Sir John Harleston at Esol and Freydvill’-revised 2.1.2017
The 1377 St. Alban’s Abbey manorial rental rolls for Esol record that the house, buildings and land previously held by Sir John de Beauchamp was then owned Sir John Harleston, who also had a life interest in the Manor of Freydvill’.
Sir John Harleston, sometimes spelt Harlestone or Herliston, had much in common with Sir John de Beauchamp, his predecessor at Esol. Sir John was a knight from a land-owning Essex family and he served and fought in the Hundred Years War with some distinction on behalf of the English Crown, and as a captain in the Free Companies. John Harleston was with Edward III’s army that invaded Normandy in 1346 where his share in the sale of a French knight taken during the march through Normandy amounted to no less than £1,500. This campaign led to the English victory over the French at Crecy. Possibly Crecy is where John Harleston did some service for Geoffrey de Say, Lord Say, as at some time prior to 1356 he was given a lifetimes interest in the Manor of Freydvill’ by Lord Say with the interest reverting to the de Says or their heirs when Sir John died. He retained this interest at least into the 1390’s.
In 1359 he was credited with the capture of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, some thirty miles north-west of Dijon. The town had been used as a storage depot by the French and according to the chronicler Jean Froissart, the supplies captured were enough to feed the English army for a month.
The Hundred Years War between England and France consisted of periods of campaigning with intense fighting interspersed with truces and peace treaties. During these periods of peace soldiers would be paid off as they were not needed and there were no standing armies at this time. Many unemployed soldiers then formed themselves into “free companies” and raided and looted the towns and countryside of France on their own behalves. In France these companies were known as “bandes de routiers” or “écorcheurs” and were usually led by captains from the lesser nobility, such as John Harleston.
These armed bands became notorious in France after the Treaty of Brétigny concluded in 1360 between King Edward III of England, and King John II which released the French king on payment of a ransom of three million crowns. The treaty also temporarily brought hostilities to a halt, and saw the English renounce claims to Anjou and Normandy while retaining Gascony and Guyenne. However, the treaty was never fully implemented, and war broke out again in 1369.
John Harleston gained some notoriety during his time as a very successful “routier”. It was said by the chronicler Jean Froissart that Harleston gave a banquet where the guests drank from a hundred silver chalices looted from churches in the Champagne area of France. An English chronicler Thomas Walsingham, praised him for his leadership abilities and his skills with weapons. Harleston successfully led a free company for several years in the early 1360’s and became very wealthy, but appears to have suffered from remorse as in 1366 he went on a pilgrimage to Nazareth in penance for the sins he’d committed as a “routier”.
During the 1360’s he appears to have embarked on various diplomatic and other missions on behalf of the King, and he helped negotiate a truce in 1366 between England and France. On the resumption of hostilities between England and France in 1369 Sir John was appointed Captain of Guise and held the post until late 1376. In 1379 he was made Captain of Cherbourg, and for at least part of that year he was also Captain of Froissart and Kervyn de Lettenhove. During his time at Cherbourg he took part in various skirmishes, and in one of these he captured a French knight, William de Bordes, whom he gave to King Richard II in return for a grant of 10,000 francs. Sir John is also said to have received £1,583 6s 8d for the ransom of another unnamed French knight, a considerable sum at a time when Richard II’s annual revenue was around £70,000.
After serving as Captain of Cherbourg he accompanied Thomas Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, on raids into various parts of France which further added to his considerable wealth. For these raids he contracted to provide six bannerets [knights of the highest order of knighthood], seventy three knights and eighty archers.
As reward for his service he was made a Knight of the Chamber by King Richard II. As with Sir John de Beauchamp it’s likely Sir John Harleston acquired Esol as a stopping off place for journeys between England and the Continent through the port of Sandwich, it’s ideally situated just some five or six miles from the port and would have provided a comfortable place to stay on arrival from the Continent or awaiting a ship to cross the Channel for Sir John or members of his household and entourage.
Sir John was back in England in 1381 and helped to defeat and punish participants in the Peasants Revolt in Kent and Essex on behalf of King Richard II. However, he was not in England for long, and he returned to the Continent as part of Despenser’s Crusade of 1383. This was a military expedition led by Henry le Despenser, the Fighting Bishop of Norwich, which was intended to help the city of Ghent in its struggle against the supporters of the Antipope Clement VII during the great Western or Papal Schism, a split within the Catholic Church which lasted from 1378 to 1417. This expedition was an integral part of the Hundred Years War as France supported Clement, whose court was based in Avignon, whilst the English supported Pope Urban VI whose court was in Rome.
In 1384 Sir John embarked on a journey to Rome but despite having an Imperial safe conduct from the Holy Roman Empire, he was taken prisoner by Bruno von Rappoltstein, an independent nobleman with holdings in both France and the Holy Roman Empire. Supplications from both the King of England and the Pope in Rome could not effect Sir John’s release. Even the intervention of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia, the eldest son of the Holy Roman Emperor was to no avail, and Sir John was held prisoner by Bruno von Rappoltstein at various places until 1392.
On his release he was granted an annuity of one hundred marks by King Richard II to help compensate him for losses incurred during his imprisonment and this annuity was subsequently confirmed by Henry IV in October 1399. After his release Sir John led a quieter life, but still retained some interest in the Royal Court’s affairs until his death in the early 15th century.
It appears that in the late 1390’s Sir John transferred this life interest in the Manor of Fredville to John Quadryng, a City of London mercer, and his wife Margaret.
The situation regarding the ownership of the manor of Fredville becomes rather complicated due to a complicated series of inheritances. It must be remembered that by the 1360’s the Barony of Say held the Knight’s Fee of Essewelle, and the subsidiary Manor of Freydvill’ which appears to have reverted back to the Barony at the death without male heirs of the last John Colkyn in the early to mid-1340’s, but Esole, the other subsidiary manor of the fee, was held by the Abbey of St. Alban’s, which appears to have obtained it at some time in the 1340’s.
In 1362 William de Say came of age and became the 3rd Baron Say. He married Beatrix de Brewose, who inherited her brother’s property when he died without issue, and they had two children, John and Elizabeth.
William de Say died in 1376 when John was about two and Elizabeth about eight years old and because of John’s minority their father’s estates and property were taken into the hands of the Crown and the children were made Wards of the Crown.
John de Say, the 4th and last Baron Say, was a ward of King Richard II when he died in 1382 aged about 10 years old and without issue. His sister Elizabeth was aged about sixteen, and was her brother’s heir to both title and property. After her inheritance Elizabeth married Sir John de Falvesle, a Northamptonshire knight who was summoned to Parliament as Lord Say. The couple had no children before Sir John’s death. Elizabeth remarried around 1393, taking Sir William Heroun, also Heron, as her second husband and in his turn he was also summoned to Parliament as Lord Say.
When Elizabeth Heroun died without issue in 1399 her title and extensive property, including the Manor of Freydeuyle, went to her second husband Sir William and after his death in 1404, again without issue, the Post Mortem Inquiry for the property he held in Kent recorded: “John Herleston, knight, holds the manor of Fredvill’ for life by the grant of Geoffrey de Say, with reversion in virtue of the above fine to the heirs of Elizabeth, annual value when it occurs 100s”. Even though Sir John had previously transferred his interest to John Quadryng et al the manor still reverted to Elizabeth Heroun’s heirs.
William de Say, 3rd Baron Say had three sisters and each sisters heirs received one third of the baronies land and property. These heirs were: William Clynton, knight son and heir of Idonea, first sister of William de Say, 3rd Baron; Roger Fenes, or Fienes, son of William Fenes, knight son and heir of Joan, the second sister of William de Say, 3rd Baron; and sisters Maud Bosenho and Mary de Worthyngton, née Alden, the daughters and joint heirs of Elizabeth, the third sister of William de Say, 3rd Baron.
Maud disposed of her one-sixth share in 1401:-“that by fine levied in the king’s court Maud who was wife of Thomas Bosenho acknowledged the right of John Quadrynge, and made a quitclaim of the manor to them and the heirs of the said John”. This feet of fines of the 1st of May 1401 is generally believed to represent the transfer of the whole of the Manor of Fredeuyle to the Quadryngs, but in fact it represents just one sixth of it.
William Clynton quitclaimed his one third of the manor, presumably at around the same time as Maud. It’s recorded: “that when in seisin of Thomas de Charleton and the others William de Clynton by writing under his seal made a quitclaim of his right to them and to the heirs and assigns of John Quadrynge”. John Quadryng therefore had clear possession of one half of the Manor of Fredeuyle.
For some time after the 1401 feet of fines the other two heirs, Roger Fiennes and Mary de Worthyngton, retained a one third and one sixth share respectively in the Manor of Fredeuyle. Mary and her husband, Otto de Worthyngton, appear to transfer the ownership of their one-sixth of the manor of Fredeuyll by a 1413 feet of fines to John and Margaret Quadryng but Roger Fienes still retained his one third in 1430 and nothing has yet come to light as to the disposal of this final one-third share before his death in 1449.
Sir Roger Fiennes was an English Knight of the Shire, High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, and builder of Herstmonceux Castle. He accompanied King Henry V to France and fought at Agincourt in 1415. His younger brother was James Fiennes, who was made 1st Baron Saye and Sele in 1447, and was Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1447 to 1450. James also held the office of Lord High Treasurer of England from 1449 to 1450, and while in office he was beheaded at the Standard in Cheapside, London, on 4th July, 1450, by rebels under the leadership of Jack Cade.
