THOMAS Pomeroy Esq.
Circa 1388
The tale of an Entail & THOMAS Pomeroy Esq. a troublesome man.
Once Upon a time, long long before there was a stone Castle at Berry Pomeroy........
there were two men by the name of Thomas Pomeroy and both had a wife called Joanna ....
The laws of Primogenitor rules dictate that the eldest son gets everything.
The 7th Sir Henry Pomeroy & his wife Johanna Moels produced 6 sons
In 1328 they created an successive entail meaning that their 6 sons inherited one after the other.
Henry, the 8th of that name was baron after 1367 & died in 1373 ;
2nd son William, a soldier & Captain of Castle Cornet in Guernsey d 1378 ;
3rd son Nicholas of Tewkesbury a merchant d 1383
4th son John of Averton Giffard d 1357
finally 5th son Thomas of Hawley who was a Knight of the Shire (d 1378) whose wife was Johane
Their son was William born circa 1372 & also died 1378 & it was his son Edward who became Baron in 1426.
This was the time of the Hundred Years War 1337–1453
The subject of this page is another Thomas Pomeroy Esq son of Robert of Smallridge, Buckerel & Upottery
a cadet line in east Devon.
In 1308 the Barony went to Henry the oldest son , the 8th successive Henry Pomeroy, whose wife was Emmot ;
They had one son John and 2 daughters, co- heirs.
They were Joanna married to James Chudleigh & Margaret married to Adam Cole.
Sir John inherited in 1374 married the widowed Joanna Merton previously wife of William Barnhouse.
John died in 1416 without living male heirs and his cousin Edward age about 14 was declared heir of Sir John Pomeroy
and set to inherit the estates & the title Baron Berry Pomeroy ;
BUT
Edward although he was grandson of Sir Thomas 5th son of Sir Henry by Joanna Moels,
he not inherit the baronacy until after the death of Sir Thomas Pomeroy in 1426 .
That was Thomas Pomeroy Esq son of Robert, who in 1388 married Joanna Chudleigh who was knighted in 1400
Thomas Pomeroy esq. was son of Robert , had a brother ,William of Membury,
& they were of the cadet line at Upottery & Bokerel in East Devon also called Thomas of Smallridge ,
a hamlet with a mill, a tithing, in Axminster ;
therein lies the confusion.
A tale coloured with medieval ambition, reckless excess & skulduggery ,
which like all the best tales makes things complicated !
An entail such as the one created in 1328 was usually indicates a threat to the line of succession
but what it was, in this case, is unclear; maybe simply have been having 5 boys or a certain paranoia over who could inherit .
The children of 7th Henry & his 1st wife Joanna Moels were
1. 8th successive Henry de la Pomeroy, d. 20 Dec 1373, Tregony, Cornwall, wife Emmott - who fought at the battle of Crecy in 1346 in the army of Earl of Oxford John de Vere headed by Edward the Black Prince ; father of John who like many young men of the baronial class went to war for almost 4 years between 1370 & 1374 ; John inherited after his father; his siblings were co-heirs, Joanna wife Sir James Chudleigh and Margaret wife of Adam Cole. Both the sisters had children, Johanna Chudleigh and John Cole
2. William Pomeroy, b. Abt 1324, Captain of Castle Cornet at St. Peter Port, Guernsey. William Pomeray, Esquire, Man At Arms, 1389, Brest Garrison 1 year
3. Nicholas Pomeroy, High Sheriff of Devon, b. Abt 1330, d. Aft 1383 also called Nicholas of Tewkesbury. A sheriff of Devon & Lord of Dartmouth
4. John Pomeroy, b. Abt 1332, d. Aft 1357 who had a son Nicholas a prebend of Glasney College in Penryn in Cornwall , near Falmouth. 1358 April 20 To The prebend held by Nicholas la Pomerey, which was vacant by the leave given to Nicholas at the death of his father Master John la Pomerey.
5.Sir Thomas Pomeroy, 5th son & Knight of the Shire, b. Abt 1334, of, Berry Pomeroy, died in 1378; Not to be confused with the Thomas subject of this page Sir Thomas son of Henry is on record as going on a journey for the king in 1372. Thomas & his wife Johan had a son William born before 1372 who died in about 1397. William had a son, Edward, born about 1392 who was married in 1404 to Margaret Beville , became Baron after the death of Thomas of Bockerell in 1426 & died 1446.
After his death in 13 78 Thomas's Widow, Johan ( family unknown ), married Alexander Merle, Esq.,merchant of Exeter & M.P.
Powley writes of Thomas of Upottery & Bockerell…
In October 1402, (Thomas) de la Pomerai received pardon for outlawry, for not appearing before the bench in Richard II's reign to answer Giles Mallory, chivaler, and also for not presenting himself before justices to answer a citizen and armourer of London,1 a citizen fishmonger and the executors of a citizen draper. The knight, citizens and executors, respectively, lacked 20 marks (£13. 6. 8), £6, 40s. and 113s. 6d.
A petition of ' Monseigneur Thomas Pomeroy Chivaler and Johane sa compaigne' against 'Monseigneur Philip Courtenay, Chivaler, and others' came before Parlia- ment on Thursday, 9 November 1402. Thomas and Joan were, they alleged, seised of the manors of Clyfton (Cliston? Broad Clyst), Ayston (Ashton? v. p. 56), Shappel- helion and Hokesbeare (v. p. 56), Asselond (Affelond? now Affaland in Clawton) and other tenements in Exeter and Devonshire and the manor Westwy Demouth (Wide- mouth, Poundstock?) in Cornwall; but Philip Courtenay and John, his son, and Joan, wife of James Chuddleigh, wrongfully evicted the petitioners and seized the evidences of their possession. Courtenay hardly gave ' sufficient response ' to the charges ; and it was decided Thomas and Joan could either return to their manors, if the law allowed, or the case go to a general or special assize (whichsoever they chose), in Devonshire. At the assize no juryman might sit, if he were of estate valued at less than £40 per annum.3 Mainprise of £1000 not to hurt the abbot of Newenham (in Axminster) or Thomas de la Pomerai, his wife and servants was, 1402, given by John de Arundell and other knights.
Again, in 1404, de la Pomerai secured pardon of outlawry after failing to meet the demands of a London mercer citizen for £6.5
It is more pleasant to find de la Pomerai, in 1404, one of the Members of Parliament for Devonshire- paid £16. 4. 0 for 81 days of attendance at Westminster, to learn that he was of a commission ordered, in August 1404, to re-secure prisoners at Blakepole (Blackpool in South Molton?), to hear of him, in November, as sheriff of Somerset and Dorset and to discover him, in 1405, when the French were threatening, from Picardy, to assist a rising in Wales, appointed, with three others, to a Devonshire commission of array.
Even so, record of further pardons must not be suppressed-one for not appearing, in January 1406, to answer a 52s. debt to a London citizen draper, deceased,10 another, the next month, for default to John Nowlers, knight, of the county of Oxfordshire, for the sum of £10.11
Payment to de la Pomerai of £39, for 195 days' service in Parliament, at Westminster, is on record for 1406.
In June, Thomas de la Pomerai was associated with the bishop of Exeter and others in the task of enquiry into recent behaviour of sheriffs and of all other officers of the Crown in Devonshire! It is a pity one can never know whether mere accident, the shrewdness of the central authority, or the knight's fine sense of an opportunity to be improved, secured him appointment upon the commission charged to borrow, at this time, in Devonshire and Cornwall, money for the Crown for urgent business !
In a new reign, the knight repeated his old device-February 1415 saw the late sheriff excused, for great costs and losses, £30 due to the Exchequer.11 One order which he had (?) received while sheriff had not been carried out; he had not attached John Hauley of Dertemuth nor seized his lands. The former sheriff took oath (1413) he had never received that command.12 Mention of Hauley gives occasion to remark that J.M. Manly has conclusively connected the surname with ownership of Chaucer's 'Maudelayne' of Dertemuth.13 In October 1415, Thomas de la Pomerai was of the commission of the peace of Devonshire.
Whether he considered himself 'accursed' not to fight at Agincourt may be doubted; for it was probably quite plain, by summer of 1415, that a contest for the lands and inheritance of the childless John and Joan could not be long delayed.
As it will be convenient to deal with the question of inheritance without breaking the narrative, it may be stated here that Thomas de la Pomerai was one of four of oyer and terminer, 1417, to try a case of assault on the parson (Robert Oscote) of Cornwode ;15 that he was one of the Devonshire commission, of thirteen and the sheriff, for defence, while the King was abroad in 1418,1 that he re-presented his patents of 1400 (March, December) in 1422,2 the first year of Henry Vi's reign.
The relations between Edward de la Pomerai, tenant of Tregony, and Thomas de la Pomerai by December 1417 ,had become so strained that Thomas had to give guarantees that he would not hurt Edward; He had to pay £100, in bonds of £40, His mainpernors, who gave surity, were John Cole and William Pomeray (v. p. 83)
Edward simultaneously agreed to a like restriction. In February 1418, Thomas, who, during the survivorship of the widow of John, can have had no possible claim, even through his wife, upon Tregony, interfered with Edward de la Pomerai's possession of that manor. While the argument waxed hot, de Arundell was bidden keep Tregony for the King. It is not possible to say exactly where, during or after March 1418, should be made to fit in a record of a petition presented to the duke of Bedford, guardian of England, by Edward de la Pomerai and his wife Margaret.
research revealed
Edward Pomeroy son of William & grandson of Sir Thomas Knight of the Shire, married Margaret Beville in about 1403 ; They were granted Tregony by Sir John son of the 9th Hnery Pomeroy just before their marriage in 1403 . thier inheritance of the barony usurped by Thomas Pomeroy Esq, son of Robert of Upottery, and his wife the twice widowed Pomeroy heiress ,Joanna Chudleigh. Edward only inherited the barony in 1426 when Sir Thomas died .
Edward and his wife & family lived at Tregony and it was there that Thomas & John Cole pursued what were often quite dubious claims against Edward Pomeroy. The story goes that Thomas and John arrived at Tregony with an armed band of soldiers and forced their way into the castle; they locked Lady Margaret up for several days without food or water and ejected Edward by way of window. Defenestration . Quite what the result was is unclear other than Thomas was made Baron when Sir John died on 1416 and the barony only reverted to its rightful heir, Edward , when Thomas died childless in 1426
The 8th Henry Pomeroy wife Joanna Moels died , sometime between 1328 & 1359, he married again . Henry's is new wife was Elizabeth widow of Roger Carminowe and daughter of John de Powderham ( possibly a Courtenay) On 16 April 1359, his new wife presented him the the congregation at Whitstone 3 miles from Exeter, a manor was anciently held by the Beaumont, Powderham & Bohun families .
Sir Henry died in 1367 and his son John, who had married Johanna de Merton widow of John Bamfeld of Politimore , inherited.
Sir John settled the Manor of Berry Pomeroy on himself & his wife in 1374 and gave Tregony to his cousin Edward. in 1404 .
Sir John was away from home for most of time between 1370-1374 on campaign with King Edward III on active service in the naval defence of Devon against a landing from France in 1375;
(Noted as a Man At Arms onboard a ship. Not a "mariner." ) He also served with Edward III aboard on one of the naval ships in 1372 for 2 years -1374 ; he was on the Commissions of Array 1377. He died in 1416 without living children and his widow was bullied by the newly minted Sir Thomas and his comrade John Cole into relinquishing her lands to allow Thomas to take the Barony .
Edward, grandson of the 5th son Thomas should have inherited the title when Sir John died but had to wait until 1426 when the cadet line Sir Thomas died .
5th son Thomas's son was William & married and had at least 1 son Edward who when Baron John died was the only available male & became the nominated heir to the Pomeroy barony.
Edward married Margaret Beville daughter of John Beville by his 1st wife Margaret de Collaton MP for CORNWALL and Sheriff of Cornwall.
It was a good match and when Beville died on 13 Jan. 1426 he held the family property at Woolston (Cornwall), Barkington and Sparkwell (Staverton near Totnes in Devon), his de Collaton wife’s inheritance of the manor and hundred of North Petherton (Somerset) and Grindham, ‘Faryngton’ and ‘Iwode’ (formerly Bluet property) in the same county. Elsewhere, in Devon and Cornwall, he owned 35 messuages and some 850 acres of land.
Visitations show that Edward was married to Margaret Beville with a prenuptial agreement & possession by fee or fine of the Manor of Tregony in 1404-
This Henry was not a committed soldier going off to fight for years on end, There is a single entry for 1346 for him Crecy - the year he died
Sir Henry Pomeroy knight under Commander John de Vere, Earl of Oxford led by Prince Edward Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, The Black Prince Crecy. 1346. where the use of the English longbow bought a victory
However a post nuptial settlement decades later- in 1435 - suggests to me that this a marriage arranged when Margaret, who died in 1461, was a young child.
Their eldest son Henry Pomeroy was 30 when his father died in 1446 giving a rough DOB 1416. He would have come of age in 1437 which tends to make my theory of an arranged marriage feasible, Made whilst the bride was child & consummated when she was maybe 14 or 15 ;
Margaret died in 1461.
Mainpernor - one who provided surety that a prisoner's would make their court appearance
Mainprise - almost the same concept as bail, but always involved a specified sum of money.
enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service.
The longbow used by the English and Welsh archers was unique to them; it took up to ten years to master and could discharge up to ten arrows per minute with a range of well over 980 ft .
Archers carried one quiver of 24 arrows as standard. During the morning of the battle, they were each issued two more quivers, for a total of 72 arrows per man to each of the 7.000 longbow men .
Joanna Chudleigh, widow St Aubyn & de Bryan at the time of her marriage to Thomas was Betrothed to Will’m Amydas when she married Thomas in November 1388 – That was hasty & clandestine affair without banns or a licence from the king – the reason might have been because de Bryan died Feb 1387 & she would forfeit her 1/3 moiety of his estates if she married within a year. 1402 they made a claim to the commons over property -
Phillip de Bryan was third son of Sir Guy de Bryan, Knight of the Garter (one of the elite & so a powerful man ) who just before easter of 1436, settled lands in Dorset and Devon and also the manors of Kingsdon, Somerton Erleigh and Somerton Randolph creating an entail male on his eldest surviving son, Sir William de Bryan, and his third son, Sir Phillip, and failing male heirs on the right heirs of sir William (S.R.S., XVII, 202).
Sir Phillip died in February 1388 - without issue - . At some point in 1388, Sir Guy had found that documents were missing from his strong boxes and had gone to his son Sir William’s residence in London where he broke open a chest and found the missing documents. Later Sir William went to Carmarthenshire, scaled the walls of the castle of Laugharne and abstracted £25 from the paternal coffers - in August, 1388, Sir Guy attempted to repudiate this settlement which he stated was against his will. The following November, the son Sir William made a public declaration stating that there had been no undue pressure on his father when the settlement was made in 1386
Like many other landed families there was a tendency to sell their daughters very young - often well before the age of 12 despite the fact that in the C12th Pope Alexander had decreed that marriages should not be made until boys were 14 and girls 12 - they got round this by delaying consummation! The delay was often only until the girl was 16 - there are noticeable delays in the birth of children after a marriage settlement -
Margaret Beville and Edward is an example I believe - married circa 1404 son Henry wasn’t born until about 1416 -
Date range: 29 March 1389 - 29 March 1389 Reference: C 131/36/6
Subjects: Debt, Manors endorsement: John Moygne, Sheriff, replies that Thomas Pomeray was not found in the bailiwick. His lands and tenements were extended and seized into the King's hands.
Note: , C 131/36/22, C 131/41/14. Date given for return to Chancery: 28/5/1389. M.2:
Extent made at Wedmore [Bempstone Hundred] in Somerset before John Moigne, Sheriff, on Mon. 24/5/1389.
Thomas holds the manor of Alleston Sutton in Somerset in the right of his wife Joan for her life, which is worth 12 marks a year. He has no other lands or chattels in Somerset. Date: 1389 Mar 29
Alleston Sutton was St Aubyn property - Alston Sutton and Combe Raleigh were held in dower by Joanna Chudleigh
William of Membury was Thomas's brother, sons of Robert Pomeroy of Smallridge He was also in good favour, with the king's wife, queen Joan of Navarre, who made him a Queens Esquire and then a Knight .Recorded as dead by 1441.
Robert Pomeroy who in 1330 held Membury manor , early in 1406 ,with Thomas & William and a chaplain of Membury, surrendered Membury to the prior of Goldclyve in Newport in Monmouthshire ( Patent Rolls 1405 & Close Rolls )
( Membury on east Devon 4 miles north west of Axminster and 7 miles south west of Chard.)
Sir Thomas Pomeroy (the Troublesome ) was given Henyock at the time he was knighted in 1400 - He died on the feast of St. Laurence (10 Aug or possibly 3 Feb) 1426 at which time Hemyock reverted to the Dynhams until the death of Sir John Dynham in 1501.
https://www.hemyockcastle.uk/famous.html
Hemyock Manor is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as Hamihoc, held by King William, granted to Baldwin. In 1086, it appears to have been occupied by William Cheever. ( half brother of Ranalph de Pomeroy and their sister Beatrice)
The church went to Torre Abbey and the manor to the Honor of Plympton.
.
. . . . .for 14 years Sir Edward Pomeroy and his wife Margaret Beville have been rightfully seised of the manor of Tregony by virtue of a fine levied to them and their heirs male by John de la Pomeray, knight, now of late, since the beginning of the King's present expedition, Thomas Pomeray and others have forcibly entered the manor, imprisoned Margaret there for two days, ousted her and her servants therefrom, and occupied the manor and done damage there. The petitioners therefore pray that, since they cannot during the said expedition be helped by the common law, the guardian will summon Thomas to appear before him at the quinzaine of Trinity next, and also grant a writ to the sheriff of Devon to make public proclamation of the said summons.
Endorsed: On 5 July, 7 Henry V [1419], it was agreed by the Council that Thomas should be summoned to appear before them in the quinzaine of Michaelmas next. The expression ' cannot during the said expedition be helped by the common law' should be noted.
In October 1419, Edward was elected one of the two knights of the shire for Devon- shire, to attend a Westminster Parliament.
Joan, John's widow, had not, in November 1419, sued livery of that third of Stoklegh and the parts of the Hurberton and Brixham moieties within her dower; and these shares were given to Thomas and John Cole to hold, William Pomeray and John Cokeworthy mainpernors (v. p. 82). Was it this that roused Edward to sue Thomas and Joan his wife and John Cole' of Nitheway' (in Brixham) for Stoklegh and moieties of Hur_berton and Brixham, claiming by virtue of a fine, levied 3 Edward
III and recorded 18 Edward III, respecting the manor of Tregony and 18 knights' fees in Tregony and the manors of Beri and Stoklegh and 38 knights' fees in Beri and Hurberton and the moieties of Hurberton and Brixham? The fine in question was, of course, the original 1328 transaction of Henry de la Pomerai (VIII). He was unsuccessful; and his failure can, in the light of his preceding conduct (v. p. 62), cause no surprise.
At Ascension tide 1420, the same Joan (de Merton widow of John ) , without licence of the King, made over her rights in Beri to Thomas and his wife Joanna and to JohnCole. She died on Corpus Christi day. An inquisition left matters, at a cost of a £20 fine for the trespass of accepting the widow's transfer, where they were-Thomas and his wife Joan and John Cole receiving, from November 1420, the additional Beri holding. Joan, the wife of Thomas, was dead by December 1422. At death she either possessed Comberale (Combe Ralegh) and holdings in Avelishayes (Avishayes in Sidmouth) and Wolston (in West Alvington?) together with a half share in Beri, a half share in Stoklegh, a half share in Tregony (that last particular half would, at most, yield annual rental of but a grain of wheat!) and a half share in the moieties of Hurberton and Brixham, or she held Comberale, in Avelishayes and in Wolston and enjoyed the whole de la Pomerai fees. For it is not clear whether John Cole's interest (and that of his heirs if he had any) had been extinguished by 1422. It had certainly disappeared before 1428.
A trespass of Thomas against Edward is on record for 1426. Till 1428, some time before October, when Thomas died, his wife's possessions were, apparently, left in his hands. They, when resumed by the Crown, were Beri, Stoklegh, Tregony and parts of Harberton and Brixham.
The lands were committed to four persons on Joan wife of Otes Bodrugan and Margaret, wife of Reynold Tretherf, daughters of Sir John St Aubyn, son of Joan by her first husband Sir John St Aubyn , during their minority, the second group of four to pay 129 marks (£86) and 12d. and an increment yearly of 71 marks (£47. 6. 8)=£133. 7. 8 in all.1
No hint is contained in the documents of the reason why the Crown and escheator acted throughout the years 1417 to 1428 on the 1387 enfeoffment and not on that of 1414, an enfeoffment equally licensed by the Crown and expressing the later wish of John de la Pomerai. Whether Edward contested the preference is not apparent. He was certainly, on bad terms with Thomas from1417 onwards, a quarrel for which, however, Tregony would provide sufficient cause. That the Crown, having preferred the 1387 enfeoffment, should pardon, for sufficient fine, the trespass of illegal transfer of Beri by John's widow to the right heirs, before their time, is not perhaps a matter of surprise. But it does seem that Thomas was fortunate in the circumstance that, at his wife's death, Beri, Stoklegh, the moieties of Hurberton and Brixham and Tregony, all presumably already in her sole possession, were not escheated to the Crown. For Thomas de la Pomerai and Joan left no children; and only a stretching of 'courtesy of England' could excuse his continued possession? Thomas de la Pomerai sought, before his wife's death, papal licence for a portable altar; the indult was granted early in 1423.
Sir Edward Pomeroy 18 February 1504 awarded Knight Bachelor
History of Parliament 1386- 4/108;
Record set Britain, Knights Of The Realm & Commonwealth Index FMP
On 22 Nov 1388 Thomas Pomeroy esq. son of Robert Of Up Ottery & Bockerell made a hurried and illicit marriage to the twice widowed Joanna Chudleigh, one of 2 co-hiers to the barony of Berry Pomeroy . Her former husband Sir Phillip de Bryan died on 16 January 1387 ( New year was March 25th. so 10 months later)
The law was that a widow lost her right to her dead husband’s property if she married within a year of his death. - with custom reinforcing it making it 'unseemly' for her to remarry quickly.
Her dower lands were all de Bryans lands at Frome Braunche as well as Shokerwyk & Bathneston (Bath Easton)
Close Rolls [f] 1385-89 pages 217, 320 5 Mar 1387 and 20 Jun 1387
To Richard Mucheldevere escheator in Somerset and Dorset. Order to take of Joan who was wife of Philip de Bryen knight an oath etc., and to assign her dower of her husband's lands; and [Assignment of dower lands to Joan, widow of Philip de Bryene knight, consisting of all his lands at Frome Braunche (a detailed list provided), and specified lands at Shokerwyk and Bathneston]
Transfer of lands of Philip Bryan to his widow Joan
Fine Rolls [h] Vol 10 page 262 22 Nov 1388
Order to Richard Manyngford, escehator in the counties of Somerset and Dorset – on information that Thomas Pomeray without the king’s licence has taken to wife Joan late the wife of Philip Briene ‘chivaler’ who held of the king in chief – to take into the king’s hand without delay all the lands in his bailiwick which were assigned to Joan as dower after Philip’s death, answering at the Exchequer for the issues thereof.
Patent Rolls. 1389-92 page 126. 27 Oct 1389
Pardon, for £10 paid to the king by Thomas Pomeray, to the said Thomas and Joan, late the wife of Philip Bryene, knight, for intermarrying without licence.
It was really rather scandalous because Johanna was at the time already betrothed to one William Amyas.
Thomas Esq; seems to have simply scooped her up and hustled her into the church to be married by the vicar; without banns or a licence from the king , in an aisle of the church, & this despite her not living in the parish, but witnessed by John Gray and Nicholas Kirkham;
or did she go willingly ? This clandestine event brought a reproof from the Bishop for the Vicar and punishment to abstain from eating fish every Friday for a year & to refrain from celebrating mass under threat of excommunication. Thomas received an admonishment and a fine of £10 for marrying without a licence from the king.
Thomas certainly had a clear objective in making this marriage. His ambition was to create a baronial line descending from him. Whether the twice widowed lady was in agreement will never be known. I would suspect that he must have been almost certain Baron John & his wife would never have any children. But for all his machinations he was unsuccessful. His only child Isabella died before he did .
The king continued to repeatedly forgive Thomas's considerable & repeated indebtedness to London drapers & tailors; an armourer & a saddlers, a vinter amongst other citizens of London. He was also pardoned for the outlawry that resulted in his non-payment and non-appearance in court to answer for his debts , repeatedly.
Finally knighted Thomas in 1400 by Henry Bolinbroke, by then Henry IV , thereafter Thomas led a turbulant life although he seems to have made great effort of ingratiate himself with both this king and the next. and a reward for his service.
Sir Thomas Pomeroy of Combe Raleigh, Devon
Thomas Pomeroy Esq. was an ruthlessly ambitious & extravagant , & debt ridden gentleman, who was frequently outlawed for failing to answer to the court regarding his indebtedness. His outlawry was repeatedly forgiven by both Richard II & the new king Henry Bolinbroke, now Henry IV.
In March 1400, Henry Bolinbroke /Henry IV made Thomas Pomeroy a King’s Esquire, and by December of that year he was made a King’s Knight , the king having knighted him on his last voyage to Scotland. He also received a grant for life of the lands of William Hasthorpe at Hemyock Manor, including Hemyock Castle,
Thomas de la Pomerai gave good service as a man at arms in Scotland and Wales between 1400 and 1402.
(See Edward Powley – Annals of the Pomeroy Family.
Why Thomas was so favoured by the king is not known but certainly he seems to have been in the good graces of both Richard II & the man who forced him to abdicate him Henry Bolinbroke - Henry IV. It may simply have been because Thomas espoused of the Lancastrian cause.
THOMAS the Troublesome knight in Parliament.
History of Parliament
Thomas Pomeroy Knight ?son of Robert Pomeroy of Sandridge, Devon.
married . (1) 1388, Joan (d. 14 Dec. 1422), da. of Sir James Chudleigh* of Ashton and Shirwell, Devon, by Joan, sis. and coh. of Sir John Pomeroy*, wid. of Sir John St. Aubyn and Sir Philip BryanÜ, 1da. d.v.p.;
(2) Joan (d.1435/6), da. of Sir John RaleighÜ of Nettlecombe, Som., wid. of John Whalesborough* of Whalesborough, Cornw. s.p. Kntd. 1400.1
Offices Held
Sheriff, Devon 24 Nov. 1400-8 Nov. 1401, 29 Nov. 1410-10 Dec. 1411, 6 Nov. 1413-19 May 1414, Som. and Dorset 22 Nov. 1404-5.
Commr. of inquiry, Devon Aug. 1404 (prisoners taken at Blackpool),(near Dartmouth ) Devon, Cornw. June 1406 (concealments); array, Devon July 1405, Apr. 1418; to raise royal loans, Devon, Cornw. June 1406; of oyer and terminer, Devon Mar. 1417.
J.P. Devon 1 Oct. 1415-Nov. 1418.
Thomas came from a cadet branch of the Pomeroy family in east Devon but emerged as the most prominent member of the family of his generation, a prominence due, it must be admitted, more to a convenient marriage and dubious financial dealings, coupled with strong Lancastrian sympathies, than to any high standing as a landowner or ability as a public servant.
One of his earliest recorded appearances sets the tone of his career. In September 1388, at Chudleigh, the vicar of Berry Pomeroy was summoned before the bishop of Exeterís court accused of celebrating a clandestine marriage between Pomeroy and the twice-widowed Joan Chudleigh, who had recently, by common fame, been secretly married to William Amadas. A penance was imposed upon the vicar, but Pomeroy had to obtain the Kingís pardon, for which, in October 1389, he paid £10 into the hanaper of the Chancery. Certainly, this marriage ëbore the appearance of enterpriseí, for it was contracted very soon after an entail had been devised by Sir John Pomeroy by which the manor of Berry Pomeroy would, in default of children of his own, revert to his sisters and their heirs, of whom Thomas’s bride was one.
Thomas was well aware of this arrangement, having assisted in the legal formalities as one of Sir John’s feoffees. Much of his energy was to be spent on converting possibility into reality.
Pomeroy’s career, however, still had to be made. In February 1395 he was granted royal letters of protection as about to go to Aquitaine in the retinue of John of Gaunt; however, five months later he still tarried at home, being busy with his own affairs. Henry Bolinbroke. Henry IV’s accession provided the turning point of his public career.
Indeed, as King’s esquire, as early as March 1400, he was given an annuity of £20 from the royal revenues of Devon, and in December following, for the better maintenance of his knightly estate, to which the King caused him to be exalted at his last voyage in Scotland , he received a grant for life of lands at Hemyock worth £8 p.a. Meanwhile, in February 1400, he had become farmer of Oakford, Devon, by Exchequer lease, and four years later he was granted a share in the custody of lands at Membury, which, however, he surrendered in 1406.
Pomeroy’s annuity was to be confirmed by Henry V and by Henry VI’s council. Such liberality depended upon loyal service, and his standing may also be gauged by the willingness of the Lancastrian kings to exonerate him from the debts he owed as sheriff of Devon.
On two occasions he failed to account fully for the issues of the county: owing £56 13s.4d. in 1402, he was at first committed to the Fleet, only to be pardoned for his good service to the King in Scotland and Wales without wages or fees ; and in February 1415, even though he had been told that the exemption of 1402 might not be used as a precedent, he was pardoned payment of £30, in consideration of his great costs and losses in the office. It is notable, however, that he had been removed from the shrievalty in the previous year after occupying it on this occasion for only six months.3
Through his first marriage Pomeroy had acquired a number of properties in the West Country. These included his wife’s dower lands in Somerset, namely one third of the manor and hundred of Frome Branche and the manors of Batheaston and Shockerwick (all demised for an annual rent of £24) which, along with Allerton, fell to her by marriage to Sir Philip Bryan (a younger son of Guy, Lord Bryan), together with the manor of Combe Ralegh in Devon, which had belonged to her first husband, Sir John St. Aubyn.
Yet the income from these estates was not sufficient to support Pomeroy’s extravagance. Shortly after his marriage he entered into a recognisance before the mayor of the Staple of Westminster in September 1388 for the sum of £83 10s.8d., and when payment became overdue and Chancery issued a writ to value his property in Somerset, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Devon, it was found that income from the St. Aubyn manor of Alston Sutton, which was worth 12 marks a year, and a rent of ten marks from Frome would help pay off the debt.
At regular intervals after this, Pomeroy received royal pardons of outlawry for failure to appear in court to answer his creditors, usually London merchants. Indeed, between 1390 and 1406 he secured six such pardons relating to debts amounting to more than £120 and owed to city vintners, saddlers, drapers, tailors, armourers, a mercer and a fishmonger, as well as to the receiver of the duchy of Cornwall.4
It was perhaps Pomeroy’s shaky finances and extravagant tastes which encouraged him to increase his income from land. His great opportunity came in 1416, when Sir John Pomeroy died without issue. Under the entail of 1387 Sir Thomas stood to come into a share, in right of his wife, of the moieties of Stockleigh, Hurberton and Brixham, and presumably also, on the death of Sir John’s widow, of Berry Pomeroy itself.
A settlement of 1414 declaring Edward Pomeroy to be heir to Berry was set aside by the Crown, and Sir Thomas Pomeroy and John Cole of Nethway were confirmed in possession of the reversion.
Then, perhaps by dint of strong persuasion, (bullying ) Sir John’s widow, Joan de Sapcote ,relinquished her life interest in the estate to these two claimants a few months before her death in 1420.
It is uncertain, however, whether Sir Thomas’s tactics succeeded at Tregony in Cornwall: there, he attempted to wrest the manor from Edward and his wife by making an assault on the manor-house and imprisoning and then ousting them. The King’s Council intervened to prevent further damage and riot, and Edward apparently regained possession for a while; even so, after the death of Sir Thomas’s wife in 1422, it was said that she (joanna ) had held Tregony.
Of Pomeroy’s associates in Devon, little is known, but he was clearly not on good terms with the powerful Courtenays. Sir Philip Courtenay’s son, Sir John, had married his wife’s stepmother, Joan Chudleigh(nee Pomeroy), and in 1402 they were engaged in a dispute over the latter’s dower lands (six manors in Devon and Cornwall), during which some of the Chudleigh property in Exeter was burnt down.
Relations had not improved by 1410 when Sir John was summoned before Parliament to answer charges made in the Commons by Pomeroy himself, sitting for the third time as a knight of the shire.
It is noticeable that Edward Pomeroy, by contrast, was on good terms with the Courtenays, and he may well have sought their support in his struggle to gain possession of the family estates. Sir Thomas Pomeroy later stood surety for another prominent Devon landowner, (Sir) Thomas Brooke , when the latter obtained the estates of his stepfather-in-law, the heretic and lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle
After the death of Joanna Sir Thomas’s first wife in 1422, he was permitted to retain the Pomeroy estates by the courtesy, they having had issue, a daughter named Isabel.
She, however, died before her father which occurred on the feast of St. Laurence (either 3 Feb. or 10 Aug.) 1426. Pomeroy’s scheme to bring the family inheritance to his cadet branch failed, for Edward Pomeroy was quick to take possession. In fact, no more was heard of any claim by Joan and Margaret St. Aubyn, the grand daughters and next heirs of Sir Thomas’s first wife.
Shortly before his death he had married the widow of a Cornish landowner. She died some time between 20 Nov. 1435 (the date of her will) and 18 Jan. 1436 (when it was proved).
AJP note - buried with her daughters and granddaughter at Grey Friars in Newgate London
Date: Wednesday next before the feast of St Laurence, 46 Edward III 1373
Records show that provisions were made by Sir John in 1404 and 1414 on behalf of Edward Pomeroy born circa 1388).
However these were ignored after his death in 1416, and the Crown over ruled his will preferring the claims of his nephew, John Cole of Nethway, son of Adam Cole and the co heir Joan who was by then married to the mysterious Sir Thomas Pomeroy who was a Kings Knight.
Sir John de la Pomeray of Berry Pomeroy, died in 1416 but in 1400 Thomas Pomeroy Esq of UpOttery & Bockerel was knighted by Henry IV with John Cole, and thereafter went for Edward Pomeroy the declared heir, in fact both sides were at each others throats.
17th December 1417 a Memorandum of a mainprise, or Bail , under a pain of £40 was made in chancery 20 December by Robert Cary, John Cole Esq & William Pomeray esq ( who seems to be brother to Thomas & son of Robert) and William Jeu , all of Devon, for Thomas Pomeray knight, and of an undertaking by him under a pain of £100 that he shall do or procure no hurt or harm to Edward Pomeray esquire or any of the people.
A reciprocal order was made on 21st December 1417 against Edward - Memorandum of a (like) mainprise, made 21 December by John Arundell of Trerys co. Cornwall esquire, William Kent of London 'peutrer,' Thomas Trefridowe of Cornwall and John Neucombe of Devon for Edward Pomeray esquire, and of a (like) undertaking by him, in regard to Thomas Pomeray knight etc.
Edward Pomeroy and his wife Margaret had been rightfully seised of the manor of Tregony since their 1404 marriage by virtue of a fine levied to them and their heirs male by Sir John de la Pomeray, knight, who died in 1416
In 1418 Thomas Pomeroy (the Troublesome man) with other’s forcibly entered the manor and imprisoned Margaret there for two days, occupying the manor and doing damage, then ousted Lady Margaret and her servants. Edward and Margaret petitioned under common law, and Thomas was summoned to appear before the Earl of Bedford at the quinzaine of Trinity next, and also grant a writ to the sheriff of Devon to make public proclamation of the said summons.
Endorsed: On 5 July Henry V (1419) it was agreed by Council that Thomas should be summoned to appear before them in the quinzaine of Michaelmas next.
Thomas Pomeroy and John Cole pursued what were often quite dubious claims against Edward Pomeroy even assaulting in his house, his castle at Tregony , and forcibly ejected by way of a window at Berry Pomeroy in 1428. They defenestrated him .
Sir John’s will, for which probate was granted in October 1416, has not survived. His widow was required to take an oath not to remarry without the King’s licence, and presumably never did so. She died four years later
It doesn't seemed to have stopped Thomas from pressuring Sir John's widow, and in 1420 Joan, without licence of the King, made over her rights in Berry to Thomas and his wife Joan and to John Cole. She died on Corpus Christi day.
Thomas with his wife Johanna & John Cole managed to get Sir Edward dispossessed of his inheritance to Berry Pomeroy by 1422.
Westminster.20th July 1422 To the escheator in Devon. Order to take the fealties of Thomas de la Pomeray and John Cole, and to give the said Thomas, Joan his wife and John Cole livery of the manor of Byry Pomeray, and the issues thereof taken since 20 November last; as it is found by inquisition, taken before the escheator, that John Pomeray knight was thereof seised, that he held it of King Richard II in chief by knight service. , that by name of John de la Pomeray, son and heir of Henry de la Pomeray, he gave the same to William de Horbury parson of Ipplepen, Richard Holrygge vicar of Bryxham, John Papilwyke parson of Lookessore, Reynold vicar of Byry Pomeray, John Hill, John Wadham, Thomas de la Pomeray, William Caunton and Richard Aysshe and to their heirs, that by virtue of his gift they were thereof seised, that William Caunton died, that after his death the surviving feoffees gave the manor to the said John Pomeray and Joan then his wife and to the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to the right heirs of John Pomeray, that licence of the late king was obtained, that those grantees continued their estate during the said John's life, that he died thereof jointly seised without issue by the said Joan, that she overlived him, and peaceably continued her estate until Ascension day 8 Henry V, on which day without licence of the king, by name of Joan who was wife of John de la Pomeray son and heir of Henry de la Pomeray, by deed of that date she made a surrender and grant of her estate in the said manor to the said Thomas, Joan and John Cole, being the right heirs of John Pomeray, and to their heirs, Joan being daughter of Joan sister and one of his sisters and heirs, and John Cole being son of Margaret the other sister and heir, by virtue of which surrender and grant they are thereof seised; and on 20 November last for a fine paid in the hanaper the king pardoned the trespasses herein committed, and for 20s. there paid he has respited the homage of John Cole until Easter next.
1416 However Thomas's wife Joanna did not enjoy their new estate for long because she died 18 Nov, 1422, possibly in childbirth. Their daughter Isabella was mentioned in her mothers 1422 Inquisition Post Mortem but died before her father in 1426 .
Joanna's dower lands were Combe Ralegh, Avishayes in Sidmouth, and Wolston, in east Alvington; a half share in Beri, half share in Stokleigh, a half share in Tregony. and half shares in the moieties of Harberton and Brixham.
Later that same year 1422: Sir Thomas Pomeroy married a 2nd time this time to Johanna Raleigh of Nettlecombe Court widow of John de Whalesborough High Sheriff of Cornwall with whom she had 9 children including Thomas de Whalesborough.
In March 1423 Thomas and Johanna went on pilgrimage to Rome before he died in 10 March 1426, still having a go at Edward for there is a 1426 trespass of Thomas against Edward on record.
Johanna survived him to ' take the veil' living until 1435, when she died and was buried at the Grey Friars Minors, in Newgate in the city of London
"secundum disposicionem Gardiani ibidem et magistri Thome Wynchelsey." Bequeathed 40s. to the Friars to pray for his soul.
The entry at Grey Friars for Johanna Mentions Thomas Whalesburgh, her son, who was heir of her first husband John Whalesburgh, her son Robert Whalesburgh, as well as mentioning her second husband Sir Thomas Pomerey.
Joanna's daughter Alice Whalesborough was also buried at Grey Friars John wife of Fitzrafe . This rang a loud bell with me & I realised I researched her granddaughter Alice FitzRafe
Alive Whalesborough b 1416 d 1471 wife of Sir John FitzRafe - ' Alice Fitz Rauff. If she dies in London, is to be buried at the "grayfreres called freres menours beside Newgate, by my modres sepulture called Dame Johane Pomeray." On the day of her burial the Warden was to have 40d., every doctor 2s., and every "other frere cladde there in the same place," 12d.
Bequeathed to the Friars her "candelstikkes" of silver, and her blue gown of damask to make vestments. Mentions Rauff and Anne, children of her daughter Elizabeth and Sir Robert Chamberleyn. Will dated 24 April, 1471. Proved 10 June, 1471.
Her grandaughter Alice FitzRafe Born circa 1450 daughter of Sir John & his wife Maud Bayard married Sir William Pomeroy-
dates unclear as yet if her grandmother was born circa 1450 her marriage could have been around 1465
Litigation
Petitioners: Thomas Pomeroy, knight; Joan (Chudleigh), wife of Thomas Pomeroy.
Addressees: Commons of parliament.
Nature of request: Thomas Pomeroy, knight, and Joan his wife request that the commons ask the king that they might be restored to certain manors and tenements in Devon and Cornwall, from which they were forcibly expelled by Philip Courtenay, knight, John his son and Joan, widow of James Chuddelegh, while Thomas was going to Wales in the king's service.
They ask to be restored in such a way as to be able to defend themselves by common law, which they cannot do at present, as Philip and his associates broke into their tenements in Exeter by night, and stole all their deeds, charters and muniments, which were kept there.
( Sir Philip Courtenay was known for acts of gratuitous savagery and vindictiveness, occasionally tempered with some real skill in military and naval affairs. )
Nature of endorsement: [On face] The lords are to speak to the king.
Answered.[On dorse] This petition and the record on it are entered in the roll of parliament.
Places mentioned: Clyston (Broad Clyst), Devon; Ayston (Ashton), Devon; Shappelehilion (Shapley), Devon; Hokesbeare (Huxbear), Devon; Affelond (Affaland), Devon; Exeter, Devon; Westwydemouth (Widemouth), [Cornwall].
People mentioned: Philip Courtenay, knight; John [Courtenay], son of Philip Courtenay; Joan [Chuddelegh], widow of James Chuddelegh who was engaged to a Courtenay.
Date derivation: This petition is enrolled on the roll of the parliament of September 1402 (Rot. Parl. vol. III, pp.488a-489a).
One of those tangles....
Joan Pomeroy daughter of Sir Henry Pomeroy, son of Sir Henry & Johanna Moels , married Sir James Chudleigh and was sister to Sir John Pomeroy who married another Johanna, daughter of Richard de Merton. After the death of James Chudleigh, (Joan Chudleigh nee Pomeroy, her mother) was betrothed to John Courtenay
Quoting Connections she was either the mother or step mother of Joan Chudleigh , wife of Thomas de la Pomeray. Courtenay responded that his son was engaged to Joan Chudleigh (nee Pomeroy) at the time of the invasion (they were now married,) and that the lands and manors and documentation cited in the allegation belonged to her as they had belonged to her deceased husband, Joan’s father.
Joanna Chudleigh widow of St Aubyn and de Bryan had dower properties -1387 Close Rolls
John Pomeray Knight Man-at-Arms under Captain and Commander Lord Guy de Bryan in 1370 & 1371 in the campaign 'Keeping of the Sea'.
A year later Thomas Pomeray Esq., Man-at-arms under Captain Lord Guy de Bryan Commanded by King Edward III
1372 campaign Expedition Naval
John Pomeray Knight was Man-at-arms under William de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury with Edward III leading the army in 1372.
Between 169 and 1415 Pomeroy knights went off to war under some of the most famous knights ever known.
Edward III, his son the Black Prince; Hugh Courtenay, Duke of Devonshire; William, Lord Botreaux; Edward, Duke of York; Edward Lord Despenser;
William de Montagu, Earl of Salisbury; Edward de Courtenay, Earl of Devon; John de Vere, Earl of Oxford Commanding;
Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel; King Henry V with a John Pomeroy an archer Agincourt 25 October 1415
1395 Thomas Pomeray Esq son of Robert of Bockerel & Upottery went on campaign to Aquitaine for a year under Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt
1396 Man At Arms, & a Kings Knight went on campaign under command of John Of Gaunt the 3rd son of Edward III
Joanna Chudleigh was daughter of Sir James Chudleigh and his spouse Joan Pomeroy, daughter of Sir Henry Pomeroy the oldest of the 5 sons.
Joanna had 1st been married to Sir John St Aubyn before 1376 when she had her 2nd son, John St Aubyn was born and married Margaret Challons
his daughters Joanna & Margaret jointly became Joanna's heirs.
St Aubyn died in 1383 whilst both girls were under age. The wardship of the girls and their property, was granted to Sir Robert Chalons, their grandfather, and then Sir William Bodrugan .
This was a time when girls were insignificant, compared to their property
Bodrugan married the 17 year old Joanna to his brother Otto,
13 year old Margaret was married to John Tretherf 's son Reginald.
St. Aubyn’s widow Margaret Challons died in 1420, and was buried in the house of the Carmelite friars in London.
The widowed Johanna's 2nd marriage was in 1386 to Philip de Bryan the 3rd son of Guy de Bryan under whom Pomeroy uncles had served in 1372 .
Sir Guy was from a knightly family, with some high powered connections at court. His wife was Elizabeth de MONTAGUE & Sir Guy was her 3rd marriage, her 2nd husband having been Sir Hugh Despenser, son of the infamous favourite of Edward II.
Johanna Chudleigh and Philip de Bryan were married in 1386, and it was only a year before he died on 13th Feb 1387- without issue.
Thomas Pomeroy Esq married Joanna Chudleigh in 1388;
This was an 'illegal' marriage, made without banns or the required licence & essential consent of the king, Richard II
For this Thomas was fined and the priest was reproved and then pardoned 1389. He was knighted in 1400 a King's Knight.
St Aubyn of Combe Raleigh
Close Rolls [f] 1385-89 pages 217, 320
5 Mar 1387 To Richard Mucheldevere escheator in Somerset and Dorset. Order to take of Joan who was wife of Philip de Bryen knight an oath etc., and to assign her dower of her husband's lands.
20 Jun 1387 [Assignment of dower lands to Joan, widow of Philip de Bryene knight, consisting of all his lands at Frome Braunche (a detailed list provided), and specified lands at Shokerwyk and Bathneston] Close to Bath in Wiltshire
6 Apr 1388 To Roger Manyngforde escheator in Somerset. Order to remove the king's hand and meddle no further with the manor of Shokerwyke and £12 of rent in Batheneston, delivering to William Briene any issues thereof taken ; as the king has learned by divers inquisitions, taken by Richard Virgo and Richard Micheldevere late escheators, that Philip Briene knight at his death held the same in fee tail of others than the king by gift of Guy de Briene knight his father to him and the heirs of his body, with remainder to the said William and the heirs male of his body, and that the said Philip is dead without issue.
[The second entry is a note of the indenture (signed at Rampesham in 1381) by which Guy de Bryene the elder demised the lands to Philip, with remainder to William, with remainder to Guy's heirs]
Memorandum of a judgment in chancery for removal of the king's hand, and livery to William Briene of the manor of Shokerwyk and £10 of rent in Batheneston co. Somerset, and that he should be amerced in 40s., which he has paid to John de Ravenser clerk of the hanaper; as it was found by divers inquisitions, taken by Richard Virgo and Richard Micheldevere late escheators, that Philip Briene knight at his death held the same in fee tail of others than the king by gift of Guy de Briene knight his father to him and the heirs of his body, with remainder to the said Williamand the heirs male of his body, and that the said Philip died without issue; but in suing the said manor and rent out of the king's hand a certain person on behalf of the said William produced in chancery a crafty and false writing to deceive the court, and the said William gave testimony that it was true; and he after produced another writing concerning the entail, which was true and free from suspicion.
Joanna Chudleigh's 3rd marriage to Thomas Pomeroy the ambitious son of Robert Pomeroy Esq., of Smallbridge, Upottery & Bockerell, a cadet branch of the Pomeroy family holding small manors in east Devon. Made without the kings licence.
Fine Rolls [h] Vol 10 page 262 22 Nov 1388
Order to Richard Manyngford, escehator in the counties of Somerset and Dorset ñ on information that Thomas Pomeray without the king's licence has taken to wife Joan late the wife of Philip Briene chevelier who held of the king in chief to take into the king's hand without delay all the lands in his bailiwick which were assigned to Joan as dower after Philip's death, answering at the Exchequer for the issues thereof.
Baron of Berry Pomeroy, Sir John, died childless and Joanna Chudleigh, with her cousin John Cole, son of her aunt Margaret, was co- heir to the Pomeroy estates. However as a female she could not inherit the baronial title with its castle and considerable wealth.
She was a considerable heiress, a twice widowed and well dowered lady. As niece and co-heir to the head of the Pomeroy house Sir John Pomeroy, she would have had no choice in her first two husbands. Was Thomas her own choice, a man she hurriedly but irrevocably married to pre-empt another arranged marriage? He seemed to be a virtually unknown but ambitious cousin, and probably penniless to boot, or was he known to her and liked enough to make a marriage that seems hasty and surreptitious, risking the King's displeasure.
Their 1388 marriage was without licence , lacking the essential consent of the king possibly because the king would not have approved since it was decreed by an earlier king that nobles should not marry below their rank. Joanna as a well dowered lady was of higher rank than Thomas and one must suspect the reason that they married without licence from Richard II.
Was it a love match or one of mutual ambition and avarice.
Up until 1414 records show that Sir John Pomeroy's chosen heir was Edward, grandson of his uncle Thomas, the 5th son.
Up until the time of young Edward was born Sir John de la Pomeray, his wife Joan Merton, and his sister's children are living happily, but they were reconsidering the new law passed regarding "entails." because they had no male heirs, only the children of his sisters Joan & Margaret .
In 1388 the Thomas Pomeray Esq., married Sir John's niece,Joanna, now a widow for the 2nd time.
This was followed by a concerted campaign by Thomas Pomeroy and John Cole to disrupt the position of the Sir John's nominated heir, Edward Pomeroy.
Sir John had nominated as his heir, Edward, grandson of Thomas the 5th son of his grandfather Henry.
Sir Thomas Pomeroy 5th son of the head of the family had been a Kings Knight,a man of standing, with a wife Johan and a son, William. William must have married & in about 1377 had a son, Edward, before his death in 1441, his father Sir Thomas died in around 1378 .
By time of the death of Sir John Pomeroy in 1416 Thomas's son William was dead and his son Edward was married. In around 1404, he taken as his wife Margaret Beville daughter of John Beville of Wolston.
John Beville, a Sheriff of Cornwall , was a man of greater substance than his father, partly as a result of his marriage to Agnes Beaupyne a Bristol merchants daughter. At his death he held the family property at Woolston (Cornwall), Barkington and Sparkwell (Devon), his wife’s inheritance of the manor and hundred of North Petherton (Somerset) and Grindham, ‘Faryngton’ and ‘Iwode’ (formerly Bluet property) in the same county. Elsewhere, in Devon and Cornwall, he owned 35 messuages and some 850 acres of land.
Edward & Margaret already had at least 2 sons by the time Thomas appeared on the scene to wrest the title form him. There may have been other children but they are unrecorded. Henry born in about 1416 when head of family, Sir John died.
Thomas Pomeroy Esq, persuaded the King to decide for him, against Edward the nominated heir of Sir John, the late baron, which undoubtedly made Sir Edward and his wife Margaret Beville, very cross indeed.
This was nasty time in history The Black death ravaged England 1346–53. killing about 1/3 of the population, it knew no boundaries. Even the king, Richard II, son of Edward, the Black Prince, grandson of Edward III, the boy king who started well but who was ultimately deposed in September 1399, even he was affected when he lost his wife to this virulent disease.
The Hundred Years War was raging. There is a time line here
National Archives indicate that Thomas the 3rd son of Henry Pomeroy by Joan Moels had accumulated a considerable amount of land in his own right by the time he went off on a mission for the King in 1372, leaving a son and heir William, and wife Johanne , at home.
Thomas, 5th son arrive safely home from the wars after the defeat at La Rochelle , and he and his brothers shared some of the properties "for life," .
His son William had married and had a son EDWARD was became the male heir to the barony of Berry Pomeroy.
Powley tells us that Baron Sir John de la Pomeray broke the entail of his father Henry set up for his 5 sons to inherit successively.
LINKS Parliamentary Histories - 1386 to 1421
Raleigh http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/raleigh-thomas-1380-1404
Whalesborough http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/whalesborough-john-1369-1418
Pomeroys http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/members/1386-1421/P
POMEROY, Edward (d.1446), of Sandridge, Devon and Tregony, Cornw.
POMEROY, Sir John (c.1347-1416), of Berry Pomeroy, Devon.
POMEROY, Sir Thomas (d.1426), of Combe Raleigh, Devon.
Although he belonged to a cadet branch of the Pomeroy family, Thomas emerged as the most prominent member of the family of his generation.
This prominence was due more to a convenient marriage and dubious financial dealings, coupled with strong Lancastrian sympathies, than to any high standing as a landowner or ability as a public servant.
At regular intervals after this Sir Thomas Pomeroy received royal pardons of outlawry for failure to appear in court to answer his creditors, usually London merchants.
Indeed, between 1390 and 1406 he secured six such pardons relating to debts amounting to more than £120 and owed to city vintners, saddlers, drapers, tailors, armourers, a mercer and a fishmonger, as well as to the receiver of the duchy of Cornwall.! Such indebtedness was common amongst all the ranks of nobles and he was not particularly unusual in this. It was perhaps Sir Thomas’s shaky financial record that set the tone of his career. In September 1388, at Chudleigh, the vicar of Berry Pomeroy was summoned before the bishop of Exeter’s court accused of celebrating a clandestine marriage between Pomeroy and the twice-widowed Joan Chudleigh, who had recently, by common fame, been secretly married to William Amadas. A penance was imposed upon the vicar, but Pomeroy had to obtain the King’s pardon,for which, in October 1389, he paid £10 into the hanaper of the Chancery.
Certainly, this marriage ‘bore the appearance of enterprise’, for it was contracted very soon after an entail had been devised by Sir John Pomeroy by which the manor of Berry Pomeroy would, in default of children of his own, reverting his sisters and their heirs, John Cole and Joan Chudleigh,Thomas’s bride .
Thomas was well aware of this arrangement, having assisted in the legal formalities as one of Sir John’s feoffees. Much of his energy was to be spent on converting possibility into reality.
His career, however, was still had to be made. In February 1395 he was granted royal letters of protection as about to go to Aquitaine in the retinue of John of Gaunt; however, five months later he still tarried at home, being busy with his own affairs.
Henry IV’s accession provided the turning point of Pomeroy's public career. As ‘King’s esquire’, as early as March of 1400, he was given an annuity of £20 from the royal revenues of Devon, and in December following, ‘for the better maintenance of his knightly estate, to which the King caused him to be exalted at his last voyage in Scotland’, he received a grant for life of lands at Hemyock( North of Honiton) worth £8 p.a.
Meanwhile, in February 1400, he had become farmer of Oakford, ( near Tiverton in East Devon) Devon, by Exchequer lease, and four years later he was granted a share in the custody of lands at Membury( near Bampton north of Honiton), which, however, he surrendered in 1406.
Pomeroy’s annuity was to be confirmed by Henry V and by Henry VI’s council. Such liberality depended upon loyal service, and his standing may also be gauged by the willingness of the Lancastrian kings to exonerate him from the debts he owed as sheriff of Devon.
On two occasions he failed to account fully for the issues of the county: owing £56 13s.4d. in 1402, he was at first committed to the Fleet, only to be pardoned ‘for his good service to the King in Scotland and Wales without wages or fees’; and in February 1415, even though he had been told that the exemption of 1402 might not be used as a precedent, he was pardoned payment of £30, in consideration of his great costs and losses in the office. It is notable, however, that he had been removed from the shrievalty in the previous year after occupying it on this occasion for only six months.
Through his marriage to Joan Chudleigh Sir Thomas Pomeroy had acquired a number of properties in the West Country.
These included his wife’s dower lands in Somerset, namely one third of the manor and hundred of Frome Branche and the manors of Batheaston and Shockerwick (all demised for an annual rent of £24) which, along with Allerton, fell to her by marriage to Sir Philip Bryan (a younger son of Guy, Lord Bryan), together with the manor of Combe Ralegh in Devon, which had belonged to her first husband, Sir John St. Aubyn.
Yet the income from these estates was not sufficient to support Pomeroy’s extravagance. Shortly after his marriage he entered into a recognizance beforethe mayor of the Staple of Westminster in September 1388 for the sum of £83 10s.8d., and when payment became overdue and Chancery issued a writto value his property in Somerset, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Devon, it was found that income from the St. Aubyn manor of Alston Sutton, which was worth 12 marks a year, and a rent of ten marks from Frome would help pay off the debt.
It was perhaps Pomeroy’s shaky finances and extravagant tastes and extravagant tastes which encouraged him to increase his income from land.
Thomas's best opportunity to achieve his ambition came in 1416, when Sir John Pomeroy died without issue. His wife,( Joan Chudleigh) as co -heir with John Cole held moieties of Stockleigh,Harberton and Brixham, and presumably also, on the death of Sir John’s widow,( Johanna Merton) of Berry Pomeroy itself.
A settlement of 1414 declaring Edward Pomeroy to be heir to Berry was set aside by the Crown, and Sir Thomas Pomeroy, by right of his wife and John Cole of Nethway (son of Margaret Pomeroy and Adam Cole) were confirmed in possession of the reversion.
Then, perhaps by dint of strong persuasion, Sir John’s widow relinquished her life interest in the estate to these same two claimants a few months before herdeath in 1420. It is uncertain, however, whether Sir Thomas’s tactics succeeded at Tregony in Cornwall: there, he attempted to wrest the manor from Edward and his wife by making an assault on the manor-house and imprisoning and then ousting them.
The King’s Council intervened to prevent further damage and riot, and Edward apparently regained possession for a while but even so, after the death of Sir Thomas’s wife in 1422, it was said that his widow held Tregony.
Of Pomeroy’s associates in Devon, little is known, but he was clearly not on good terms with the powerful Courtenays. Sir Philip Courtenay’s son,Sir John, had married his wife’s stepmother, Joan Chudleigh, and in 1402 they were engaged in a dispute over the latter’s dower lands (six manors in Devon and Cornwall), during which some of the Chudleigh property in Exeter was burnt down. Relations had not improved by 1410 when Sir John Courtenay was summoned before Parliament to answer charges made in the Commons by Pomeroy himself, sitting for the third time as a shire knight. It is noticeable that Edward Pomeroy, by contrast, was on good terms with the Courtenays, and he may well have sought their support in his struggle to gain possession of the family estates.
Sir Thomas Pomeroy later stood surety for another prominent Devon landowner, (Sir) Thomas Brooke , when the latter obtained the estates of his stepfather-in-law, the heretic and lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle.
After Sir Thomas’s first wife’s death in September 1422, he was permitted to retain the Pomeroy estates ‘by the courtesy’, having had issue, a daughter named Isabel. She, however, died before her father whose death occurred on the feast of St. Laurence (either 3 Feb. or 10 Aug.) 1426.
Pomeroy’s scheme to bring the family inheritance to his cadet branch failed, for Edward Pomeroy was quick to take possession. In fact, no more was heard of any claim by Joan and Margaret St. Aubyn, the grand daughters and next heirs of Sir Thomas’s first wife. One grandaughter Johanna St Abyn was married to Otto Bodrgan age 17 the other Margaret St Aubyn was married off at the tender age of 13 to Reginald Tretherff who was only 3 years her senior.
In December 1422 Thomas had married the widow of a Cornish landowner, Johanna Ralegh, daughter of John Ralegh of Nettlecombe in Somerset and widow of John Whalesborough, by whom she had 9 children.
(Nettlecombe: In 1160 the manor was granted to Hugh de Ralegh (Sheriff of Devon) and has never been sold since. It has passed down to his successors through a continuous family line of Ralegh, Whalesburgh and Trevelyan to its current owner, John Wolseley, in 1943.)
The following year Sir Thomas & Johanna Pomeroy apparently made a pilgrimage to Rome He died on 6 June 1426 and she died survived him and died in 1436 in London.
Pomeroy Soldiers of the late medieval period: 1346-1377:
1. Sir Henry Pomeroy (by 1308?-1373) served in the retinue of John de Veer, earl of Oxford, as one of the commanders of the Black Prince's division at Crecy. 1346.
2. His son, John de la Pomerai (Powley doesn't have a birth date..-says he died 1416.) was active in the naval defense of Devonshire against a landing from France in 1375; (Noted as a Man At Arms on board a ship. Not a "mariner." ) Also served with Edward III aboard one of the naval ships in 1372. Commissions of Array :1377.
3. Thomas de la Pomeray, (esquire) ( cousin of John ) , Man-at-arms) 1369. Also "on journey for the King..1372- (Salisbury was Ambassador to the Pope) .
In 1404 Thomas de la Pomeray, Knight, was in Wales for the King. (While he was in Wales his property was “invaded” and papers taken by Courtney, and company;).
4. William Pomeray, "esquire." Man-at-arms) 1369, At Sea (Probably brother of Thomas, above.)
5: John Pomeray, "esquire," Man-at-arms) 1369. At sea. (Probably brother of Thomas, above.)
1389-1422
1. William Pomeray, Esquire, Man At Arms, 1389, Brest Garrison 1 year. Also recorded as serving in North of France 1 year in 1422: (relationship probably one of the 5 sons of Sir Henry Pomeroy and his wife Joan Moels.)
2. Thomas Pomeray, at Brest Garrison, 1389 1 year:
NOTE: After Thomas Pomeroy married Joan Chudleigh/St Aubyn, 1388 he became "de la Pomeray, esquire in the musters: 1390-1392.
(With "William le Scrope; Brest & Cherbourg.)
In 1395 this Thomas de la Pomeray was with John of Gaunt at Aquitaine and in 1396 still with John of Gaunt at Gascony.
1396 appears to be his last "muster." Edward Pomeray was with Sir Hugh Courtenay 1419 Service in France. "Diplomatic." "Of Sandridge, Devon."
(The National Archives, Kew Legal status Public Record(s)
Additional Connections Part of the tapestry that is genealogy
Thomas Pomeroy was son of Robert Pomeroy of Upottery & Bockerel, a cadet line descending from Geoffrey,
on of 2nd Henry Pomeroy by his wife Alice de Vere. Henry died in 1206 in the Holy land a Knight Crusader
Geoffrey was 2nd son of Sir Henry Pomeroy ( d 1206) Born between 1180 & 1206 . His older brother Henry was ward of Ralph de Turbervill 3 Nov 1221 – he married Margery de Vernon dau of William De VERNON & Maud Beaumont . Margery survived her husband, who died 1235 in the Holy Land so he was a Knight Crusader . The following year she was allowed ward of her son, on payment of 400 marks and in 1253, she had custody of the lands of the heir of her late husband.
Sister Mary de Vernon married Robert De COURTENAY (1° B. Okehampton)
sister Joan de Vernon married Henry De BRIWERE son was William De BRIWERE of Horsley
Geoffrey de la Pomerai was under age when his father died in 1206 he married Matilda de Ralegh, circa 1247,who may have been daughter of Warin de Ralegh 1 d 1242 of Nettlecombe in Somerset & Margaret le Boteler
Geoffrey inherited property at Clistwick Brandon in 1206, on the death of his father, Clyst St George, a Domesday holding of Ralph Pomeroy lying close to Topsham in east Devon , and Cheriton, in Payhembury.
In 1237 he had the manor of Tale by fine and in 1247 he had Upottery ( in Axminster & held by Ralph Pomeroy in 1086)
In 1247 he also held Buckerell by fine( fee) Buckerell is near Payhembury which has Cheriton, Upton & Tale in the parish but although apparently anciently being held by the Pomeroys it is not mentioned in Domesday Book.
In 1237 he had the manor of Tale by fine and in 1247 he had Upottery ( in Axminster & held by Ralph Pomeroy in 1086)
In 1247 he also held Buckerell by fine( fee) Buckerell is near Payhembury which has Cheriton, Upton & Tale in the parish but although apparently anciently being held by the Pomeroys it is not mentioned in Domesday Book.
..the Buckerell Parish Councill booklets states..
As Old Owlescombe it was one of the manors of Ralph de Pomeroy...
HOWEVER Domesday book tells us that Awliscombe had as Tenant-in-chief in 1086: William the goat. Also called William Capra Cheiver half brother of Ralph see foot note 1
1198 William, Lord Brewer, the founder of Dunkeswell Abbey, Torre Abbey and Polslow Priory, bought ‘Owlescombe’ from Henry de la Pomeroy and may have built a church at Buckerell …
According to Victoria County History, “Ralf de Pomaria has a manor called Old Owlescombe, now in the village of Buckerell”. But according to Risdon the name ‘did not appear until 1231’ when it was called after Andrew Bokerel. It is possible that Bokerel was a tenant of de Pomeroy’s, and as was the custom, the place he occupied was given his name rather than that of the Lord of the Manor. Andrew Bokerel was also Lord Mayor of London seven times.
Possibly Geoffrey got Tale when he married ? ( Tale is in Payhembury )
1st circa 1216 Geoffrey may have married Joan Allelegh of Allaleigh near Tuckenhay & Cornworthy,
2nd Matilada de Ralegh ? circa 1247 who may have been daughter of Warin de Ralegh 2 d 1242 of Nettlecombe in Somerset & Margaret le Boteler
connections
Not far from Combe Raleigh and just south west of Upottery is Smallridge is a hamlet ( no church) less than 2 miles north of Axminster and north east of Honiton in the East Devon .
Sir Humphrey de Beauchamp, Lord of Ryme Intrinseca, Oburnford, Oulescombe, Teinghervy, and Buckerell 1250-1316
Just north west of Honiton it historically formed part of Hemyock Hundred & falls within Ottery Deanery
Sir John de BEAUCHAMP Knight was born 1315 in Ryme Intrinseca, Dorset.. He died 8 Apr 1349 in Ryme Intrinseca, Dorset.
John married Margaret de WHALESBOROUGH in 1340 in Ryme Intrinseca, born 1328 in Lancarffe, Cornwall .
2 daughters
Joan de BEAUCHAMP was born 1347.married Sir Robert Challons
Elizabeth de BEAUCHAMP was born 1349.
Sir Robert Challons, regarding tenements in Oulescombe and Buckerell, Devonshire which had been possessed by Elizabeth's brother, Sir Thomas Beauchamp.
Margaret Beauchamp, and Thomas Beauchamp; with 1/3 of revenues of Bokerel to Pomeroy while she lives, and also she grants, as "once wife" of Beauchamp, her dower property of Teignhervey to Edward Pomeroy, son of Thomas Pomeroy, 5th son, in 1400.
The hunt for Thomas Pomeroy Esq went like this
What we knew.
Thomas Pomeroy Esq.who died in 1426, was not Edward's father. Apart from anything else if he had been he would have been almost 100 years old by then, and it seems extremely unlikely that he would have reached that age in a time of war when a man was old at 40.
IF Thomas, spouse of Joanna Chudleigh, had been the 5th son of Henry Pomeroy & Joan Moels , born circa 1326 , he would have been about 63 when he married the thrice widowed Joanna and had one child, Isabella , named in the IPM taken on her mother’s death, who died before her father.
That made Thomas a very, very old man when he died in 1426. His death occurred shortly after he apparently went on a pilgrimage to Rome with his 2nd wife Joanna Ralegh daughter of John Raleigh of Nettlecombe Court and Ismaria, and widow of John Whalesborough –
In 1440 the last of the Raleghs at Nettlecombe died and left the estate to Thomas Whalesborough, Joanna's son.
With his marriage to the heiress Thomas Pomeroy Esq., acquired half of all the Pomeroy estate holdings, Bury Pomeroy & Stockleigh Pomeroy, the manors and lands that realised a considerable income, not to mention the income from Johana's dower lands from the previous marriages.
Sir Thomas, an active soldier already in favour with the king as a Kings Knight and he set his sights on the title and went about getting it in a quite ruthless manner. with the assistance of his wife's co heir, John Cole . It is possible that he and John Cole fought together and thereby formed a bond. see table below.
The nominated heir Sir Edward Pomeray was at that time away with Sir Hugh Courtenay 1419 on diplomatic service in France
and Thomas Pomeroy & John Cole, both were ambitious men, who went about getting what they had set their sights on.
The HOW was interesting but new research as well as deduction was called for and thus
The hunt for the real Sir Thomas Pomeroy, Kings Knight was afoot.
Tucked away in Visitation someone had suggested he was son of son of Robert of Smallbridge (mistyped as Sandridge) whose antecedents had held Bokerell & Upottery in East Devon.
This cadet line descended from Geoffrey 2nd son of Sir Henry Pomeroy & his spouse Alice de Vernon
A younger son of whom after several generations in east Devon, Thomas seems to have been a younger son , of a Robert, about whom we knew, and still know nothing .
THOMAS POMEROY Esq., son of Robert of the cadet line at Robert of Smallridge & Buckerell in Axminster had a brother William and was a man with a mission with the will and opportunity to achieve it.
This is Geoffrey and the cadet line at Bockerell & Upottery
C 241/42/43 Date: 1303 Sep 28 ( held at Kew)
Debtor: Geoffrey de la Pomeroy of Devon.
Creditor: Andrew de Trelosk, knight [held parts of fees in Aylesford in Teignbridge Hundred; in Stodbury in Ermington Hundred, in Orchard, and Dunterton in Lifton Hundred, Devon]
Amount: 2 marks.
Before whom: Walter Tauntefer, Mayor of Exeter; Walter de Langdon, Clerk.
When taken: 15/09/1300 First term: 25/12/1300 Last term: 25/12/1300
Writ to: Sheriff of Devon Sent by: Roger Beyvin, Mayor of Exeter; Walter de Langdon, Clerk.
C 131/36/6 Date: 1389 Mar 29
Debtor: Thomas Pomeroy of Devon. ( son of Robert)
Creditor: Peter Pounfreit, citizen and skinner of London.
Amount: £83 10s. 8d.
Before whom: Nicholas Exton, Mayor of the Staple of Westminster.
When taken: 26/09/1388 First term: 16/03/1389 Last term: 16/03/1389
Writ to: Sheriff of Somerset. [and Devon. and Oxon.] Sent by: Chancery.
Endorsement: John Moygne, Sheriff, replies that Thomas Pomeray was not found in the bailiwick. His lands and tenements were extended and seized into the King's hands.
Note: , C 131/36/22, C 131/41/14. Date given for return to Chancery: 28/5/1389.
Extent made at Wedmore [Bempstone Hundred] in Somerset before John Moigne, Sheriff, on Mon. 24/5/1389.
Thomas holds the manor of Alleston Sutton in Somerset in the right of his wife Joan for her life, which is worth 12 marks a year. He has no other lands or chattels in Somerset.
The Five brothers son of Sir Henry & his spouse Joanna Moels were born in the decades of 1320 to 1330’s
I wondered If their father Henry away at war for long periods could there have been a gap of 15 years between the brothers ?
It's not impossible , but it seemed unlikely.
Date: Wednesday next before the feast of St Laurence, 46 Edward III 1373
05/11/1377: Order to distrain Thomas de la Pomeroy to do homage and fealty to the lord and to show by what right and title he entered into the lord’s fee at La Wylle.
18/05/1378 Order to distrain Thomas de la Pomeroy to do fealty for lands and tenements in ye Yealbelorn.
02/11/1378: Order to distrain Johan de la Pomeray to do fealty for lands and tenements in Wille Yeallbxxx.
24 May 1380: John Rend 2d Reginald Poyer 2d in mercy for trespass and breaking and taking away the hedge of John de la Pomeraye
26 April 1392: The homage presents that Alexander Merle and Johanna his wife held certain lands and tenements Atte Wylle for the life. After Johanna’s death the reversion is to the heirs of Thomas de la Pomeray to be held by Knight Services.
01/10/1392: The lands and tenements which Thomas de la Pomeray lately held at le Wylle remain in the lord’s hands by reason of the minority of Edward. ( under 21 in 1392 = EDB 1371 -1392)
08/05/1397: Order to distrain Edward Pomeroy son and heir of William Pomeroy to do homage and fealty to the lord for the lands and tenements at Wille.
18/10/1392: Order to distrain Edward Pomeroy to do homage and fealty to the lord for the lands and tenements at la Wylle.
Sir Thomas 5th son was dead by 1378 and by 1392 his widow had married Alexander Merle
Goldcliff Priory which was a Benedictine monastery in Goldcliff, Newport, South Wales and it has as Prior there was Lawrence de Bonneville, 1418–1441. In 1442, with the full approval of Pope Eugene IV, the priory was made a cell of Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire.
we have records for the sons of Sir Henry & Johan Moels , John, William, Nicholas and Thomas with their eldest brother and heir Henry, including these
C 241/123/81 Date: 1347 Jun 22 Held by: The National Archives, Kew language Latin
Debtor: Henry de la Pomeroy, the elder [of Berry Pomeroy, Haytor Hundred, Devon] Henry de la Pomeroy, the younger, and Nicholas de la Pomeroy, of Devon.( sons of Henry Pomeroy & Johane Moles )
Creditor: John de Chudleigh [held part of a fee in Hookedrise, Hemyock Hundred, Devon.], now deceased.
Amount: £500.
Before whom: Henry de Hugheton, Mayor of Exeter; Robert de Lucy, Clerk.
When taken: 20/07/1341 First term: 20/10/1341 Last term: 20/10/1341
Writ to: Sheriff of Devon Sent by: Thomas le Forbour, Mayor of Exeter; John de Cory, Clerk. Endorsement: Devon' Coram Justic' de Banco.
Note: Executors of John: Thomas de Kyrkham, William Wyke, and Robert de Chudleigh.
and for Thomas the 5th & youngest brother when he was in the king's service in 1372. He settled his affairs to protect his wife Johan had a son William Pomeroy.
this was the Battle of La Rochell is which Thomas fought under Guy de Byan father od Phillip who later married Joanna Chudleigh
this was the Battle of La Rochell is which Thomas fought under Guy de Byan father od Phillip who later married Joanna Chudleigh
Thomas's "heir male of the body" in 1372 was William mentioned in the document, but the child must have died but he & Johan had another son, Edward, born after 1372.
Thomas was like most knights a soldier when the king required and this was the period of the Hundred yeard war and so may have spent long periods away from home
thereby reducing the frequency of the appearance of children.
Devon Record Office 3799M-0/ET/7/4b 1372
Contents: Declaration of the uses of a conveyance
1. Thomas of la Pomeray
2. William Cary, Renauld Hors[ ], Piers Silverloc and John of Baucomb
Premises: all 1.'s lands and tenements, rents and services in Welcomb, Lake, Herwardesheghes, Est Wode, Walles, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Cheriton Fitzpayne, Dynnescomb, Teyng Hervy and Sandrugg
Uses Thomas of la Pomerai is going to a journey for the king. If he returns from the journey he is to hold the premises as before. If he dies on the journey before he can re-enter the premises, then William Cary and Piers Silverloc & John of Baucome are to hold them for Johane his wife, William his son, and the heirs of the body of William.
For default of such issue, the premises are to remain to the heirs of the body of Thomas (5th son), and for default, to Nicholas,( 3rd son ) brother of Thomas . and the heirs of his body. If Nicholas has no heirs of the body, the premises remain to William, brother of Nicholas and the heirs of his body, and for default, with remainder to the right heirs of Thomas.
Visitations has John Cole co heir with Joanna Chudleigh YET there are records showing that Edward was his preferred heir
John Cole, esquire (d. c . 1428). An important member of the political community in Devon, especially under Henry IV, Cole was a second-generation familiar of Earl Edward, his father, Sir Adam Cole, having been steward of the earl's household in 1381-2. Edward's patronage extended to other members of the Cole family, for Henry Cole, John Cole and Nicholas Cole all received livings in the earl's gift. John Cole, esquire, was the cousin of Henry IV's retainer, Sir Thomas Pomeroy.
Together Thomas & John pursued what were often quite dubious claims against another cousin, Edward Pomeroy, who in an act of violence in 1428, forcibly ejected by way of the windows of Berry Pomeroy.
This Thomas was evidently an active soldier and had set his sight on the barony, and set about getting it in what seems to be a quite ruthless manner with the assistance of John Cole .
Edward Pomeray was was evidently away with Sir Hugh Courtenay 1419 on diplomatic service in France when Thomas Pomeroy & John Cole took action.
Cole became a sheriff of Devon in 1405-6, and served abroad in 1415 (under Gloucester) and in 1417 (under Sir Thomas Carew).His standing in county society was good, he served as a grand juror in 1414 because of his connections and his extensive possessions.
His first wife, Blanche (whose family origins remain obscure) brought with her estates in Cornwall; and a transaction dated 1391 indicates the extent of Cole's lands which included the Cornish manor of Resparva (in St. Enoder and Probus) along with many other properties in that county, and the Devon manors of Uptamar, Hittisleigh and Nethway as well as various other places there.
He married, secondly, Alice, widow of John Sandeford. He was co-heirs of Sir John Pomeroy (d. 1416) with his cousin Joanna Chudleigh . His daughter and heiress, Margaret, married Thomas Hody to whose family Nethway (Cole's main seat) passed.
In the 7th year of the reign of King Henry V - 1420 From the Plea Rolls
Edward Pomeroy sued Thomas Pomeroy knt and his wife Joan and John Cole of Nithway- Arminger (arms bearer ) -for the manor of Stockleigh Pomeroy and the moieties of the manors of Brixham and Harburton which he claimed by virtue of a fine levied in the.....
3 of Edw III (1330) and recorded in 18 Edw III (1345) respecting the manor of Tregony and 18 knights fees in Tregony and the manors of Bury and Stockleigh Pomeroy and 38 knights fees in Bury and Harburton and the moieties of the manor of Brixham and Harburton in Totnes
In 1387 Sir John Pomeroy, wife recorded as Joan Merton, considering himself in no way bound by an entail of the family estates in favour of the his sisters and their children - Joanna who married Sir James Chudleigh and Margaret who married Adam Cole.
Troublesome Thomas had a brother William of Membury & they are mentioned together in a record about Membury in 1403 . They are of the cadet line in Upottery , Bockerel & Smallridge in East Devon.
Their father was Robert Pomeroy who in 1330 held Membury manor & early in 1406 with Thomas & William and a chaplain of Membury surrendered to the prior of Goldclyve in Newport in Monmouthshire ( Patent Rolls 1405 & Close Rolls )
William Pomeroy, close friend and companion of Sir Thomas Pomeroy: Called "The Queen's Esquire" 1417. Queen Joan of Navarre, the Queen Mother.
The same William Pomeroy was "Presented in 1421 letters patent, dated 1416 by the Kings mother Joan, queen of England, granting for life to her esquire, 20 marks annually, from yearly gate of Oxford."
In 1441, reference to William Pomeroy, “now deceased.” Of Devonshire. Memorandum of acknowledgement, 26 January. ( father of Edward Pomeroy who married Margaret Beville)
Joan Bithewater to Thomas Bithewater chaplain, Master John Stokes clerk of the chancery, William Norton esquire and Robert Forster 'gentilman,' both of Westminster co. Middlesex, their heirs and assigns.
Gift during her life of a yearly rent of £10. 13s. 4d., reciting a writing, dated Meynbury (Membury) 20 March 9 Henry VI, (1431 ) whereby Lawrence late prior of Goldeclyve and the convent gave to her and William Pomerey, now deceased, the manor of Meynbury otherwise Membury co. Devon for their lives and the life of the longest living, a writing indented, dated Meynbury 24 March 9 Henry VI,
whereby the said Joan and William made a grant of their whole estate in the said manor to the prior and convent and to their successors, subject to a yearly rent of £10. 13s. 4d. payable to them for their lives and the life of the longest living, the death of the said William, and that she is sole surviving.
Witnesses: Richard Walsshe 'gentilman,' John Savage, Simon Croulonde, Robert Hough, John Faw . . . Dated Monday after Midsummer 18 Henry VI.1422 -1461
This is not the same man as Captain William Pomeroy born about 1324, 2nd son of Sir Henry was Captain of Castle Cornet at St. Peter Port, Guernsey. William Pomeray, Esquire, Man At Arms, 1389, Brest Garrison 1 year
INQUISITIONS POST MORTEM AFTER HER DEATH IN 1423 FOR JOANNA CHUDLEIGH, WIDOW OF SIR JOHN ST AUBYN & WIDOW OF PHILLIP DE BRYAN
WIFE OF THOMAS POMEROY SON OF ROBERT OF SMALLRIDGE WHO DIED IN 1426
IPMJOAN WIFE OF THOMAS POMERAY, KNIGHT
246 Writ que plura . ‡ 20 October 1428. [Wymbyssh]. DEVON. Inquisition [indented]. Honiton 25 October 1428. [Tretherf].
Jurors: William Maleherbe ; John Maleherbe ; William Assheforth ; Thomas Sterre ; William Sely ; John Clode ; Walter Badston ; Gilbert Attewode ; Walter Traci ; John Gascoyn ; Thomas Waltham ; and John Bucknoll .
She held more lands and tenements than specified in CIPM XXII no. 259, an inquisition taken in 1423.
She held the following in demesne as of fee.
Berry Pomeroy, the manor, held of the king in chief by knight service. There are 60 messuages, worth £3 yearly; a water-mill, worth 10s. yearly; 60 ferlings arable, demised severally to tenants-at-will, rendering £20 yearly at the four principal terms by equal parts; 20 a. meadow, worth 26s. 8d. yearly; 100 a. pasture, worth 40s. yearly; 100 a. timber wood, its pasture worth 10s. yearly; and £23 assize rent, payable at Easter and Michaelmas by equal parts.
Stockleigh Pomeroy, the manor, held of the king in chief by knight service. There are 20 messuages with 20 ferlings of arable, demised to various tenants-at-will, worth 100s. yearly; a fulling-mill, worth nothing yearly; 20 a. wood, its pasture worth 6s. yearly; and 8 a. meadow, worth 8s. yearly.
Brixham, ½ manor, held of the king in chief by knight service. There is assize rent of 100s. from tenements held severally in fee simple, payable at the four terms of the year by equal parts.
Harberton, ½ manor, held of the king in chief by knight service. There is a messuage and 40 a. arable, worth 20s. yearly.
She held no more lands or tenements in demesne or service above those lands and tenements found in the inquisition taken after her death and returned to Chancery.
She died on 8 December 1423. Joan wife of Otes Bodrugan is her kin and one of her next heirs as one of the daughters of John Seyntaubyn her son, and aged 17 and more. Margaret wife of Reynold Tretherf is her kin and other next heir as the other daughter of John Seyntaubyn , and aged 13 and more.
[1]+She was seised of the above manors and moieties before her marriage to Thomas Pomeray . They afterwards had a daughter called Isabel. Joan died seised of this estate and Thomas continued in his estate by curtesy until his own death on St Laurence’s day 4 Henry VI. Since then, Edward Pomeray, esquire , has taken the issues and profits of the manors and moieties, title unknown.+[1]
[Head:] Reynold Beyer freed to the court on the escheator’s behalf on 9 December 1428.
C 139/40/51 mm.1, 4
E 152/6/260 m.14v.
Jurors: William Nevyll ; Stephen Boswydell ; John Meleder ; William Trewonwall ; Benedict Cubart; Reynold Trevronek ; Thomas Bosveysek ; Peter Nampyan ; James Ethneves ; Nicholas Hendre; John Nicol Nanskelly; and John Carleyghan .
She was seised of the following in demesne as of fee.
Tregony, the manor, held of the king in chief by knight service. There is a principal messuage and 40 other messuages, worth nothing yearly; 2 water-mills, worth 60s. yearly; 1 fulling-mill, worth 5s. yearly; a mill called ‘Tanmylle’, worth 5s. yearly; £15 assize rent, payable at Easter and Michaelmas by equal parts and delivered by free tenants; 15 ferlings arable, demised to tenants-at-will, rendering 100s. yearly at the four principal terms by equal parts; 20 a. wood, its pasture worth 7s. yearly; and 10 a. alder, its pasture commonly worth 3s. 4d. yearly.
Date of death and heirs as 246.
Continues as 246+[1].
[Head:] Reynold Beyer freed to the court on the escheator’s behalf... ?9 December 1428 [ms worn and dirty]
.
C 139/40/51 mm.2–3
E 152/6/260 m.13v.