Roger Durvassal of Spernore, Warwickshire ¹

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1246-1256, Spernall Manor, Spernall, Studley, Warwickshire, B80, GB. ² The first family connected with the manor is that of Durvassall: Dugdale mentions a William Durvassal in the time of Henry II: his successor John left a son John, who was under age in 1220 and is probably the John Durvassal who conveyed to Roger (his second son, according to Dugdale) 2 carucates and 40s. rent in Spernall in 1246. Ten years later Roger Durvassal also acquired 40s. rent in Spernall and Henley from Robert de Chandos and Eva his wife, who quitclaimed for themselves and the heirs of Eva, perhaps a sister of Roger. In 1316 Spernall is given as a hamlet of Morton Bagot, and was held by Thomas Durvassal. This Thomas was son of Philip son of Roger and his son was John, who was living in 1347. The official records, however, state that 'John Doruesale', who died in 1328, leaving a son John then 28 years old, had held the manor of Spernall of the Earl of Warwick. It would seem that the name of the deceased tenant was wrongly returned as John instead of Thomas. In 1331 the manor was settled on John Durvassal and his wife Sybil. John Durvassal of Spernall is again mentioned in 1347; and in 1363 John de Raggelaye was pardoned for the death of Nicholas Durvassal of Spernall, probably the son of John. In 1378 Rose, the widow of Nicholas and then wife of Richard Mountford, disputed against a William Durvassal the right of her daughters, Eleanor and Elizabeth, to a tenement in Spernall. This Eleanor married John Holt, to whose son Walter the manor later came. This William Durvassal (perhaps illegitimate) seems to be identical with William Spernore, knight of the shire for Worcester in the Parliament of 1397, and obtained a life interest in the manor. In 1401 the manor of Spernall, then held as half a fee, on the death of William Spernore, reverted to Walter Holt, a minor, under the guardianship of his father John Holt. A year later (probably on the death of John Holt) a certain William Philips was given the custody of the manor, then worth 10 marks yearly. Dugdale says that Walter Holt came of age in 1402\endash 3 and had livery of the manor, that he shortly afterwards enfeoffed John Reve, vicar of Coughton, on whose death it passed to his brother Thomas Reve, who in turn 'quitted all his right therein' to William Wybbe, esq., in 1428\endash 9. John Throckmorton in 1441 acquired half the manor from Henry Beaumont and Joan his wife, and the other half two years later from William Vernon and Margaret his wife. Joan, according to Dugdale, was the granddaughter of William Durvassal, but there seems no foundation for his guess.

From this time Spernall has followed the descent of Coughton (q.v.).

Roger married Eva.¹