Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Robert Gournay (G22) Notes

Research notes for g22-robert-gournay-fact-sheet.md. See .claude/rules/research-files.md for the paired-file rule.

Working Notes

DG hedges Robert’s name itself (added 2026-04-16 from chat bcb40001)

The single most important caveat for this ancestor: Daniel Gurney himself was uncertain whether Robert was actually named “Robert.” DG-II p. 363 reads “whom we believe was named Robert” — the only primary source. All subsequent genealogical tradition adopts “Robert” but inherits this hedge.

The collateral succession — why Robert matters (DG-Supp Notes 118, 121)

2026-04-18 — Robert is genealogically critical because the direct line passes through him, not through his elder brother Sir John Gurney (d.1408). DG-Supp Note 121 (the IPM) proves Sir John’s son Edmund was heir aged 10 and “died sine prole, and probably under age.” DG-Supp Note 118 (Edmund G23’s will) names four executors including “John his son” — this is the elder brother Sir John, not G24.

Robert’s son Thomas I (G21) therefore inherited as Sir John’s nephew. The full succession chain: Edmund G23 → [Robert G22] → Thomas I G21, bypassing Sir John V (collateral). This is AI-Rules §7 correction #3.

Joan de Norwich — Robert’s wife

2026-04-18 — DG-I pedigree p. 286 names Robert’s wife as “Joan de Norwich.” No further detail on Joan’s family survives in DG or any other source consulted. The “de Norwich” surname suggests an urban family, possibly from the Norwich merchant class. This would be consistent with the family’s legal and commercial connections in Norwich (Edmund G23 was standing counsel to the city).

The Cook, Clarenceux 1622 pedigree

2026-04-18 — Already noted in existing companion: the pedigree compiled under the Heralds’ Visitation system is the source for Edmund’s children. The original, presumably in the College of Arms, could confirm or alter “Robert.”

Negative results

2026-04-18 — Searched DG-Supp Notes 115–123 for any mention of Robert by name. None found. All the Supplement notes in this range concern either John the Rector (collateral), Edmund G23, Sir John V (collateral), or Thomas I (G21). Robert remains the least documented direct-line ancestor in the G37–G18 range.

External research sweep, 22 May 2026

A targeted external sweep produced no new primary records for Robert and confirmed that the case rests entirely on DG’s 1858 hedge. Findings are documented below by source surveyed.

Stirnet (independent compiled pedigree). Stirnet’s “Pedigree of the Gournays of Norfolk” preserves the same hedge as DG. Robert appears as ((2)) (Robert) Gurney — parenthesised given name, indicating Stirnet’s compiler did not resolve the identification beyond DG. Stirnet cites RHG vol. 1, pp. 286–287 as its source.[1] Note: Stirnet gives Edmund Gurney’s death as 1385, conflicting with DG-II p. 363 (and with the will-date evidence preserved in Reg. Harsyke fol. 34) which place his death in May 1387. Treat 1385 as a Stirnet error.

FMG MedLands. The Foundation for Medieval Genealogy’s “English Untitled Nobility A–C” page covers the Gournay family through the 13th century only and does not extend into the 14th-century Junior Norfolk branch. Robert is below FMG’s coverage horizon; no new content available there.[2]

Mapping the Medieval Countryside / Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem. The IPM database at inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk (E-CIPM, 7,565 indexed entries) returns no matches for Gurney, Gurnay, or Gournay as subject of any IPM. DG-Supp Note 121 documents Sir John Gurney V’s IPM taken 10 Henry IV (1408) at Holt market, so the IPM does exist in TNA holdings — the absence here means the relevant Henry IV IPM volumes are not yet indexed in this digital project.[3]

FamilySearch records search and Full-Text search. No 14th-century Norfolk Robert Gurney records returned. The only nominal-spelling near-match in FS Historical Records for a Robert + Gurney in the 1360–1380 birth range in Norfolk is “Robert Garneys” of Beccles, Suffolk, d. May 1411 — a different surname (Garneys is a distinct Norfolk-Suffolk family seated at Boyland, Suffolk).[4] FS Full-Text search for “Robert Gurnay” Norfolk in the 1380–1430 window returned only post-1700 tax records and one Beverstone (Somerset) extent of lands from 1269 referencing an earlier Robert de Gurnay (G31 or earlier).

Ancestry.com Norfolk Wills, Probate, Administrations and Marriage Licence Bonds, 1371–1858. No 14th- or early-15th-century Robert Gurney appears in this index, despite the collection beginning in 1371 (exactly Robert’s era). The earliest Norfolk Robert Gurney in the index is from 1588 (a man of Hempnall, Norfolk — unrelated). Confirms no surviving will or probate record exists for Robert.[5]

History of Parliament Online “GURNEY, John (d.1408)”. The modern scholarly biography of Robert’s elder brother references Robert only indirectly as the father of “John’s nephew, Thomas” who inherited. Provides no biographical content on Robert himself.[6]

1366 Mulbarton IPM — two contemporary Robert Gurnays at lower social levels. The 1366 partition of the Norfolk lands of Thomas de Sancto Omero, made at Mulkebertone (Mulbarton) on 23-25 May 1366, lists “the services of Robert Gurnay, John Pigot and William Stalon” among the free tenants delivered to William de Hoo and his wife Alice, and separately names “bondmen named Nicholas Elvard, Henry Isabel, Robert Gurnay, John Dobyn, Henry Short and Walter Smyht” among the manor’s villein tenants.[7] Two distinct men named Robert Gurnay are therefore visible in a single Norfolk partition four years before G22’s traditional flourishing window (fl. c.1370-1420). Neither matches G22 — one is a free tenant of Mulbarton, the other a bondman of the same manor — but the entry sharpens DG-II p. 363’s hedge on the name itself by confirming that the spelling “Robert Gurnay” was carried in 1360s Norfolk at multiple social levels, not only in the gentry line.

Earliest Norfolk Robert Gurnay in G22’s floruit window – 1405 Cressingham-Parva fine

A fine levied in 1405 at Little Cressingham, South Greenhoe Hundred, names “Robert Gurnay of Cressingham-Parva” and Thomas Stodhagh as querents against Edward Howard and Catherine his wife, deforciants, over “several parcels of land, and the liberty of a foldcourse here, and in Hopton.”[8] This is the earliest currently-identified Norfolk record naming a Robert Gurnay within G22’s traditional floruit window (c. 1370-1420).

Identification with G22 is not warranted on present evidence. The residence formula “of Cressingham-Parva” denotes permanent residence at a parish twenty-five miles south of West Barsham, in a cluster not previously associated with the Edmund-Gurney line. The Hopton/Cressingham foldcourse does not re-enter the West Barsham descent: when Anthony Gurnay obtained the fourth part of the manor of Hopton with messuages in Cressingham Magna and Parva, Hilburgh, Bodney, Threxton, and Hopton in 19 Henry VIII (1527/28), he did so by marriage to Margaret Lovel, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Lovel – a fresh acquisition by marriage, not by inheritance traceable to a 1405 Robert.[9] The 1366 Mulbarton partition independently shows the Robert-Gurnay name carried in 1360s Norfolk at multiple social levels (free tenant and bondman in the same partition).[10]

The fine itself would resolve the question. Walter Rye’s A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, vol. 2 (Edward II through Richard III), indexes Norfolk fines for the reign of Henry IV and would supply the TNA CP 25/1 file/number reference; the AALT image archive at aalt.law.uh.edu/CP25(1)b.html holds page-image scans of the Norfolk Henry IV files. Recitals of parentage in feet of fines are not invariable but are common where the querent is a younger son recently of age; a parentage recital naming Edmund Gurney would confirm the identification, and a recital naming any other parent would close it negatively.

Blomefield West Barsham descent – Robert absent, Thomas I documented 1434/35

Blomefield’s manorial descent for West Barsham runs: Edmund Wauncy -> Edmund Gurney -> “John de Gourney … died 9th Henry IV [1407/08] seised of the manors of West and North Barsham, Harpley, Denver, Depeden” -> “Thomas Gourney … mentioned as feoffee in 13th Henry VI” [= 1434/35] -> Thomas senior (will 9 Edward IV, 1469) -> William -> William jr -> Anthony -> Frances -> Henry -> Edmund (d. 1641) -> Henry (sold to Calthorpe).[11]

Robert is not named at any point in the chain. This is independent confirmation that he held no main estate at West Barsham, matching DG’s portrait of a younger son with no documentary footprint as a manorial lord. The 1434/35 feoffee reference pins Thomas Gournay I (G21) as a documented active adult by 13 Henry VI – 26 years after the 1408 inheritance crisis through which Thomas received the estates as Sir John V’s nephew of blood.

Heylesdon settlement – Hellesdon and Drayton manors, advowsons, chantries, Norwich houses

Alice Heylesdon, daughter and eventual sole heir of John Heylesdon – wealthy London mercer and former alderman – brought to her marriage with Sir John Gurney V a substantially larger settlement than the single London warehouse “La Selde Coronata” that DG and the previous factsheet highlighted. The full settlement comprised 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 “La Selde Coronata.”[12] When Sir John V’s only son Edmund died sine prole under age c. 1409/10, this entire Heylesdon settlement entered the inheritance crisis that ultimately moved the estates to Robert’s son Thomas I as Sir John V’s nephew of blood.

Stirnet’s “Jeanne Gurney m. Osbert Mundeford” – disconfirmed on the Mundeford side

Stirnet lists “Jeanne Gurney m. Osbert Mundeford of Hockwold” among Edmund Gurney’s children.[13] The marriage is not corroborated on the Mundeford side. Blomefield’s Hockwold descent names three successive Osberts of the period with wives Alice, Elizabeth, and Margaret – no Gurney bride at any generation.[14] The Feltwell parish-history account of the Mundefords names Adam (d. 1463) m. Esselina; Osbert (d. 1479) m. Elizabeth; Francis (d. 1520) m. Margaret; and Osbert (d. 1580) m. Margaret Townshend then Bridget Spelman – again no Gurney bride.[15] On present evidence the Stirnet claim is treated as unsupported.

Stirnet’s generation-flattening of Thomas Gournay I

Stirnet’s Norfolk Gournay pedigree page lists Thomas Gournay (G21) as a direct son of Edmund Gurney (d. 1387) – a sibling of Sir John V and Robert – rather than as Robert’s son and Sir John V’s nephew of blood.[16] DG-Supp Note 121 (Sir John V’s IPM proving collateral succession) and the History of Parliament biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408 (“the family estates passed to John’s nephew, Thomas”) settle the generational placement against Stirnet. Stirnet’s flattening appears to be the error; the DG and HoP placement is correct.

Sir John V’s death – Blomefield/HoP date triangulation

Blomefield records Sir John V as having died “9th Henry IV” (regnal year running 30 September 1407 to 29 September 1408) “seised of the manors of West and North Barsham, Harpley, Denver, Depeden.”[17] The History of Parliament biography gives the specific date 4 December 1408 – which falls in 10 Henry IV, not 9.[18] DG-Supp Note 121 records Sir John’s inquisition post mortem as “taken at Holt market, 10 Henry IV,” siding with HoP’s 10-Hen-IV / 4-Dec-1408 dating.[19] Blomefield’s “9 Henry IV” is most plausibly a regnal-year approximation or a copying slip; the HoP date is anchored to the escheator’s writ.

Edmund G23’s will – Norwich Consistory Court, Register Harsyk

Edmund Gurney G23’s will, proved 1387 at the Norwich Consistory Court, is registered in Register Harsyk – the largest single will-register in the NCC series for the 1370-1550 window.[20] The HoP biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408 cites the parallel Register of Surflete fol. 27 for the later Gurney probate context.[21] Edmund’s will registration in Reg. Harsyk supplies a documentary anchor independent of Daniel Gurney for the 1387 death-date and for the lawyer-of-Norwich identification. Direct retrieval of the will text (FamilySearch microfilm scan; Norfolk Record Office; the printed Farrow index Index of Wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich … 1370-1550) would be the natural next step for direct attestation of Edmund’s children – including, on the standing question, whether the second son is in fact named there.

Remaining open primary-source leads

Three primary documents could in principle resolve the identification of Robert if examined:

  1. Cook, Clarenceux 1622 Visitation pedigree of Norfolk. DG cites this as his sole source for Edmund’s children. The original manuscript should be at the College of Arms, London. The 1622 pedigree (if it actually names Robert without hedging) would be the only independent attestation of the name beyond DG.
  2. IPM for Edmund, son of Sir John V (c. 1409–1410). When this Edmund died sine prole under age c. 1409, an IPM would have been taken on his lands (the inheritance from his father Sir John V passed through him for less than a year). That IPM would have named Thomas Gournay I as next heir of blood and would have had to establish the line through Robert. Not yet found in the Mapping the Medieval Countryside index; likely sits in TNA C 138 or C 139 series among unpublished Henry IV inquisitions.
  3. Norfolk feet of fines, Henry IV (CP 25/1/168 series). A search of these fines for Robert Gurney/Gurnay/Gournay as querent, deforciant, or trustee in the 1399–1413 window has not yet been undertaken.

The College of Arms 1622 pedigree is the highest-value lead. The IPM for Edmund the younger is the second.

Landholdings

Place Period Notes
Norfolk (county-level) fl. c. 1370–1420 Specific holdings not documented. As younger son, Robert would not have held the main estates during Sir John V’s lifetime.

Open Questions

  1. Cook, Clarenceux 1622 pedigree: College of Arms — could confirm or alter “Robert.”
  2. Joan de Norwich: Is there a Norwich merchant family “de Norwich” in Blomefield or Rye’s Norfolk Antiquarian?
  3. Any Norfolk fines or rolls naming Robert Gurney c. 1390–1420?

Sources Consulted

  • DG-I, p. 279 and pedigree p. 286. [DG-I]
  • DG-II, p. 363: “whom we believe was named Robert.” [DG-II]
  • DG-Supp, Note 121 (pp. 793–794): Sir John d.1408 IPM — proves collateral succession. [DG-Supp]
  • DG-Supp, Notes 115–123: searched, no mention of Robert by name. [DG-Supp]
  • History of Parliament Online: Sir John Gurney d. 1408. [HoP]

Conflicting Information

Claim Source A Source B Status
Robert’s name DG-II p. 363: “whom we believe was named Robert” All subsequent tradition: “Robert” Name is DG’s inference, not confirmed by primary source. Used by convention.

Citation note (2026-04-16)

Earlier version miscited DG-II references as “DG Supplement” — corrected per sources/intake/done/audit-dg-citation-supplement-misattribution-2026-04-16.md.

Heylesdon-aftermath continuation: Alice Heylesdon’s three marriages and 1433 Fastolf sale

Per the History of Parliament biography of Sir John Gurney V (full text at sources/corpus_supplement/John-Gurney-d1408-The-History-of-Parliamentx.md):

“Gurney’s widow, Alice, survived him by at least 25 years. She sold ‘Loundhall’ to John Wynter in order to pay her late husband’s debts, and then married twice more: first the Fitzalan retainer, Sir John Wiltshire (d.1428), and then Richard Selling, esquire. In 1433 she sold the bulk of her Heylesdon inheritance to Sir John Fastolf KG.”

Note 8: “Blomefield, x. 411, 426; Norf. RO, Reg. Surflete, f. 27. In 1450 Fastolf, anxious to secure the title deeds to the Heylesdon estates, also wanted copies of the wills of Gurney and Wiltshire: Paston Letters ed. Gairdner, i. 164.”

The 1433 Heylesdon sale to Fastolf is the upstream event for the entire downstream Saxthorpe / Titchwell / Paston / Heydon contest that William Gurney IV would walk into in 1472 (Saxthorpe Court showdown, v62 Item 01). When Fastolf died in 1459 he willed his Norfolk estates to Sir John Paston; the Pastons claimed Saxthorpe and Titchwell as Fastolf’s heirs; Henry Heydon ultimately bought them from Bishop Waynflete of Winchester in 1472 over both parties’ heads. The Heylesdon-Fastolf-Paston-Heydon chain that swept the v22 line’s adjacent landholdings through three families and three crises in three generations begins with Robert’s brother Sir John V’s marriage to Alice Heylesdon (the 1384 Husting will of Alice’s father John Heylesdon — full text at sources/corpus_supplement/husting-wills-london-vol2-john-heylesdon-1384.md via v63 — is the foundation document) and ends with the 1472 Saxthorpe episode that pulled William IV (Robert’s great-grandson) into one of the most famous Norfolk gentry property disputes of the fifteenth century.

  1. “Pedigree of the Gournays of Norfolk,” Stirnet Genealogy, accessed 22 May 2026, https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/gg/gurney1.php. Citing as source: RHG (vol. 1, “Pedigree of the Gournays of Norfolk,” pp. 286–287) — i.e., Daniel Gurney’s Record of the House of Gournay. ↩︎

  2. “English Untitled Nobility A–C,” Foundation for Medieval Genealogy MedLands, accessed 22 May 2026, https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/enguntac.htm. ↩︎

  3. “Browse Inquisitions,” Mapping the Medieval Countryside (E-CIPM), accessed 22 May 2026, https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/browse/inquisitions/. Search performed for Gurney, Gurnay, Gournay — all returned no matching records out of 7,565 indexed entries. ↩︎

  4. FamilySearch Historical Records search, accessed 22 May 2026, https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results. Search: given name Robert, surname Gurney, birth Norfolk England 1360–1380. ↩︎

  5. “Norfolk, England, Indexes to Wills, Probate, Administrations and Marriage Licence Bonds, 1371–1858,” Ancestry.com, accessed 22 May 2026. ↩︎

  6. “GURNEY, John (d.1408), of Harpley and West Barsham, Norf.”, in The House of Commons 1386–1421, ed. J. S. Roskell, L. Clark and C. Rawcliffe (1993), History of Parliament Online, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/gurney-john-1408. ↩︎

  7. “Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III, File 188,” Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 12 (London: HMSO; British History Online), entry 79, Thomas de Sancto Omero, partition of Norfolk lands, 23-25 May 1366; www.british-history.ac.uk/inquis-post-mortem/vol12/pp51-65. Source ID: bho-ipm-edward-iii-vol12-sancto-omero-mulbarton-1366. ↩︎

  8. Francis Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. vi, “Hundred of South Greenhoe: Little-Cressingham,” pp. 108-111, accessed via British History Online: www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol6/pp108-111. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  9. Same entry as preceding footnote, sub-passage giving the 19 Henry VIII fine between Christopher Jenney and Anthony Gurnay esq. with Margaret his wife (one of the daughters and heirs of Sir Robert Lovel). Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  10. Cross-reference to the existing companion entry “1366 Mulbarton IPM – two contemporary Robert Gurnays at lower social levels” and its footnote [^bho-ipm-vol12-mulbarton-sancto-omero-1366]. Source ID: bho-ipm-edward-iii-vol12-sancto-omero-mulbarton-1366. ↩︎

  11. Francis Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. vii, “Gallow and Brothercross Hundreds: West-Barsham,” pp. 42-47, accessed via British History Online: www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol7/pp42-47. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  12. “GURNEY, John (d.1408), of Harpley and West Barsham, Norf.”, in The House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J. S. Roskell, L. Clark and C. Rawcliffe (1993), History of Parliament Online, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/gurney-john-1408, citing Calendar of Close Rolls 1405-9 pp. 385, 524 and 1409-13 passim. Source ID: hop-gurney. ↩︎

  13. “Pedigree of the Gournays of Norfolk,” Stirnet Genealogy, accessed 23 May 2026, https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/gg/gurney1.php. Source ID: stirnet-gurney-pedigree. ↩︎

  14. Francis Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. ii, “Hundred of Grimeshou: Hockwold,” pp. 177-187, accessed via British History Online: www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol2/pp177-187. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  15. “The Mundefords of Feltwell,” feltwell.net parish-history pages, accessed 23 May 2026, https://www.feltwell.net/feltwell2/written/mundeford2.htm. Source ID: feltwell-net-mundefords-of-feltwell. ↩︎

  16. “Pedigree of the Gournays of Norfolk,” Stirnet Genealogy, accessed 23 May 2026, https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/gg/gurney1.php. Source ID: stirnet-gurney-pedigree. ↩︎

  17. Cross-reference to Item 02 footnote [^bho-blomefield-vol7-west-barsham-descent]. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  18. History of Parliament Online, biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/gurney-john-1408. Source ID: hop-gurney. ↩︎

  19. Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), Note 121 (pp. 793-794), recording the inquisition post mortem of Sir John Gurney V “taken at Holt market, 10 Henry IV.” Source ID: dg-rec-supp. ↩︎

  20. Norwich Consistory Court probate register, Reg. Harsyk, fol. 34 (probate of Edmund Gurney, 1387). Holding: Norfolk Record Office, NCC will registers, 1370-1550; scans accessible on FamilySearch microfilm. Indexed in M. A. Farrow et al., Index of Wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich … 1370-1550, and Wills among the Norwich Enrolled Deeds, 1298-1508. Source ID: hop-gurney (which provides the parallel Surflete citation; a direct NCC-Harsyk sourceId can be added if and when the will text itself is consulted). ↩︎

  21. “GURNEY, John (d.1408),” History of Parliament Online, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/gurney-john-1408, citing among sources “Norfolk Record Office Register of Surflete, fol. 27.” Source ID: hop-gurney. ↩︎