THE WARREN FAMILY FROM ENGLAND TO ALABAMA
1066-2011
A family history began in 1979 By James R. Warren
PREFACE
AS a guide to this history, the reader should be aware of the format in which it is written. Every attempt was made to make this a readable account of the WARREN FAMILY. We did not want it to be perceived as a simple listing of obscure people with names and dates attached. In that format, interest is soon lost, and the book is set aside. History is boring to most of us because we do not make the connection that we were there as a family helping make it. We want each person to be real to the reader. That is why as much available information for each person was included, and more is added as new facts are discovered.
The first section THE WARREN FAMILY ORIGIN gives the beginnings and history of the first people to use the name Warren (or de Varenne in France). It is provided to us largely by REV. THOMAS WARREN F.R.S.A. of Ireland from his History of the Warren Family A.D. 912-1902. The first WARRENS in his book, in turn, were taken from the REV. JOHN WATSON'S Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants to the Present Time, Volume One & Two, 1782. This brings the Warren Family out of France (Normandy) to England, and establishes their kinship to the Kings of England.
THE LINEAGE also is taken from the above two accounts along with the Warren line of descent from Notes on the Southerland Latham and Allied Families by Edward Kinsey Voorhees, Atlanta, Georgia, Nineteen thirty one (For private Distribution) Microfilm No. 0875383 Salt Lake City, Utah. This traces the Warren Family through the Kings of France and England to America.
OUR WARREN ANCESTORS IN ENGLAND starts with the first Earl of Warren and takes us through Edward Warren, Esq. called "Stag Warren", and is also provided by the above references.
THE WARREN FAMILY FROM ENGLAND TO ALABAMA begins with our first ancestor in America. He was Humphrey Warren, and it should be noted he was here one hundred years before the American Revolution and only 30 odd years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620. From here we proceed down to each of us in this Warren Family, which extends over 30 generations. We have used the direct line of male descent to reach the author, and then added my grandfather’s brothers and sisters
It is my hope each of you can easily find your own unique place in this history. May you find personal satisfaction in knowing who you are and from where you came. That you can stand today and feel yesterday looking over your shoulder and receive a moment of true bonding with the past. It will come unbidden, flower in a heartbeat, and be gone almost before it can be savored. But the afterglow remains and the feeling of it is etched forever…an instant of full communion with those who lived the period…the past will be around you, and in you, and you will know.
Introductory Letter
10/22/93 The following pages were started in 1979, and have continually expanded each year since then. Uncle Leon Warren and Aunt Olema Chameless Warren copied from several family Bibles the birth, marriage, and death records of George Washington Warren and his children. These three pages gave us a starting place to begin what I hope is the continuing history of our Warren and related families. Thanks to Leon's memory of the oral family history, we had a starting point in DeKalb County, Alabama. The Birmingham Public Library was the first place I searched where I found George in the 1850 census of DeKalb County. He was three years old living in the Robert Joe and Mary Adams Warren family household. Next door was the Notley M. Warren family, who later proved to be Robert's father. In 1980, I placed a query in The Genealogical Helper Vol. 34 / No. 2 March-April 1980 page 51 and was answered by Audrey Warren from Pontotoc, Mississippi. She had a will of a Tennessee Revolutionary War soldier, Robert Warren, naming our Notley and eighteen of his brothers and sisters. Also she had a Chapter 14 of The Southerland, Latham and Allied Families by E.K. Voorhees, 1931, which traced the Warren family into Maryland and further back to England. I spent the next few years validating this information and made contacts with family members and others from Canada, Oregon, California, Texas, and from Florida to Maine. I visited courthouses in Tennessee and Alabama to locate probate, marriage, and will records, and visited cemeteries that seemed to lure me to their sites; as if their occupants were eager to be rediscovered. I walked straight to their markers like one being led there for an old reunion. I also received many letters from friends and relatives answering questions, sending photos, and relating family information that found its place in this endeavor. There is one observation I have made through the years of research. Everyone in the family is not as interested in family history as I am! I suspect those of you who continue this work will find the same to be true in the future. To me, it is akin to a knot being untied, or a puzzle to solve while time passes -- taking with it the lives of those who may possess the memories and answers about our family’s history. For the answers we have found, I am most grateful to those of you who have indulged me in my task of grafting the limbs back on the Warren Family Tree. I sincerely thank all who helped, and I leave everyone with one charge: find more limbs, branches or leaves and add to our Warren Family Tree.
James Ronald Warren 532 Edgeknoll Drive Birmingham, Alabama 35209 (205) 942-5454
THE WARREN FAMILY ORIGIN
The name Warren is derived from Garenne or de Varenne, a small river in the old country of Calais or Caux, in Normandy, France which gave its name to the neighboring commune, and is only a few miles from Dieppe. There is at present a village called Garenne (now Bellencombre) in the same district, and it is here we place the cradle of this ancient family. On the West Side of the river de Varenne, on a small eminence, was built the Castle of Bellencombre, which was the ancient baronial seat of the de Warennes. In the early part of last 19 century a bronze wavern of 13th-century date, the badge or crest of the Warren family was found among the rubble of the castle as the flints and dressed stones were being quarried for the general construction in the village. Many of the older homes, flint walls and some of the church can still be recognized as being from the ruins of this castle. In 1832 a written description On The Castle Of Bellencombre The Original Seat Of The De Warennes In Normandy was written by Mr. M. A. Lower and several drawings made of the remains, part of which is in a booklet that can be purchase from the marie (court house) in Bellencombre. All that is left of the castle in September 2006 are five standing wall sections and a memorial shrine arranged on top of the old castle mount overlooking Bellencombre.
The lordship of Garenne belonged to the noble family of St. Martin. Camden says, "Mortimer and Warren are accounted names of great antiquity, yet the father of them (for they were brethren) who first bore those names was Walterus de Sancto Martino." The property having become vested in William, one of these brothers, he was henceforth distinguished by the title Count de Garenne, or de Warenne, which became the surname of the family. The name has assumed different forms from time to time-such as Gareyn, Wareyn, Waryn, Warin, Warynge, Waryng, and Warren.
In Ireland there has been much confusion between the names Waring and Warren; but as the former was first established in County Antrim in the reign of James I., all previous references in the records of Ireland to the names Warynge, Waryn, etc., must be taken as solely applicable to Warren. In fact we find the Warrens of Navan, County Meath, at the end of the 16th century denominated Warynge or Warren. The only exception to this is name of Fulk Fitz-Gwarine or Warine, who was sent to Ireland by King John on an important mission, but does not seem to have remained there long. He was grandson of the famous Lorrainer Gwarine de Metz, who fought for and won Mellet, the daughter of Sir Wm. Peveril, and received as her dower the old Norman castle of Whittington, in Shropshire, which still stands in its grim grandeur. There are some notices of the Fitz-Warines in Ireland, but they do not seem to have made a permanent settlement in the country.
Can you imagine how much it took to heat large castle rooms?
This painting is actually the depiction of William son of the Fifth Earl Warren described from page 302 Vol. 1 Ancient Earls of Warren as follows: William died in his father's lifetime, for being at a tournament at Croydon in Surrey, he unfortunately lost his life there. Stowe,* sais he was by the challenger intercepted, and cruelly slain. His death happened Dec. 15th, 1286, and he was buried before the high altar at Lewes. Joan his widow died Nov. 21, 1293, and was buried with her husband under a high tomb. (Note the Warren colors in the painting)
THE LINEAGE
The Rev. John Watson, M.A., F.S.A., in his great work on the Warren family, gives the following account of the origin of this ancient noble house. A Danish knight (William Longue Epee, son of Rollo) a descendant of one of those Scandinavians who invaded that part of France called Normandy had Gunnora, Herfastus, Wevia, Werina, Duvelina and Sainfria. Of these, Gunnora married Richard, Duke of Normandy, son of William, and grandson of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, who was succeeded by his son Richard, who was succeeded by his son Robert, the father of William, Duke of Normandy and Conqueror of England.
William the Conqueror married Maud or Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., Earl of Flanders, and grand-daughter of Robert, King of France, whose youngest (More probably his first) daughter, Gundreda, married William de Warrenne, Earl (Count) of Warren in Normandy, and afterwards created Earl of Surrey by William Rufus, King of England.
Herfastus, brother of Gunnora, had a daughter married to Walter de St. Martin, by whom he had William de Warrenne, Earl of Warren in Normandy, who married a daughter of Ralph de Torta, a noble Dane, protector of Normandy during the minority of Richard I. By her he had Ralph (Rodolphus), Sir de Garenne, who married first Beatrice and secondly Emma. By the letter he had Ralph, who died without issue, and William, who married Gundreda, the fifth daughter of William the Conqueror, and after became the first Earl of Warren and Surrey. William de Warrenne and Gundreda, by descent, were near of kin, which gave rise to ecclesiastical troubles.
Mr. Eyton gives a somewhat different pedigree compiled by Mr. Stapleton in his Antiquities of Shropshire. According to this, a niece of Gunnora, wife of Richard I., Duke of Normandy, married Hugh, Bishop of Coutances, in 990; living in 1020, by whom he had Redolphus de Warren, who was the father of William de Warren, first Earl of Warren and Surrey. Rodolphus had a brother, Roger de Mortimer, ancestor of the Earls of March, and another brother, Godfrey de Warren, from whom the Pierpoints descend.
Now there are two statements here to which we must take exception. First Rodolphus (Ralph or Raoul) de Warren was not a son of Hugh the Bishop, and second he was not brother of Roger de Mortimer. Our authority is the Charters of the Abbey of Holy Trinity, Rouen, which are to be found in the departmental archives of Seine Inferieure. In Charter XXXV, date A.D. 1074, which may be taken as the last will and testament of Rodolphus and Emma his wife, as their names do not appear again after this date, they make to the Abbey of Holy Trinity the gift of the church and tithe of the whole town of Osulfe, in the county of Caux, for the redemption of their souls; and their sons join them in this benefaction. It is stated, however, that they had bought this property formerly from William, son of Roger, son of Hugh the Bishop. Who this William was, we have no further information of, in the Charter. If he had been a nephew of Rodolphus's, it would have been stated. He may have been a Mortimer and near kinsman, as Stapleton and Eyton's pedigree would lead us to conclude; but that Rodolphus and Roger were brothers is beyond credibility. Rodolphus is not described as son of Hugh the Bishop, as Roger is, nor is he described as brother of Roger. That Ralph or Raoul de Warrenne was father of William, first Earl of Warren and Surrey, is indisputable, for in the list of the principal benefactors of the Abbey of Holy Trinity at Rouen, we find his name "Raoul de Warrenne, father of the first Earl of Warren and Surrey." He is also described as vir illustris, and had numerous lordships in the county of Caux and around Rouen, and in Chapter XXXIII his two sons William and Ralph are named. Genealogists will, we suppose, continue to differ with regard to the descent of William de Warrenne, first Earl of Warren and Surrey; but whether we look upon him as sprung from Walter de St. Martin (which is our opinion), from Hugh, Bishop of Coutances, or Nicholas de Basqueville, who are all said to have married nieces of Gunnora, William de Warrenne stands out in history as the potent young Norman noble who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, and having distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, obtained an immense portion of the public spoliation.
He seems to have been a great favorite of the king, and married Gundreda, fifth daughter (More probably the first) of William the Conqueror, by his queen Matilda. Foster, in his Royal Lineage of England, shows that Matilda or Maud, daughter of Baldwin V., Earl of Flanders, was descended both from Alfred the Great, King of England, and Charlemagne; Baldwin II. having married the daughter of King Alfred, and their son Arnulf I. having married the daughter of Heribert II., Earl of Vermandois, from which union Matilda was fifth in descent Playfair also in his British Baronetage states, that the family of Warren are lineal descendants in a direct male line from Charlemagne, and that the oldest branch of Warrenne, according to the genealogies in some of the earliest Norman histories, is the true claimant of the Carlovingian throne, usurped by Hugh Capet, ancestor of the Bourbons, to the exclusion of Charles, Duke of Lorraine.
By marriage, the family of Warren can trace their descent from Hugh Capet, as William de Warrenne, second Earl of Warren and Surrey, married Isabel, daughter of Hugh the Great, Earl of Vermandois, and brother of Philip, King of France. Hugh the Great's father was Henry, his grandfather was Robert, and his great-grandfather was Hugh Capet - all kings of France. This much, Watson says, was "in a high degree honorable to the family of Warren, as it connected them with the blood-royal of France, as before they had been with the blood-royal of England."
William the Conqueror
The above is from the HISTORY of the WARREN FAMILY A.D.912-1902 BY REV. THOMAS WARREN F.R.S.A. Ireland pages 1-5. This in turn was taken in the most part from the REV. JOHN WATSON'S Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants to the Present Time, Volume One & Two, 1782. This brings the Warren Family out of France (Normandy) to England and establishes their kinship to the Kings of England.
OUR WARREN ANCESTORS IN ENGLAND
WILLIAM de WARENNE, FIRST EARL OF WARREN AND SURREY
William de Warenne, was Earl (Count) of Warenne in France, the Norman who came to England with his cousin William the Conqueror and became First Earl of Warenne and Surrey. He was Lord of Reigate (Holmesdale) and Coningsburgh Castles, Lord of Bellencombre in Normandy, Castle Acre in Norfolk, Knight, and a Commander in the Norman Army in 1066. He was Chancellor of Regency in 1067, Forester to the King, Joint Justices of England 1074, Honorary Brother of the Abbey of Cluni in 1076, and founder of Lewes and Castle Acre priories. Having distinguished himself at the Battle of Hastings, William obtained an immense portion of the public spoliation. He had large grants of land in several counties among which were the Barony of Lewes in Sussex. His fortress and chief residence was situated on a ridge rising above the West bank of the River Ouse commanding the gap by which the river penetrates the South Downs before it flows into the Channel at NewHaven. Lewes today is a county town of East Sussex where the castle still dominates the skyline and the majority of the buildings in the center of town have Elizabethan and Georgian facades. Lewes lies 50 miles south of London and it was from this stronghold Earl Warren possessed the Manors of Charleture and Bennington in Lincolnshire, lands in Shropshire, Essex, Suffolk, Oxford, Hants, Cambridgeshire, Bucks, Huntingdon, Beds, Norfolk, and Yorks. So extensive were those grants his possessions resembled those of a sovern prince than the estate of a subject. In 1073 a rebellion led by Ralph Guader, Earl of Norfolk, and Roger, Earl of Hereford took place. William the Earl of Warrenne took up arms against the rebels and defeated them in the battle at Fagadune. He married Gundreda, fifth daughter (probably his first) of William the Conqueror and Matilda. William de Warrenne and his successors in the earldom founded or endowed several religious houses in different parts of England, the principle of which was Lewes Priory in Sussex. The motive for founding of this is stated by the author of Old England -- ‖William and his wife Gundreda were traveling in Burgundy in route to Rome, and finding they could not proceed on their journey on account of the wars between the Pope and the Emperor, stopped at the Monastery of St. Peter, at Cluni, where they were hospitably entertained by the monks. Being greatly impressed with their piety, and in gratitude for their kindness, they resolved to found a community of Cluniac monks in England, and consequently established the Priory of Lewes and endowed it.‖ Sir Hugh, the Abbot of Cluni, was absent at the time of their visit; but, in due course, when the Charter for the Lewes Priory was given by Earl William and Gundreda his wife, and confirmed by the king, Sir Lanzo and three other monks were sent to England. The site of the priory was the church of St. Pancrace, under the walls of the castle of Lewes. The earl had by his wife Gundred two sons and three daughters- William, Reginald, Gundred, Edith, and ??. William succeeded his father as second earl of Warren and Surrey; Reginald, who adhered to Robert Curthose, married Alice, daughter and heiress of William de Wormgay (commonly called Wrongay), in Norfolk. Gundred did not marry, Edith married first, Gerard de Gurney, and second Drew de Monceux. The third sister married Ernesius Colunchis. According to Eyton in his History and Antiquities of Shropshire, the first Earl of Warren and Surrey had probably another son, Philip de Warren, who held the manors of Burnham-Thorpe and Harpley, in the county of Norfolk, temp. Stephen. From this branch the Gournays and Calthorpes trace their descent, The Countess Gundreda died in childbirth at Castle Acre, Norfolk May 27, 1085. King William Rufus made Earl Warren Earl of Surrey just before the Earl’s death June 24, 1088 from wounds received at the siege of Prevensey in the King’s service. Earl William and his countess Gundreda were interred in the chapter house of Lewes Priory, which was then a wooden structure. Later the monks erected a magnificent church almost equal in size to Westminster Abby on the site of the old one. The Priory was dedicated to St. Pancras and for the next 450 years became the most important Cluniac house in Britain and Europe. The bones of the earl and his wife Gundreda were taken up and placed in two small leaden coffers which had been made for their reception, and were re-interred in the new church. Here they remained undisturbed for centuries. Meantime the priory had been systematically demolished by Thomas Cromwell in 1537; but in 1845, while cutting the Lewes and Brighkton railway through the site of the priory, the two interesting coffers were dug up bearing the inscription in raised letters, on the one "Willme" and on the other "Gondrada", in which were found the bones of the earl and his countess. From measurements made of these, William was six feet one or two inches in height, and Gundreda five feet eight inches.
These remains have been placed in a tomb, with the tombstone of Gundreda placed over them, in a very pretty little chapel in the Church of St. John the Baptist, Southover, adjoining the ancient priory. The chapel was erected specially for the reception and preservation of the remains by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Abergavenny, Delawar and Amhurst, who derive their descent from the de Warennes of Lewes, and the leaden coffers which contain the bones may now be seen in the shrine. A part of the Great Gate survives dating from the 13 century and composed largely of Sussex Marble. Parts of the refectory, dormitory, infirmary, chapel and cloister still stand. In 1264 Lewes was the site of the battle in which Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, defeated the army of Henry III and established the principles of parliamentary government.
Over Looking Bellencombre France 2007
A replica of Reigate Castle standing on the original castle site
Reigate Castle
View of the Barbican Gate of Lewes Castle I took September 12, 2006. (Notice the view of 1782-5 of the same below)
Ronnie at Lewes Castle September 12, 2006
Lord Ronnie Warren at Lewes Castle September 12, 2006. On the second floor of the Barbican Gate there is a room with costumes of the period that can be used to dress the part for photos. Alan Warren took this one of me to commemorate my visit to Lewes Castle.
Looking South East from Castle’s East Tower over Town of Lewes September 12, 2006
Looking South East from the downs
Different views of Lewes Castle. The Engravings are from Watson’s Memoirs of The Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey.
Lewes Castle
2007
The Gundred grave photo above is by Alan Warren of Dorset England
Ronnie in Gundreda’s Tomb in St. John the Baptist Church Southover September 12, 2006. Notice the room is very junked up and was being used as a storage place for various church items from table leafs, an aluminum ladder, banner standards, PC parts, lectern, stools, etc. Notice William and Gundreda’s lead cists behind and to my rear and the various books and papers describing their discovery in 1845. The Guest Book can be seen on its stand to my left in which I signed my name, address, and ―At last I visit you G Grandmother‖.
2007
When looking at the two lead cists in Gundrada’s Tomb it is clearly seen they are wood coffins covered by lead sheets
Wall, inner bailey and well tree of Lewes Castle. Photo below is the door of the west tower which is just out of site taken September 12, 2006
Below the keep and mote of Sandal Castle.
Castle Rising Norfolk England
Earl Warenne explaining to King Edward by what authority he held his lands.
View of Lewes Castle from Ruins of Priory of Saint Pancras
Ruins of Priory of Saint Pancras below Lewes Castle September 2006.
William Earl Warren and a Monk
WILLIAM DE WARENNE, SECOND EARL OF WARREN AND SURREY
William de Warren, Second Earl of Warren and Surrey married Isabel, in 1101, third daughter of Hugh the Great, Earl of Vermandois and brother of Philip, King of France. She was the widow of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Mellent in Normandy, later of Leicester. This marriage connected the family of Warren with the blood-royal of France as they were with the blood-royal of England. The Earl was Lord of Lewes, Reigate, Bellencombre, Mortmer in Normandy, Knighted in 1071, and established a house of Cluniac monks at Castle Acre from Lewes Priory 1089. Commander of the Third Division of the King's Army at Bremule in 1119. He was Governor of Rouen in 1135, Witness to King Stephen's Second Charter of Liberties in 1136. He died May 11, 1138, and was buried with his parents in Lewes Priory, his Countess having died before him February 13, 1131. His eldest son William, whose brothers were Reginald de Warren and Ralph de Warren succeeded him, and their sisters were Gundred and Ada or Adama. Ralph died without issue. Gundred married first Roger de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, secondly, William de Lancaster, Baron of Kendal. Ada married in 1139, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, eldest son of David, King of Scotland, and had, among other issue, Malcolm and William, both kings of Scotland. She died in 1178.
Different views of Castle Acre in Norfolk.
WILLIAM DE WARREN, THIRD EARL OF WARREN AND SURREY
William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey (d. 1148), was the eldest son of the William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and Elizabeth de Vermandois. He was thus a great-grandson of Henry I of France, and half-brother to Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, Waleran IV de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, and Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford. He was generally loyal to king Stephen. He fought at the Battle of Lincoln (1141), and was one of the leaders of the army that pursued the empress Matilda in her flight from Winchester, and which captured Robert of Gloucester. He was one of the nobles that, along with Louis VII of France, took crusading vows at Vezelay in 1146, and he accompanied the initial army of the First Crusade the next year. He was killed by a Turkish attack while the army was marching across Anatolia (near Laodicea in what is now Syria) on their way to the Holy Land. William married Adela (or Ela), daughter of William Talvas, count of Ponthieu, who was the son of Robert of Bellême. They had one child, a daughter, Isabel, who was his heir. She married first William of Blois, second son of King Stephen, and who became earl of Warenne or Surrey. After he died without children in October 1159, she married Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II, who also became Earl of Warenne or Surrey. He took the de Warenne surname, and their descendants carried on the earldom.
WILLIAM of BLOIS FOURTH EARL OF WARREN AND SURREY
William of Blois (c.1137 – October 11, 1159) was Count of Boulogne (1153-1159) and Earl of Surrey (1153-1159). He was the second son of King Stephen of England and Matilda of Boulogne. When his elder brother, Eustace IV of Boulogne, died in 1153, William was passed over in the succession to England. His father instead conceded the throne to the young Henry Plantagenet. The new King Henry was quite generous in his treatment of William of Blois, confirming his possession of the Earldom of Surrey jure uxoris (in right of his wife). However, Gervase of Canterbury asserts a plot against Henry's life was discovered in 1154 among some Flemish mercenaries. The plan was to assassinate Henry in Canterbury, and allegedly William of Blois had knowledge of this plot or was in connivance with the mercenaries. Whatever the truth, William fled Canterbury and returned to Normandy. William of Blois had married Isabella de Warenne, Countess of Surrey in her own right, in 1148. They had no children before his death in 1159. He was succeeded as Count of Boulogne by his sister Marie. His widow remarried to Hamelin Plantagenet. Annals of Monte Fernando 1159: "Ob. Willelmus comes Bolonie." Arms: Gules, three palets vair, on a chief or, an eagle displayed gules membered azure.
Connisborough Castle
HAMELIN de WARENNE, 5th EARL of SURREY
Hamelin de Warenne (1129 - May 7, 1202) was an English nobleman who was prominent at the courts of the Angevin kings of England, Henry II, Richard I, and John. He was an illegitimate son of Geoffrey of Anjou, and thus a half-brother of Henry II, and an uncle of Richard I and John. His half-brother Henry gave him one of the wealthiest heiresses in England, Isabella de Warenne, in her own right Countess of Surrey. She was the widow of William of Blois. Hamelin and Isabella married in April 1164, and after the marriage he was recognized as Comte de Warenne, that being the customary designation for what more technically should be Earl of Surrey. In consequence of the marriage Hamelin took the de Warenne toponymic, as did his descendants. Warenne land in England centered on Connisborough in Yorkshire, a location in which Hamelin built a powerful castle. He also possessed the third penny of County Surrey and held the castles of Mortemer and Bellencombre in Normandy. Hamelin joined in the denunciations of Thomas Becket in 1164, although after Becket's death he became a great believer in Becket's sainthood, having, the story goes, been cured of blindness by the saint's help. In 1167, he escorted his niece Joan of England to Sicily for her marriage. He remained loyal to Henry through all the problems of the later part of the king's reign when many nobles deserted him, and continued as a close supporter of his nephew Richard I. During Richard's absence on the Third Crusade, he took the side of the regent William Longchamp. Hamelin appeared in the 2nd coronation of King Richard in 1194 and at King John's coronation in 1199. He died in 1202 and was succeeded by his son William de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey. A daughter, named Adela, was the mistress of her cousin King John of England, and by him the mother of Richard Fitz Roy.
WILLIAM de WARENNE, 6th EARL of SURREY
William Plantagenet, otherwise known as William de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey (1166 - 1240), was the son of Hamelin de Warenne and Isabel, daughter of William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey. His father Hamelin granted him the manor of Appleby, in the County of Lincoln. De Warenne was present at the coronation of king John on May the 27th in 1199. When Normandy was lost to the French in 1204 he lost his Norman holdings, (in 1202 he was lieutenant of Gascony), but king John of England recompensed him with Grantham and Stamford. His first tenure of office as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports begun in 1204, and lasted until 1206. He was also a Warden of Welch marches between 1208-1213. William was one of the few barons who remained loyal to king John (who was his cousin) during the king's difficulties with the barons, when they sought for the French prince to assume the English throne, and is listed as one of those who advised John to accede to the Magna Carta. His allegiance only faltered a few times when the king's cause looked hopeless. In March, 1217 he again demonstrated his loyalty to England by supporting the young king Henry III, he was also responsible for the establishment of the cathedral at Salisbury. Between the years 1200-1208, and during 1213-1226 he was to serve as the sheriff of Wiltshire. In 1214 he was again appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He married Matilda, eldest daughter and later co-heiress of William Marshal, and widow of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, thus becoming by marriage the earl of Salisbury. They had a son and a daughter. The son John succeeded his father as earl, while the daughter, Isabel, married Hugh d'Aubigny, 5th Earl of Arundel. William may also have had an earlier, childless marriage to another Matilda, daughter of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel.
John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey
John de Warenne (1231? – September 27, 1304), 7th Earl of Surrey or Warenne, was prominent during the reigns of Henry III and Edward I. During his long life he fought in the Second Barons' War and in Edward I's wars in Scotland. He was the son of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey or Warenne, and Maud (or Matilda) Marshal. His mother was the daughter of William Marshal and widow of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk. Thus Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, was his elder half-brother. Warenne was a boy when his father died, and for the rest of his minority Peter of Savoy was the guardian of his estates. In 1247 he married Henry III's half-sister Alice de Lusignan. This marriage was to create resentment amongst the English nobility, who did not like seeing a wealthy English nobleman marrying a penniless outsider. During the following years Warenne was closely associated with the court faction centering on his in-laws. In 1254 he accompanied the king's son Edward (the future Edward I) on Edward's journey to Spain to marry Eleanor of Castile. During the conflicts between Henry III and his barons Warenne started as a strong supporter of the king, switched to support for Simon de Montfort, and then returned to the royalist party. He opposed the initial baronial reform plan of May 1258, but along with other opponents capitulated and took the oath of the Provisions of Oxford. By 1260 Warenne had joined the party of Simon de Montfort, but switched back to the king's side in 1263. After the Battle of Lewes, which was fought near his castle at Lewes, he fled to the Continent, where he remained for about a year. He returned to fight in the campaign which culminated in the Battle of Evesham and the siege of Kenilworth Castle. Warenne served in Edward I Welsh campaigns in 1277, 1282, and 1283. In 1282 he received the lordships of Bromfield and Yale in Wales. A good part of the following years were spent in Scotland. He was one of the negotiators for the 1289 treaty of Salisbury and for the 1290 treaty of Birgham, and accompanied the king on Edward's 1296 invasion of Scotland. On August 22, 1296 the king appointed him "warden of the kingdom and land of Scotland". However he returned to England a few months later claiming that the Scottish climate was bad for his health. The following spring saw the rebellion of William Wallace, and after much delay Warenne led an army northward, where they were defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Nevertheless the king appointed Warenne captain of the next campaign against the Scots in early 1298. He raised the siege of Roxburgh and re-took the castle at Berwick. The king himself took the field later that year, and Warenne was one of the commanders at the Battle of Falkirk.
Warenne and Alice de Lusignan had three children:
Alice, who married Henry Percy and was the mother of Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick; Isabella, who married John Balliol and was the mother of Edward Balliol; William, who married Joanna, daughter of Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, and was accidentally killed at a tournament on December 15, 1286; his son John succeeded his grandfather as earl of Surrey.
JOHN de WARENNE, 8th EARL of WARENNE and SURREY
John de Warenne (June 30, 1286 – June 1347), 8th Earl of Warenne and Surrey, was the last Warenne earl of Surrey. He was the son of William de Warenne, the only son of John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. His mother was Joanna, daughter of Robert de Vere, 5th Earl of Oxford. Warenne was only six months old when his father died, and was 7 years old when his mother died. He succeeded his grandfather as earl when he was 19. He was one of the great nobles offended by the rise of the Edward II's favorite Piers Gaveston, and help secure Gaveston's 1308 banishment. The two were somewhat reconciled after Gaveston's return the next year, but in 1311 Warenne was one of the nobles who captured Gaveston. He was however unhappy about Gaveston's execution at the behest of the earl of Warwick, which pushed him back into the king's camp. The baronial opposition was led by the king's cousin Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and he and Warenne became bitter enemies. Private war erupted between the two, and over the new few years Warenne lost a good part of his estates to Lancaster. Warenne was one of the four earls who captured the two Roger Mortimers, and in 1322 he was one of the nobles who condemned to death the earl of Lancaster. Warenne and his brother-in-law Edmund Fitzalan, 9th Earl of Arundel were the last two earls to remain loyal to Edward II after the rise to power of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. After Arundel's execution he went over to the queen's side, urging Edward II's abdication in 1327. He was the guardian of his cousin Edward Balliol, and after Balliol laid claim to the Scottish throne, accompanied him on his campaign in Lothian. Balliol created Warenne earl of Strathern, but this was in name only for the properties of the earldom were held by another claimant. On May 25, 1306 Warenne married Jeanne of Bar, daughter of count Henry III of Bar and Eleanor, eldest daughter of King Edward I of England. The two were soon estranged and live apart, and had no children, both parties sued for divorce, though the marriage was never dissolved. In 1316 Warenne was excommunicated for adultery with Maud de Nerford, by whom he had several illegitimate children, and Isabel Holland, sister of Thomas Holland, later earl of Kent.whom later married. Warenne died in 1347 on his sixty first birth day and is buried at the monastery of Lewes. His sister Alice wife of Edmond Fitz Alan, 8th Earl of Arundel, became his heir, and conveyed the great estates of the Warrens (Plantagenets), into the Fitz-Alan family. Her ladyship’s son Richard Fitz-Alan, 9th Earl of Arundel, is considered to have succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey, and so styled himself, but it is doubtful if he were ever formally invested with the dignity. He died in 1375, all passed to his son and heir, Richard Fitz-Alan, 10th Earl of Arundel and Surrey, who was beheaded in 1397, when all his honors became forfeited. The Earlship of Surrey reverted to the Crown who did not see fit to pass it to any other. And on failure of male heirs of the house of Arundel, passed to the Duke of Norfolk, who bear the arms of Warren as one of the quarterings on his escutcheon.
View from street of a part of Arundel Castle September 12, 2006
Inside Arundel Castle
East side of Arundel Castle Sussex England This is a portion of A BIBILOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE THREE EDITIONS OF WATSON’S MEMOIRS OF THE ANCIENT EARLS OF WARREN AND SURREY. BY JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS, F.S.A. [Extracted from THE HERALD AND GENEALOGIST 1871]
As it pertains to the most probable linage of our Humphrey Warren and the Poynton Warrens.
In the year (1819) Dallaway published his History of the Rape of Arundel, in which, at pp. 121-123, he discusses the question of the descent of the Warrens of Poynton, showing the several theories of Flower and Glover, Vincent and Dugdale, and lastly of Watson. He appends some valuable observations which were communicated to him by Francis Townsend, Windsor Herald, then engaged in collecting materials for a new edition of Dugdale’s Baronage. These include proofs that the Earl was never divorced from his wife Isabel de Barre, the grand-daughter of King Edward I. nor married to Isabel de Holland, whom in his will he terms his compatigae. Dallaway dismisses Watson’s book with this criticism, that it is ―elaborate as to the historical collection for the House of Warren, but conjectural as to the establishment of its main point.‖ It was reserved to Joseph Hunter, the Historian of South Yorkshire, to verify and establish the older belief, that the Warrens of Poynton were really an illegitimate branch of the ancient house, descended from John the last Earl (ob. 1347) by his concubine Maud de Nerford. He found, however, that the Earl’s bastard son, the ancestor of the Poynton family, was not John, but Sir Edward Warren. in his History of South Yorkshire, 1828, vol. i. 101-110, under Coningsborough &c., Mr. Hunter has given the best and most reliable account of the Warrens; but he also communicated to the last number of the Retrospective Review (Second Series, 1828, ii. 527) a precis of the argument, which will now bear repetition:--
THE WARRENS OF POYNTON,-- The principal object of ―The History of the House of Warren,‖ a work in which it is manifest that great attention was given to the subject its learned author, was to prove that a race of gentry of the same name of Warren, who had resided, from the reign of Edward III., at Poynton, near Stockport, in Cheshire, were in legitimate descent from the ancient Earls of Warren; and that, being so descended, the head of that family had a right to the Earldom of Warren. The second position was a palpable non sequitur. For if it could have been proved, to the satisfaction of a Lord’s Committee, that Sir George Warren did descend in the line contended for by Mr. Watson, it would by no means have followed that he was entitled to the rank and privileges of Earl of Warren, if any where, to the issue of his sister, the Countess of Arundel.1 In his first position he appears to be equally in error. He has shown indeed that Vincent2 and Dugdale3 are both wrong when they deduce the Warrens of Poynton from John de Warren, an illegitimate son of the last Earl. He has also produced very probable reasons why the Warrens of Poynton did not descend, as others have conjectured, from a John de Warren, said to be son of John the seventh Earl, who died in 1304, by a second wife, a daughter of Mowbray. But it does not follow that, having cleared away these two hypotheses, the third which he adopts becomes established as indisputably true. We are persuaded indeed that that hypothesis is equally without the support of evidence, and in opposition to very pertinent probabilities, with the two which Mr. Watson has ably disposed of. It is admitted that the Poynton family descend from a Sir Edward Warren, who was living in the reign of Edward III. This is a point about which there is no dispute. The question is how Sir Edward was connected with the Earls? Mr. Watson deduces his descent from Reginald, a second son of William the second Earl (and consequently grandson to Gundred the daughter of the Conqueror), who is said to have had by Adeliza, a daughter of Roger de Mowbray, William, his only son and heir; who, by Isabel, a daughter of Sir William de Haydon, had Sir John Warren; who, by Alice, daughter of Roger de Townsend, had another Sir John; father to Sir Edward, by Joan, daughter of Sir Hugh Port. Now, we have an attempt to prove the existence of the two Sir Johns: no inquisitions (for the latter of these, at least, must have lived within the period through which we are so rich in that species of evidence): no reference to any thing which has the semblance of authority for the marriages with Townsend and Port. The whole is taken from an unsupported pedigree, which purports to have been prepared by Flower and Glover, but which would seem to betray some inferior hand, when it gravely states that Hugh Capet was the son of Osmund de Comitus Villa, by Warina sister to Herfastus, did we not know that the truly respectable name of Glover is subscribed to other northern pedigrees, in which there are errors as palpable. We think, therefore, that till there is something to prove the existence at least of these two Sir Johns and their wives, it were too much to call upon his majesty to allow a dignity to their supposed personal representative, which would have had the effect of placing him above all the earls of the realm. We think, moreover, that the true descent of Sir Edward Warren, and consequently the relation in which the Warrens of Poynton stand to the Earls of Warren, is shown in a very satisfactory manner in a volume relating to the topography of the south part of Yorkshire, which has been lately published. It was known to Dugdale that the last Earl of Warren, who died in 1347, left a will which was entered in the register of Zouch, Archbishop of York. Mr. Watson, when he was preparing his History of the House of Warren, inquired for this will; but, to his great mortification found that Zouch’s register, which contained it, was lost. He was therefore compelled to take his knowledge of it from the few notices of its contents to be found in Dugdale’s Baronage. In the course of researches made for the topographical work just referred to, the author discovered, not indeed the original register, but a very valuable abstract of it made by Dugdale’s great friend and coadjutor Dodsworth1; and in that abstract a much more ample notice of the contents of the earl’s will than is to be found in the Baronage. He mentions in it several children, males and females, all of whom must have been illegitimate; and amongst them occurs the name of Edward de Warren, to whom he leaves 20£. It is then for the first time shown, that the last Earl of Warren had a son who bore the name of Edward; and as the house of Poynton is known to descend from an Edward de Warren, who must have been contemporary with that Edward; as there was a strong current of tradition that it did descend from an illegitimate son of the last Earl of Warren; as the distinction in the arms of the Warrens of Poynton was a lion rampant ermine, which was the coat of Nereford,2 and the earl is well known to have had a mistress of the name of Maud de Nereford; as there also is an absence of all evidence for any other descent of Sir Edward Warren, the undoubted ancestor,-- we confess we see not how the conclusion can be evaded that he is the Edward de Warren named in the will, a son, but not legitimate, of the eighth and last Earl. The name of Warren was allowed to all issue of the Earl. This appears to have been on the same principle that the Cornwalls, Barons of Burford, and the Somersets, now Dukes of Beaufort, had their surnames. The one descended from an Earl of Cornwell, the other from an Earl of Somerset.1 So the Earl of Warren gave the name of his earldom to his illegitimate sons. Another illegitimate son of the Earl of Warren not noticed by Watson, named Ravelyn, is mentioned in the Rolls of Parliament, 9 Edward III.2 We have one more remarkable particular to give before we close this article. Mr. Watson is said to have inquired in vain for the Register of Archbishop Zouch, and in vol. Ii. P. 50, he stated that it was ―unfortunately lost.‖ In this supposition Mr. Hunter acquiesced. But, if ever missing or mislaid, it has been recovered, and has, with the other registers of its series, been made to render forth its treasures of information by the Surtees Society. The will of the last Earl Warren will be found at length in the Testamenta Eboracensia, Vol 1. 41-47, and it is one of the most curious and interesting in that collection. The Earl’s surviving children by Maud de Nerford were then grown up and some married, and he had another compaigne named Isabelle de Holand. The following are the passages in which he mentions the new connections he had thus acquired, and his children—
Jeo devys a dame Maude de Holand iiij jumentz de mon haratz de Sussex.3 Jeo devys a monsire Robert de Holande les quissers ove le picer de quir qui sount pour mon destrer.4 Jeo devys a monsire Otes de Holande les coverturs burnutz de plate qui sount pour mon destrer.5 Jeo devys a monsieur William de Warenne mon filz cent mares, ma hure d’argent dorre pour Strathorne, ove la cerele d’argent pour yeel, deus taches et le latz dargent dorretz pour le mauntel, et tout mon hernoys pour le jouster.6 Et a ma fille sa compaigne j nouche d’or. Jeo devys a Edward de Warenne mon filz vynt I. Jeo devys a Johan de Basyngg ma fille une coupe dargent pleyne. Jeo devys a Katherine ma fille dys mare. Jeo devys a Isabelle ma fille, noneyne de Sempryngham, vynt 1. Jeo devys a daunz William de Warenne mon filz ma bible que jai fait faire en Fraunecys, et qule demoerge en la meson ou il serra priour après son decease en perpetuel memoire de moy.
Here are enumerated the Earl’s surviving children, probably in the order of their birth. The eldest was Sir William, 1 and he had a wife, but whose name does not appear. Edward was the second, -- the ancestor of the Warrens of Poynton. The eldest daughter had acquired another name by marriage. Katharine was unmarried; and Isabel was a nun at Sempringham. Lastly is mentioned Don William (the second of that name), who had become prior of Horton in Kent in 1338. After many other legacies, one of which we cannot pass over without noticing its heraldic interest, Jeo devys a mousier William de Friskeneye deus botels d’argent ove escuchounz des armes3 monsire Johan de Breouse. We arrive at a long catalogue of articles bequeathed to Isabelle de Holand, commencing thus—
Jeo devys a Isabelle de Holand ma compaigne mon auel d’or ove le bane rubye, baquinze les quinze anels d’or par constellation qui sont en mon Egle d’or,4 ensi q’ele méttre autres anels en lour liens tiels come lui plerra, les principals vestementz entiers pour ma chapelle, &c. &c. &c.
The will was made in the castle of Conisborough on the 24th June 1347, and proved on the 26th of the following month. The term ma compaigne applied to Isabelle de Holand has puzzled genealogists1; for they knew that it meant at the time nothing less than wife. Indeed in this very document it is applied in that sense to the testator’s daughter-in- law the wife of Sir William de Warren; and the Earl’s nephew and successor in the Earldom of Surrey, Richard Earl of Arundel, in his will dated 1375, designates his wife of royal blood as ―ma treschere compaigne Alianore de Lancastre.‖2 We must conclude that the Earl of Warren chose to regard and to style Isabelle de Holand as his wife, although he had failed to procure a divorce from his actual wife Joan de Barre, a granddaughter of King Edward I., who survived him, and is styled Countess of Surrey after his death. J. G. N.
Guigard, in his Bibliotheque Heraldique de la France, has omitted any notice of Watson’s work: but he mantions, as his No. 4792, Notice historique et genealogique sur la Famille de Warren et sur ses establissements successifs en Angleterre, en Irlande, en Lorraine, et en Toscaine. (Par le comte FRANCOIS PATRICE EDOUARD DE WARREN.) Nancy, Autog. L. Christophe, (1861), in-4. Avec blasons. There is a copy of this in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. There is also an American work of some importance on the Warrens, of which copies are to be found in the libraries of the British Museum and the Athenaeum Club. It is a quarto volume bearing this title: Genealogy of Warren, with some historical Sketches. By JOHN C. WARREN, MD., Emeritus Professor of Harvord University. Boston, 1854. pp iv 113. See this fully described in Whitmore’s American Genealogist, 1868, p 96. About half the book relates to the Warrens of England. Not only does the author derive the Warrens of Poynton from the Earls of Warren, but he derives the Warrens of Headborough, Devonshire, from those of Poynton; and various families in America from those of Headborough. Mr. Whitmore, the American bibliographer, has the acumen to perceive that these are ―bold hypotheses,‖ and he has further the courage to pronounce them to be ―not proven.‖
In the year 2004 I bought a copy of Testamenta Eboracensia that contained the Will of the Eighth Earl Warren written in its original French Latin. The very will Rev Watson failed to find that would have changed his linage for Sir George Warren of Poynton. Alan John Warren of Blandford Forum, Dorset had it translated and as you can see matches Nichols version from A Critical Account very well. The following documents are the Will, correspondence and the translation.
6 July 2004
Mr. Alan John Warren, The Hill, Tarrant Keyneston Blandford Forum Dorset DR11 (JG
Dear Mr. Warren,
I am happy to enclose my translation of the Will of John, Earl of Warenne, Surrey and Strathearn, 1347, together with your photocopies.
My treatment of the text calls for little comment. I have retained the original spellings of the few English words which appear – mostly place-names and personal names. Square brackets enclose editorial notes. ―?‖ indicates a word of which the meaning is uncertain. Paragraph divisions and more punctuation have been introduced to make the text more readable. Dates and sums of money are given in their original forms, but Arabic numerals replace Roman ones.
It turns out that the document contains no references to any land. Testators of this period sometimes made their Wills in two parts: a ―Testament‖ which dealt with their souls, bodies, and movables, including money, and a ―Last Will‖ which dealt with their land. Because of this, I have called it a Testament. I do not know whether the Earl’s difficult family circumstances – an unsuccessful attempt to divorce his wife, Joan of Bar (who is not mentioned here, if she was still alive), and a lack of legitimate heirs – may have led him not to make one.
I notice that he made bequests to the king’s eldest son, Edward of Woodstock, and then to Edmund of Langley, but not to any of the royal children born between those two. Could he perhaps have been Edmund’s god-father? But this is just speculation.
The work has gone well, with few real problems. Words for technical things like pieces of amour can be tricky: I’ve done my best and put in notes for the awkward ones where the exact meaning may be uncertain.
Dr. Peter Franklin, Palaeographer 46, Fountain Street, ACCRINGTON, Lancashire, BB5 0QP (Tel: 0254 389909).
Translation of the Testament of John, Earl of Warenne, Surrey and Strathearn, 1347
[Anglo French]
Page 41
―[Heading: ―35. This is the Testament of Sir John, Earl of Warrenne [sic], of Surrey [―Surr.‖] and of Strathorne [= Strathearn], Lord of Bromfeld and Yale‖]
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, amen,
On Sunday the 24th day of June in the year of the Incarnation of our
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Lord 1347, I, John, Earl of Warenne [sic], of Surrey and of Strathorne. Lord of Bromfeld and of Yal [sic], in good and sound memory, make my Testament in my castle of Conesburgh, in this manner,
Firstly, I bequeath my soul to God, and to our Lady, and to all the Saints in heaven,
And my body to be buried in the Church of St. Pancras [―Pancratz‖] at Lewes, in a tomb? [―arche‖] which I have had made on the left-hand side near the high altar,
And I will that of my great horses [i.e. war-horses] be caparisoned with my armorial bearings, two for war the other for peace, before my body on the day of my burial, whereof those for war should be covered with armor [literally with iron], and that the same two horses should remain and be given to the afore-named Church of St Pancras [―Pantcratz [sic]‖], with my weapons with which those who ride on chevauchees [see note below] are armed,
I bequeath for all the kinds of expenses for my burial, all entirely at the order of my executors, as well in alms as in other matters, just as they think fit to perform my Testament,
And I will that all the cloths of gold and silk which shall be offered for my body, and all the wax [i.e., wax candles] which shall be borne around my body on the hearse, shall remain to the said church where my body shall be buried,
I bequeath to the Friars Minors [= Franciscans] of Lewes, 50 marks,
And I will that a lowly hearse should be made in their church, and that they should sing a requiem mass for my soul, and that all the wax from the said hearse should remain to them,
I bequeath £100 cash [literally of silver] to be given specially to the poor on the day of my burial,
I bequeath to the Chapel of our Lady of Walsingham, my golden eagle [―Egle‖; see note, below], without the rings which are placed as stars [―par constellation‖],
I bequeath to the shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury [―Cauntiribirs‖], to the shrine of St Richard at Cicestre, to the shrine of St Alban, to the shrine of St Edward and to the shrine of St Edmund, to each of them, a golden broach,
I bequeath to the parish churches where I have my manors and my lordships. L20, to be divided between the parsons and the vicars of the same churches, according to the order of my executors, in compensation for the tithes which my officers have not paid as well as they ought, and to pray for my soul,
I bequeath to my lord, the King of England, my great dish of jasper, ornamented with silver, gold, and precious stones, and two of my best-flying falcons,
And I will that all the remainder of my falcons should be divided between my falconers to the order
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of my executors,
I bequeath to my lady, Queen Philippa [―Phelipp‖ see note, below], my silver-gilt salt-cellar shaped like [latterly cut like] an elephant.
I bequeath to my lord, the Prince [see note, below], my jasper cup,
I bequeath to Sir [―Sire‖] Edmund of Langley [―Langele‖], his brother, a crystal cup ormanited with silver gilt, with a tripod? [―treper‖],
I bequeath to the Archbishop of Canterbury [―Canterbirs‖], one cross of silver gilt and enamel, with three pieces of coral at the corners,
And five gold rings placed as stars which I carried with the same,
I bequeath to Lady Maud de Holande, four mares [―jumentz‖ may also mean beasts of burden in general] from my stud in Sussex,
I bequeath to Sir [―Monsire‖] Robert de Holande, the thigh-armor? [―quinnern‖] with the picer of leather [see note, below] which are for my dentrier,
Here he has left out Monsire Otes de Holande
I bequeath to Sir William de Warenne, my son, 100 marks, my helmet of silver gilt for Strathorne, with the coronet [―in cercle‖] of silver gilt for the same, two fastenings and the pin? [―ie latz‖] of silver gilt for the cloak, and all my amour for joust,
And to my daughter, his wife [not named], one golden broach,
I bequeath to Edward de Warenne, my son, £5 [see note, below],
I bequeath to Joan de Basyngg, my daughter, one cup of plain silver.
I bequeath to Katherine, my daughter, 10 marks,
I bequeath to Isabel, my daughter, a nun at Sempyngham [sic], £5
I bequeath to Dan [―Dauns‖] William de Warenne, my son, my Bible which I had made in French, and which should remain in the house where he shall be prior in perpetual memory of me.
I bequeath to Sir Thomas Beron, 12 dishes, 12 saucers, six ordinary goblets, one plain cup, two basins and two chargers of silver, my old bed of red [English; ―worsted‖], and the cloth of one robe, partly of striped velvet and partly of red velvet, with the cloak of red velvet, for a vestment for his church,
I bequeath to Brother William Bugaleys, my confessor, £10,
And to his fellow, whoever it should be at the time, five marks,
I bequeath to the Canons at Regate, the vestments of my chapel which are commonly used, with the chalice and fittings for the altar,
I bequeath to Durham Priory [―in Priorie de Duresme‖], my golden chalice ornamented with precious stones, for celebrating masses at the altar of St Cuthbert,
I bequeath to the Friars Preachers [Dominicans] at Thefford, £5,
And to the Friars Minors at Grantham (―Graham vynt‖)], £5,
And to the monks at Medenham, £40, if my executors see that they can do it [sic],
I bequeath to Sir John de Eland, 100 marks,
I bequeath to John Dynleye, £5,
I bequeath to Sir William de Friskeneye, two silver bottles? [―botels‖], with shields with the arms of Sir John de Breouse,
I bequeath to Master Thomas de Upton, the cloth of a velvet robe, partly of striped velvet and partly of green velvet, for a vestment for his church,
I bequeath to Master John de la Gote, £20,
I bequeath to Sir John de Walford, 10 marks, and the cloth,
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of one of my robes of silk for a vestment for his church,
I bequeath to Sir John de Staunford, £10,
I bequeath to Henry Hop. £10, and the cloth of one of my robes of silk for a vestment for his church,
I bequeath to William Mauduyt, five marks,
I bequeath to Isabel [―Bette‖] Bygot and to John de Reym, to each of them, 10 marks,
I bequeath to Thomas de Jardyn, to John de Pulesdon and to John de Ratheby, to John Chaundeler, to Henry Lardiner and to Richard Bourt [it is not clear how the abbreviation should be extended], to each of them100s,
(Here he left out John the barbour and John de Ernole)
I bequeath to John de Gayte, Richard [―Huchoune‖], see note, below] de Gretewell, Martin Baker, Roger le Palfreyour and to John de Seleby, to each of them, 60s,
I bequeath to John le Ferour, to Robert le Ferour and to Peter Politer, to each of them, 40s,
I bequeath to the clerks of my chapel, 40s, to be divided between them, according to the order of my executors,
I bequeath £40 to be divided between my other people of my household, the serving-men and pages of my household, according to the position of each and the time for which he has served me, according to the order of my executors,
I bequeath 200 marks to provide for two chaplains to sing [i.e., celebrate masses] for me in various places, according to the order of my executors, so that 100 marks should be provided solely for celebrating masses for our lady.
And if my goods will extend further than that, then I will that more should be done,
I bequeath to Isabel de Holand [sic], my wife [―compaigne‖ see note, below], my gold ring with the good ruby, the five gold rings placed as stars which are in my golden eagle, so that she put other rings in their place, such as she shall please, the complete principal vestments for my chapel, with the complete fittings for the altar, my censer of silver gilt and enamel, my golden cup with a little [English: ―Ewer‖] of silver gilt, all my beds, great and small, except those which I have bequeathed to othera [sic, plural], the great dish, the silver pot for alms, three plates for spices, all my vessels of plain silver, as in dishes, saucers, basins, washing dishes, chargers, cups and goblets, except those which I have bequeathed to others in this Testament,
And the half of my stock, as oxen, cows, mares, foals, sheep and other beasts,
And after my debts and my bequeaths shall be paid, I bequeath to my said wife, all the residue of all my goods and chattels, in whatever place they should be found,
And I will and bequeath that none of my executors shall trouble at any time that he should not have sufficient expenses for the execution of my said Testament, and that he should look for his labour [i.e., have his expenses] according to the order of my executors,
And I will and ordain that what I have bequeathed to every single one of the people in this Will and whatsoever I owe to various creditors, should be raised and paid to my said creditors and legatees from my horses, foals, mares, oxen, cows and calves, sheep
Page 45
Lambs, wool, and the rents which are due to me, and from my other stock and movables which I have in Surry [sic], Sussex, Wilteshire, Wales [―Gales‖], Norfolk and elsewhere, and that my executors sell my said goods and stock to such people who proffer and wish to pay the most for them at the time that they buy my said stock and my above said other goods,
And for the same reason, I will and ordain that my executors do not sell any manner of stock or of the other goods named above which shall be mine at the time when God shall give his command to me [i.e., when I shall die], to any man of ant condition, whether he should be of my blood or an outsider, who, after my decease, claims any manner of right in the Earldom of Warrenne, or in any part of the lands which I hold, or who can claim by way of succession, or by any other reason of law or title, exact by the good will and consent of all my executors,
And that the said goods should be sold to such for as high price as other good people of the country proffer and give in fairs and markets for such kinds of stock and other goods bought,
And I will that in such case the price agreed beforehand should be paid to my said executors before any kind of delivery of the said goods,
And if it happens that any of my said successors contravene this my Testament, taking or seizing any of my said stock or aforesaid goods and chattels for him, or for any of them, then I make protest before God and all the world that they will have done it all contrary to my Testament,
And I will that such interlopers of my said goods, for themselves or for others, have no right or pretext of right by way of such seizure in the retention of the same, but they should be bound before God according to all manner of strictness of the law and of the statutes until they have made full restitution and satisfaction to my said executors,
And in such case, if my said executors should be prevented from fulfilling my said Testament by such violent attacks and seizures of my said goods, I will that they should be quite and absolved before God and all the world, and the said interlopers be burdened with all the penalties and course of the law aforesaid,
And I make and ordain my executors, to fulfill this my Testament Sir John de Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury [―Cantirbirs‖], Lady Maud de Hollande [sic], Sir Thomas de Holand, Sir John de Eland, Sir Thomas Bertram, Master John de la Gote, John de Dynleye, Thomas de Weyvill, Sir Ralph Bygot. William Mauduyt and John Plescy,
In witness of which thing, I have put my seal to this Testament,
Given at my Castle of Conesburgh, the day and year above written,
{Grant of Probate: ―Proved on 26th July 1347, in the Manor of Scroby‖]
N.B 1) Late medieval testators sometimes made their Wills in two parts, a ―Testament‖ which dealt with their souls, bodies, and movables, including money, and a ―Last Will‖ which dealt with their land. As this document makes no mention of land, I have translated the Anglo-French ―testament‖ as Testament in this sense of the word, rather than as Will.
2) The title ―earl Warenne/earl of Warenne‖ was used interchangeably with that of ―earl of Surrey‖. John de Warenne was born 30 June 1286 and died without legitimate heirs on 29 June 1347. He was created Earl of Strathearn by Edward Balliol, but other earls of Strathearn were recognized in Scotland while he was still alive. See F. M. Powicke and E. H. Fryde, eds., Handbook of British Chronology.
3) ―Chevawchues‖ were mounted raids which became a major feature of the Hundred Years War.
4) The English mark was a unit of account – never a coin – worth two-thirds of a pound or 13s 4d.
5) A few terms are awkward. ―Egle‖ must be eagle, but it is not clear if this word is given in Anglo-French or in English. This was a rich object around which rings were put ―as stars‖ ―[par constellation‖]; its gift to the chapel suggests that it was a lectern shaped like an eagle, but any kind of rich ornament would have made a suitable gift. I cannot find a translation for the ―picer of leather‖, which was evidently a piece of horse-armour.
6) The form Philip was used for both sexes in Anglo-French and English at this time, as neither language had a feminine form of the name. I have followed convention by rendering the name of Edward III’s queen as Philippa, the form which English later borrowed from Latin.
7) ―My Lord, the Prince‖ must be Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales and of Aquitaine.
8) ―Sire‖ and ―Monsire‖/‖Monsieur‖ both mean Sir. The clerk gave this title to clergymen as well as Knights in late medieval fashion. Edmund of Lamgley was called ―Sir‖ out of respect for one of the king’s sons; he was only five years old when this Will was made. The Earl’s clerical son William was given the archaic ecclesiastical title ―Dan‖.
9) The raised numeral ―1‖ which the Editor used to indicate his foot-note on Page 43 is almost identical with the raised letter‖1‖, probably standing for Anglo-French ―livers‖ but perhaps Latin ―libros‖, both of which mean pounds. The foot-note refers only to the bequest to Durham Priory.
10) ―Hunchoune‖ is a diminutive of Richard, found, i.e., in the surname Hutchinson. The bequest was, in effect, made to Dick de Gretewell.
11) The text calls Isabel de Holand the Earl’s ―compaigne‖, which means wife or consort, but Joan de Bar is the only wife mentioned in works such as V.H.H. Green, The Later Plantagenets.
12) John de Stratford was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1334 to his death in 1348.
Our Warren lineage with this much overwhelming documentation now must be considered as passing through the illegitimate son of the Eighth Earl Warren as follows:
SIR EDWARD DE WARREN
Sir Edward de Warren, Knight, illegitimate son of the last Earl of Warren and Surrey by Maud de Nerford married Cecily, daughter and heiress of Sir Nicholas de Eaton, Knight and wife Joan de Stockport, daughter of Sir Richard Stockport. At the time, she was the divorced wife of Sir John Ardene. This marriage brought Sir Edward a large estate in Cheshire which added to his prominence and influence. He died before 1369.
SIR JOHN DE WARREN
Sir John de Warren, married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Stafford of Wickham, Knight. Sir John was knighted about 1372, probably on his being appointed to attend the king in his expedition to France. Sir John and Margaret’s children were daughters Margaret and Isabel and only son Nicholas. His will was dated 8 Richard II (1384) and proved 10 Richard II (1386). Knight Sir John died in 1387, and his widow married Sir John Mainwaring of Over Pever in Cheshire. She died 1428.
NICHOLAS DE WARREN
Nicholas de Warren born 1371, being age 14 at his fathers death. In 1390 he married Agnes, daughter of Sir Richard de Wynnington, Knight. He died about 1413. Their children were Emma who married Hugh Venables of Golborne, a second daughter, Elizabeth mentioned in documents of 1417 and 1422 and a son Lawrence.
SIR LAURENCE DE WARREN
Sir Laurence de Warren, Knight was born about 1394, married Margery, daughter of Hugh Bulkley of Owre, Shropshire in 1413 and died in 1444. Their children were John, who succeeded him, Randle or Ralph; Margery who married John de Honford; Joan who married Nicholas de Longford of Derbyshire; Cecily who married John Davenport; Margaret who married John Stafford; and Elizabeth.
JOHN DE WARREN
John de Warren was born about 1414, married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Stanley of Latham, Knight of the Garter in 1444 by dispensation from the Pope secured by Sir John Stanley. He is described in 1458 as Lord of the Manors of Stockport, Poynton, Wood Plumpton, Forneby, Rotley, Boton, and Skegton. In 1473 he made John Warren, clerk, Rector of Stockport, his attorney - this clergyman was probably a relative, although not placed in Watson’ pedigree. His children were Elizabeth who married Robert Rockley of Yorkshire; Sir Laurence; Jane who married John Atherton of Lancaschire; Margaret who married John Arderne of Chester; John who married Ann, daughter of Lord Stafford; Richard living in 1482; Henry parson of Stockport; Joan who married Sir John Mainwaring of Over Pever.
SIR LAURENCE DE WARREN
Sir Laurence de Warren, Knight married Isabel, daughter of Robert Leigh of Adlington, Cheshire before 1458. He was knighted soon after the accession of Edward IV. He was the Lord of the Manors of Stockport, Poynton, Wode Plumpton, Fornely, Rotteley, Boton, and Skegeton. He died in the lifetime of his father, and his widow married Sir George Holford in 1475. This Sir Laurence had Sir John, and William.
SIR JOHN DE WARREN
Sir John de Warren, Knight was born about 1461 and was knighted at Ripon in York, by King Henry VII, on Bartholomew's Day 1487. He married about 1480, Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerrard of Bryn Com, Lancashire, Knight and died January 11, 1517. John and Eleanor’s children according to Harleison MS. 1074, Laurence, Thomas and Robert; but the Poynton pedigree lists Laurence; Richard, living in 1529, who married Catherine, daughter of John Moore, of Bank House, Lancashire; Nicholas, who married Catharine Mainwaring; Jerome; Ralph; and two daughters who died without issue. Sir John married secondly Joan or Jane daughter of Ralph Arderne of Harden. By her he had George Warren who lived at Poynton. The estate passed to Laurence.
LAURENCE DE WARREN
Laurence de Warren, Esq. married first Margaret, daughter of Sir Piers (also called Perkin) Leigh of Lyme, Cheshire, Knight July, 1494. The marriage settlement, dated July 1494, Lawrence being then eighteen years of age, provides, that if he died before consummation, another son was to marry her. By her he had fourteen children. First was Cecily who married a Coleshull; Second was Mabel who married Roger Beke, Sergeant-at-arms; third Sir Edward who continued the descent; fourth Helen who married Roger Downes of Shrigley; fifth Margaret who married Robert Hyde of Norbury; sixth Dorothy married first a Norton, and second to Hugh Davenport, deputy steward of Macclesfield; seventh Ranulph who married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Catherall; eighth Ann who married George Kighley of Kighley, Yorks; ninth Catherine who married Nicholas Bradbury of Ollerset, Derbyshire; tenth Jane who married George Chatterton; eleventh Isabel; twelfth Laurence; thirteenth George; fourteenth another Edward. Laurence de Warren had a second wife, Sibil, who was widow of William Honford. Laurence’s will was dated November 18, 1529, and proved 1531. He died September 18 1531. They had no children and she survived him.
SIR EDWARD WARREN
The Earl of Hertford knighted Sir Edward Warren, Knight at Leith in Scotland, May 11, 1544 while fighting the Scots under the Cardinal of ST. Andrews. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Booth, of Dunham Massey, Knight. Their marriage settlement was dated 1516. By her he had first Francis, who was disinherited by his father, having only an annuity settled on him; second John who succeeded to the estate; third Laurence who married Frances, daughter of Richard Broughton of Staffordshire; fourth Edward; fifth another Edward, both of whom died young; sixth Peter who married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas, and sister of Sir William Norris, of Speke; seventh Helen; eighth Joan; ninth Margaret; tenth Ethelred; eleventh Ann all these last five died young. Sir Edward died October 12, 1558 and Dorothy March 19, 1584, both are buried at Prestbury.
Stone of Sir Edward Warren of Poynton 1588 JOHN WARREN
John Warren, Esq. is called Baron of Stockport and was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1576. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Molineux of Sefton in Lancashire, Knight. John died December 7, 1587, Margaret died at Stockport June 21, 1617. Their children were Sir Edward; Laurence, steward of Stockport who married Jane, November 20, 1593, eldest daughter of William Davenport of Woodford; Richard who married Rudyard; John who married December 24, 1606, Dorothy, daughter of Roger Downes of Worth; Ralph who died without issue in 1593; William;
George who both died without issue at London; Dorothy, baptized January 25, 1561 and married October 16, 1581, to William Davenport of Bramall; Mary who married Hamnet Hyde, son and heir of Robert Hyde of Hyde, Cheshire; Eleanor, baptized October 22, 1565, married October 23, 1581 to Robert Tatton of Withenshaw; Frances who married William Dedall of Salwick, Lancashire; Ann who married Roger Downes of Shrigley; Lucy who married November 15, 1613 to Osbaldiston of Ireland. SIR EDWARD WARREN
Sir Edward Warren, Knight of Poynton Cheshire, was baptized at Prestbury, April 9, 1563. He was High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1597 and toward the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was in the Irish wars, where he was knighted July 22, 1599, by Robert, Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant. He married first a daughter of Sir Edward Fritton of Gawsworth, Knight. Second he married about 1581 Joan or Ann, daughter of Sir William Davenport of Bramall, Knight and Margaret Ashton. Ann died July 13, 1597, Sir Edward died at Poynton November 13, 1609 and buried at Stockport. Their children were John who died young;
John who succeeded the estate; Ralph who died young; Humphrey buried at Stockport July 9, 1657, a Royalist, and his property was sequestered by Cromwell; William his fifth child was in Virginia between 1633-40; Margaret; another Margaret; Ann these last three having died young; Frances who died unmarried, and was buried at Stockport April 20, 1633; Margaret who married January 2, 1616, to Thomas Singleton of Broughton Tower, Lancashire, and surviving him, died 1632; Catharine, baptized at Stockport March 5, 1591, and buried at Wood Plumpton, November 2, 1605; Dorothy; and Ann. Sir Edward married thirdly Susan daughter of Sir William Booth of Dunham Massey, Knight. By Susan Sir Edward had George; Edward who married Susan daughter of Nathan Lane of London; Laurence whose wife was Ellen; Richard whose wife was Elizabeth; Halsall; Edmond, who with his brother Humphrey, being Royalists had their property sequestered by Cromwell; Thomas who patented 300 acres of land in Charles City County, Virginia in 1635, his wife was Susan Greenleaf, he was a burgess both in James City and Surrey Counties as late as 1666. He had a second wife Elizabeth and had sons John, Richard, and Thomas; Elizabeth who married Darcy Wentworth of Brodesworth, Yorkshire; Lieutenant Radclift Warren was killed in Claiborne's raid on the Isle of Kent in 1635; Ralph; and Posthumous, born two months after his father’s death.
JOHN WARREN
John Warren, Esq. married Ann in October 28, 1594, daughter of George Ognell, of Bilsley, in Warwickshire. He died June 20, 1621. Ann died May 1652. Their children were Edward who seceded to the estate; John baptized August 9, 1606 was living in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1642 and was killed by Captain Thomas Cornwallis and Party in Maryland in 1644; Laurence; and Humphrey.
EDWARD WARREN
Edward Warren, Esq. was commonly called "Stag Warren", on account of his great size and strength. He was born May 10, 1605 and baptized May 19 according to the register of Wood Plumpton. He married Margaret, daughter of Henry Arderne of Harden near Stockport. She died April 20, 1644. Edward's first child Ann, baptized January 21, 1626 and married in 1650, Edward, son and heir of Richard Holland of Denton, Lancashire, she died at Stockport November 23, 1668. Second child John who succeeded to the estate. Edward's third child Humphrey came to Maryland by 1657 and is our first Warren ancestor in America. However, Dr. Watson's account states Humphrey was "brought up as a merchant, went to the West Indies where he married and died without issue about 1680" (page 147 Vol. ii Memoirs of the Ancient Earls--). But now it is generally accepted Mr. Charles Browning account in his Americans of Royal Descent "West Indies" in those times applied to Virginia, Maryland, and even New England. The date of Humphrey's death, 1680, was simply the last date friends in England heard from him. The fourth child Henry was born December 18, 1635, was rector of Stockport, and was buried there May 6, 1674, having married Catharine, daughter and heiress of Leonard Clayton of Blackburn. The fifth child Charles born March 28, 1637 and buried at Stockport January 27, 1645; sixth Edward born 1639 and died 1676; and twins Radcliffe and Posthumous whose mother died at their birth April 20, 1644. He married secondly Anne Hough, widow of Humphrey Booth of Salford. No issue resulted. She was buried May 31, 1662, at Stockport. By his will dated Jan 26, 1663, he founded the almshouse at the east side of the old church yard at Stockport and was buried under the arch on the left side of the communion rails in the parish church on September 10, 1687.
For those interested in the line of Poynton Warrens past this above Edward Warren, Esq. we find:
John Warren Esq. August 12, 1630 - March 20, 1705-6 Edward Warren Esq. September 17, 1663 - October 10, 17117 John Warren Esq. July 15, 1679 - died unmarried 1729 his brother succeeded Edward Warren Esq. died September 7, 1737 Sir George Warren who was the last Warren to own the estate and had the Rev John Watson publish the Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surry
Bibliography Charles County Gentry, by Harry Wright Newman pub1971. Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey and their Descendants, by Rev. John Watson pub 1782. Manuscripts, British Museum, London. Parish Registers of Lancashire and Cheshire. Ormerod’s History of Cheshire.
A View of Poynton Lodge at the time of Sir George Warren
Same view of Poynton Pool as plate above I made September 2006
Found in Sir George Warren files in Poynton Library September 2006.
The original Poynton Hall was built about 1552 by Sir Edward Warren, but there may have been an earlier building on the site. It was pulled down about 1750 by Sir George Warren and replaced with a large house on the same site with a park. This stood on the right hand side of the road from Macclesfield to Stockport and was engraved for the Rev. Watson's 'History of the Ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey' with the title 'A View of Poynton Lodge in Cheshire'. This house was demolished with the exception of the central towers in 1830. It was not replaced directly but a modern house was built near the site of the old hall and named Poynton Towers. In March, 1823, the library of books and the collection of pictures, plate and furniture at Poynton Hall were sold by the executors of Viscount Bulkley.
The Arms of Sir George Warren