Sir John Gurney V (d. 1408)
Edmund Gournay's eldest son — sheriff, member of Parliament, and lord of West Barsham, whose own line failed and sent the inheritance sideways to his brother Robert's branch.
Highlights
- The line was meant to run through him — then his only son died a boy. As Edmund Gournay's eldest son, John inherited West Barsham and a brilliant public career. But his sole heir, young Edmund, died before growing up; the senior line failed, and the whole estate passed sideways to John's nephew Thomas — son of his quieter brother Robert. The family afterwards descends through the brother, not through John. 5
- He backed the losing side — then changed sides in time to be rewarded. John served the Earl of Arundel, one of the lords who seized the government in 1387–88, and stood by him; when Arundel was arrested and executed in 1397, John bought a royal pardon to save himself. The next year he threw in with the rising Lancastrians, and when Henry IV took the throne in 1399 John was rewarded at once — a seat in Parliament and the shrievalty of Norfolk and Suffolk. 1
- He married a London heiress, and a City warehouse came with her. Alice Heylesdon, sole heir of a rich London mercer, brought into the family the Norfolk manors of Hellesdon and Drayton and a City of London warehouse known as the "Crowned Seld." The Heylesdon inheritance would entangle the family in one of Norfolk's great property feuds for three generations. 4
- Sheriff, member of Parliament, and the crown's man in Norfolk. John sat in the Parliament of 1399 that made Henry IV king, and again at Coventry in 1404; he served twice as sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and was named to a long run of royal commissions — into murder, piracy, and the 1406 uprising at Bishop's Lynn. His is one of the fullest careers of any medieval Gurney. 1
- His death exposed how the family really held its land. Reappointed sheriff on 15 November 1408, John was dead by 4 December. When the crown's officers came to take stock, they found he "held nothing in Norfolk" of the king directly — the family's manors were all held of other lords. His widow Alice outlived him by 25 years and in the end sold the Heylesdon estates to the famous soldier Sir John Fastolf. 6, 7
Children
| Name | Dates | Mother | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edmund Gurney | b. c. 1398 — d. c. 1409 | Alice Heylesdon | Only son and heir; aged ten at his father's death and dead himself soon after, without children. With the senior line gone, West Barsham passed to his cousin Thomas Gournay I (G21), son of Sir John's brother Robert (G22). 5 |
Narrative
Sir John Gurney V was the eldest son of Edmund Gournay, the lawyer who had carried the family to the front rank of Norfolk society, and John built on everything his father left him. He took up the law himself by 1382, and within four years had been retained as steward of the Norfolk estates of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel — the great magnate from whom the Gurneys held their manor at Harpley.1, 2
That service drew John into the most dangerous politics of the age. Arundel was one of the Lords Appellant who seized control of the government from Richard II in 1387–88, and John lent the earl his staunch support. It was a perilous loyalty: when Richard had his revenge ten years later and Arundel was arrested and executed in 1397, John had to buy a royal pardon the following spring to clear himself. He read the times well. In October 1398 he agreed to act as a trustee for Sir Thomas Erpingham, who was about to join the exiled Henry of Bolingbroke; and when Bolingbroke returned in 1399 to take the throne as Henry IV, John was on the winning side at last. Norfolk returned him to the Parliament that acclaimed the new king, and the grateful government made him sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk while that Parliament was still sitting.1
His marriage matched his rising fortunes. Alice Heylesdon was the daughter and, when her sister died young, sole heir of John Heylesdon, a wealthy London mercer and former alderman. Through her John gained the Norfolk manors of Hellesdon and Drayton, the right to appoint the priests of two chantries her father had founded, houses in Norwich, and — most striking of all — a warehouse in the City of London called the “Crowned Seld.”4 In 1395 he and Alice sold the Hellesdon and Drayton manors on to John Winter and his partners, but the Heylesdon lands would haunt the family long after: decades later Alice’s eventual sale of them to Sir John Fastolf set off a chain of disputes that pulled John’s great-nephew William Gurney IV into a famous quarrel with the Pastons over Saxthorpe in 1472.9
For all his estates, John was first and last a man of the crown’s business. He served twice as sheriff and once as escheator, sat in Parliament again at Coventry in 1404, and was named over and over to royal commissions — to investigate a murder, to put down piracy in the Norfolk waters, to deal with the 1406 uprising at Bishop’s Lynn.1 He moved among the leading knights of the county: Sir John Howard left him a new silver cup in his will, alongside men like Sir Stephen Hales and Sir John de Burgh.7 Not every neighbour was a friend — in 1408 he began building a bridge over the river Wensum at Hellesdon, and the citizens of Norwich, fearing it would cost them toll revenue, got a royal writ to stop the work.1
He was reappointed sheriff on 15 November 1408 and was dead within three weeks, on 4 December. The inquest taken after his death made plain how the family really held its wealth: the jurors found that he “held nothing in Norfolk” of the king directly — every manor was held of some other lord — which is why no great royal record of his estate survives.6 His heir was his only son, Edmund, then just ten years old, who “followed him to the grave not long afterwards.” With the senior line extinguished, the whole inheritance his father had assembled passed by right of blood to John’s nephew Thomas — the son of his brother Robert. John’s widow Alice lived on for at least twenty-five more years, married twice again, and in 1433 sold the bulk of her Heylesdon inheritance to Sir John Fastolf.5, 1
Citations
- L. S. Woodger, "GURNEY, John (d.1408), of Harpley and West Barsham, Norf.," in J. S. Roskell, L. Clark, and C. Rawcliffe, eds., The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386–1421 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), History of Parliament Online — the fullest modern life: legal career from 1382; steward of Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel's Norfolk estates (before 1386, probably to 1402); support for Arundel as a Lord Appellant; royal pardon (1398) and trusteeship for Sir Thomas Erpingham; return to the Parliament of 1399 and appointment as sheriff; Member for the Coventry Parliament of 1404; the run of royal commissions; the 1408 Hellesdon bridge dispute with Norwich; death 4 December 1408; the heir Edmund aged ten; and Alice's later marriages and 1433 sale of Heylesdon to Fastolf. Source ID:
hop-gurney. ↩ - Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay (1848), Part II, pp. 363, 374 ff.: John as eldest son of Edmund Gournay and Katherine de Wauncy, and the chapter on his line. Source ID:
dg-rec-pt2. ↩ - Death on 4 December 1408: History of Parliament Online (note 1), anchored to the escheator's writ. Daniel Gurney, Supplement to the Record of the House of Gournay (1858), Note 121 (pp. 793–794), reads the inquisition's date as the Tuesday before St Nicholas (5 December 1408). Source IDs:
hop-gurney,dg-rec-supp. ↩ - The Heylesdon marriage settlement: Reginald R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Wills proved and enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, Part II (1890), pp. 241–243, the 1384 will of John Heylesdon, naming his daughter Alice and leaving her his Norwich tenements and the "Crowned Seld" (la Selde coronata) in Westcheap; with the History of Parliament biography (note 1) for the Hellesdon and Drayton manors and the chantries. Source IDs:
husting-wills-london-vol2-sharpe,hop-gurney. ↩ - The failed succession: Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), Note 121 (pp. 793–794) — the inquisition finding Edmund, son of John, his heir of blood, aged ten, who "died sine prole [without offspring], and probably under age"; whereupon the estates passed to Thomas, son of John's brother Robert. Corroborated by the History of Parliament biography (note 1). Source IDs:
dg-rec-supp,hop-gurney. ↩ - The 1409 inquisition after John's death: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 19 (Henry IV), entries 489–494 (The National Archives, C 137/70/6), British History Online — writ 16 February 1409; inquisitions taken at East Rudham, Holt, and Attlebridge; death 4 December 1408; heir Edmund his son aged ten; the jurors' finding that he "held nothing in Norfolk" of the Crown in chief. Source ID:
bho-ipm-henry-iv-vol19-gournay-johnv. ↩ - Sir John Howard's bequest: Mostyn John Armstrong, The History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, vol. 6 (Norwich, 1781), South Erpingham Hundred — Sir John Howard's will leaves "to … Gurney" a new silver cup with a cover, alongside Sir Stephen Hales, Sir John de Burgh, and others. Source ID:
armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩ - The lost will and register gap: Daniel Gurney, Supplement to the Record of the House of Gournay (1858), Note 118 — after the Norwich Consistory Court register Harsyke, which ends in 1404, there is no register until Hyrnings, which begins in 1419, so John's will (d. 1408) cannot now be found. Source ID:
dg-rec-supp. ↩ - The Hellesdon and Drayton conveyance of 1395 to John Winter and partners: Walter Rye, A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Part II, no. 262 (John Wynter, John Yelverton, Richard Creyk, and Thomas de Lexham v. John Gournay and Alice his wife, of the manors of Heylesdon and Drayton and their advowsons), with the cross-attestations in Mostyn John Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 9 (Heigham, Drayton, Taverham). For the later Heylesdon → Fastolf → Paston → Heydon dispute, see the research companions for William Gurney IV (G19) and Robert Gournay (G22). Source IDs:
rye-feet-of-fines-norfolk,armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩