Walter Devereux (1411–1459)

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Walter Devereux of Bodenham and Weobley
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Merbury
Issue
Walter Devereux, 7th Baron Ferrers of Chartley
Anne Devereux
Sir John Devereux
Isabella Devereux
Father Walter Devereux of Bodenham
Mother Elizabeth Bromwich
Born 1411
Died 1459

Sir Walter Devereux (1411 – 22 April 1459) of Bodenham and Weobley was a loyal supporter of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York during the Wars of the Roses. He was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1449 to about 1451.

Ancestry and Childhood

Walter Devereux was born in 1411 in Bodenham, Herefordshire to a senior Walter Devereux (or Deverois, 1387–1420) and his wife Elizabeth Bromwich.[1] His maternal grandparents were Thomas Bromwich, Lord Justice of Ireland and Catherine Oldcastle.

His paternal grandparents were an elder Walter Devereux (c. 1361–1402) and Agnes Crophull.[lower-alpha 1] Agnes was mother of Sir Thomas Parr by a second marriage to John Parr of Kendal; and paternal grandmother of William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal, a noted courtier under Edward IV of England and grandfather of Queen Catherine Parr. Agnes Crophull's third husband was John Merbury, the father of Walter Devereux's wife by a previous marriage as indicated below.

His arms were: Argent a fesse gules, in chief three torteaux.

Marriage

He married Elizabeth Merbury.[2] She was a daughter of Sir John Merbury,[3] Chief Justice of South Wales and his wife Alice Pembridge. They had the following children:

Wars of the Roses and Career

Devereux's first residence was Bodenham, the core of his Devereux family estates. With the death of his grandmother, Agnes Crophull, in 1436, he inherited the remainder of his Devereux lands including Lyonshall Castle.[5] She withheld her Crophull lands, deeding a life interest in them to her third husband, John Merbury.[3] With his death in 1438, Walter Devereux inherited the Crophull lands[6] including Weobley,[lower-alpha 3] and the Merbury estates.

Walter Devereux was knighted by 1429, when he first represented Hereford in Parliament.[7] He represented Hereford again in 1434, 1436,[8] 1440,[9] 1450, and 1459. Devereux was appointed to collect the tenth and fifteenth in 1336 and 1440, granted to the king by Parliament.[10][11] Devereux was entrusted again in 1441 with collection of a tenth and fifteenth to fund an expedition by the Duke of York to defend English possessions in France.[12] In 1446, he was also entrusted with collecting a loan to the king.[13] He was justice of peace for Hereford in 1441,.[14] He served as Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1447,[7] and Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1455.[15]

Walter Devereux was appointed by Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York as steward of his lordships of Radnor in 1435.[16] Devereux[17] served with the Duke of York in France, and remained his supporter throughout the War of the Roses. In 1441 Devereux was granted protection and appointed an attorney while on service with York in France,.[18] In 1442 and 1445 he was a captain in garrison at Arques (Normandy).[19] He received a bond for money advanced for a ransom as Bailly of Caux.[20] On 19 December 1445 he led a garrison detachment at the Siege of Conches.[21] York declared his loyalty to the King at Ludlow in February 1452, also stating that the Court should free itself from bad advisors. The King did not respond. York took to the field, he and his supporters, including Walter Devereux, marched on London. The King met them, and eventually found York entrenched at Dartford Heath. The confrontation was resolved peacefully, but skirmishing followed and Devereux was attainted for treason by Parliament in 1452. At this time, Devereux began holding Wigmore Castle for the Yorkists.

On 22 May 1455, the first Battle of St. Albans was fought north of London, traditionally recognized as the first battle of the War of the Roses. A Yorkist victory that included the capture of the King, the Battle of St. Albans restored the Duke of York to complete power. Shortly after the victory Parliament pardoned Walter Devereux.[17] As the King and the Lancaster party maneuvered to reverse their losses, lawlessness increased on the Welsh Marches. Walter Devereux, Constable of Wigmore Castle, was up in arms. In the summer of 1456, he descended on Hereford with the castle’s garrison and captured the mayor and justices. Devereux then brought before the justices several local men whom the justices condemn to death by hanging. Devereux mustered a force of 2000 archers from Gwent, and marched on the castles at Carmarthen and Aberystwyth, which he took by assault. Afterwards he declared a commission of ‘oyer and terminer’ to judge and condemn men whom he believed hostile to York. Among his prisoners were Edmund Tudor, the king’s half-brother, and Robert Rees, Keeper of the Welsh Seal.

Devereux was granted land in Drogheda in Ireland in 1459.[1]

Lord Chancellor

Devereux was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1449. On 1 August 1449 he was granted L13 6s 8d from the Irish revenue for life for good and laudable services in the English and French Wars.[22] His term was brief and uneventful. In 1451, Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland appointed his son, the 8-year-old Edmund, Earl of Rutland, as the new Lord Chancellor. Since Rutland was under age, his duties were taken over by Deputy Chancellor Edmund Oldhall.

Death

Walter Devereux died on the 22 or 23 April in 1459.[1]

General Reference

  • Cokayne, G.E. Complete Baronetage. (New York; St. Martin's Press, 1984). Volume V, page 321 to 333, Ferrers
  • Duncumb, John. Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, Volume 2, Issue 1. (Hereford: EG Wright, 1812). Page 37, Broxash Hundred
  • Mosley, Charles (editor). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999. Page 1378

Specific References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Charles Mosley (editor). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999. Volume 1, pages1378-80
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Evelyn Philip Shirley. Stemmata Shirleiana. (Westminster: Nichols and Sons, 1873). page 103
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 [1], accessed 4 December 2013, The History of Parliament Online; John Merbury (d. 1438), of Lyonshall and Weobley, Herefs.
  4. ↑ Rev. Charles Robinson. A History of the Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire. (London: Longmans & Co). Page 146
  5. ↑ UK National Archives. Walter Devereux, cousin and heir of Agnes, widow of John Merbury [28 April 1438]; Reference: PSO 1/63/4; Description: Privy Seal Office: Signet and other Warrants for the Privy Seal, Series I. CERTIFICATES OF HOMAGE. Walter Devereux, cousin and heir of Agnes, widow of John Merbury.
  6. ↑ [2], Abstract of Feet of Fines. CP 25/1/292/66, number 64. Indicates that Walter Devereux and his wife, Elizabeth, are to inherit certain Crophull lands
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 John Duncumb. Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, volume 1. (Hereford: E.G. Wright. 1804). Page 139, 152
  8. ↑ Calendar of the Fine Rolls, Henry VI, Volume 16, 1430-1437. London. 1936. Page 281, 3 January 1436 (membrane 11)
  9. ↑ Calendar of the Fine Rolls, Henry VI, Volume 17, 1437-1445. London. 1936. Page148, 24 April 1440 (membrane 12)
  10. ↑ Calendar of the Fine Rolls, Henry VI, Volume 16, 1430-1437. London. 1936. Page 281 (3 January 1436, membrane 11) and page 290 (membrane 6)
  11. ↑ Calendar of the Fine Rolls, Henry VI, Volume 17, 1437-1445. London. 1936. Page 148 (24 April 1440, membrane 12)
  12. ↑ [3], Calendar of Patent Rolls, volume 3, page 537. 1441, February 18, membrane 23d
  13. ↑ [4], Calendar of Patent Rolls, Volume 4, page 430. 1446, June 1, Westminster, membrane 29
  14. ↑ [5], Calendar of Patent Rolls, volume 3, page 583. 1441, January 28, Westminster (19 Henry VI) p. 1, m. 36d
  15. ↑ Calendar of the Fine Rolls, Henry VI, Volume 19, 1452-1469. London. 1939. Page 144 (4 November 1455, membrane 16)
  16. ↑ Devereux Papers. Longleat House. Box I.6. Devereux, Sir Walter. Appointed by the Duke of York steward of his lordships of radnor, etc., 1435
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Robin Neillands. The Wars of the Roses. (London: Cassell, 1992). Pages 58-59, 70-86
  18. ↑ [6], The Soldier in Late Medieval England website. University of Southampton. Walter Devreux, membrane 1, TNA E101/53/33, membrane 8 and 13, C76/123 [7]
  19. ↑ [8], The Soldier in Late Medieval England website. University of Southampton. Walter Devreux, ADSM_100J30_49 and BN_msfr_25777_1724
  20. ↑ Devereux Papers. Longleat House. Box I.7. Bond to, as Bailly of Caux, for money, advanced for a ransom, 1445
  21. ↑ [9], The Soldier in Late Medieval England website. University of Southampton. Walter Devreux, BN_msfr_25778_1817
  22. ↑ Gabriel O'C Redmond. "An Account of the Anglo-Norman Family of Devereux, of Balmagir, County Wexford." (Dublin: Office of "The Irish Builder," 1891). Pages 13

Notes

  1. ↑ On 10 April 1436 - Inquest taken at Kyrkeby Kendale for Agnes, who was the wife of John Parr, Esquire, deceased. Agnes died 9 February 1436. Walter Deverous is her kinsman and next heir, viz. son of Walter Deverous, knight, son of the same Agnes, aged 24 years.
  2. ↑ By charter on April 1, 1510/1 he enfoeffed all his lands and tenements in Pudleston (held of Sir Nicholas Vaux as part of Richard’s Castle), Broadfield, and manors of Wood House in Bodenham and King’s Pyon (held from Thomas Poyntz and Jane, Walter Devereux’s widow, as part of her castle and manor of Weobley). His Will was proved on 26 November 1511 before the subdean of Hereford, and it indicated his enfoeffees were to make a life estate of the premises to Margery, his wife, and the remainder to his kinsman and heir, Walter Devereux “Lord le Ferrers.” John Devereux died on 24 October 1511.
  3. ↑ Newbold Vernon, Braunston, Cotesbach and Hemington in Leicester; Weobley manor in Herefordshire; Sutton Bonnington manor and lands at Arnold in Nottinghamshire; and an estate at Market Rasen (Lincolnshire).
Preceded by
Sir John Merbury
 Lord of Lyonshall
1436–1459		 Succeeded by
Walter Devereux, 7th Baron Ferrers of Chartley
Legal offices
Preceded by Lord Chancellor of Ireland
1449–1451		 Succeeded by
Edmund, Earl of Rutland

External links

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