Sir George Heron, of Chipchase, MP

George "of Chipchase" Heron

• Born before 1515 in England
• Died 7 Jul 1575 in Raid of the Redeswire

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Heron-530

George Heron of Chipchase, was the son of John Heron of Chipchase.[2]

His mother is disputed. She was either Joan, dau. of Sir Nicholas Ridley of Willimoteswyke.[3] or Margaret, dau. of Sir Eward Musgrave.[4]

Siblings

• Ursula Heron m. Roger Fenwick of Bitchfield, constable of Newcastle in 1493.[5]

Marriage

George married twice...

Swinburne

m.1 Marion Swinburne (Father: George Swinburne of Edlingham). Issue: [6]

children

1. John (will: 05 Dec 1590, proved: 19 Jun 1591)[7] m. Margery (will 03 Nov 1612, proved: 19 Mar 1613/4), dau. of Sir Thomas Gray of Horton & Dorothy Ogle.
2. Isabel.[8] m. John Fenwick of Walker (will: 10 Oct 1580).[1]
3. Agnes.[9] m. _____ Chariton

Forster

m.2 Margaret Forster, dau. of Sir Thomas Forster of Adderstone; wid. of William Heron of Ford.[10] [11]

Sir George Heron of Chipchasehouse

Biography

Sir George Heron was the Keeper of Redesdale before 1573 (noted in Sep 1597 (CBP I  402), and Captain of Harbottle Castle. His death at the Reidswire noted in the CBP. References to the event continue a decade and more later (CBP I, 205-6).(CBP II 602 (Oct 18 1598) and Feb 1599 (CBP II 590).

His political biography is from HERON, George (by 1515-75), of Chipchase, Northumb.

Family and Education

b. by 1515, 2nd s. of John Heron of Chipchase by Joan, da. of Sir Nicholas Ridley of Willimoteswyke. m. (1) Marion, da. of George Swinburne of Edlingham, 1s. 4da.; (2) Margaret, da. of Sir Thomas Forster of Adderstone, wid. of William Heron of Ford, 3s. 4da. suc. fa. or bro. by May 1548. Kntd. c.1570.1

Offices Held

Acting keeper, Tynedale and Redesdale Aug. 1542-3; keeper, Tynedale by Jan. 1551, Redesdale at d.; commr. food prices, Northumb. 1551, enclosure in middle marches 1553; sheriff, Northumb. 1555-6, 1566-7, Apr.-Nov. 1572; j.p. 1558/59-d.2

Biography

The Herons were an ancient and powerful Northumberland family whose estates were situated near the frontier and the troubled areas of Tynedale and Redesdale. Typical of the factious and violent gentry of the borders, they were frequently hounded by the law as criminals but were also important figures in county administration. George Heron’s father, despite his implication in the Pilgrimage of Grace and his disruption of order after its failure, was appointed keeper of Tynedale and Redesdale, an office which his son was also to hold. His activities evidently stretched his financial resources; in December 1546, shortly before his death, he was described as very poor, with most of his lands assigned to pay his debts.3

George Heron was early initiated into lawless behaviour, for both during and after the Pilgrimage he abetted his father’s treachery. In June 1537 the 3rd Duke of Norfolk reported to Cromwell that Heron and his kinsmen were implicated in the murder of Roger Fenwick, keeper of Tynedale. Heron appeared before the duke but was allowed to remain at large, although he was prevented from communicating with his father who was imprisoned in the Fleet as a suspected accomplice. Norfolk called Heron a ‘false harlot’ but after three months he had to admit to Cromwell that he could obtain no firm evidence: whether he carried out his intention of bringing Heron to London is not clear, but nothing further is heard of the case.4

Heron may have been the George Heron who, described with Miles Shafto (‘Staff’) as gentlemen of the north returning thither, was rewarded with £5 by the crown in May 1541. He was certainly in good standing with the government by 1542, for from August of that year he was acting keeper of Tynedale and Redesdale in place of his father, who had been captured by the Scots after the fiasco of Haddon Rig, and in November the Earl of Hertford sent him and his followers on a diversionary raid into West Teviotdale. By the following April, however, Heron and his father had again fallen foul of the government. This time the Privy Council was clearly determined to bring them to account; they were to be tried according to the law of the realm or of the border, whichever better suited the purpose, and if necessary additional evidence was to be procured. Baron Parr, the warden of the marches, bound over Heron and his father, and the Duke of Suffolk directed him to make them find surety in at least 1,000 marks. Although proceedings were again hampered by the reluctance of witnesses to declare against ‘gentlemen or men of great surname’, something appears to have been proved, for early in 1544 father and son were in prison at Newcastle and in December 1545 they were in the custody of (Sir) Robert Bowes at Alnwick. Bowes found them ‘men of wit and experience’ who were less culpable than was generally thought and had something to contribute to the government of the county. He allowed the younger Heron to go to the Privy Council to sue for freedom, with what immediate result is not known.5

By May 1548 both Heron’s father and his elder brother were dead, and he re-emerged as a figure of some importance. The keepership of Tynedale was granted to him before January 1551, and in the following month Lord Ogle, who as deputy warden of the middle march seems to have been in charge of Tynedale, was ordered by the Council to assist him in his office. Heron’s return to Parliament in 1555 as junior knight of the shire was a measure of his rehabilitation, as was his pricking as sheriff while he was a Member.6

The recovery was not maintained, for the next two years saw the climax of a feud in which Heron was a principal figure. It originated from a dispute concerning the ownership of the Ford estate. The survey of the borders made by Sir Robert Bowes in 1551 recorded that Heron claimed Ford by tail male and Thomas Carr by his marriage to Elizabeth Heron, heir of Sir William Heron, its former owner. According to the sheriff and certain justices of the peace in March 1557, Ford was attacked and the Carr occupants expelled by Heron’s partisans; when shortly afterwards one of these was murdered, the sheriff and justices were moved to declare that ‘this hundred year never happened there so piteous a state of dissension and hatred to be seen in this country’. In May 1557 Heron, Carr and Ralph Collingwood appeared before the Privy Council, but within eight months Carr himself was murdered. The Council then passed the investigation over to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland. Heron was quickly brought under suspicion, but when Northumberland issued a proclamation against him and one Robert Lisle he was rebuked for his forwardness, while Westmorland was likewise reproved for seizing their property. In June 1558 Heron was bound by recognizance to keep the peace, to attend upon the Queen’s commissioners in the north and to appear before the Council. By August the commissioners reported that the two parties had been brought to agreement. The feud nevertheless rumbled on: Heron forbade his granddaughter to marry a Carr, and 20 years later a principal reason given for disorder in Northumberland was ‘the private quarrels between the Herons and the Carrs, involving other houses who would rather overthrow each other than face the enemy’.7

His record notwithstanding, Heron came to be accepted by the Elizabethan government as a valuable figure in the region. He probably held the keepership of Tynedale (save for a temporary dismissal) until his death and added to it that of Redesdale. Recommended by Sir John Forster, warden of the middle marches, as ‘meet’ to be a justice and ‘used in service’, he was put on the bench and served twice more as sheriff. He seems to have been generally on good terms with the important Forster family, noted for its service to the crown, for besides marrying into it he was a supervisor of the will of Reginald Forster of Capheaton. He was one of the seven Northumbrians recommended for membership of the council in the north but is not known to have been appointed. The date of his knighthood is not certain; he received it from the 3rd Earl of Sussex, probably during the earl’s lieutenancy in the north and presidency of the council there between 1568 and 1572, and it may have been a reward for his conduct during the rebellion of 1569.8

Tamed as he may have appeared to be in his later years, Heron met with a violent end on 7 July 1575. Temporarily dismissed from his keepership, probably because he handed over a murderer to the deputy keeper of Liddesdale, he was one of the victims of the resulting feud. Unlike his father, he left substantial lands, livestock and goods to his son John.9

From Chipchase Castle history

While his father was a prisoner in Scotland, George Heron acted as deputy Keeper of Tyndale. Like his father and brother, he also was averse to discipline and there were many complaints made about him taking matters into his own hands and executing raids in Scotland.

Sir William Heron of Ford died in 1535 with no direct male heirs. This left the Herons of Chipchase to lay claim to his considerable estates. The only condition was that the young heiress, Sir William Heron’s granddaughter, Margaret remained unmarried. The Herons took no special action to establish the claim, as there was always a chance that the heiress might marry one of the Herons of Chipchase.

When she married Thomas Carr of Etal, the dispute developed into a typical family feud, and bloodshed ensued. On 1 April 1557 George Heron took a band of two hundred men, in forcible and warlike array of armour and weapons, to the house at Morpeth to establish his claim as rightful owner. A few days earlier, under the instruction of the Herons, one of the constables of Berwick, accompanied by fourteen garrison men, forcibly took possessions from Ford Castle. Eventually the Carrs retained possession of the Ford Esate while the Herons of Chipchase obtained the manor of Simonburn.

At a wardens meeting at the Red Swire on 7 July 1575 an affray broke out with the Scots in which Sir George Heron “a man much esteemed in both realms”, was killed together with twenty four other Englishman. The “esteem” was surely a posthumous development. The Red Swire or Redeswire is the neck of land from which the water falls one way into the valley of the Rede, and the other into Scotland; the modern highway from Newcastle to Jedburgh now runs over it at the Carter Bar.

The inventory of Sir George’s goods taken after his death has survived; like most country gentlemen of this time a good deal of his wealth was in farming stock. He had 80 kine at 16s. apiece; 66 oxen at 20s., apiece; 40 young “noate” (young cattle) at 10s., apiece; 34 score of “Yowes” at 2s. 6d., apiece; 24 score of dinmonts and gimmers at 2s., apiece: 24 score of hogs at 16d., apiece; 20 score wethers at 3s. 4d., apiece; 30 goats at 20d., apiece; 20 swine at 3s., apiece. The furniture in his hose was meagre, for he only had two “joined” beds, 3 standing beds, a great presser in the Broad Chamber, and eight chairs. His more personal goods included two garnish of pewter vessels, six brass pots, six pans, two cauldrons, two mortars and a pestle, three silver tankards, three silver bowls, a dozen silver spoons, a silver salt, a basin and a ewer of tin, six pewter candlesticks and six chamber potts of pewter. The mourning clothes for gowns and other charges bestowed on his funeral amounted to £65 11s. 5d., (equivalent today £21,120.37). It is evident that the furniture recorded in this inventory was that in the castle of Harbottle and so gives us no information about the contents of Chipchase castle.

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Redeswire Fray

From Minstrelry Educational Site

“The Raid of the Redeswire” appeared in the first edition of the Minstrelsy of 1802, and appears in all the editions covered by this project. It is the 8th ballad in the 1802 edition. Scott states that he used the copy of the poem from the Bannatyne MS, although he also notes that Allan Ramsay included a version in The Ever Green, entitled “The Ballat of the Reid-Squair fought on the 7th July 1576″.

The ballad recounts the notorious actions of the seventh of July 1575, when a run-of-the-mill Warden’s meeting had been arranged between John Carmichael, the Keeper of Liddesdale, and the English Middle March Warden, Sir John Forster. Their respective second in commands  were George Douglas and George Heron, Keeper of Redesdale: Heron was subsequently killed in the skirmish.

From The Redeswire

In common with all the cross border highways, the Redesdale route figured in the turbulent events which followed the onset of the Anglo-Scottish wars at the end of the 13th century. It was doubtless the Elsdon road which was followed by the Scottish army of Earl Douglas and the pursuing force of Henry Percy in 1388, after they decamped from Newcastle in the run-up to the battle of Otterburn.

Like Gamelspath, the Redeswire border crossing figures prominently in the warfare of the 15th and 16th centuries and was one of the designated meeting places between the wardens of the English and Scottish Middle Marches.

In 1575 one of these meetings at Redeswire degenerated into a bloody skirmish, the Redeswire Fray. This meeting had initially been scheduled for 'Kemelspeth', but was subsequently rearranged for the convenience of the Scottish deputy keeper of Liddelsdale (Hodgson 1827, 155-162 with full sources).

From iainthepict

The Battle of Carter Bar, otherwise known as ‘the Raid of the Redeswire’ (Reidswair; Reidswyre) or ‘the Redeswire Fray’, took place on the 7th of July, 1575.

Sir John Forster was the Warden of the English Middle March and he arrived with Sir George Heron of Chipchase, the Keeper of Tynedale and Redesdale, and a sizeable force consisting mainly of bowmen. Forster was known for double-dealing and Carmichael knew he couldn’t be trusted, although the meeting wasn’t to be avoided. To make matters worse, the Scottish contingent included members of the Crozier family, who were arch-enemies of the English Fenwicks of Wallington. Any sort of an argument could set off the powder keg if matters were not handled properly. Arrogance and hot-headedness were set to rule the day, particularly that of Forster, the English Warden.

In the course of the proceedings a true bill was found against a notorious English Freebooter named Farnstein. Forster claimed that he was a fugitive from justice, whereupon Carmichael, taking this as a pretext to avoid payment, shouted out, "Play Fair". Forster retorted with some Anglo-Saxon insults and insinuations regarding Carmichael's family and pedigree. His retinue, chiefly men of Redesdale and Tynedale, perhaps looking for any old excuse, reacted in support by discharging a flight of arrows amongst the Scots. All hell was then let loose.

The ‘Ballad’ describes the scene changing from an initially friendly encounter to a bloody battle rather well:

• Some gaed to drink and some stude still
• And some to cards and dice them sped
• Till on ane Farnstein they fyled a bill
• And he was fugitive and fled.
• Then was there nought but bow and speir
• And every man pulled out a brand;
• "A Schafton and a Fenwick" thare:
• Gude Symington was slain frae hand.

Notwithstanding the English began the fray with a cowardly attack and considerably outnumbered their foes, the Scots ultimately got the better of the conflict. Several notable border warriors were celebrated in the ‘Ballad’, including George Douglas of Bean Jeddart, Rutherford of Hundlie, and Sir Andrew Turnbull of Bedrule upon Rule Water. Casualties on the English side included Sir George Heron, his brother John and many other notable English Nobles, and Fenwick of Wallington, who was merely severely wounded. The prisoners were taken to Dalkeith, but the Regent Morton, ruling for the young King James VI, had one eye towards the succession of Elizabeth I and, as a consequence, treated them well and eventually sent them home.

Now, every year in June-July, the good people of Jedburgh celebrate the Callants’ Festival, which was inaugurated in 1947. The festival is part of the Common Ridings, which these days celebrate border history and legend, and commemorate the tradition, dating back to the 13th and 14th Centuries, of riding the parish boundaries, or 'marches' to protect common lands and prevent encroachment by neighbouring reivers. ‘Ridings’ take place from several border towns and the most important from Jedburgh is to Carter Bar. The story goes that the timely arrival of a contingent from Jedburgh, with its battle cry of “Jethart’s here”, turned what might have been a defeat for the men of Liddesdale into a famous rout of the English.

From http://www.jethartcallantsfestival.com/redeswire.htm

THE RAID OF REDESWIRE - 1575

On the seventh day of July, 1575, the peace of the Borders was disturbed by an affray in which the townsmen of Jedburgh played a prominent part. A hill near "Carter Bar" on the limits of the two kingdoms was agreed on as the trysting place of Sir John Foster, warden of the middle marches of England, and Sir John Carmichael, deputy warden of the middle marches of Scotland and keeper of Liddesdale, for the redress of their subjects grievances.  It was usual on such occasions for a great many people of both nations to assemble.  Most of them had some interest in the proceedings in which both their friends and enemies were concerned and naturally felt anxious as to the outcome of the meeting. Others attended simply to satisfy their curiosity or for entertainment. Many also attended for the purpose of trade and social intercourse.  A convenient place was chosen on English ground for holding the Court of justice where the wardens proceeded to hear complaints, determine their causes and impose punishment.

It is believed that this was the last time that the bow and arrow was used as a fighting weapon in this country.

More here: http://suite101.com/a/border-reiversthe-raid-of-the-redeswire-a96278

References

• 2. Hodgson, J. & Hodgson-Hinde, J. (1827). A History of Northumberland: The topography and local antiquities, arranged in parishes. 3 v, (pp.312). E. Walker. <GoogleBooks> “… and I find Margaret Forster, daughter of sir John Forster, of Edderston, and widow of William, son of sir William Heron, of Ford, marrying 2ndly, John Heron, of Thornton; and 3rdly, sir Geo. Heron, of Chipchase ; and living in 1596. [f]
  • [f] Heron deeds, Nos. 9 & 17. 1 Harl. MS. 1152; and sir Richard Heron's printed pedigree of the Herons. See also respecting the Heron property here under Temple Thornton and Meldon.
• "Fenwick family of Wallington, Northumberland and its cadet branches," (2005, July 4). GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives. <GoogleGroups>
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Heron-530
• http://www.chipchasecastle.com/history.html
• https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/gTKW25U8N30/m/...
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/ff/forster02.php#dau4