Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

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

Edmund Gournay (G23) Notes

Research notes for g23-edmund-gurney-fact-sheet.md. See .claude/rules/research-files.md for the paired-file rule.

Edmund’s will (1387) and its survival

Edmund made his ultima voluntas at West Barsham on the feast of the Ascension — 16 May 1387 — and it was proved at Norwich on 1 August 1387 with a codicil annexed. It was registered in the Norwich Consistory Court register Harsyke at folio 84 (Daniel Gurney’s “Reg. Harsyke, fol. 34” is a misprint; the Index to Wills, Consistory Court of Norwich 1370–1550 lists it as “Gurney (Gurnay), Edmund, 1387 — Harsyk 84,” and the Norfolk Record Office catalogue marks it “Index entry only. Folio missing — not to be produced to the searchroom”).[1] The leaf is long gone: “in the time of Mr. Norris [the antiquary Anthony Norris, d. 1786] the part of the register which contained it was utterly rotted and destroyed” (Record, Part II, p. 363). Because the loss predates microfilming, no film reproduces it; the text survives only through Sir Simonds Dewes’s 1637 copy (British Museum, Harl. MSS. 10, fol. 144 / pencil 148, “compared Dec. 22, Anno 1638”), printed at Daniel Gurney’s Supplement Note 118 (pp. 789–791), and through Blomefield. This is the most important single document for any junior-branch Gournay.

Provisions of the ultima voluntas (read against the Dewes Latin):

  • Four executors: “Katerina que fuit uxor predicti Edmundi, Johannes filius eorundem Edmundi et Katerine, Osbertus de Mundeford et Thomas Kempe” — his wife Katherine, his son John, Osbert de Mundeford, and Thomas Kempe. Daniel Gurney’s English summary (Record II p. 363) names only the two outsiders; the Latin confirms the heir John as son of Edmund and Katherine — primary confirmation that the heir was Katherine de Wauncy’s son.
  • “Other sons”: the mourning-array clause provides black vesture “pro eis, et aliis filiis et propinquis suis” — for the executors, and his other sons (plural) and kinsmen. This is primary-text confirmation that John was not Edmund’s only son, corroborating and slightly enlarging the “second son, believed Robert” of the issue list.
  • The funeral: thirteen paupers clad in white were to stand around the body holding thirteen torches, with two tapers also burning; the executors, his other sons, and kinsmen wore black. Every poor man present (or who asked) on the burial day received one penny to pray for his soul.
  • A funeral feast: “Omnes, tum gentiles quam alii boni homines patrie ibidem circumstantes” — all the gentry and the good men of the surrounding country — were to convene at West Barsham on the burial day and be “honorably fed” (honorifice … pascantur) from Edmund’s goods: a public display of the family’s standing as lords of West Barsham.
  • Church bequests: payments to the high altar of West Barsham church and toward the repair (emendatio) of the church, the amounts set in his separate testamentum.
  • Katherine’s dower: her full dower of all lands and tenements due by law, all the household utensils, and her share of all his other goods, “sine contradictione vel impedimento heredum vel executorum.”
  • Debts and residue: all goods, chattels, and debts owed to him “in whosesoever hands found” pass to the executors to fulfil the will; distribution to religious houses, the friars of the four orders, and the poor, for the souls of Edmund, his ancestors, and those to whom he was bound.
  • Restitution under his blessing: his heirs, by the executors’ counsel and “according to his blessing” (secundum benedictionem suam), are to restore and satisfy anyone who can prove by good title that Edmund disseised them of land or did them injury — “si aliquis bono et rationabili titulo eis ostendere poterit quod idem Edmundus eos disseisierit de aliqua terra vel de aliquo tenemento.” That a lawyer directs his heirs to compensate anyone he wronged is remarkable — personal conscience, or the world of a powerful local lawyer expected to have enemies.

Two instruments — and why the bequest figures differ. The surviving Dewes text is the ultima voluntas (lands, funeral, conscience). A separate testamentum — carrying the money legacies and the witnesses William de Mildenhall, vicar of West Barsham, and Nicholas de Barsham (Blomefield, vol. vii, p. 43) — is referred to but was not in the Dewes copy and is lost with the register. This dissolves the apparent tension between the voluntas’s “one penny to each pauper” and the abstract’s “£8 to the poor”: the two figures sit in two different instruments. Daniel Gurney’s caution: “This will, not being in the first person, must be considered not a complete copy, but a good summary of contents.” He adds that the West Barsham flag stone engraved at his p. 408 likely commemorates this Edmund, not William Gurnay V (probably buried at Irstead).

Lost Norwich registers. Supplement Note 118 also records that “after Register Harsyke, which ends in 1404, there is no Register until Register Hyrnings, which begins in 1419.” This 1404–1419 gap is why Sir John Gurney’s will (d. 1408) has never been found.

No royal inquisition for Edmund. His death is fixed by his will, not by an inquisition: the Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 16 (Richard II, 1383–92), has no Edmund Gournay in its index of persons — only Matthew de Gournay (the Somerset collateral), Roger, and Thomas.[2] This fits Edmund holding his Norfolk lands of mesne lords rather than of the Crown in chief — the same pattern his son Sir John V’s 1409 inquisition makes explicit (“held nothing in Norfolk”; see the G22 Robert companion). The future-research lead for “an IPM for Edmund d. 1387” is therefore a dead end as a royal record; the will is the death-date anchor.

Edmund’s legal career and the John of Gaunt affinity

Edmund served John of Gaunt as steward (or joint steward) of the Duke’s East Anglian estates almost continuously from 1372 to his death in 1387 (per the History of Parliament). A phrasing caveat: the Daniel Gurney passages (Record II, pp. 357–363) list Edmund’s many royal-commission appointments but do not name “John of Gaunt” directly; the explicit Gaunt attribution comes from the History of Parliament biography and from Simon Walker.

Walker’s study of the Lancastrian affinity places Edmund inside Gaunt’s retained body of East Anglian legal-administrative men: he was “the principal legal adviser to the burgesses of Lynn,” and — with Edmund Clippesby — “took fees from the abbey of St. Benet’s, Holme.” Walker brackets the two among Gaunt’s retained Norfolk administrators alongside John Winter (the Wynter later central to the Loundhall/Saxthorpe enfeoffment), Robert Cayley (Exchequer attorney for Norwich and steward to the bishop of Norwich), Thomas Pinchbeck (steward to the bishop of Ely), and John Methwold (agent for the canons of West Dereham).[3]

The Lynn borough’s own Chamberlains’ accounts corroborate the “principal legal adviser” role twice, a year apart. In 46–47 Edward III (1373–74) the borough entertained Edmund with sweet and red wine in the Mayor’s presence, in the same account that hosted the Duke of Brittany’s men and Geoffrey de Folcham, the Duke of Lancaster’s steward — company that fits his documented Gaunt affinity. The following year, 48–49 Edward III (1374–75), the accounts record a crisis: men had banded together against the peace and some were imprisoned for the disturbance; the Mayor sent his letter to Edmund for counsel, the borough spent on wine in his presence on at least three separate occasions “for the aforesaid cause,” and finally paid him twenty shillings “for making a session … for delivering the said prisoners” — Edmund brokering the prisoners’ release. This is primary-account evidence, independent of Blomefield and Daniel Gurney, of Edmund’s standing as working legal counsel to the borough during a live public-order crisis.[4]

The Edmund–Clippesby pairing is documented from the city side too. The Norwich City Treasurers’ accounts record two annual fees of 20 shillings each to “Edmund Gornay,” paid in the same fee paragraph as the 20s to Edmund de Clipesby:

“Fees paid. First, paid to Edmund Gornay for his fee this year, 20s. To Edmund de Clipesby, 20s. To the said Treasurers for their fees this year, 40s.” (p. 44) “Fees Paid. To Edmund Gornay for his fee this year, 20s. To Edmund de Clipesby etc. 20s. To John Drake etc. 13s. 4d. To John de Tasburgh, Common Sergeant, etc. £5 12s.” (p. 47)

This is the direct primary attestation behind Blomefield’s standing-counsel reference and the History of Parliament phrasing.[5] Blomefield’s Norwich Richard II chapter independently records the city paying “Edm. Gournay” 20s yearly as one of its counsellors.[6] The two men were a documented retainer pair for years; the pairing was not incidental, since they took Gaunt’s St Benet’s Holme fee together and were Norwich’s joint standing counsel. When Clippesby was murdered at his home in 1392 by servants of Bishop Despenser of Norwich, Edmund’s son Sir John V was threatened with death if he prosecuted — the killing sat on the Gaunt-versus-Despenser fault line.

Edmund’s royal commissions are catalogued by Daniel Gurney across Record II, pp. 358–363 — justice of the peace (44 and 49 Edward III), commissioner for customs fraud, arbitrator between the prior of Norwich and the prioress of Carrow, special commissioner for Queen Philippa’s manor, and investigator of piracy — and are summarised in the fact sheet. The printed Close Rolls independently fix three of these crown appointments by name and date: a commission of oyer and terminer with William de Wichyngham, Robert de Causton, and John de Berneye, revoked by the Crown in 1367; a 1370 inquisition into goods carried away from a wrecked Aberdeen-merchants’ ship at Kirkele Rode, Suffolk, under the Anglo-Scottish truce, again with Wichyngham, Berneye, and Reynold de Eccles; and a 1375 Norfolk riot inquisition (a close pass by Hugh Burnell’s and William Kerdeston’s men on their neighbours at Estriston and Brunstede) alongside Chief Justice John de Cavendish, William Clere, John Brewes, and John de Reymes. The Close Rolls’ index of persons styles him “Gourneye, Edmund, justice.”[7] No Edmund Gournay/Gurney appears in the Soldier in Later Medieval England database during his career, a useful negative confirmation of his civilian/legal profile.

Edmund as feoffee and trustee for the great families

When Norfolk’s leading families needed someone to hold land in trust, they turned to Edmund. He appears as a feoffee, trustee, or legatee in at least eight settlements, spanning his whole career from an early-career conveyancing fine (Egmere, c. 1351) through crown commissions and Lynn borough counsel (below) to a baronial legatee circle late in life (Weeting, 1385):

  • De la Pole — Berford’s Manor, Cringleford, c. 1370. After the Berford co-heirs released their rights in 1370, the manor was “absolutely vested in the De la Poles, who settled it soon after on Edmund Gourney, Will. de Boyton, Tho. Spynk, and John le Latimer of Norwich” as feoffees, the manor then extending into Hethersett, Eaton, Earlham, Little Melton, Colney, and the Cringleford watermill. By 1381 John le Latimer of Norwich was sole lord with view of frankpledge, weyf, and strey, and Edmund with the other feoffees released all right to him that year.[8] This places Edmund in a De la Pole–linked network in the early 1370s (the De la Poles a dominant magnate house — Michael soon earl of Suffolk under Richard II), in the Cringleford / Hethersett / Earlham cluster south-west of Norwich, broadening his footprint beyond Harpley, West Barsham, Hardingham, and Lynn. It predates and is independent of the 1382 Plays trust below.
  • Sir John de Plays — Feltwell and Mundford, 1382. Close Rolls, 5 Richard II: John de Plays, knight, gave to a group of trustees including Edmund the manor of Feltwell and the manor of Mundford with the advowson; co-trustees William de Beauchamp, John Marmyon, John de Burgh, and Stephen de Hales (all knights). (Supplement Note 117.)
  • Calthorpe–Hales–Shelton — Great and Little Riburgh, 1385. Patent Roll 8 Richard II, p. 2, m. 15: Edmund, with Stephen de Hales, Oliver de Calthorpe, Ralph de Shelton (all knights), and the clerk William de Walsham, licensed to grant the manors of Great and Little Riburgh (Woodhall) to the Prior of Walsingham — elite Norfolk gentry company (the Calthorpes, Haleses, and Sheltons among the county’s leading families). (Supplement Note 116; Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi, p. 74.)
  • Morley — the great manor of Hingham. Edmund, with William Pette (parson of Hawardyn), William Cursun, and John Reed of Rougham, conveyed the manor of Hingham to the Morley lords (Rye, Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Pt II, no. 1526), a settlement recited half a century later in the inquisition after Robert, Lord Morley (d. 1442): “long before Robert’s death, Edmund Gournay, William Pette, William Cursun, and John Reed were seised … in demesne as of fee” and granted the manor of Hingham and the hundred of Forehoe to Thomas de Morley (son of William) and Joan his wife and the heirs of their bodies, whence the descent to Robert. The IPM fixes the fourth feoffee as John Reed of Rougham and dates the settlement within Thomas Morley’s life (4th Baron Morley, d. 1416) — plausibly the 1380s, within Edmund’s active years; this supports, without proving, that the feoffee is Edmund G23. The conveyance moved the great manor of Hingham to the Morleys (no Gurney appears as tenant in Morley’s own 1416 IPM) and is therefore distinct from the family’s own “Gurney’s Manor” at Hingham, the junior-branch parcel that descended in the Barsham/Great Ellingham line to Henry G15.[9][10]
  • Weeting — Sir John de Plaiz’s will, 1385. Plaiz, the last male heir of his line (his daughter and heiress Margaret married Sir John Howard, “ancestor to the Duke of Norfolk”), left legacies of new-made silver cups: ten-mark cups to Sir William Beauchamp and Sir John Marmion, then “to Sir Stephen Hales, John de Burgh, Richard de Sutton, Knts. and Edmund Gurnay, to each of them a new cup to be made of silver, with a cover, each of the weight of 10 marks” — Edmund ranked with knights in the intimate legatee circle of a baronial will. The Plaiz family also held the West Barsham Warenne fee, a tenurial coincidence worth testing against Edmund’s own West Barsham acquisition (below) but not yet pursued as more than a parallel.[11]
  • Garboldisham, 1375. Edmund appears as co-feoffee with an earl: “The noble William de Ufford Earl of Suffolk, Sir John de Tuddenham, Knt., John Marlere, clerk, Edmund Gurnay, and Richard de Walton, patrons. (Feoffees.)”[12]
  • Oxburgh — advowson trust for West Dereham abbey, 1386. Edmund and Hugh de Holand gave the advowson of Oxburgh church to West Dereham abbey as trustees, within a wider feoffee company: “Robert de Fordham rector of Thirston, Edmund Gurnay, Nicholas de Massingham, Hugh de Holland, John de Methelwold, and John Chante of East-Walton.”[13]
  • Egmere, c. 1351. An early-career conveyancing act, before his commissions and Lynn counsel began: with John Leche (clerk), William parson of Ingaldesthorpe, and John de Holcham, Edmund passed Egmere by fine to John de Wolterton, parson of Harpley.[14]

A related Saxthorpe settlement: Supplement Note 117 notes the Saxthorpe (Loundhall) manor — “John de Mereworthe was lord of the manor of Saxthorpe, which had been held by John Gurnay II [Rector], as it afterwards was by John Gurnay V [Sir John, d. 1408]” — with a £20/year annuity from Edmund to Mereworthe, “probably in consequence of some agreement between them” (likely a buyout related to Saxthorpe). Rye’s fines independently witness the Rector-John line’s holdings: John de Gurney, of the manor of Saxthorp (Pt I, entry 837, with Simon de Creppinge) and John Gurnay, parson of Harpley, of the manor of Harpley and land in Gaywood (Pt II, entry 489); which John-generation each names is not closed by the calendar alone.[15]

The Wauncy marriage and West Barsham

Edmund’s marriage to Katherine de Wauncy brought West Barsham into the family. The antiquary Mostyn John Armstrong dates the transfer precisely: “Hugo de Wauci held this manor of the Earl Warren, and it remained with his descendants till the 47th of Edw. III [1373], when it came to Edmund Gurney by marriage” — sharpening the project’s “after 1372” reading by a year.[16] North Barsham likewise came to Edmund “by his marriage with Catherine, daughter of Sir William and sister of Sir Edward Wauci,” and remained in the family.[17]

The Wauncy family had moved in royal circles. Robert de Wauncy witnessed two deeds of Richard I at Château-Gaillard, 24 October in the king’s tenth year (1198), and appears in Stapleton’s Norman Exchequer Roll (p. cxlvii) as custodian, with Walter de Ely, of the daughter of the Count of Brittany and the daughter of the Emperor of Cyprus, responsible for their raiment and expenses at Rouen and on the journey from Rouen to Chinon. (The Wansey/Wauncy family continued: Mr. William Wansey of Arborfield, whose branch had been at Warminster, Wiltshire, since Henry VIII, supplied Daniel Gurney with information; arms gules, three gauntlets argent.) Katherine’s family thus tied the West Barsham acquisition to the Angevin court at the highest level — well beyond a local Norfolk marriage.

Sir John Gurney V (d. 1408) — Edmund’s eldest son

Sir John V is a collateral, not a direct ancestor. His own consolidated treatment and published narrative are at g23-sir-john-gurney-v-related-fact-sheet.research.md and g23-sir-john-gurney-v-related-fact-sheet.md. The material is retained here because it is part of Edmund’s story and of the inheritance crisis that carried the direct line to Robert (G22). The full History of Parliament biography is at sources/corpus_supplement/John-Gurney-d1408-The-History-of-Parliamentx.md (sourceId hop-gurney).

The inquisition post mortem — proof of the collateral split. Supplement Note 121 (pp. 793–794) gives the inquisition for Sir John Gurney, taken at “Holt markett” before John le Straunge, escheator, 10 Henry IV. Key findings: John “did not hold any lands or tenements in his demesne as of fee … from the said King in chief, nor from any other lord in the said county” (his lands were in the hands of feoffees, the common device against feudal death dues); he died “the Tuesday before the feast of St. Nicholas last past” (Daniel Gurney’s reading = 5 December 1408; the History of Parliament, anchored to the escheator’s writ, gives 4 December); “Edmundus filius dicti Johannis Gurnay est heres ejus de sanguine propinquior; et quod idem Edmundus fuit etatis decem annorum” — Edmund, his son, next heir of blood, aged ten. Daniel Gurney adds: “This Edmund, son and heir of John de Gournay, died sine prole, and probably under age,” whereupon Sir John’s successor was his nephew Thomas (G21). Blomefield’s “1407” is corrected by the IPM to 1408. Similar inquisitions were taken at Attlebridge and Rudham. This is the critical proof of the direct-vs-collateral line: Sir John (d. 1408) is collateral; his son Edmund died young without issue; the direct line passes through Edmund G23’s other son Robert (G22), whose son Thomas (G21) became Sir John’s successor.

The Heylesdon marriage. Sir John V married Alice Heylesdon, daughter and eventual sole heir of John Heylesdon, a wealthy London mercer and former alderman. The foundation document is John Heylesdon’s will (Sharpe, Calendar of Wills … Court of Husting, London, Part II, pp. 241–243, Roll 113(1)), dated London 14 April 1384 and proved at the Husting 20 July 1384. Key provisions: buried at Hellesdon church “near the tomb of his father and mother”; wife Johanna; daughters Alice (the future wife of Sir John V) and Margaret (who died before majority); brother Robert and sister Margaret Heylesdon; two perpetual chantries at Hellesdon endowed by 20 marks yearly quitrent of lands in the London parish of All Hallows de Graschirche (trustees John Chircheman and Sir Richard Tasburgh); to Johanna a life interest in the Hellesdon lands plus £200 dower of movables; after her, the Hellesdon lands to Margaret in tail, remainder for pious uses; to Alice lands and tenements in Norwich in tail and, “under certain conditions,” the Westcheap tenements called the “Crowned Seld” (la Selde coronata); many charitable bequests (poor lepers near London; prisoners in Ludgate and Newgate; the Carthusians near West Smithfield; the Minoresses without Aldgate; the nuns of Shouldham; pilgrims to Rome; and others); £40 on his funeral; a codicil annexed; later an exhibit in Chancery, Attorney-General v. Fishmongers’ Company (likely post-Reformation chantry litigation).[18] When Margaret died before majority, Alice inherited everything — the Crowned Seld, the Norwich tenements, the Hellesdon and Drayton manors, the chantry advowsons — and on her marriage to Sir John V it all entered the West Barsham Gurney portfolio. In 1392 Alice and John collected the £300 from the London authorities allotted to her late sister by the Heylesdon will.

The Heylesdon manors conveyed away, 1395–96. John and Alice did not keep the core Heylesdon manors long. Armstrong reports the same conveyance from three parishes: at Heigham, “John Gournay, and Alice his wife, were in possession of [the Hellesden mediety] in the 19th of Richard II [1395-96], when they passed it, with the manor of Drayton, and the advowson of the two chantries in this town, to John Winter, &c.”; at Drayton, “John Gourney conveying it, with the advowson, to John Winter and his heirs, by fine”; at Taverham, “In 1395, the advowson of one of these portions was settled by fine on John Winter, &c. by John Gournay and Alice his wife, with Drayton and Hellesden manors.”[19] The fine itself is calendared by Rye (Pt II, entry 262): John Wynter, John Yelverton, Richard Creyk, and Thomas de Lexham v. John Gournay and Alicia his wife, of the manors of Heylesdon and Drayton, and the advowsons.[20] This coordinated alienation of the Norwich-adjacent Heigham / Hellesden / Drayton / Taverham cluster — the named wife being Alice — is, with the Husting will, the decisive evidence fixing Sir John V’s wife as Alice Heylesdon, not the Wansey pedigree’s “Alice Bavard” (see Conflicting Information, below).

Further Sir John V landholding attestations (Armstrong). In 1398 and 1401 John presented to the Heigham church living as lord;[21] “In the 3d of Henry IV [1401-02] John Gournay held two fees here and in Drayton, sometime John Spring’s, of the lord Morley, as part of the barony of Rye”;[22] “In the 9th of Henry IV [1407-08] John Gourney, esq. died lord [of Denver], and of West Barsham” — corroborating his Denver tenure and death year;[23] and at Saxthorpe, “about 1411 John Gurnay, of West Barsham” held the manor, “after this Sir John Fastolf … was lord” — the c. 1411 actor most parsimoniously the minor heir Edmund (through guardians) or the eventual successor Thomas I (G21).[24]

His knightly circle. Sir John Howard’s will leaves cups of plate to a named circle including “[Sir John] Gurney” alongside Sir William Beauchamp, Sir John Marmion, Sir Stephen Hales, Sir John de Burgh, and Sir Richard Sutton — “to each of them a new cup to be made of silver, with a cover, each of the weight of 10 marks in gross” — placing Sir John V in the Howard / Plays / Heydon network the project documents at G18–G20.[25]

Aquitaine service, 1394. The Soldier in Later Medieval England database records “John Gourney” granted letters of attorney for service in Gascony / Aquitaine on 20 October 1394, in the retinue of John of Gaunt, then duke of Lancaster and Aquitaine (TNA C61/104, m. 7).[26] The identification is Sir John V: the affinity (his father Edmund was Gaunt’s East Anglian steward), the rank and age (a knight approaching 30, with a Crown career taking shape immediately after), and the date pattern (Gaunt’s principal administrative crossing to Aquitaine, 1394–95) all converge. Several earlier 1370s–1380s “John Gournay” knight entries (France, Calais garrison under Calveley and Brocas) split between Sir John V as a younger man and an earlier-generation knight — now identified as Sir John de Gourney of Harptree, Somerset (see below).

Other career facts from the History of Parliament biography. Steward of the Earl of Arundel’s Norfolk estates (before 1386, probably to 1402) and a supporter of Arundel as a Lord Appellant; reinstated on the Norfolk bench July 1397 after Arundel’s arrest, then bought a royal pardon spring 1398; trustee of Sir Thomas Erpingham’s estates October 1398; returned to the 1399 Parliament that acclaimed Henry IV and appointed sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk while it sat; MP again for the Coventry Parliament of 1404; bought a half-share (moiety) of the Nerford manor at Houghton in 1399, adjoining his Harpley estate; in 1406 licensed (with John Drew, parson of Harpley, Richard Creyk, and John Lynge senior) to grant 80 acres in Burnham to Walsingham Priory for the anniversaries of Sir Edmund de Reynham and Cristiana his wife (Supplement Note 120, Patent Roll 1406), and was escheator for Norfolk in 2 Henry IV; early in 1408 began a bridge over the Wensum at Hellesdon that the citizens of Norwich got a royal writ to suspend (fearing lost toll revenue); leased the Felton manors at Banham to John Spencer in March 1408 (his last documented transaction); reappointed sheriff 15 November 1408 and dead by 4 December. His widow Alice survived him by at least 25 years, sold “Loundhall” to John Wynter to pay his debts, married twice more (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 (in 1450 Fastolf, securing the title deeds, wanted copies of the Gurney and Wiltshire wills — Paston Letters ed. Gairdner i. 164). The Heylesdon → Fastolf → Paston → Heydon chain that the 1472 Saxthorpe episode (William Gurney IV, G19) sits inside begins here.

The earlier knight “John de Gournay” — resolved (Sir John de Gourney of Harptree, Somerset)

The 1370s “John de Gournay” knight entries — and in particular the 1370 captaincy in Sir Robert Knolles’ chevauchée (TNA E101/30/25), “too senior to be the future Sir John V” — are now identified as Sir John de Gourney of (East) Harptree, Somerset, owner of Harptree castle from 1343, who served in Ireland (1363, under Sir William de Windsor), captained his own retinue under Knolles in 1370, and held the Calais garrison under Calveley (1376) and Brocas (1378); he married Elizabeth, widow of John Carew.[27] He is a Somerset collateral, distinct from both Sir John Gurney V and from Sir Matthew de Gournay. The 1370 Knolles captaincy and the bulk of the 1363–1378 knight cluster therefore belong to the Somerset branch, not the Norfolk direct line; only the stray 1359 Reims protections (TNA C76/38) remain unattached by name and are most parsimoniously the same Harptree John. Full reasoning in research/topics/gurney-medieval-soldier-database.md; the Somerset knight is carried in research/places/somerset-gournay-collateral.md.

Landholdings

Place Period Notes
Harpley, Norfolk c. 1370–1387 Principal documented holding
Hardingham, Norfolk c. 1370–1387 Swathings manor (the Manor of Gurneys & Swathing)
King’s Lynn (Bishop’s Lynn), Norfolk c. 1370–1387 Standing counsel to the city (Record II, p. 359)
West Barsham, Norfolk 1372/73 (acquired) – 1387 Wauncy inheritance via Katherine; will dated here 1387
North Barsham, Norfolk acquired via Katherine Wauncy inheritance
Saxthorpe, Norfolk (Loundhall) acquired in Edmund’s lifetime £20/year annuity to John de Mereworthe (Supplement Note 117)
Depden, Suffolk 1372 (acquired) – 1387 Wauncy inheritance via Katherine
Denver, Norfolk 1357 (attested) onward Wauncy inheritance; 100 marks p.a.
Cringleford / Hethersett / Earlham, Norfolk c. 1370–1381 (feoffee) De la Pole’s Berford’s Manor
Feltwell, Norfolk 1382 (trustee) Trust for John de Plays (Close Rolls 5 Rich. II)
Mundford, Norfolk 1382 (trustee) Trust for John de Plays (with the advowson)
Great/Little Riburgh (Woodhall) 1385 (trustee/grantor) Granted to Walsingham Priory (Patent Roll 8 Rich. II)
Hingham, Norfolk (great manor) (feoffee) Conveyed to the Morley lords (Rye Pt II #1526)
Weeting, Norfolk 1385 (legatee) Silver-cup legacy in Sir John de Plaiz’s will, ranked with knights (Blomefield vol. 2)
Garboldisham, Norfolk 1375 (feoffee) Co-feoffee with William de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk (Blomefield vol. 1)
Oxburgh, Norfolk 1386 (feoffee/trustee) Advowson trust for West Dereham abbey, with Hugh de Holand (Blomefield vol. 6)
Egmere, Norfolk c. 1351 (feoffee) Early-career conveyancing fine to John de Wolterton, parson of Harpley (Blomefield vol. 9)

Open Questions

  1. West Barsham flagstone (Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I, p. 408): Daniel Gurney thought it memorialises Edmund rather than William V. The online route is only partial: the Norfolk Churches West Barsham page gives useful current church photographs and site access context, but open web searches for the flagstone under stone/ledger/floor slab/brass/memorial-inscription terms have not surfaced a transcription or close image identifying the stone. The remaining work is an interior/floor-image or local-church/parish inquiry, not another general web search.[28]
  2. Harleian MS 10, fol. 144 — the Dewes 1637 copy of Edmund’s will: Is it among the British Library’s digitised manuscripts? A page image would allow a fresh transcription against Daniel Gurney’s printed text. (Lead L-173.)
  3. The restitution clause: Was a “make amends to anyone I wronged” clause unusual for Norfolk wills of the 1380s, or a standard provision?
  4. TNA C61/104, m. 7 (1394): A direct pull of the Gascon Roll entry would capture the full Latin clause and any kinsman named alongside Sir John Gurney V — background detail, not essential.

(Two earlier questions are resolved and folded into the sections above: the John-of-Gaunt stewardship date range — confirmed by the History of Parliament biography and Simon Walker’s The Lancastrian Affinity*; and the earlier 1370s “John de Gournay” knight — identified as Sir John de Gourney of Harptree, Somerset.)*

Conflicting Information

The Wansey/Wauncy pedigree lead preserves a close but partly conflicting collateral-line version of Edmund Gournay’s family. It agrees that Edmund Gorney died in 1387 and that his son John died in 9 Henry IV, but it says Katherine survived Edmund until 3 Henry IV (1401/2), names John’s wife as Alice Bavard, and says John was knight of the shire in 6 Henry IV. The wife’s name is resolved in favour of Alice Heylesdon: the 1384 Husting will of John Heylesdon names his daughter Alice (above), and the 1395–96 feet of fines record “John Gournay and Alice his wife” conveying the manors of Heylesdon and Drayton (above) — independent primary records that fix Sir John V’s wife as Alice Heylesdon, the mercer’s heir. “Alice Bavard” is therefore treated as a Wansey-pedigree error. The Wansey version is retained as a pedigree witness and discovery trail; its other distinctive claims (Katherine’s 1401/2 death date; John as shire knight in 6 Henry IV) remain unverified Wansey-only details.[29]

Claim Source A Source B Status
Number of executors Record II p. 363: “Osbert de Mundeford and Thomas Kemp” Supplement Note 118 (full Latin): Katherine, John, Osbert de Mundeford, Thomas Kempe Four executors, not two. The Record summary omitted Katherine and John; the Supplement’s full Latin is authoritative.
West Barsham flagstone Traditionally attributed to William Gurnay V Supplement Note 118: “I think it likely the flag stone … was in memory of this Edmund Gurnay” Daniel Gurney favours the Edmund attribution. Not definitively resolved (Lead L-172).
Sir John d. 1408 death year Blomefield: 1407 Supplement Note 121 (IPM): 1408 IPM corrects Blomefield. Day is 4 December (History of Parliament, from the writ) or 5 December (Daniel Gurney’s reading of the inquisition).
Sir John Gurney’s wife History of Parliament + 1384 Husting will + 1395–96 feet of fines: Alice Heylesdon Wansey pedigree: Alice Bavard Resolved: Alice Heylesdon. Primary records (the Heylesdon will naming daughter Alice; fines of “John Gournay and Alice his wife” for the Heylesdon and Drayton manors) confirm Heylesdon; “Bavard” is a Wansey-pedigree error.

Fact Sheet Status

The points once listed here as fact-sheet improvements are now incorporated into g23-edmund-gurney-fact-sheet.md: the four executors (Katherine his wife, John his son, Osbert de Mundeford, Thomas Kempe), named in the narrative and footnote 15; the thirteen paupers in white and the funeral feast, in the death paragraph; the restitution clause, framed as a clause of conscience; and the Wauncy family’s service to Richard I (Château-Gaillard, 1198), in the marriage paragraph (footnote 17). The lost-register gap (Reg. Harsyke ends 1404; Reg. Hyrnings begins 1419) stays research-only — it explains the missing will of Sir John V (d. 1408) and bears on G22–G20, not on Edmund’s published narrative.

Sources Consulted

  • Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I, p. 279 (summary on Edmund) and Part II, pp. 357–363 (Edmund chapter), with Appendices LXIII (Wauncy family) and LXV (West Barsham indenture).
  • Daniel Gurney, Supplement: Note 116 (Walsingham 1385 charter); Note 117 (Feltwell/Mundford trust 1382; Saxthorpe/Loundhall; £20 annuity); Note 118 (full Latin will; four executors; thirteen paupers; restitution clause; lost registers 1404–1419); Note 119 (Robert de Wauncy — Richard I, 1198); Note 120 (Patent Roll 1406, Burnham land for Walsingham); Note 121 (Sir John d. 1408 IPM).
  • History of Parliament Online: “Edmund Gurney, d. 1387” (HoP entry title preserves modern editorial form) and “GURNEY, John (d.1408)” — full text of the latter at sources/corpus_supplement/John-Gurney-d1408-The-History-of-Parliamentx.md.
  • Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. vii, pp. 42–47 (West Barsham); vol. vii, pp. 47–52 (North Barsham); vol. 3, pp. 102–117 (Norwich, Richard II); vol. 5, pp. 33–39 (Cringleford / Berford’s Manor); vol. 1, pp. 255–274 (Garboldisham); vol. 2, pp. 159–173 (Weeting, Sir John de Plaiz’s will); vol. 6, pp. 168–197 (Oxburgh); vol. 9, pp. 223–226 (Egmere).
  • Historical Manuscripts Commission, The Manuscripts of the Corporations of Southampton and Kings Lynn, Eleventh Report, Appendix, Part III (1887), pp. 213–231 (Chamberlains’ accounts, Edmund’s civic hospitality and Lynn counsel role, 1373–75).
  • Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward III, vols. 12–14 (HMSO), Edmund’s crown-commission entries, 1367–1375.
  • Reg. Harsyke, fol. 84 (will; folio now lost — text via the Dewes 1637 copy and Blomefield; Daniel Gurney’s “fol. 34” a misprint).
  • Norwich City Treasurers’ accounts in Records of the City of Norwich, vol. ii (Hudson and Tingey, 1910), pp. 44, 47.
  • Reginald R. Sharpe, Calendar of Wills … Court of Husting, London, Part II, pp. 241–243 (John Heylesdon’s 1384 will).
  • Walter Rye, A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Parts I and II (entries 262, 489, 837, 1526).
  • Mostyn John Armstrong, History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk (1781), vols. 1, 3, 5, 6, 9.
  • Simon Walker, The Lancastrian Affinity 1361–1399 (1990), note 19.
  • Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 16 (no Edmund) and vol. 26 (Morley); Soldier in Later Medieval England Online Database (1394 Aquitaine).

Footnotes

  1. Index to Wills, Consistory Court of Norwich, 1370–1550 (Ancestry.com collection 1610; underlying Norfolk Record Society / NRO online catalogue, http://nrocat.norfolk.gov.uk): “1387 Gurney, Gurnay, Edmund — 84 Harsyk.” Confirms registration of Edmund Gournay’s 1387 will in Norwich Consistory Court register Harsyke; the catalogue marks the entry “Index entry only. Folio missing — not to be produced to the searchroom” (the Ancestry collection mis-tags the record type as “Marriages”; it is a will index). Source ID: nro-ncc-wills-registers. ↩︎

  2. “Index of Persons and Places: G,” Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 16 (Richard II), British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk/inquis-post-mortem/vol16/pp508-513: no Edmund Gournay/Gurnay entry. Source ID: bho-ipm-vol16-index-gournay. ↩︎

  3. Simon Walker, The Lancastrian Affinity 1361–1399 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), n.19: Edmund Gournay “the principal legal adviser to the burgesses of Lynn,” who with Edmund Clippesby “took fees from the abbey of St. Benet’s, Holme,” bracketed with John Winter, Robert Cayley, Thomas Pinchbeck, John Methwold; citing Staffordshire RO D.641/1/2/4 m.4; TNA E.403/478 m.16; HMC MSS of the Corporations of Southampton and King’s Lynn (1887) pp.221-2; CPR 1381-5 p.380; KB 9/166/1 m.69. These primary records (not freely online) are carried as lead L-77. Source ID: walker-lancastrian-affinity-1361-1399. ↩︎

  4. Historical Manuscripts Commission, “The Borough of King’s Lynn: Extracts from the Chamberlains’ Accounts,” The Manuscripts of the Corporations of Southampton and Kings Lynn, Eleventh Report, Appendix, Part III (London: HMSO, 1887), British History Online, pp. 213, 221–222 (46–47 and 48–49 Edward III accounts). Full extract at sources/corpus_supplement/bho-hmc-kings-lynn-chamberlains-accounts-pp213-231.md. Source ID: bho-hmc-kings-lynn-chamberlains-accounts. ↩︎

  5. William Hudson and John Cottingham Tingey, eds., The Records of the City of Norwich (Norwich and London: Jarrold, 1910), vol. ii, “Selected Records of the City of Norwich,” City Treasurers’ Accounts, pp. 44 and 47. Internet Archive: archive.org/stream/recordsofcityofn02norwuoft/recordsofcityofn02norwuoft_djvu.txt. Index of Names entry: “Gornay, Edmund, 44, 7.” Full text of both fee paragraphs and the later “Gurnay, John 245, 7” Norwich-tenant entry at sources/corpus_supplement/norwich-records-hudson-tingey-vol2-edmund-gornay-fees.md. Source ID: norwich-records-hudson-tingey-vol2. ↩︎

  6. Francis Blomefield, “The city of Norwich, chapter 16: Of the city in Richard II’s time,” History of Norfolk, vol. 3, pp. 102-117, British History Online. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  7. Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward III, vol. 12 (London: HMSO), p. 384 (28 May [1367], revoked oyer-and-terminer commission); vol. 13, pp. 64–66 (12 January [1370], wreck/truce inquisition); vol. 14, pp. 220–221 (15 April [1375], Norfolk riot inquisition with Chief Justice John de Cavendish). Internet Archive djvu texts calendarofcloser12grea, 13grea, 14grea (BHO-gold-paywall bypass; the same dates appear as gold-only snippets on British History Online). Full extract at sources/corpus_supplement/calendar-close-rolls-edward-iii-edmund-gourneye-commissions.md. Source ID: calendar-close-rolls-edward-iii-vols12-14. ↩︎

  8. Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. 5 (London: W. Miller, 1806), pp. 33–39, “Cringleford” / “Berford’s Manor”; British History Online transcription. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk-vol5-pp33-cringleford-berford. ↩︎

  9. Walter Rye, A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Part II (Internet Archive ashortcalendarf00ryegoog), entry 1526; harvest at sources/corpus_supplement/norfolk-feet-of-fines-gurnay-entries-rye.md. Source ID: rye-feet-of-fines-norfolk. ↩︎

  10. “Robert, Lord Morley, knight,” Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 26 (Henry VI), entry 70, Mapping the Medieval Countryside (E-CIPM), https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/26-070/index.html; writ 21 Oct. 1442, inquisition Norwich 26 Jan. 1443, TNA C 139/110/38. The grantee generation differs between sources (the Rye fine #1526 names William de Morle; the IPM recital names Thomas, son of William, and Joan, in tail) — both witness the one Gournay-feoffee settlement of Hingham on the Morleys. Thomas Morley’s own 1416 IPM (E-CIPM vol. 20 no. 596, 20-594/596) lists the manor of Hingham and hundred of Forehoe among Morley holdings with no Gurney tenant. Full harvest: sources/corpus_supplement/ecipm-gournay-mentions-index-of-persons.md. Source ID: ecipm-mapping-medieval-countryside. ↩︎

  11. Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. 2, Grimshoe Hundred: Weeting, pp. 159–173 (Sir John de Plaiz’s will, dated 1385, proved 16 July 1389). Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  12. Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. 1, pp. 255–274, Garboldisham (1375 institution, feoffees including William de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk). Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  13. Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. 6, pp. 168–197, Oxburgh (1386 institution and the West Dereham advowson trust). Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  14. Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. 9, pp. 223–226, Egmere (c. 25 Edward III [1351] fine to John de Wolterton, parson of Harpley). Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  15. Walter Rye, A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Parts I and II (Internet Archive ashortcalendarf02ryegoog, ashortcalendarf00ryegoog), entries 837 and 489; harvest at sources/corpus_supplement/norfolk-feet-of-fines-gurnay-entries-rye.md. Source ID: rye-feet-of-fines-norfolk. ↩︎

  16. Mostyn John Armstrong, History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, vol. 5 (Norwich, 1781), Gallow Hundred — West Barsham parish entry. Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_history-and-antiquities-_armstrong-mostyn-john_1781_5. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  17. Francis Blomefield, “Gallow and Brothercross Hundreds: North-Barsham,” History of Norfolk, vol. 7, pp. 47-52, British History Online. Source ID: blomefield-norfolk. ↩︎

  18. Reginald R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Wills proved and enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, A.D. 1258-A.D. 1688, Part II (London: J. C. Francis, 1890), pp. 241-243, Roll 113 (1). Internet Archive: archive.org/stream/willshusting02sharuoft/willshusting02sharuoft_djvu.txt. Full calendar text and the Stow / Crowned Seld identification at sources/corpus_supplement/husting-wills-london-vol2-john-heylesdon-1384.md. Source ID: husting-wills-london-vol2-sharpe. ↩︎

  19. Mostyn John Armstrong, History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, vol. 9 (Norwich, 1781), Freebridge Hundred — Heigham next Norwich, Drayton, and Taverham parish entries. Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_history-and-antiquities-_armstrong-mostyn-john_1781_9. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  20. Walter Rye, A Short Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Norfolk, Part II (Internet Archive ashortcalendarf00ryegoog), entry 262; harvest at sources/corpus_supplement/norfolk-feet-of-fines-gurnay-entries-rye.md. Source ID: rye-feet-of-fines-norfolk. ↩︎

  21. Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 9, Heigham next Norwich. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  22. Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 9, Drayton. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  23. Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 1, Loddon Hundred — Denver mediety. Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_history-and-antiquities-_armstrong-mostyn-john_1781_1. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  24. Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 3, North Erpingham — Saxthorpe. Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_history-and-antiquities-_armstrong-mostyn-john_1781_3. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  25. Armstrong, Norfolk, vol. 6 (Norwich, 1781), South Erpingham Hundred — Walsingham priory area, Sir John Howard’s will extract. Internet Archive item bim_eighteenth-century_history-and-antiquities-_armstrong-mostyn-john_1781_6. Source ID: armstrong-norfolk-1781. ↩︎

  26. John Gourney, Gascony / Aquitaine, in the retinue of John of Gaunt (d. 1399), duke of Lancaster and Aquitaine; Letters of Attorney TNA C61/104, m. 7, 20 October 1394. From the AHRC-funded Soldier in Later Medieval England Online Database, www.medievalsoldier.org, accessed 2026-05-22. Source ID: medievalsoldier-database. The same database includes earlier 1370s–1380s “John Gournay” knight entries in France and the Calais garrison (e.g. TNA C76/59, C76/62, C76/65) attributable in part to Sir John V as a younger man and in part to the earlier-generation knight Sir John de Gourney of Harptree; the 1370 captaincy in the Knolles chevauchée (TNA E101/30/25) is too senior to be the future Sir John V. ↩︎

  27. ‘The English Way of War, 1360–1399’ (PhD thesis, University of Hull), appendix p.340, entry “GOURNEYE John, Sir” (owner of Harptree castle, Somerset, 1343 underage; Ireland 1363 under William de Windsor; Knolles 1370 captain; Calais garrison 1376/1378 under Calveley/Brocas; m. Elizabeth widow of John Carew, CPR 1370-74 p.21) and Knolles retinue table p.341. Source ID: hull-thesis-english-way-of-war-1360-1399. ↩︎

  28. Norfolk Churches, “West Barsham, St Mary,” current church-photo route; discovery pass, 2026-06, also searched West Barsham + Gurney/Gourney/Gournay + flagstone, ledger stone, floor slab, brass, and memorial inscriptions without finding an online transcription or close image for Daniel Gurney’s disputed Edmund/William flagstone. ↩︎

  29. “Genealogy of the ancient Family of the Wanseys olim Waunci,” copied from William Wansey, F.S.A., manuscript books on the Wansey family, 1873, PDF hosted by Nick Delves; user-supplied transcription in C:\Users\allen\Downloads\Future research urls3.md. Source ID: wansey-medieval-genealogy-1925. ↩︎