Eleanor de Bohun, heiress of Debden

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bohun-138

ELEANOR DE BOHUN was the daughter of Sir Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Maud of Eu, who was also known as Mahaut de Lusignan.

She married before 1267 to John de Verdun, Knight, of Alton, Staffordshire, Farnham, Buckinghamshire, Bittesby, Cotesbach, Lutterworth, and Newbold Verdon, Leicestershire, Hethe, Oxfordshire, Brandon and Bretford (both in Wolston) and Flecknoe (in Wolfhamcote), Warwickshire, Wilsford, Wiltshire, etc., Keeper of Odiham Castle, justice itinerant for Shropshire, Staffordshire, etc. and, in right of his first wife, hereditary Constable of Ireland, younger son of Thebaud le Boteler (or Butler) of Arklow, co. Wicklow, Ireland, by his second wife, Rohese, daughter and heiress of Nicholas de Verdun.[1]

They had children:[1]

1. Humphrey, clerk;
2. Maud, wife of Sir John de Grey, 2nd Lord Grey of Wilton, married before 1275/6.

Eleanor was living 10 Jun 1278.[1]

Origins

http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/cp/p_verdun.shtml

Until recent years, Eleanor's parentage was uncertain, however Richardson and others have compiled the following evidence to confirm that Eleanor, wife of John de Verdun, is a Bohun:

1) Her seal displayed the Bohun arms.[2]

Seal of Eleanor de Verdun dated 1275 - A shield of arms: per pale, dex., fretty [VERDUN]; sin., a bend cotised between six lioncels rampant [BOHUN] (each dimidiated). Suspended by a strap on a tree of five branches. Between two cinquefoil roses. Within a carved rosette of six cusped points. 2) After John de Verdun's death, Eleanor, conveyed lands in Debden, Essex (a Bohun manor) to her daughter, Maud and her husband, John de Grey. [2] Eleanor was known as the Heiress of Debden.

3) Dispensations obtained when two of Maud de Grey's grandchildren married members of the Bohun family indicate that Maud de Grey's mother, Eleanor de Bohun, was the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex.[2]

4) Cris Nash, in Dec 2001 and Jan 2002, reported that the identification of Eleanor as a Bohun is supported by M.S. Hagger in "The Fortunes of a Norman Family: the de Verduns in England, Ireland and Wales, 1066-1316" (2001), which refers to a gift of lands in Debden by Eleanor's son Humphrey de Verdun to Humphrey de Bohun, in exchange for Nuthampstead (Debden, in Essex, had been previously held by the Bohuns).[3]

References

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bohun-138 cites
• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Ed., Vol. IV, p. 249-50, VERDUN, p. 340-341, WILTON.
• Richardson, Douglas, Magna Carta Ancestry. 2nd ed. (2011), 4 vols. Accessed online (search only) at GoogleBooks, Vol. IV, p. 341, footnote 217.
• ↑ Proposed Corrections to Complete Peerage Vol. XII, Part 2, p. 248.
• Richardson, Douglas, Magna Carta Ancestry. 2005, p. 889.
• Richardson, Douglas, Royal Ancestry. 2013, Vol. I, p. 413.
• Richardson, Douglas, Royal Ancestry. 2013, Vol. V, p. 242-243, 367-368.
• Eleanor de Bohun entry in Our Royal, Titled, Noble, and Commoner Ancestors and Cousins (website, compiled by Marlyn Lewis, Portland, OR), accessed 11/16/18.
• "Phillips, Weber, Kirk and Staggs Families of the Pacific Northwest," by Jim Weber, on Rootsweb.

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The Manor of Debden dates back to before the Norman Conquest, but the parish church of St Mary the Virgin and All Saints dates from the thirteenth century. The Chiswell family acquired Debden Hall in 1715.