William de Saint John

- 1202

• Name	William de Saint John
  Birth	of Halnaker, Sussex, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	From 29 Sep 1201 to 29 Sep 1202
  Person ID	I7118	Petersen-de Lanskoy
  Last Modified	21 Jun 2026

  
  

  Family	Olive of Brittany   d. Bef 1187
  Marriage	Bef 1162
  Family ID	F3228	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Jun 2026

  
  

• Notes

  RESEARCH_NOTES: 1. “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013): “HENRI DE FOUGÈRES, seigneur of Fougères (in Brittany), 3rd son. He married OLIVE OF BRITTANY, daughter of Stephen (or Étienne), Count of Brittany, lord of Richmond, by his wife, Hawise [see RICHMOND 4 for her ancestry]. Her maritagium included the manor of Long Bennington, Lincolnshire. They had four sons, Raoul [II], Fransgalon, Guillaume, and Robert, and one daughter, Clemence (wife of Robert de Montfort). By his wife or an unknown mistress, he also had one son, Guillaume l'Angevin. He was heir in 1124 to his older brother, Fransgalon de Fougères, seigneur of Fougères. In the summer of 1150 HENRI DE FOUGÈRES, then a dying man, he became a monk at Savigny Abbey. His widow, Olive, married (2nd) before 1162 WILLIAM DE SAINT JOHN, of Halnaker, Sussex, son and heir of Roger de Saint John, of Halnaker, Sussex, by Cecily, daughter of Robert de la Haie. They had no issue. He farmed the vicomte of Coutances for over 40 years. In 1162 he and his wife, Olive, and his brother, Robert, executed a charter for the abbey of La Luzerne. He was in frequent attendance on the king in Normandy between 1166 and 1172. In 1170 he was one of the tutors for Young King Henry. In 1172 the abbot and convent of Le Mont-Saint-Michel granted him the forestership of Bevais Forest. His wife, Olive, was living in 1174. In 1174-5 he confirmed his father's grant to Lewes Priory. He married (2nd) before 1187 GODEHEUT ___. In 1189 he accompanied King Richard I to England for his coronation. WILLIAM DE SAINT JOHN died between Michaelmas 1201 and Michaelmas 1202. Morice Histoire Ecclesiastique et Civil de Bretagne 1 (1750): xvii-xviii (Counts of Penthievre ped). C.P. 10 (1945): 780 (chart), 786-787 (sub Richmond); 11 (1949): 343-344 (sub Saint John). Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants (2002): 244, 461-462, 691. Power Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Cents. (2004): 499 (Fougères ped.).”