Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Ralph de Ferrers

Male 1318 - 1392  (~ 78 years)


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  • Name Ralph de Ferrers 
    Born From 1313 to 1318  of Bilton, Warwickshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died From 24 Sep 1391 to 7 Jul 1392 
    Person ID I7620  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Joan de Grey,   b. of Codnor, Derbyshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 22 Jul 1369, Ellenhall, Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married Bef 1350 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F3342  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
      “WILLIAM DE HARCOURT Knt., of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, Pleasley, Derbyshire, Magna Sheepy and Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, Ellenhall, Staffordshire, Baxterley, Warwickshire, Bingley, Yorkshire, etc., son and heir by his father's 1st marriage, born about 1300 (aged 30 in 1330). He married before 1324 JOAN DE GREY, daughter of Richard de Grey, Knt., 2nd Lord Grey of Codnor, by Joan, daughter of Robert Fitz Payn, 1st Lord Fitz Payn [see CODNOR 11 for her ancestry]. They had two sons, Richard, Knt, and Thomas, Knt. He presented to the church of Pleasley, Derbyshire in 1331. In 1344 he and his wife, Joan, and Joan's brother, John de Grey, of Codnor, and Alice his wife were granted a papal indult for plenary remission. SIR WILLIAM DE HARCOURT died of the plague 6 June 1349. His widow, Joan, married (2nd) before 1350 (as his 2nd wife) RALPH DE FERRERS, Knt., of Bikon, Warwickshire, Captain of Calais, 1358-61, Admiral of the King's Fleet towards the north, 1370, Warden of the Western Marches of Scotland, Captain of the King's Barges, Trier of Petitions in Parliament, younger son of William de Ferrers, Knt., 1st Lord Ferrers of Groby, by his 1st wife, [?Margaret], daughter of John de Segrave, Knt., 2nd Lord Segrave [see GROBY 9 for his ancestry]. He was born about 1313-18 (aged 72 in 1385-90). He was one of the founders of the Corpus Christ Guild in Leicester, Leicestershire in 1343. He was present at the Siege of Calais in 1346. In 1350 William de Shareshull, Knt, conveyed the manor of Ellenhall, Staffordshire to Ralph and his wife, Joan, for life; with remainder to Joan's granddaughters, Katherine and Elizabeth, daughters of Richard de Harcourt. The same year he was sent by the king with some lords and 40 other knights to Bordeaux for the relief of the town of St. John de Angely, which was then besieged by the French. He returned to England in August 1351. He was present at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. He presented to the church of Pleasley, Derbyshire in 1361. His wife, Joan, died at Ellenhall, Staffordshire 22 July 1369. In 1370 Thomas de Astley and his wife, Elizabeth, granted the manor of Ellenhall, Staffordshire to Ralph de Ferrers, Knt, for life, and to revert after his death to Thomas and Elizabeth and the heirs of Elizabeth. In 1370 he served as Admiral of the Fleet which conducted Robert de Knolles, Knt. and his army to France. In 1371 he was appointed Admiral of the King's Fleet towards the north. He was a legatee in the 1375 will of his nephew, Edward le Despenser, K.G., 4th Lord le Despenser. He was appointed a Conservator of the truce with France in 1376. In 1376 he was one of the mainpernors in Parliament of William le Latimer, K.G., 4th Lord Latimer. In 1378 he was a commissioner to receive the Castle of Brest, which was surrendered by the Duke of Brittany. The same year he was ordered to muster the men-at-arms and archers, who were about to serve under John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1378 Thomas de Asdey and his wife Elizabeth granted the manor of Ellenhall, Staffordshire to Ralph de Ferrers, Knt., for life; with remainder to Thomas de Harcourt, Knt., for life; and to revert after his death to Thomas and Elizabeth and the heirs of Elizabeth. In 1380 he was arrested on a charge of conducting traitorous correspondence with the French. He subsequently appeared in Parliament in the custody of the Earl Marshal; he denied the charge and was declared innocent by the Lords in Parliament. He gave evidence in the Scrope-Grosvenor controversy in the period, 1385-90. SIR RALPH DE FERRERS died between 24 Sept. 1391 and 7 July 1392.
      Brydges Collins' Peerage of England 4 (1812): 428-453 (sub Harcourt Earl Harcourt). Nichols Hist. & Antiqs. of Leicester 4(2) (1811): *519-*520. Baker Hist & Antiqs. of Northampton 1 (1822-30): 103-104, 658-659. Nicolas Testamenta Vetusta 1 (1826): 99-100 (will of Edward, Lord Despenser). Nicolas Controversy between Scrape & Grosvenor 2 (1832): 361-366 (biog. of Sir Ralph Ferrers). Banks Baronies in Fee 1 (1844): 227-230 (sub Grey of Codnor). Champollion-Figeac Lettres de Rois, Reines et autres Personnages 2 (1847): 117-118 (letter of King Edward III of England to Ralph de Ferrers, Captain of Calais). Lipscomb Hist. & Antiqs. of Buckiagham 4 (1847): 590. Cox Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire 4 (1879): 474. Ronton Chartulary (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 4(1)) (1883): 271-272 (Harcourt ped.: "De dicto Johanne [Harcourt] descendit jus et hereditas cuidam Willielmo de Harecurt tanquam filio et heredi, qui desponsavit Johannam, filiam Domini Ricardi de Grey de Codenore."). Boyd & Wrottesley Final Concords (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 11) (1890): 164, 178, 193. Year Books of Edward III: Year XVI 7 (Rolls Ser. 31b) (1896): 209-213. Papal Regs.: Letters 3 (1897): 110. Wrottesley Crecy & Calais (1898): 200. Bateson Recs. of the Borough of Leicester 2 (1901): lvii, 70, 154. List of Inqs. Ad Quad Damnum 1 (PRO Lists and Indexes 17) (1904): 228, 254. Wrottesley Peds. from the Plea Rolls (1905): 92-93, 101, 132, 201, 342. Cal. IPM 7 (1909): 221-222; 13 (1954): 60. C.F.R. 4 (1913): 180. Wedgwood Harcourt of Ellenhall (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 3rd Ser. 1914) (1914): 196-197. Unwin Finance & Trade under Edward III (1918): 349-350. Farnham Leicestershire Medieval Peds. (1925): 55 (Harcourt ped.). C.P. 5 (1926): 352 footnote a (sub Ferrers). Rpt. on the MSS of Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Esq. 1 (Hist. MSS Comm. 78) (1928): 79. Stokes et al. Warwickshire Feet of Fines 3 (Dugdale Soc. 18) (1943): 82. VCH Warwick 4 (1947): 25; 6 (1951): 32. Paget Baronage of England (1957) 271: 2. Ellis Cat. Seals in the P.R.O. 1(1978): 31 (seal of William de Harecourt dated 1339- A shield of arms, couche: two bars [HARCOURT], the field hatched; helm above with stylized mantling on both sides and crest: a peacock. A scroll on right. No legend but a band of running ornament). VCH Oxford 12 (1990): 274-275. Schumer Oxfordshire Forests 1246-1609 (Oxfordshire Rec. Soc. 64) (2004): 129, 132, 134. National Archives, SC 8/245/12202 (available at www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp).
      Children of William de Harcourt, Knt., by Joan de Grey:
      i. RICHARD DE HARCOURT, Knt., of Ellenhall, Staffordshire, son and heir, born about 1328 (aged 21 in 1349). He married JOAN DE SHARESHULL (or SHARESHILL), daughter of William de Shareshull, Knt., Chief Justice of the King's Bench, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. They had two daughters, Katherine and Elizabeth. He was granted letters of protections about June 1346, he then about to set out for France in the retinue of Maurice de Berkeley. He subsequently fought at the Battle of Crecy 26 August 1346. SIR RICHARD DE HARCOURT died before 1350, probably of the plague. Shaw Hist. & Antiqs. of Staffordshire. Nichols Hist. & Antiqs. of Leicester 4(2) (1811): *519-*520. Ronton Chartulary (Colls. Hist Staffs. 4(1)) (1883): 271-272 (Harcourt ped.: "De dicto Willielmo [de Harcourt] descendit jus et hereditas cuidam Ricardo de Harecourt tanquam filio et heredi, qui desponsavit Johannam, filiam Domini Willielmi de Shareshull."). Boyd & Wrottesley Final Concords (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 11) (1890): 160-169. Wrottesley Crecy & Calais (1898): 35, 37, 89. Genealogist n.s. 17 (1901): 175. Wrottesley Peds. from the Plea Rolls (1905): 92-93, 101, 132, 201, 342. Wedgwood Revs. of Rec. Office Pubs. (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 3rd Ser. 1913) (1913): 342. Wedgwood Harcourt of Ellenhall (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 3.1 Ser. 1914) (1914): 196 ("Sir Richard's wife is called Jane, daughter of Sir William de Shareshull, the chief justice. But Sir William had a son; two generations of Sir Williams succeeded him at Patshull; and how Jane became, in her issue, heiress to Patshull in 1439 I do not understand"). Farnham Leicestershire Medieval Peds. (1925): 55 (Harcourt ped.). Putnam Place in Legal Hist. of Sir William Shareshull (1950). Booth Account of Master John de Burnham the Younger (Lanc. & Cheshire Rec. Soc. 125) (1991): 171-172 (biog. of William de Shareshull). Sainty Judges of England (Selden Soc. Supp. Ser. 10) (1993): 7, 24, 25, 63, 92 (re. William Shareshull).
      Child of Richard de Harcourt, by Joan de Shareshull:
      a. ELIZABETH DE HARCOURT, married THOMAS DE ASTLEY, Knt., of Hillmorton, Warwickshire [see ASTLEY 12].
      ii. THOMAS HARCOURT, Knt. [see next].”

      2. “Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial & Medieval Families,” Douglas Richardson (2013):
      “RICHARD DE GREY, Knt., 2nd Lord Grey of Codnor, of Codnor and Denby, Derbyshire, Thurrock, Essex, Tunworth and Upton Grey, Hampshire, Aylesford and Hoo, Kent, Evington and Newbold, Leicestershire, Sherringham, Norfolk, Eastwood and Barton, Nottinghamshire, etc., Seneschal of Gascony, Steward of Aquitaine, Constable of Nottingham Castle, son and heir by his father's 1st marriage, born about 1281 or 1282 (aged 26, 26-1/2, or 27 in 1308). He married JOAN FITZ PAYN, daughter of Robert Fitz Payn, Knt., Lord Fitz Payn, by Isabel, daughter of John Clifford, Knt., of Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire. They had four sons, John, Knt. [3rd Lord Grey of Codnor], Robert [Fitz Payn], Knt., Gilbert, and Henry, and two daughters, Joan and Maud. He was continually employed in the Scottish wars. He was summoned to Parliament from 4 March 1308/9 by writs directed Ricardo de GT). He presented to the church of Heanor, Derbyshire in 1320. In 1323 he was granted 20 does by the king for burying the body of his kinsman, John de Grey, Knt., 2nd Lord Grey of Ruthin. SIR RICHARD DE GREY, 2nd Lord Grey of Codnor, died testate shortly before 10 March 1334/5.
      Banks Baronies in Fee 1 (1844): 227-230 (sub Grey of Codnor). Cox Notes on the Churches of Dertyshire 4 (1879): 233-234. Year Books of Edward III 3 (Rolls Ser. 31) (1886): 122-131. C.P.R. 1330-1334 (1893): 598. Rye Cal Feet of Fines for Suffolk (1900): 182,297. VCH Hampshire 3 (1908): 383. Cal IPM 5 (1908): 50-51; 7 (1909): 468-469. Report on the MSS of Lord Middleton.(Hist. Mss. Comm. 69) (1911): 91. VCH Hampshire 4 (1911): 174-175. Chaplais War of Saint-Sardos (1323-1325) (Camden 3rd Ser. 87) (1954): 78 (Richard styled "trescher cousin" in 1324 by Hugh le Despenser). Paget (1957) 224:1, 259:4-5 (identifies other children Henry, Gilbert and Joan, but no daughter Agnes). List of Inquisitions ad Quod Damnum 1 (PRO, Lists and Indexes, No. 17) (repr. 1963): 232,238. Goodall "Heraldry in the Decoration of English Medieval Manuscripts," in Antiquaries Journal 77 (1997): 179-220. Gee Women, Art & Patronage from Henry III to Edward III: 1216-1377 (2002): 159.
      Children of Richard de Grey, Knt., by Joan Fitz Payn:
      i. JOHN DE GREY, Knt., 3rd Lord Grey of Codnor [see next].
      ii. ROBERT FITZ PAYN, Knt., 2nd son, of Stogursey, Bridghampton, Cary Fitzpaine, Charlton Mackrell, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Rodway, Speckington, and Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset, Okeford Fitzpaine and Wraxall, Dorset, Stourton, Wiltshire, Wisley, Surrey, etc., younger son, born about 1321. He married before 16 October 1354 ELIZABETH DE BRYAN, daughter of Guy de Bryan, K.G., Lord Bryan, of Laugharne, Carrnarthenshire, Walwyn's Castle, Pembrokeshire, and Torbrian, Devon, by his 1st wife, Joan, daughter of John de Carew, Knt. [see BRYAN 10.ii for her ancestry]. They had two daughters, Isabel and Elizabeth. In 1354 he was in the king's service with Guy de Bryan in parts beyond sea. In 1359 he and his wife, Elizabeth, conveyed the manors of Wraxall, Dorset and Stourton, Wiltshire to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Maud his wife, for the life of Maud, at an annual rent of 200s., with reversion to himself aind Elizabeth, and his heirs. He was with the king in the invasion of France, October 1359 to 1360, serving in the retinue of Sir Guy de Bryan. He presented to the church of Wisley, Surrey in 1387 and 1388. SIR ROBERT FITZ PAYN died 21 May 1393. His wife, Elizabeth, predeceased him. Pole Colls. towards a Desc. of Devon (1791): 286-287. Banks Dormant & Extinct Baronage of England 2 (1808): 63-65 (sub Bryan). Willement Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral (1827): 121 (Gules, three lions passant, in pale, argent, a bendlet, azure [Fitz Pain], impaling Or, three piles, in chief, azure [Brian].). Banks Baronies in Fee 1 (1844): 227-230 (sub Grey of Codnor). Kirby Wykeham's Reg. 1 (1896): 165, 169. Green Feet of Fines for Somerset 2 (Somerset Rec. Soc. 12) (1898): 93, 120-121; 3 (Somerset Rec. Soc. 17) (1902): 182-483. VCH Surrey 3 (1911): 378-381. C.P. 2 (1912): 361, footnote h; 5 (1926): 452, 463-464 (sub Fitzpayn); 6 (1926): 125, footnote j; 10 (1945): 663. Paget (1957) 259: 4-5. List of Inquisitons ad Quod Damnum 1 (PRO, Lists and Indexes, No. 17) (repr. 1963): 232-233.
      Children of Robert Fitz Payn, Knt., by Elizabeth de Bryan:
      a. ISABEL FITZ PAYN, married RICHARD DE POYNINGS, Knt, 3rd Lord Poynings [see POYNINGS 15].
      b. ELIZABETH FITZ PAYN, married (1st) THOMAS DE AUDLEY, Knt., of Kingston, Devon and Stogursey, Somerset [see AUDLEY 11.1]; (2nd) HUGH DE COURTENAY, Knt. of Goodrington (in Paignton), Devon [see COURTENAY 9].
      iii. JOAN DE GREY, married (1st) WILLIAM DE HARCOURT, Knt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire [see HARCOURT 11]; (2nd) RALPH DE FERRERS, Knt, of Bilton, Warwickshire [see HARCOURT 11].
      iv. MAUD DE GREY, married (1st) JOHN DE GRAVESENDE, of Gravesend, Kent. He died before 25 July 1332, when her father granted her 401 of rent in his manor of Sheringham, Norfolk, in exchange for the manor of Gravesend, Kent, which she granted him for the term of her life. His widow, Maud, married (2nd) before 1336-7 (date of fine) ROGER DE LOUDHAM, Knt., of Herringfleet and Lound, Suffolk. They had three sons, Roger, John, and Nicholas. In 1332 he acknowledged that he owed 400 to Richard de Grey, of Codnor; to be levied, in default of payment, of his lands and chattels in Suffolk. In 1336-7 Geoffrey de Cotton conveyed the manor of Gunton, Suffolk to him and his wife, Maud. He presented to the church of Gunton, Suffolk in 1346. SIR ROGER DE LOUDHAM died 15 March 1347. Suckling Hist & Antiqs. of Suffolk 2 (1847): 1, 9, 12. Rye Some Rough Materials for a Hist. of the Hundred of North Erpingham 1 (1883): 98. C.C.R. 1330-1333 (1898): 598. Rye Cal. Feet of Fines for Suffolk (1900): 182, 297. Copinger Manors of Suffolk 5 (1910): 40. Rpt. on the MSS of Lord Middleton (Hist. Mss. Comm. 69) (1911): 91. Cal IPM 9 (1916): 2.