Sir John de Chetwynd
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: after 1351.
Place of Death: unknown.
The date is given by Eyton (8:88).
Relationships
Father: Sir Adam de Chetwynd.
Mother: Eva de Oswaldestre.
See the Commentary section below.
Spouse: Ellen de Titley.
This relatonship is recorded in the extract from the plea rolls given on Reginald’s page. Ellen was the daughter of Thomas de Titley.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
William de Chetwynd.
Evidence
from Feudal Aids:
1316.
Salop.
Chetewynde…Johannes de Chetewynd.
1346.
Hundredum de Bradeford.
Johannes de Chetewynde tenet Chetewynde et Pichford pro ij. f. de quibus Pichford tenetur pro di. f. et est in hundredo de Condover, que Johannes de Chetewynde quondam tenuit de predicto Willelmo [Fitz Aleyn.]
from the Feet of Fines (abstracted on the website Some Notes on English Medieval Genealogy):
County: Shropshire. Staffordshire.
Place: Westminster.
Date: One week from St Michael, 12 Edward II [6 October 1318].
Parties: Reynold de Chetewynde, querent, and John de Chetewynde, deforciant.
Property: The manor of Chetewynde in the county of Shropshire and the manor of Weston' by Staundon' in the county of Stafford.
Action: Plea of covenant.
Agreement: John has acknowledged the manors to be the right of Reynold, as those which Reynold has of his gift.
For this: Reynold has granted to John the manors and has rendered them to him in the court, to hold to John and the heirs of his body, of the chief lords for ever. In default of such heirs, remainder to the right heirs of John.
County: Shropshire. Berkshire. Warwickshire.
Place: Westminster.
Date: Two weeks from St Hilary, 17 Edward III [27 January 1343].
Parties: John de Chetewynde, knight, querent, and Reynold de Chetewynde, the parson of the church of Chetewynde, deforciant.
Property: The manor of Houle, excepting 1 mill in the same manor, in the county of Shropshire and 6 messuages, 2 carucates of land and 8 pence of rent in Thenford' and Denchesworthe in the county of Berkshire and 16 messuages, 6 virgates of land, 6 acres of pasture and 2 acres of wood in Baxterleye in the county of Warwick.
Action: Plea of covenant.
Agreement: John has acknowledged the manor and tenements to be the right of Reynold, as those which Reynold has of his gift. For this, Reynold has granted to John the manor and tenements and has rendered them to him in the court, to hold to John, of the chief lords for the life of John. And after the decease of John the manor and tenements shall remain to William, son of the same John, and his heirs, to hold of the chief lords for ever.
Warranty: Warranty by Reynold and his heirs.
Fine (of mixed counties) (Wrottesley, p. 187):
On the Quindene of St. Hillary. 17 E. III.
Between John de Chetewynde, Chivaler, complainant, and Reginald de Chetewynde, Parson of the Church of Chetewynde, deforciant of the manor of Weston, near Assheleye, in co. Stafford, and of the manor of Chetewynde, and of the advowson of the Church of the same in co. Salop.
John acknowledged the said manors and advowson to be the right of Reginald, for which Reginald granted them to John for his life, with remainder to Richard, son of Adam de Peshale, and Joan, daughter of Reginald, son of the said John de Chetewynde and to their issue, and failing such, to the issue of the said Joan, and failing such issue, to William, son of the said John and his male issue, and failing such, to the right heirs of the said John for ever.
On the Quindene of Hillary. 17 E. III.
Between John de Chetewynde, Chivaler, complainant, and Reginald de Chetewynde, Parson of the Church of Chetewynde, deforciant of the manor of Houle, excepting a mill in co. Salop, and of six messuages, two carucates of land, and 8d. rent in Thenford and Denchesworthe, in co. Berks, and of sixteen messuages, six virgates of land, six acres of pasture, and two acres of wood in Baxterleye, in co. Warwick.
John acknowledged the said manor and tenements to be the right of Reginald, for which the said Reginald granted them to John for his life, with remainder to William, son of the said John and his heirs for ever.
Commentary
On John’s parents.
The Chetwynd of Ingestre pedigree in the 1663 Visitation, based on information from Walter Chetwynd of Ingestre, gives John’s father as Sir John de Chetwynd. Eyton (pp. 87-8) doesn’t explicitly give John’s parents, but he relates that on the elder John’s death in 1281, one inquisition post mortem found his son and heir to be Philip, aged 18, and all the others gave the name Reginald and the age 16, although they vary in the date of Reginald’s birthday. He goes on to relate evidence which points to the “apparent certainty that, on John de Chetwynd’s death in 1281, Adam de Chetwynd” [probably the elder John’s brother] “must have obtained custody of his estates, viz. Chetwynd and Weston-juxta-Standon. ..Adam de Chetwynd at once conveys these aquisitions to Eva de Oswaldistre, but dying within two years, the Sheriff seizes upon the estate of his son and the wardships of his Assignee, as though he had been a Tenant in capite, and had died seized of the whole.” He notes that the Feodaries of 1284-5 show that John son of Adam de Chetwynd was Mesne Lord of Hilderston, Staffordshire and that Reginald de Chetwynd was Lord of Weston-juxta-Standon in Staffordshire, and of Chetwynd in Shropshire. However: “After this we suddenly and unaccountably find a third John de Chetwynd as Lord of Chetwynd.” (The elder John’s father had also been named John.)
Glazebrook explains this situation in an endnote to the Visitation based on information provided by Chetwynd-Stapylton:
“Joan, the wife of Richard Peshall, was clearly the da. and h. of another Reginald Chetwynd, viz., Reginald, son of John, son of Adam Chetwynd of Cublesdon. The post mortem Inquisition on Sir John de Chetwynd was taken in 9 E.I., 1280, when it was found that Reginald was his son and next heir and then aged 16. Being under age, Adam de Chetwynd of Cublesdon purchased his wardship. (Rot. Rin. 9 E. I.) Reginald was Lord of Chetwynd and Weston juxta Standon in 1284, and Rector of Chetwynd in 1318. Being a priest, he settled Chetwynd and Weston on John, son of Adam (Fines 12 E.II.), and by a later concord, on John for life, with remainder to Richard, son of Adam de Peshall and Joan his wife, “fil’ Reginaldi fil’ p’dic’i Joh’is de Chetwynd” (Fines 17 E. III.), by which these estates went to the Peshalls.”
In 1892, Chetwynd-Stapylton gives a somewhat different account. There, Reginald the priest is a different man: the son of the younger John and the father of Joan. Chetwynd-Stapylton (1892, pp. 19-20) gives this account of the elder Reginald:
“Reginald came of age in 1284, and is returned as lord of Chetwynd in the feodaries of the following year, holding it under Richard Fitzalan by service of two Knights’ fees. Between 1285 and 1292, Reginald is found witnessing several Charters at Newport. But a presentment made by the Bradford Jurors at the Assizes of 1292 shows that some change has taken place, his cousin John Chetwynd, eldest son of Adam of Cublesdon, claiming rights of Free Warren in Chetwynd, from which it is evident he was already possessed of the land in dsmesne. And at the Clipston Inquest in 1316, John is formally returned as Lord of Chetwynd. Moreover, 17th June, 1381 (11 E.II.), Sir John being now a Knight, appeared before the King at Northampton, and obtained a Charter enabling him to hold a weekly market at Chetwynd, on Tuesdays, and a three days’ Fair at the Feast of All Saints, in November. These transactions are fully confirmed by a Concord of Fine enrolled in the King’s Court, whereby Reginald makes over to his cousin the whole of his estates both at Chetwynd and Weston, with remainder to Sir John’s right heirs for ever. But even before this, in 1306, John had sued Robert de Staundon, the mesne lord of Weston, for “causing waste and destruction in houses, woods, and gardens,” which he held in custody of the inheritance of John. How this all came about is unknown. Reginald may have been a weak man, or a spendthrift and embarrassed with debt, or not likely to marry, being already past fifty. John may have represented to him that in the event of his death, the family estates might be lost by esheat, and though his uncle Philip’s children were before him in the entail they were well provided for at Ingestre, and Reginald need have no concern for them. Then days after his visit to Northampton, Sir John has obtained the advowson and presented his own son, another Reginald an Acolyte, to the Rectory of Chetwynd, who is no sooner inducted than he obtains a year’s leave of absence, to prepare himself by study. It is the more necessary to dwell upon these circumstances because both Dugdale and Walter Chetwynd have overlooked the fact that there were two Reginalds.”
I am not sure how realistic Chetwynd-Staplyton’s 1892 account is. He tacitly admits misinterpreting evidence in 1885, and his 1892 version still contains errors, misidentifying Sir John’s wife and and makes some dubious statements concerning Sir John’s proposed mother, Eva.
Wrottesley in a note (Staff. Coll. 6:1 p. 202) concerning a case in Staffordshire in the period, makes a point that may be relevant: “The reader will note here again a patrimony divided between two sons. This, which is by no means uncommon, was done under two customs, one where land was held by Thenage or Sokemanship, and descended by ancient Saxon custom, and the other by virtue of an ancient Norman custom called Paragium, because the second son was placed in pari casu with the elder. "
The Warwickshire VCH (4:sub Baxterley) regards the Reynold, the rector of Chetwynd, in the 1343 fine as being the brother of Sir John. This still implies that Adam and Eva were Sir John’s parents, so I will (tentatively) go with that.
References
Chetwynd-Stapylton, H.E. The Chetwynds of Ingestre (London, 1892).
Eyton, Rev. R.W. Antiquities of Shropshire. (12 volumes, 1854-1860).
The Heraldic Visitations of Staffordshire made by Sir Richard St. George, Norroy, in 1614, and by Sir William Dugdale, Norroy, in the Years 1663 and 1664. (H Sydney Glazebrook, ed.) (Collections for a History of Staffordshire part II, volume 5; 1884).
'Parishes: Baxterley', in A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 4, Hemlingford Hundred, ed. L F Salzman (London, 1947), pp. 24-27.
Wrottesley, G. “The Final Concords, or Feet of Fines, Staffordshire, A.D. 1327 to A.D. 1547” in Collections for a History of Staffordshire (William Salt Archaeological Society,Volume XI, (1890)