Richard Fiennes, 7th Baron Dacre
Richard Fiennes, jure uxoris 7th Baron Dacre (1415 - 25 November 1483) 'of the South' in Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex, England, was the son of Sir Roger Fiennes and Elizabeth Holland.[1] His paternal uncle was James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele.
Richard's father, Sir Roger Fiennes, was the Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Sussex.[2] He was invested as a Knight before 8 June 1422.[2] He held the office of Treasurer of the Household between 1439 and 1446,[2] and built Herstmonceux Castle with spoils from the Hundred Years' War. Sir Roger was a brother of James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele. He married Elizabeth Holland and had a son, Sir Richard.
Richard married Joan Dacre, 7th Baroness Dacre in June 1446.
Sir Richard Fiennes was the hereditary keeper of Herstmonceaux Castle, an office which descended in the Fiennes family until the execution of the ninth baron. By patent of 7 November 1458 King Henry VI of England accepted him as Lord Dacre, and by two writs in 1459 and 1482 Fiennes was summoned to Parliament as Baron Dacre. In 1473 the King made the final award of the lands of the sixth Baron Dacre between the heir male, Humphrey Dacre, the younger of Joan’s two surviving uncles; and the heir general, Richard Fiennes, in right of his wife Joan Dacre, who had succeeded to the suo jure title on 5 January 1458.
Most of the estates went to the heir male with remainder to the heir general while the peerage went to Richard Fiennes in right of his wife. Peerage lawyers have claimed that Richard Fiennes’s summons to parliament created a new barony; for, though his wife was a peeress in her own right, his summons was not a courtesy one. J. Horace Round held that the award of 1473 assigning the heir general and her husband precedence of the old barony, over that of the heir male, was a recognition of his wife’s accession to the original barony.
Children of Richard Fiennes and Joan Dacre:
- Sir John Fiennes, born c.1447 in Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex, England; married Alice FitzHugh; father of Thomas Fiennes, 8th Baron Dacre
- Sir Thomas Fiennes
- Elizabeth Fiennes, married John de Clinton, 6th Baron Clinton, great-grandfather of Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln
- Richard Fiennes
- Roger Fiennes
Another unnamed daughter is stated in the 1623 Heralds' Visitation of Gloucestershire to have been the 1st and short-lived wife of Sir Walter Denys(d.1505) of Alveston, Glos., son & heir of Maurice Denys:[3] "...da. to...ffines L. Dacres of the South 1 wiffe"
Sources
- ↑ http://www.thePeerage.com
- 1 2 3 Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 3, page 3532. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
- ↑ Maclean, Sir John (ed.) The Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623 by Henry Chitty & John Phillipot, London, 1885, p.50, Dennis