William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin

Canting arms of Bourchier: Argent, a cross engrailed gules between four water bougets sable

William Bourchier (1407-1470) jure uxoris 9th Baron FitzWarin, was an English nobleman. He was summoned to Parliament in 1448^[1] as Baron FitzWarin in right of his wife Thomasine Hankford.

Origins

He was the 2nd son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (c.1374-1420) by his wife Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford,^[2] the daughter of the Plantagenet prince, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (13th and youngest child of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault) by his wife Eleanor de Bohun elder daughter and coheiress of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341-1373), Earl of Essex and Northampton. He had the following siblings:^[3]

• Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex (1404 – 4 April 1483), eldest brother
• John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners (1415 – 16 May 1474), younger brother
• Thomas Bourchier, (ca. 1404 – 30 March 1486), Archbishop of Canterbury and a cardinal, youngest brother
• Eleanor Bourchier, (ca. 1417 – November, 1474), wife of John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, sister.

Marriages & progeny

Arms of Hankford of Annery: Sable, a chevron barry nebuly argent and gules ^[4]

William Bourchier married twice:

• Firstly to Thomasine Hankford, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses, by his 1st marriage, of Sir Richard II Hankford (c.1397-1431) of Annery in Devon, grandson of Sir William Hankford (died 1422), KB, Lord Chief Justice of England. Thomasine's mother (Sir Richard's 1st wife) was Elizabeth FitzWarin, 8th Baroness FitzWarin (c. 1404 – c. 1427), sister and heiress of Fulk FitzWarin, 7th Baron FitzWarin (1406–1420), feudal baron of Bampton, in Devon. Upon the death of Elizabeth FitzWarin in 1427 the barony of FitzWarin went into abeyance between her daughters Thomasine Hankford and Elizabeth Hankford (died 1433). On the death of Elizabeth Hankford in 1433, the barony of FitzWarin was inherited by her sister Thomasine Hankford, the wife of William Bourchier, who was summoned to Parliament as Lord FitzWarin in her right. Thomasine Hankford's father married secondly to Anne Montacute, daughter of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (1350-1400) (or according to the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640), to Anne Nevill, daughter of Lord Nevill).^[5] By his 2nd wife Sir Richard II Hankford left a daughter Anne Hankford (c. 1431 – 1485), who married Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond (c.1426-1515). Anne Hankford and her husband inherited Annery, whilst Thomasine Hankford and her husband William Bourchier inherited Bampton.^[6] William Bourchier had by Thomasine Hankford progeny including:
  • Fulk Bourchier, 10th Baron FitzWarin (d.1480), son and heir. He requested in his will to be buried at Bampton.^[7] He married Elizabeth Dynham, one of the four sisters and co-heiresses of John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham (1433-1501), KG, of Nutwell, Devon.^[8] Elizabeth remarried to Sir John Sapcotes,^[9] and a stained glass heraldic escutcheon survives in Bampton church showing the arms of Sapcotes impaling Dinham. Fulk's son and heir was John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath and 11th Baron FitzWarin (1470–1539), created in 1536 Earl of Bath. The Bourchiers later moved their seat from Bampton westwards to Tawstock in North Devon.

Effigy of Blanche Bourchier (d.1483), Shirwell Church

• • Blanche Bourchier (d.4 January 1483),^[10] who married firstly Philip Beaumont (1432-1473), of Shirwell, Devon, MP in 1467 and Sheriff of Devon in 1469. The marriage was without progeny. Her stone effigy survives in Shirwell Church.^[11] Blanche survived her first husband and re-married secondly to Bartholomew St Ledger "of Kent",^[12] probably a relative or descendant of Sir John St Ledger (c.1404-1442) of Ulcombe, Kent, Sheriff of Kent in 1430, one of whose sons was Sir James St Ledger (c.1441-post 1509) of Annery in the parish of Monkleigh, North Devon, who married Anne Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, and was therefore an uncle to Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire. Another son was Sir Thomas St Leger (c.1440-1483), the second husband of Anne of York (1439-1476), daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, thus an elder sister of Kings Edward IV (1461-1483) and Richard III (1483-1485). Sir Thomas St Ledger's grand-daughter Eleanor manners was the 2nd wife of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath and 12th Baron FitzWarin (d.1560), of Tawstock.
• Secondly William Bourchier married Catherine de Affeton (d.1467), daughter and heiress of John de Affeton of Affeton, Devon, and widow of Hugh Stucley of Affeton, Sheriff of Devon in 1448.^[13]

Death & burial

Remnants of former tomb chest said by Pevsner to be that of Thomasine Hankford (d.1453), wife of William Bourchier (1407-1470), north wall of chancel, Bampton Church, Devon. Displays in a row within quatrefoils Bourchier Knots alternating with water bougets of the Bourchier arms^[14]

Both William Bourchier and his wife Thomasine Hankford were buried in Bampton Church. Dugdale quoted the will of his son Fulk Bourchier who bequeathed his body to be buried in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin at Bampton, near the grave of his mother, Lady Thomasine, and he willed that marble stones with inscriptions should be placed on his own grave and that of his father, Lord William, and his mother, Lady Thomasine.^{[15] [16]}

Sources

• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.106, pedigree of Bourchier

External links

• Bourchier Family

References

1. Vivian, p.106, regnal year 27 Henry VI
2. Vivian, p.106
3. Order per: Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.106, pedigree of Bourchier
4. Tristram Risdon's Notebook
5. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, P.276
6. Risdon, p.64
7. GEC Peerage, IV, p.381
8. Vivian, p.106
9. Vivian, p.106
10. Blanche Bourchier died 4 January 1483 (Vivian, p.106)
11. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.728 "said to be Blanche St Ledger (d.1483)"
12. Vivian, p.106: Latin: de Com. Cantii ("from the county of Kent")
13. Vivian, p.721, pedigree of Stucley of Affeton
14. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.147
15. Stabb, John, Some Old Devon Churches, pp. 13-24 Retrieved 5 April 2013.
16. Rogers, W.H. Hamilton, The Antient Sepulchral Effigies and Monumental and Memorial Sculpture of Devon, Exeter, 1877, pp.84-6