William Beaumont (1427-1453)

Arms of Beaumont of Youlston, Shirwell, adopted at the start of the age of heraldry, (c. 1220-1215): Barry of six vair and gules.[1] These arms can be seen on the monument in Gittisham Church, Devon, to Henry (Bodrugan-) Beaumont (d.1590/1), also on the monument in Atherington Church, Devon, of Sir John Bassett (d.1529) of Umberleigh. They are the same arms as quartered for de Coucy 1st & 4th as shown in the Gelre Armorial (c. 1370-1414) by Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy, 1st Earl of Bedford (1340–1397). The only previous holder of that Earldom was Hugh de Beaumont, 3rd son of Robert de Beaumont who held Shirwell, Ashford & Loxhore

William Beaumont (1427-1453), lord of the manor of Shirwell in North Devon was a substantial landholder in Devon.

Origins

William Beaumont was the 2nd son of Sir Thomas Beaumont (1401-1450) of Shirwell by his first wife Philippa Dinham, a daughter of Sir John III Dinham (1359-1428)[2] of Hartland in North Devon, Kingskerswell and Nutwell in South Devon, Buckland Dinham in Somerset and Cardinham in Cornwall.[3]

Sir Thomas Beaumont (1401-1450) married twice and produced seven sons none of whom left legitimate male progeny to inherit the lands, name and armorials of Beaumont, and the eventual splitting up of his estates, many of which had been held by his ancestors since the Norman Conquest of 1066, between his heirs through female lines was a process which was complex and lengthy and of significance to the history of several Devon manors and to the history of two prominent and long-enduring North Devon families, namely Basset and Chichester, and involved a further family, a branch of Bodrugan of Cornwall which later adopted the Beaumont name and arms.

Early ancestry

The Beaumont family of Devon, generally said to have been seated at the estate of Youlston within their manor of Shirwell in North Devon, is supposed by that family's historian Edward Beaumont in his 1929 work The Beaumonts in History. A.D. 850-1850, to have descended from Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford (b.1106),[4] the 3rd son of the Norman magnate Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, Count of Meulan, one of the proven Companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, to whom had been granted by William the Conqueror about 91 English manors in several counties for his service in the Norman Conquest of England.

This was a logical deduction as the descent from Robert's eldest two sons (Waleran IV de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester (b. 1104) and Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester & Earl of Hereford (b. 1104)) is well recorded, both families having died out rapidly in the male line. Surviving records do not however allow a definite familial link to be made between the Norman Beaumonts and the Beaumonts of Shirwell, Ashford and the two Loxhores of North Devon.

Beaumont of Beaumont-le-Roger, Normandy

In the Domesday Book of 1086 Ascerewelle (Shirwell) was one of at least four manors held in Devon, but merely as a mesne lord from Baldwin de Meulles, by the Norman magnate Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, Count of Meulan[5] (c. 1040/50-1118), to whom had been granted by William the Conqueror about 91 English manors in several counties for his service in the Norman Conquest of England. These four manors tenanted by Robert are listed consecutively within the section in Domesday Book listing Baldwin's holdings, as Shirwell, Ashford and two manors called Loxhore, thought to correspond to today's adjacent settlements of Higher Loxhore and Lower Loxhore.

Robert is listed as the tenant of Shirwell simply as "Robert", but his next three holdings are listed in the Exon Domesday with Robert's appellation de Bello Monte added (the Latinised form of de Beaumont), in the form "Robert de Beaumont also holds..." This leaves no doubt that Shirwell too refers to Roger de Beaumont. There exist many other Devon manors held by persons called "Robert" but none can be identified with certainty to Robert de Beaumont. These four manors stayed for many generations within a line of the Beaumont family, seated at Youlston within the parish of Shirwell.

Marriage

According to Sir William Pole (d.1635)[6] he married Joan Courtenay, said to have been a daughter of his contemporary "Sir William Courtenay" (1428-1485) of Powderham, more probably of the latter's father Sir Philip II Courtenay (1404–1463).[7] Joan had borne him no progeny and William separated from his 1st wife two years before his death and went to live in London, leaving his wife in Devon. It is thought the split was due to Joan having had an affair with the Cornish gentleman Henry Bodrugan.[8] Certainly during this period of separation from her husband she gave birth to a son John "Bodrugan alias Beaumont"(d.1486)[9] who was later declared by royal letters patent a bastard. This was against the usual principle of English common law that a child born in wedlock was deemed to be of the husband's blood. After William's death Joan remarried to Henry Bodrugan. This so-called "Beaumont Bastard" was later to make persistent, and ultimately partly successful, efforts to claim the Beaumont inheritance. The right heir to William, namely his younger brother Philip Beaumont (1432-1473), in order to counter his persistence obtained royal letters patent dated 1467 proclaiming the bastardy. John was not put off and ultimately gained the Beaumont manors of Gittesham and Lampford, changed his name and armorials to Beaumont and established a family of that name which survived at Gittesham for three generations.[10] The text of the Proclamation of Bastardy is as follows:[11]

Be it known on behalf of Philip Beaumont: The King to all and singular justices, sheriffs, escheators, mayors, bailiffs and other officers and ministers as well as our faithful lieges and subjects whomsoever, as well within the liberties as out, to whom these present letters may come, greetings. Know that as it was lately given to us to understand that one Joan, wife of Henry Bodrugan esquire, and formerly wife of William Beaumont esquire, deceased, had issue of the same William one John, being lawfully born and son of the said William, although he was not. Which said John in truth was born a bastard and not lawfully as it hath fully appeared according as well by divers records in our courts among our records remaining and shown, demonstrated and sufficiently declared before divers of our justices and others of our council learned in the law, by us assigned and limited upon the truth of the premises as by divers other authentic and notable proofs in the same place made and had, it was fully apparent that the same John was declared and proved a bastard and not lawfully born. And in like manner it was found through divers inquisitions by virtue of divers writs of Henry VI formerly king in fact, but not in law, of England, and through a writ diem clausit extremum by and after the death of the same William taken and returned into the chancery of the same aforementioned late king and now remaining in our chancery, that Philip Beaumont, esquire, is brother and next heir of the aforesaid William whereby the same Philip, to avoid that which by the premises could by anyone be said or done as occasion for declaring things contrary to the truth, has most humbly made supplication to us that so that such ambiguities and doubts in this affair might be deleted and removed, we should deign graciously to grant him our letters patent thereof. We being favourably inclined towards his petition, of our especial grace, wish it brought to the notice of you all through these presents that the aforementioned John is a bastard and not lawfully born. And this we make known to all concerned by these presents. And therefore to you and anyone of you we command and straitly enjoin that you repute the same John a bastard and not lawfully born and that you cause it to be proclaimed from time to time that he be thus a bastard and not lawfully born as aforesaid. In witness whereof, etc. Witnessed by the King at Westminster the xvii day of February 6 Edward IV"

Death

William Beaumont died in 1453.

Succession

His heir was his younger brother Philip Beaumont (1432-1473), a Member of Parliament for a constituency in Devon and Sheriff of Devon in 1469.[12]

Sources

References

  1. ↑ Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.65, in which given erroneously as Vairé azure and argent, over all two bars gules
  2. ↑ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.46, pedigree of Basset, p.65, pedigree of Beaumont of Gittisham
  3. ↑ GEC Complete Peerage, Vol.IV, p.377
  4. ↑ Beaumont, Edward T., The Beaumonts in History. A.D. 850-1850. Oxford, c. 1929, p.58
  5. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, Domesday Book, Vol. 9, Devon, Morris, John, (general editor), Chichester, 1985, Part 2, (notes) 16,65
  6. ↑ Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.408, Shirwell; also p.167, Gittesham, with omission of "of Powderham"
  7. ↑ "Sir William Courtenay", per Vivian, Beaumont pedigree p. 66, but Joan not mentioned in the pedigree of Courtenay of Powderham, p.246. Any daughter of Sir William Courtenay (1428-1485) would surely have been too young to marry William Beaumont (1427-1453), who died aged 26
  8. ↑ Byrne, vol.4, p.4
  9. ↑ Appelation per Vivian, p.66
  10. ↑ Byrne, vol.4, pp.4-5, 6
  11. ↑ Quoted in Byrne, vol.4, pp.4-5 "
  12. ↑ Beaumont, T, p.64, exact constituency not stated. No entry as yet for him in History of Parliament on-line. Quoting: "Transactions of the Devonshire Society, Vol.50, p.445"
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