things, to the part indented remaining with Sir John, the
said Sir Robert de Sapy has put his seal. And to the part remaining with
Sir Robert the said Sir John de Eure has put his seal. And to the part
remaining with the prior, the said Sir John and Sir Robert have put their
seals. Written at Durham the twenty-fifth day of April, the 10th year of
the reign of our lord the King Edward, son to the King Edward."
(a) Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense, Vol. IV, pp. i to 74.
(a) New Co. Hist, of Northumberland, Vol. V, pp. 25, 26, 27. (b) Robert de Graystaues, p. 95. '*^ Sir John de Eure's bond for loo marks to Sir Robert de Sapy is No. 4022 of the Durham Treasury Miscellaneous Charters. SIR GILBERT DE MIDDLETON : AND THE PART HE TOOK IN THE REBELLION IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND IN 1317 BY SIR ARTHUR E. MIDDLETON, BART. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE MAWSON SWAN AND MORGAN LIMITED M.CM.XVIII
John de Eure Sheriff of York 1310 - 11
7 Licence to found a chantry of three chaplains in the chapel of St. Mary, Kirkby in Cleveland, was granted to John de Eure and his wife Agnes in 1311. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64657#n140 (Cal. Pat. 1307–13, p. 400.)
8 Robert and Hugh, younger sons of Ada, who took the name of Eure, were enfeoffed by their mother in Stokesley in the summer of 1250. (fn. 45) They entered into full seisin: 'each of them appointed a new steward and reeves for keeping his share, and deposing the said lady's steward and reeves, held courts . . . and received amercements from many persons.' (fn. 46) Some months later, however, they granted the manor to their mother for life, (fn. 47) and she was in possession at her death in 1251 (fn. 48) as farmer of Robert and Hugh. Robert de Eure predeceased his brother by many years, and his share of Stokesley was inherited by Hugh. (fn. 49) Eure. Quarterly or and gules a bend sable with three scallops argent thereon. In 1296 Hugh was dead and dower was assigned to his widow Ellen. (fn. 50) His lands were in the custody of John de Lisle, (fn. 51) who in 1301 settled the manor on John de Eure, Hugh's son and heir, and his wife Agnes. (fn. 52) John was killed at Auckland before 1322 'by certain malefactors' (fn. 53) and Agnes remained in possession. (fn. 54) Their son and heir was another John, (fn. 55) who in 1364 granted all his lands in Yorkshire to his son Robert. (fn. 56) Robert was dead in 1369, his heir being his brother Ralph. (fn. 57) Ralph had a son William, who was Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1445, (fn. 58) and from this date the family is represented by a regular succession of Ralphs and Williams.
fn51 Cal. Close, 1288–96, p. 480.
fn52 Feet of F. Yorks. 29 Edw. I, no. 20; Pipe
R. 26 Edw. I, m. 23.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64666 (Victoria County History - North Riding of Yorkshire)
9 Proof of Age taken at Pontefract,
Saturday before St. Luke, 40 Edward III. [17th October 1366]
(for Thomas son and Heir of John de Leghe)
William de Preston, aged 66 years, says that the said heir was
born at Middelton on Wednesday before Whitsunday, 19 Edward III,
and baptized on the same day in the. church of Rothewell.
[19 Edward III - Whitsunday - May 23 1345; Wednesday
before Whitsunday - 19th May 1345]
Robert de Eure, aged 61 years, agrees and says that in the same
month he had a daughter Alice born, who is now 21 years old and
more.
10 There was an important distinction,
moreover, between the knight bachelor and the bannerets,those
senior knights who carried their own square banners into
battle as opposed to the triangular penants of the
ordinaryknights who were often found commanding their own
contingents in the field. Bannerets were of considerable
importance within the king's military household. They were
significant too, within magnate retinues, as can be shown from
indentures of retimue. In 1317, for example, when Sir John de
Eure contracted to serve for life with the Earl of
Lancaster, it was specified that he would receive exactly the
same liveries as the earl's other bannerets.
http://books.google.com/books?id=7SL1bVtfP08C&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=Heraldry+Eure&source=bl&ots=hX-Nz9H9W6&sig=m5ri7IBNIhB9PRVIz0PflUZGTUQ&hl=en&ei=_N6hTfrnK4qXhQeyh6j4BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Heraldry%20Eure&f=false
11 John de Eure was '19 and more' in August 1322 at the Inquisition into Agnes' claim for possession of her Dower.
12 There is an entry in charters at the Bodleian Library, Oxford where a Sir Ralph de Eure, knt, witnesses an agreement at Stokesley in 1347. Obviously not Sir Ralph de Eure c1350-1422
13 Calendar to Charters at the Bodleian
Library
WOTTON, ESCOUMB, and STANHOPE. Anthony Becke,
bishop of Durham, grants to Walter de Bermeton a toft and 127
acres of land of the waste in the fields of Wotton, Escoumb, and
Stanhope, to hold the same for an annual rent of [625. 3c?]. (c.
1300.)
[With seal]
References
b "The Register Booke of Ingleby iuxta Grenhow" (JOHN BLACKBURNE, Cross & Jackman, "The Canterbury Press," 6, High Street. 1889. )
c "The direct pedigree of the barons Eure of Witton, omitting branches. Abridged from the pedigree pr. by a descendant of the family" John Hubbersty Mathews 1880
d http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1141