"3) John le Despenser, alive in 1351, may have died June 1366."
It turns out that this obscure son of Hugh le Despenser the Younger
and Eleanor de Clare did die in 1366, coming to a violent end.
In combing through the Chronicle of John de Reading, I was excited to
come across the following entry:
"Quo anno ante festum Sancti Barnabae Apostoli, Londoniis, quidam
serviens ad arma, cognomine Cornwaille, cum scorta sua, filio, et
coco, qui in latrociniis, sacrilegiis, adulteriis, virginum ac
matronarum defloratione et homicidiis convicti [fuerant], ille cathena
ferrea, ceteri funibus suspendebantur. De quorum consilio alii duo
sclerati, qui Johannem Spenser cognatum domini Edwardi Dispensarii in
sterculinio crudeliter occisum projecerunt, unus tractus sed ambo
cathensis suspensi sunt."
I want to thank Chris Phillips and Rosie Bevan for helping me with the
Latin, which basically indicates that Londoners, before the feast of
St. Barnabus (in 1366) hung two groups of criminals. The second group
(two men) had killed John Despenser the kinsman of Sir Edward
Despenser, then flung his corpse on to a dung heap.
There was a writ of diem clausit extremum issued to the escheator of
Southampton on 10 June 1366 for a John le Despenser, and the above
proves that this John was related to Edward, Lord Despenser (who was
grandson of Hugh the Younger). So poor John came to an end in the
spring of 1366 almost as horrid as his father had 40 years previous,
though whether John was specifically targeted or was in the wrong
place at the wrong time remains a mystery. No IPM for him,
unfortunately, survives.
I also previously wrote:
"1) Isabel le Despenser, born about 1312, eldest daughter. She married
when aged about 8, on 9 Feb. 1321, Richard Fitzalan, who became Earl
of Arundel in 1331. Their marriage was annulled in December 1344, and
she was given manors in Essex to live on. She was living in 1351-2,
when she gave a gift of fish to her aunt Elizabeth, Lady of Clare.
Her one child, a son Edmund, born about 1327, was bastardized by the
1344 annulment."
Thanks to an extended Chancery proceeding, we can also place the death
of John's eldest sister Isabel, annulled wife of the Earl of Arundel,
as after 1356. Isabel received a group of Essex manors ("High
Rothyng" [High Roding], "Ovesham" [I've yet to determine which one
that was], "Pritewall" [Prittlewell], "Ginge Margaret" [Margaret
Roding], "Wolfhampston" [ditto], and "Childescanfield" [Little
Canfield?]) for life from her ex-husband (see Cal. Patent Rolls, 1345,
p. 488).
From Robert C. Palmer, _English Law in the Age of the Black death,
1348-1381_ (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), p.
397:
"M [Michaelmas term] 1348; M 1351; M 1354; T [Trinity term] 1356:
Isabel daughter of Hugh le Despenser v. the prior of the Hospital of
St. John of Jerusalem in England, CP40/356, m. 117d (summons);
CP40/359, m. 22d; CP40/367, m. 248 (summons); CP 40/371, m. 101 (three
additional distraints); CP40/379, m. 263 (summons); CP40/381, m. 149d
(attachment and further process); CP40/387, m. 4 (day by essoiner
after attachment), Essex: brought repeatedly in the same form
concerning a tenurial and prescriptive duty to repair walls in a marsh
in Great Wakering against the ebb and flow and flooding of seawater.
D [defendant] refused to repair the walls that threatened ruin whereby
P [plaintiff], by flooding, lost her profit."
I need to check the 1376 IPM of the Earl of Arundel, but if the above
Essex manors were back in his hands at his death then we know Isabel
predeceased him.
Isabel and her sister Eleanor Despenser, nun at Semplingham, remain
the only two children of Hugh le Despenser the Younger for whom we do
not have dates of death.
It's likely, however, given the chronology, that neither outlived
their youngest sister Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley, who died in 1389,
probably the last surviving child of Hugh Despenser the Younger.
Cheers, --------Brad