John Mordaunt 1st Baron Mordaunt of Turvey ^{2 3 4 5 6}

  General Notes:

Mordaunt, John, first Baron Mordaunt (c.1480-85\endash 1562), landowner and administrator, was the eldest son of Sir John Mordaunt (d. 1504) and his wife, Edith Latymer. He was born in Bedfordshire, probably at the family seat of Turvey. His father's service to Henry VII gave him the entrée to court, and to the household of Prince Arthur, whose approximate contemporary he must have been. Between March and September 1499 he married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Vere of Great Addington, Northamptonshire, and his wife, Isabella (née Tresham). Mordaunt was made knight of the Bath when the future Henry VIII was created prince of Wales on 18 February 1503. On 3 July that year he was admitted to the Middle Temple, his father's inn, of which he was subsequently elected bencher.

Mordaunt succeeded to his father's estates in September 1504. On 1 November 1509 he was pricked sheriff for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and on 28 February 1513 he was granted arms. From the latter year he was increasingly employed in local government; he was also, in 1514, licensed to remain covered in the king's presence (probably because of some ailment). He attended many of the great public occasions of Henry VIII's reign, though never as more than one of the supporting cast. He was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, and was with the king at his meetings with Charles V later that year at Gravelines and in 1522 at Canterbury. By February 1526 he was of the king's council. In the same year he was appointed joint surveyor of woods in all crown lands. Following Wolsey's fall in 1529 he was among those who investigated the cardinal's possessions. In 1532 he was created (it is assumed by writ of summons) Baron Mordaunt of Turvey, taking his seat in the House of Lords on 4 May.

Mordaunt was one of two peers resident in Bedfordshire, where his chief interests lay. For a while he continued to travel further afield. In October 1532 he went with the king to France. He attended Queen Anne at her coronation in May 1533; he would have done likewise for Queen Jane, but instead bore a banner at her funeral. At the treason trial of Lord Dacre of Gilsland in 1534 Mordaunt, as junior peer, was the first to pronounce his (not guilty) verdict. He participated in several other state trials. When the north rose in 1536 he was seemingly too old for personal service, and was merely ordered to provide troops. In 1538 he came under suspicion after making his Lent confession to John Forest, a London Observant Franciscan soon afterwards executed. Mordaunt explained that the contact involved no discussion of public controversy. From 1538 he was regularly a commissioner of oyer and terminer on the East Anglian circuit. In 1539, following a fall, he was licensed to be absent from parliament; he was present there during 1540, but never again. Also in 1540 he attended in Star Chamber, though he was not a member of the newly defined privy council. In May 1546 he was a tax assessor for his county.

Mordaunt continued active as JP and on other commissions in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I. At the start of Edward's reign he was again excused parliamentary attendance; the one record of his presence is probably a clerical error. In 1551 he was named to a commission inquiring into grain prices. His first duty on Mary's accession was to give a Bedford woman a ducking for speaking ill of the queen. In 1557 he was a commissioner for assessing the forced loan. Lord Mordaunt and his eldest son, Sir John Mordaunt, had co-operated in building up the family estates, but relations between them soured when Sir John attempted to compel his own son, Lewis, to marry his stepsister (whom he had, it seems, compromised). Lord Mordaunt took his grandson's side and sought to make him his direct heir. This feud was more or less composed by the time Mordaunt made his will on 1 August 1560. He died at Turvey on 18 August 1562 and was buried in the church there on 16 September following. He provided £60 for the erection of an alabaster monument to himself and his wife, who had predeceased him. Mordaunt's eldest son succeeded as second baron. His second son Edmund was MP for Bedford in three Marian parliaments. His other children were William, George, Edith, Margaret, Etheldreda (a nun of Barking, perhaps later married to John Broun), and Winifred.

Mordaunt has been instanced as typical of the backwoods peer who 'retained the mentality of a country gentleman' but on whom the crown could rely for performance of all manner of public duties (Graves, 38\endash 9). Mordaunt himself had entertained larger aspirations. In 1528 he offered the king £100 and Wolsey 500 marks (towards the building of Cardinal College, Oxford) to secure the under-treasurership of England. In this and all other suits for office he was unsuccessful. In April 1539 he told Cromwell the king 'never gave me nothyng' (TNA: PRO, SP 1/150, fol. 191; new fol. 171). This was not quite true, since Mordaunt had acquired much property by crown grant; he had also been a keen collector of monastic land, and in late 1535 he and his eldest son allegedly browbeat the nuns of Harrold, Bedfordshire, in attempting to annex property of the house. But the Mordaunts were unsympathetic to further religious reform, which may have contributed to the first baron's failure to achieve the place he coveted in central government.

C. S. Knighton

Sources: F. A. Blaydes, ed., The visitations of Bedfordshire, annis Domini 1566, 1582, and 1634, Harleian Society, 19 (1884), 40\endash 2 · R. Halstead [H. Mordaunt, second earl of Peterborough], Succinct genealogies of the noble and ancient houses (1685), 525\endash 603 · BL, Harley MS 6767, fols. 18v\endash 21 (pp. 30\endash 33); Cotton MS Cleopatra E.iv, fols. 161\endash 161v; MS Titus B.i, fols. 326\endash 326v · GEC, Peerage, 9.193\endash 5, appx B, p. 18 [see also pp. 195\endash 6, 2nd baron] · LP Henry VIII, 4/2.4452; 4/3, appx 67\endash 8; 9.1005; 11.844; 13/1.880; 14/1.845 · State papers general series, Henry VIII, TNA: PRO, SP 1/150, fol. 191 · CPR, 1547\endash 8, 75, 76, 80, 85, 87; 1549\endash 51, 51; 1550\endash 53, 140\endash 41, 311; 1553, 351, 356; 1553\endash 4, 17 (bis), 20, 22, 29, 343; 1554\endash 5, 107; 1555\endash 7, 375; 1557\endash 8, 401, 428 · APC, 1552\endash 4, 332; 1554\endash 6, 66, 144; 1556\endash 8, 320 · CSP dom., 1547\endash 1580, 81, 85, 295 · M. A. R. Graves, The House of Lords in the parliaments of Edward VI and Mary I (1981), 38\endash 9, 68, 84, 243 n.69 · H. Miller, Henry VIII and the English nobility (1986), 24\endash 5, 45, 54\endash 5, 66, 96\endash 8, 125, 151, 157, 179, 203, 244 · J. A. Guy, 'Privy council: revolution or evolution?', Revolution reassessed, ed. C. Coleman and D. Starkey (1986), 81 · Y. Nicholls, ed., Court of augmentations accounts for Bedfordshire, 1, Bedfordshire Historical RS, 63 (1984), 70, 97, 107, 203, 209; 2, Bedfordshire Historical RS, 64 (1985), 94 · W. Jerdan, ed., Rutland papers: original documents illustrative of the courts and times of Henry VII and Henry VIII, CS, 21 (1842), 33, n. b · The diary of Henry Machyn, citizen and merchant-taylor of London, from AD 1550 to AD 1563, ed. J. G. Nichols, CS, 42 (1848), 292 · H. A. C. Sturgess, ed., Register of admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, from the fifteenth century to the year 1944, 1 (1949), 5, n.1 · N. M. Fuidge, 'Mordaunt, Edmund', 'John Mordaunt', HoP, Commons, 1509\endash 58, 2.614; 614\endash 16 [Edmund, 2nd son, and John, 1st son; 2nd Baron Mordaunt] · will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/45, sig. 22 · S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII (1972), 150, n. 3

Likenesses: T. Kirby, alabaster effigy, c.1560, All Saints' Church, Turvey, Bedfordshire

Wealth at death: land in Bedfordshire: will, TNA: PRO, PROB 11/45, fols. 151\endash 153v; Nicholls, ed., Court of augmentations

------------------------------------

JOHN the Eldest Son of Sir John Mordaunt, that from his good Qualities was the joy of his Father's Heart, as well as the hopes of his House, was not like to want good Education under the Conduct of so knowing a Parent; he was bred to every thing of which an ingenious Nature could be capable; to Learning, to Arms, to Courtship, attending much upon Prince Arthur, till he died. The first fruit of his Father's great Care towards him, was, the procuring of his Establish|ment in Marriage with Elizabeth, the Eldest of the Coheirs of Sir Henry Vere, that was Lord of Addington; which were the noblest and most considerable Inheri|trixes of that Age; (the Wardship of which, Sir John Mordaunt, his Father, had ob|tain'd of the King) and from which Elizabeth descended to the Mordaunts, the Noble Lordships of Drayton, Thrapston, Addington, Sudburgh, Islip, Luffwick, Slipton, and many other great Possessions: Many disputes, notwithstanding, arose about the pretences of these Heirs, even with the greatest Lords in England; as the Duke of Buckingham, and the Earl of Shrewsbury; but the Credit of Sir John Mordaunt, and his interest with the King, joyn'd to his Wisdom, and great Knowledge in the Laws, had ever influence upon them: But after his decease, they set up great pretences to Drayton, and the Green's Lands; and the Young Mordaunt soon found how much his Fathers Life had conduc'd to the settlement of that Estate. In the Agitations of the Establishment whereof, and the Agree|ments made with those great Lords, he spent the remainder of King Henry the Seventh's Reign, and was by that time become a person greatly accomplish'd.

After this King's Death, he apply'd himself wholly to the farther designs of the Honor and Advantage of his House; and made his Court to the Young Successor, follow'd him in his First Wars, and got so successfully into his Favour and Opi|nion, as upon his return he received the gratification of a Patent, containing the grant of several Noble Privileges, and Immunities. Among the rest, to be Pilo Co|pertus in the presence of the King, or of any of his Judges, Ministers, or Magistrates. The Consideration he was at this time in, appears by several Letters directed to him, when he was yet but a private Gentleman: He was Knighted by him after this, and made a Privy Councellor, wherein his Wisdom, Fidelity, and Zeal to his Majesty's Service were very Exemplary: He was, at one time, Surveyor General of the King's Woods, and Wood-sails, and the Chief in another Commission, for providing Necessaries for the Fortifications of Calice, and the other Ports and Ca|stles within the English Pale in the Country of Picardy; and in many other mat|ters he was Employ'd of great Importance, wherein he so behaved and discharg'd himself, as his generous Master thought fit, for a reward of his many Services, to take him into the Illustrious Dignity of the Peerage; calling him, by Writ, a Ba|ron into the Parliament, in the Twenty fourth Year of his Reign. After this up|on the Revolutions which happned by the change of the Church Government, whereunto he was not able to shew that compliance which others of more supple tempers did condescend to do; his Favour did decline, and his Master's Kindness to him: So as being retired to his own House and Country, he did not remain without several mortifications, which his Enemies of the prevailing Faction, that Govern'd in the Court, did endeavour to put upon him; several hard Letters he received from the King, about matters which they imputed to him, concerning his back|wardness in suppressing the Interest of the Old Religion; and as the last endea|vor of their Revenge, they strove to make the King oblige him to an Exchange of the Noble Lordship of Drayton, and the other Towns lying about it, of his Wives Antient Inheritance, and that he had in his Old Age, settled against all Competi|tors, at great Labour and Charges, with certain of the Abby Lands, newly acquired unto the Crown, with which his Conscience, as well as his Interest, were altoge|ther incompatible. From this oppression he had not been able to have defended himself, notwithstanding all his great Friends, and Antient Services, if the King's Death had not succeeded, which in this point set him at liberty. The Reign of King Edward he spent in peace; But at the beginning of Queen Mary, he labor'd a little under an imputation of his Enemies, who would alledge, he favoured the Dudleys, and the claim of the Lady Jane; but it was blown off, with the impro|bability of an Inclination so contrary to his Principles and Profession; and he lived out her time too, and to the Second Year of her Successor, Queen Eliza|beth; when he, being very Old, departed this Life, in great Honor and Happiness. Leaving Issue by his Wife, the Lady Elizabeth Vere,

Sir John Mordaunt, his Son and Heir.
Edmund Mordaunt.
William Mordaunt, from whom are the Mordaunts of Oakely, and that Mar|ried Agnes Booth.
George Mordaunt, from whom are the Mordaunts of the Hill, Married to Cecilia Harding.
Edith Mordaunt, Married to John Elms.
Anne Mordaunt, Married to John Fisher.
Margaret Mordaunt, Married to Edmond Fettyplace.
Dorothy Mordaunt, Married to Thomas Moore.
Elizabeth Mordaunt, Married to Silvester Danvers.
Winifreid Mordaunt, Married to John Cheyney of Chesham Boys. ^{1 2}

  Events

• Manorial Estate, 1502, Warminster Manor, Warminster, Wiltshire, GB. ⁷ WARMINSTER belonged to the kings of England before the Conquest, and was still in the hands of William I in 1086. (fn. 1) By 1156 it had been granted to William FitzHamon, (fn. 2) a tenant in several counties and constable of Salisbury Castle in the earlier part of the reign of Henry II. (fn. 3) William held it until 1175, (fn. 4) when it reverted to the Crown, probably by his death. It was immediately regranted in fee to Robert Mauduit, (fn. 5) a royal chamberlain and younger son of a family whose chief estates were in Buckinghamshire. (fn. 6) He had succeeded FitzHamon in his constableship of Salisbury, and it is possible that the estate was regarded as appurtenant to that office. (fn. 7) Robert obtained a renewal of the grant when Richard I succeeded to the throne, (fn. 8) but was dead by 1191. (fn. 9) His son and heir Thomas was a minor, and was in the successive wardships of Robert de Tregoze (fn. 10) and Hugh de Bosco (fn. 11) until he came of age by Michaelmas 1204. (fn. 12) Thomas held Warminster, except for a forfeiture when he joined John's enemies, (fn. 13) until his death c. 1244, when he was succeeded by his son William. (fn. 14) William was dead by 1264, leaving a son Thomas, a minor, whose wardship was granted to Warin de Bassingburn, his uncle. (fn. 15) In 1270 Thomas was given licence to let the manor of Warminster while he went to the Holy Land with Prince Edward. (fn. 16) He probably died abroad, for in 1271 the wardship of his heir Warin was granted to Richard, King of the Romans. (fn. 17) In 1275 Thomas's widow Joan held Warminster in dower. (fn. 18) Warin came of age c. 1290 and in 1294 was licensed to let Warminster to Bogo de Knoville, the last holder of his wardship, for six years. (fn. 19) At Warin's death in 1300 he was succeeded by his son Thomas, (fn. 20) who came of age in 1308 (fn. 21) and was executed after the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. (fn. 22) Warminster was immediately granted to Hugh le Despenser the elder, (fn. 23) but on the accession of Edward III Thomas's widow Eleanor was assigned her dower in it, (fn. 24) and the custody of the remainder granted to John de Kingston during the minority of John, the heir. (fn. 25) John came of age in 1332, and settled Warminster on himself and Juliane his wife in the same year. (fn. 26) He died in 1364 leaving as heir, after the termination of his widow's estate, his granddaughter Maud, daughter of his son Thomas who was already dead. (fn. 27)

Maud took the Mauduit inheritance to a Northhamptonshire family, for she married Sir Henry Greene of Drayton near Kettering. (fn. 28) He was executed in 1399 and succeeded in turn by his sons Ralph, who died without issue in 1417, (fn. 29) and John, who died in 1433. (fn. 30) John's son Henry died in 1467 leaving an only daughter and heir Constance, who married John Stafford, third son of Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham. (fn. 31) Stafford was created Earl of Wiltshire in 1470 and died three years later. His only son Edward died without issue in 1499, and after a long dispute his property passed to the heirs of his maternal grandfather Henry Greene, who were the descendants of Greene's sisters Isabel and Margaret. (fn. 32) Of these, Margaret left by her husband Sir William Huddleston a daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Cheney and died without issue in 1502. (fn. 33) The whole inheritance thus passed to the issue of Isabel Greene, who had married Sir Richard Vere. Their son Sir Henry Vere left four daughters; of these one died without issue, so that Warminster was divided into thirds amongst the others. (fn. 34)

Of these three coheirs, Anne married Sir Humphrey Brown of Abbess Roding (Essex), a Justice of the Common Pleas who died in 1562. Their only son George died without surviving issue soon after his father, and this share of Warminster descended to his three half-sisters by his father's second marriage. (fn. 35) The second coheir Audrey married into the same family of Browns, and by her husband John left a son George and a grandson Wistan. (fn. 36) The third coheir Elizabeth married John Mordaunt created Baron Mordaunt in 1532, and her share of Warminster descended to her grandson Lewis, the 3rd baron. (fn. 37)

Footnotes:
1. V.C.H. Wilts. ii, p. 116.
2. Pipe R. 1156\endash 8 (Rec. Com.), 57.
3. Red Bk. Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 664 and passim; V.C.H. Wilts. vi. 54\endash 5.
4. Pipe R. 1175 (P.R.S. xxii), 99, and preceeding volumes in the same series.
5. Ibid. 1176 (P.R.S. xxv), 171; Cartae Antiquae Rolls (P.R.S. n.s. xxxiii), 184.
6. The elaborate account of this family in Robert Halstead (pseud.), Succint Genealogies of the ... Houses of ... Mauduit of Warminster ... (1685), was followed by Hoare, Mod. Wilts, Warminster, 2\endash 8, but its earlier part is corrected in R. W. Eyton, 'Pedigree of the Baronial Houses of Mauduit', Herald and Genealogist, vii. 385\endash 94. For a criticism of Halstead's work see Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc. xi. 84\endash 87.
7. V.C.H. Wilts. v. 8.
8. Halstead, Succint Genealogies, 128; Pipe R. 1190 (P.R.S. n.s. i), 121.
9. Pipe R. 1191 & 1192 (P.R.S. n.s. ii), 121.
10. Ibid. 281.
11. Ibid. 1195 (P.R.S. n.s. vi), 136.
12. Ibid. 1204 (P.R.S. n.s. xviii), 247. Halstead printed a deed settling Warminster on Robert's younger son Robert; if genuine it cannot have taken effect, but deeds settling a smaller estate on him are in W.R.O. 490 Hungerford Cart. ff. 112v.\endash 113.
13. Rot. Litt. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i. 285, 315.
14. Ex. e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 418; Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire, iv. 65.
15. Close R. 1261\endash 4, 339\endash 40; Cal. Pat. 1258\endash 66, 532; Longleat MS. 8971.
16. Cal. Pat. 1266\endash 72, 440.
17. Ibid. 533.
18. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii. 276.
19. Cal. Pat. 1292\endash 1301, 177; Longleat MS. 8978. For previous holders of the wardship see Cal. Pat. 1272\endash 81, 253 and J.I. 1/1006 m. 55d.
20. Wilts. Inq. p.m. 1242\endash 1326 (Index Libr.), 249\endash 53.
21. Ibid. 372.
22. T. Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana (Rolls Ser.), i. 165.
23. Cal. Chart. R. 1300\endash 26, 444.
24. Cal. Close, 1327\endash 30, 16.
25. Cal. Fine R. 1327\endash 37, 28.
26. Wilts. Inq. p.m. 1327\endash 77 (Index Libr.), 85\endash 87; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii. 74.
27. Wilts. Inq. p.m. 1327\endash 77 (Index Libr.), 371.
28. Cal. Fine R. 1377\endash 83, 136. The pedigree of the Greene family is in Halstead, Succint Genealogies, 153 f., and Bridges, Hist. Northants. ii. 251\endash 2.
29. C 137/20/1; C 138/27/41.
30. C 139/58/32.
31. C 140/23/1; Longleat MS. 9039.
32. Complete Peerage, s.v. Wiltshire.
33. Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, iii. pp. 408\endash 9.
34. Ibid.; Halstead, Succint Genealogies, 223\endash 4.
35. C 142/135/4; Visitations of Essex, pt. i (Harl. Soc. xiii), 166; George had a son Thomas living in 1557: C 54/528 m. 23d.
36. Visitations of Essex, i. 166\endash 7; Audrey's husband was the nephew of her sister Anne's husband.
37. Complete Peerage.

• Title: Knight of the Bath, 18 Feb 1503.

• Will, 5 Sep 1504. ⁴ John Mordaunt, Knight, 5th September 1504. My body to be buried in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the parish Church of Turvey...

• Manorial Estate, 1504-1562, Turvey Manor, Turvey, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK43 7, GB. ⁶ At the Survey of 1086 eight entries occur with regard to land in Turvey, of which one only describes the property referred to as a manor. This estate of TURVEY MANOR, sometimes called MORDAUNTS MANOR, was held by the Bishop of Coutances. Three sokemen had owned it in the preceding reign, and it consisted of 4 hides worth £6. (fn. 6) The overlordship is subsequently found attached to the barony of Trailly (q.v.) and was attached to the honour of Gloucester, the descent being the same as that of Biddenham (q.v.). (fn. 7) The last reference to the overlordship is in 1612, when James I granted to John Eldred and others the rents of assize belonging to the honour of Gloucester, lately held by the Duke of Buckingham in Turvey. (fn. 8)

There is no mention of a tenant holding in Turvey in 1086, but the family of Mordaunt is found holding this manor from the early 13th century. Halstead, the authenticity of whose early charters is doubtful, claims in his Succinct Genealogies that Eustace Mordaunt acquired this manor by marriage with Alice sister and co-heir of Hugh de Alneto, and that Sarah, another sister and co-heir, married Robert de Ardres, thus leading to the formation of the two manors of Mordaunts and Ardres held conjointly for some time. (fn. 9)

¶The cartulary of St. Neots certainly furnishes evidence that the de Alnetos preceded the Mordaunts in Turvey, for their name constantly recurs as benefactors to the priory. On one occasion there is mention of three generations when Hugh de Alneto (brother of Alice) confirmed the grants of Hugh his grandfather and William his father of land in Turvey. (fn. 10) Therefore it seems likely that an intermarriage did take place, especially as in 1225 an assize of mort d'ancestor was summoned between Eustace Mordaunt and Robert de Ardres and John Trailly their overlord concerning 3 carucates of land, of which each was awarded 1½ carucates. (fn. 11) The heir of William Mordaunt, son of Eustace, held this property in 1278\endash 9. (fn. 12) William Mordaunt, probably the heir referred to above, received recognition of his right to land in Turvey from Thomas Wood in 1313\endash 14. (fn. 13) He was living two years later, but by 1346 had been succeeded by his son Robert Mordaunt. (fn. 14) The next lord of this manor of whom mention has been found is Edmund Mordaunt, probably a son of Robert, of whom it is stated in an inquisition taken in 1372 that on the Sunday before the Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude in that year, being seized with homicidal mania, he killed his wife Ellen and drowned himself on the same day in a pool in Turvey. (fn. 15) Robert, his son, who according to Halstead united in one the hitherto separate manors of Mordaunts and Ardres, died some time before 1397, (fn. 16) and was followed by his son Robert Mordaunt, who was 'during the Civil Broils of his own Country, an assertor of the Claim and Interest of the House of York.' He died in 1448 after having considerably impoverished the family estates, (fn. 17) and his son William Mordaunt together with his wife strove 'by a provident and frugal proceeding to repair those breaches the over-liberal ways of his Father had made in the Fortunes of his Family. Their endeavours did succeed, and as an approbation thereof, and a blessing thereupon, Providence sent them to enjoy the Fruits of their worthy Cares, Three Children, whose merits from their Natures and Good Education, made them all have (as well as deserve) excellent Fortunes.' (fn. 18) Of these Sir John Mordaunt the eldest succeeded to Turvey Manor about 1475. He was wounded on the Lancastrian side at the battle of Barnet, and was one of the commanders at Stoke in 1487. He was made king's sergeant in 1495, and is said to have been instrumental in arranging a marriage between Margaret daughter of Henry VII and the King of Scotland. (fn. 19) He died in 1504, and his son John Mordaunt rose high in favour at the court of Henry VIII. He was knighted in 1520, and the same year accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1533 he was created Baron Mordaunt of Turvey. (fn. 20) He received Anne Boleyn at the Tower when she came to be crowned, and took part in her trial three years later, and in 1537 carried the banner at Jane Seymour's funeral. He died in 1562, when his son Sir John Mordaunt succeeded to Turvey Manor. (fn. 21)

Footnotes:
6. V.C.H. Beds. i, 225b.
7. Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 248b; Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 332; Chan. Inq. p.m. 46 Edw. III (2nd nos.), no. 6; 38 & 39 Hen. VI, no. 59; Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 79.
8. Pat. 9 Jas. I, pt. viii, m. 1.
9. It must be remembered, however, that the connexion of the de Ardres with Turvey dates from Domesday (cf. History of Ardres Manor).
10. Cott. MS. Faust. A iv.
11. Cal. Pat. 1225\endash 32, p. 449; Feet of F. Beds. 16 Hen. III, no. 21.
12. Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 332.
13. Feet of F. Beds. 7 Edw. II, no. 7.
14. Feud. Aids, i, 17, 30.
15. Chan. Inq. p.m. 46 Edw. III (2nd nos.), no. 6.
16. In which year his widow Agnes married Thomas de Fotheringay (Halstead, op. cit. 397).
17. Ibid.; Feud. Aids, i, 40; Beds. N. and Q. iii, 246.
18. Halstead, op. cit. 397.
19. Feet of F. Div. Co. 12 Hen. VII; Dict. Nat. Biog.; Halstead, op. cit. Halstead gives transcripts of letters from Richard III and Henry VII to John Mordaunt.
20. a J. H. Round, Peerage Studies, 337, 349.
21. Dict. Nat. Biog.; Halstead, op. cit.; Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), file 54, no. 6.

• Occupation: Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, 1 Nov 1509.

• Inquisition: Post mortem, 4 Feb 1505. ⁸ 875. JOHN MORDAUNT, knight.

Inquisition, virtute officii, 4 February, 20 Henry VII.

He died 11 September last, seised in fee of the under-mentioned messuage &c. John Mordaunt, aged 21 years and more, is his son and heir.

BUCKINGHAM. A messuage, 60a. arable, 6a. wood and 24s. rent in Ellesburgh, worth 60s., held of the heirs of Richard Pole, knight, by fealty and a rent of 6d. yearly.

Note in margin:- Pro rege, ut patet in proximo, inquisicione annexa tangente Ricardum Pole.

E. Series II. File 5. (2.)

• Title: Baron Mordaunt of Turvey, 1532.

• Manorial Estate, 1560, East Stoke (or Stokett) Manor, Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, TA14, GB. ⁹ The manor of EAST STOKE or STOKETT was held by Alwin T.R.E. In 1086 Mauger de Cartrai held it of the count of Mortain. By c. 1284 Ralph de Huppehull or Opehulle held it of Maud de Multon, lady of Ashill, and she of the countess of Aumale. Mauger was also Domesday tenant of Ashill, and it is therefore probable that his holding at East Stoke may have descended like Ashill.
[...]

Ralph de Huppedhull's estate at Stokett c. 1284 was ¼ fee. By 1297 Ralph de Hull, possibly the same man, had apparently leased his lands there which became the subject of a legal dispute. The property seems to have descended like the manor of Child Okeford (Dors.), to the Latimer family. Robert de Hull held that manor in 1317. His daughter and heir Catherine married as her first husband Sir Andrew Turberville, who was in possession of Stokett by 1350. As her second husband Catherine married Sir Robert Latimer of Duntish (Dors.). When she died in 1361, shortly after her second husband, she was succeeded by her son William Turberville. By 1381, however, William had died without male issue, and Robert Latimer, his halfbrother, succeeding John Rocheford, had taken possession of the property.

The estate then descended through the Latimer family. Sir John, son of Catherine's son Robert, died in 1460, and was succeeded by his son Sir Nicholas (d. 1505). Nicholas's daughter and heir Edith married Sir John Mordaunt (d. 1504), of Turvey (Beds.), speaker of the House of Commons, and Stokett and other lands were settled on them. By 1560 it was held by John, eldest son of John, Lord Mordaunt (d. 1562), though the capital messuage was in the hands of John Buckland of West Harptree. John's heir Lewis, Lord Mordaunt (1538-1601), sold the property to Thomas Freke in 1597. In 1627 John Seward died holding the manor, described as a capital messuage, a farm called the farm of East Stokett, and named lands. He was succeeded by his infant son, also John. John Seward and Elizabeth his wife made over the manor in 1649 to two feoffees. From that time no trace has been found of the manor; the estate centred upon East Stoke House, created in the late 18th century by the Chaffey family, never claimed manorial status, but was built up piecemeal from scattered holdings in the area of the original manor.

• Manorial Estate, 1560, Mordaunts Manor, Ellesborough, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP17, GB. ¹⁰ The reputed manor of MORDAUNTS in the parish of Ellesborough was held as a sub-manor under the Cauntlows, and so belonged to the honour of Dudley. In 1274\endash 5 Lawrence de Brok died seised of 6 marks rent, which he held of Nicholas Cauntlow. (fn. 107) His son and heir was Hugh de Brok, (fn. 108) who held the same rent in 1284\endash 6. (fn. 109) Hugh died before 1300, when his widow Isabel granted away certain lands and rents in Ellesborough for the term of her life. (fn. 110) Another Lawrence de Brok, her son, held tenements in Ellesborough, (fn. 111) the rents and services from which he granted to John de Bykton for fourteen years, and in 1309 made a settlement of 100s. rent in Ellesborough on himself and his wife Ellen. (fn. 112) His lands descended to his granddaughter Helen, (fn. 113) who married Edmund Mordaunt. (fn. 114) The latter died seised of rents in Ellesborough in 1374, (fn. 115) which were held of William Cauntlow; he was succeeded by his heir Robert, then a minor. The Mordaunts presumably held this rent in Ellesborough uninterruptedly during the 15th century, and in 1504 or 1505 Sir John Mordaunt held land in Ellesborough. (fn. 116) He was raised to the peerage as Baron Mordaunt of Turvey, and was succeeded by his son and grandson in turn. (fn. 117) In 1560 (fn. 118) their possessions in Ellesborough were described as the manor of Ellesborough, and this name was again used when Lewis the third Lord Mordaunt sold it to William Hawtrey in 1571. (fn. 119) It afterwards became known as the manor of Mordaunts, and from the time that it passed to the Hawtreys was held with the manor of Chequers (q.v.). (fn. 120)

Footnotes:
107. Cal. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, no. 110.
108. Ibid.
109. Feud. Aids, i, 86.
110. Harl. Chart. 46, F. 51.
111. Ibid. 46, G. 5.
112. Feet of F. Bucks. Trin. 3 Edw. II.
113. Harl. Publ. Soc. xix, 41; Visit. of Bucks. 1566 (ed. Metcalfe).
114. Ibid.
115. Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Edw. III (1st nos.), no. 27.
116. Exch. Inq. p.m. v, no. 2.
117. G.E.C. Complete Peerage.
118. Recov. R. Mich. 2 & 3 Eliz.
119. Com. Pleas D. Enr. Bucks. Trin. 13 Eliz.; Feet of F. Bucks. Trin. 13 Eliz.
120. Ibid. East. 16 Chas. I.

• Will, 1 Aug 1560. ¹

John married Elizabeth Vere, daughter of Henry Vere of Great Addington and Drayton and Isabella Tresham, Between Mar and Sep1499.^{1 2} (Elizabeth Vere was born before 7 Feb 1485,¹¹ died before 18 Aug 1562 ¹ and was buried in All Saints' Church, Turvey, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK43 7, GB ¹.)