Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

Robert Gournay (fl. c. 1370–1420)

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Second son of Edmund Gournay; the line descends through him when his brother Sir John's son died without heirs.

Born
c. 1370, Norfolk. Second son of Edmund Gournay (G23) and Katherine de Wauncy. 1
Died
c. 1420 or later. No death date recorded in any source consulted. Active generation estimated from son Thomas I (fl. c. 1408–1450). 2
Occupation / Status
Younger son of a prominent Norfolk legal family. Landholder in Norfolk. Specific occupational role not documented in sources consulted. 3
Buried
Unknown. No record. 2
Marriage(s)
Joan de Norwich. No further details on her family, parentage, or dates have been found. 4

Highlights

  • Even his given name is uncertain. In his Edmund Gournay chapter, the genealogist Daniel Gurney wrote of "a second son, whom we believe was named Robert" — an explicit editorial hedge. The only other source he cites for Edmund's children is the 1622 pedigree by Cook, Clarenceux King of Arms. Robert is the most probable identification, not a confirmed one. 5
  • The direct line descends through him because his brother's son died young. Robert's elder brother Sir John Gurney V (d. 4 December 1408) inherited all the family estates, was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1399 and again at his death in 1408, sat in Parliament for the Coventry parliament of 1404, and married Alice Heylesdon — daughter and eventual sole heir of the wealthy London mercer and former alderman John Heylesdon — bringing into the family the manors of Hellesdon and Drayton, the advowsons of both parish churches, the two chantries founded in her father's memory, houses in Norwich, and the great London warehouse known as "La Selde Coronata" (a merchant's storehouse). Sir John appeared to be the main line. But his only son Edmund, aged ten at his father's death, "followed him to the grave not long afterwards." The estates passed to Robert's son Thomas I — making Robert the pivotal ancestor through whom the entire subsequent West Barsham Gurney family (and through Francis Gurney, probably the American Gurneys) descend. The full sequence is documented in the History of Parliament Online biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408. 6
  • His father was one of the most connected men in East Anglia. Born into a family at the height of its social and professional reach — father steward of John of Gaunt, mother heiress of West Barsham, elder brother heading toward a knighthood and a parliamentary career — Robert would have grown up in the most prosperous and well-connected household the family had known. What he did with that inheritance, in personal terms, is unrecorded. 7

Children

Name Dates Mother Notes
Thomas Gournay I fl. c. 1408–1450 Joan de Norwich G21 in direct line. Nephew and heir to Sir John Gurney V on John's son Edmond's death under age. Married Catherine Kerville of Watlington, Norfolk. Father of Thomas Gournay II (G20). 8

Narrative

Robert Gournay is, genealogically, one of the most important figures in the junior Norfolk branch — and one of the most elusive. He is the man through whom every subsequent generation descends, yet the genealogist Daniel Gurney himself was uncertain enough about his name to write only that Edmund Gournay had “a second son, whom we believe was named Robert.” 15 No deed bearing Robert’s name, no court appearance, no will, no land transaction has been identified in the sources reviewed. 3 He exists in the record almost entirely as a relationship — son of Edmund, brother of Sir John, father of Thomas, husband of Joan de Norwich. 146

Robert’s obscurity fits what the surviving evidence actually shows: his elder brother Sir John V carried the offices, manors, parliamentary service, and long administrative trail, while no deed, will, court appearance, or land transaction has been found that names Robert in his own right. 36 His marriage to Joan de Norwich may point toward the Norwich civic world that his father Edmund had served as standing counsel, but the sources only give her name; they do not identify her parents, family, or property. 47 The critical event of Robert’s life — or rather of his family’s life — was one over which he had no control: his nephew Edmund (son of Sir John V) died under age, leaving no heir. The History of Parliament biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408 gives us the precise sequence: Sir John was reappointed sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk on 15 November 1408, but died less than three weeks later, on 4 December 1408. His only son Edmund, then ten years old, followed him to the grave “not long afterwards.” At that point the entire estate — West Barsham, Harpley, Hardingham, the Wauncy lands at Depden in Suffolk, the great London warehouse “La Selde Coronata” that Sir John had brought in by marriage to the wealthy mercer’s daughter Alice Heylesdon, and the rest of the portfolio Edmund Gournay G23 had assembled — passed by right of inheritance to Robert’s son Thomas I, as the surviving male-line heir. Robert may or may not have lived to see this; the dates are too uncertain to say. Sir John’s widow Alice survived him by at least 25 years, sold “Loundhall” in Saxthorpe to John Wynter to pay her late husband’s debts, then married twice more — first the Fitzalan retainer Sir John Wiltshire (d. 1428), then Richard Selling, esquire — and in 1433 sold the bulk of her Heylesdon inheritance to Sir John Fastolf KG, the Norfolk soldier-magnate of Caister Castle. 6

The descent through Robert is supported by Daniel Gurney’s pedigree and by the modern History of Parliament account of Sir John’s succession crisis: when Sir John’s son died under age, the estates passed to Sir John’s nephew Thomas, Robert’s son. Robert remains personally elusive, but his place in the descent rests on that broader succession evidence rather than on a surviving personal archive of his own. 6

Citations

  1. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), p. 363: "a second son, whom we believe was named Robert." Edmund's will chapter; Pedigree by Cook, Clarenceux, 1622. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 280 (Norfolk pedigree summary). ↩
  2. No death date recorded in Daniel Gurney or any other source consulted. Active generation inferred from son Thomas I (fl. c. 1408–1450, per Daniel Gurney, Record (1848) pedigree p. 280). ↩
  3. No occupational record found for Robert specifically in sources consulted. ↩
  4. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 280: "Robert; also a daughter Jeanne." The name Joan de Norwich for Robert's wife comes from Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 280. ↩
  5. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), p. 363: "a second son, whom we believe was named Robert." The phrase "whom we believe" is Daniel Gurney's explicit hedge. Cook, Clarenceux, 1622 pedigree is the supporting source Daniel Gurney cites for Edmund's children. ↩
  6. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 280 (Norfolk pedigree summary): Sir John's son Edmond died under age; estates passed to Thomas, son of Robert. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858) (John Gurney V chapter, p. 374+): the line of Sir John. The History of Parliament Online biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408 (https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/gurney-john-1408) gives the fullest independent account of Robert's elder brother and the inheritance crisis: Sir John was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1399; MP for the Coventry parliament of 1404; eventually inherited the Wauncy estates at West Barsham as well as Depden in Suffolk through his mother Katherine; married Alice, daughter of John Heylesdon the wealthy mercer and former alderman of London, who brought into the family the great London warehouse "La Selde Coronata"; was reappointed sheriff on 15 November 1408 but died less than three weeks later, on 4 December 1408. The HoP entry continues: "His only son, Edmund, then ten years old, followed him to the grave not long afterwards, whereupon the family estates passed to John's nephew, Thomas." This is the moment at which Robert's son Thomas I inherited as nephew and heir. The HoP biography draws on: Daniel Gurney, House of Gurney, pp. 281, 286–7, 359, 365, 374–81; the Court of Common Pleas Feet of Fines (CP25(1)167/169/1290 and CP25(1)168/181/262); Francis Blomefield, Norfolk, vols. vii (p. 43), viii (pp. 454–5), and x (pp. 225, 411, 426); the HMC Lothian Manuscripts pp. 45 and 52–53; the Calendar of Close Rolls 1392–6 (p. 270), 1381–5 (pp. 137, 563–4, 568), 1389–92 (p. 331), 1396–9 (p. 399), 1399–1402 (p. 332), 1405–9 (pp. 385, 524); the Calendar of Patent Rolls 1396–9 (p. 570), 1399–1401 (p. 478), 1405–8 (pp. 181, 301); and the Norfolk Record Office Register of Surflete, fol. 27. ↩
  7. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), pp. 357–363 (Edmund's career detail). ↩
  8. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 280. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858) (John V chapter) for the succession. ↩