John Danvers MP (abt. 1390 - 1449)

Born about 1390 in Cothorp, Oxfordshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Alice (Verney) Danvers — married 1399 in England

Descendants

Died 1449 at about age 59 in Oxfordshire, England

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Biography

William Bruley, knight of the shire for Oxfordshire in 1395, outlived his wife and their son John, who had married Maud Quatremain, sister and coheiress of Richard Quatremain of Rycote. Before 1423, however, he had enfeoffed his granddaughter Joan and her husband John Danvers, of Epwell in Swalcliffe and later of Colthorpe in Banbury, with Waterstock manor. Danvers, who represented the county in three parliaments, and built up a large landed estate, was returned as lord in 1428 and appears to have died shortly after 1448. His widow Joan married as her second husband Sir Walter Mauntell of Nether Heyford (Northants.) and they presented to Waterstock church in 1467 and 1469. Much of John Danvers's property went to his sons by his first wife, but Thomas, his eldest son by Joan Bruley, succeeded to his mother's lands. He married twice, first a daughter of James Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele, and secondly Sybil Fowler, member of a family with whom the Danvers family was already connected by marriage.^[1]

From his Parliamentary biography^[2]

Family and Education

s. and h. of Richard Danvers of Epwell by Agnes, da. and h. of John Brancaster of Banbury. m. (1) bef. Mich. 1399, Alice, da. and h. of William Verney of Byfield, Northants., 3s. inc. Robert† and Richard†, 1da.; (2) c.1420, Joan, da. and h. of John Bruley (d.v.p. s. of William Bruley*) of Waterstock, Oxon., by Maud, da. of Thomas Quatermayn of Rycote, 5s. inc. Thomas† and William†, 4da.1

Offices Held

Tax collector, Oxon. Dec. 1407, Northants. June 1410.

Escheator, Oxon. and Berks. 6 Nov. 1424-24 Jan. 1426.

Commr. to assess a tax, Oxon. Apr. 1431; of inquiry June 1435 (escapes of felons); to distribute tax rebate Jan. 1436; of array Jan. 1436.

Biography

John Danvers’s inheritance from his father, who died in or after 1409, was of small worth, comprising as it did not much more than the manor of Little Bourton in Cropredy and a few acres of land nearby. The manor of Epwell, which had been in the family since the 12th century, had fallen quite recently into the hands of William Wilcotes*, a leading Oxfordshire lawyer. However, through his mother he inherited the Brancaster property in Calthorpe and Wickham, and these holdings formed the basis for a notable expansion of territory, which proved to be Danvers’s principal achievement.2

[...]

Both of Danvers’s marriages proved advantageous: his first wife brought him land in Northamptonshire, and his second the manor of Waterstock, of which he had possession by 1423 under a settlement made by his wife’s grandfather William Bruley, the former shire knight.4

[...]

Danvers is last recorded in February 1449, as completing financial arrangements for the marriage of one of his daughters, but he died shortly afterwards, for the abbot of Eynsham later gave a receipt to his executors, regarding his farm of the abbey’s demesnes in Calthorpe, for the period beginning that Lady Day. His widow married Sir Walter Mauntell.7 Over the years Danvers had done much to promote the interests of his many children. Agnes, his daughter by his first wife, had been married to John Fray*, the chief baron of the Exchequer, and at least four of his sons — (Sir) Robert (d. 1467) Richard (d.1489) and their half-brothers (Sir) Thomas (d.1502) and (Sir) William (d.1504) — had been encouraged to enter the legal profession. Indeed, Robert, who had been recorder of London since 1442, was to be made a j.c.p. in 1450 (the year after his father’s death), and William was to be promoted j.KB under Henry VII. The estates John Danvers had accumulated were divided between his sons.8

Burial

1448 Banbury Church, Oxfordshire, England

Age: 57-58

The Inquisition Post Mortem for John Danvers is unavailable, recorded, as it was, within the period of the Wars of the Roses and Yorkist Kings, from 1447 to 1485, the IPMs of which are as yet unpublished:

The gap in the calendars from 1447 to 1485, covering Wars of the Roses and Yorkist kings, is especially missed and is unlikely to change in the near future given current funding in the UK.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Parishes: Waterstock', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 7: Dorchester and Thame hundreds (1962), pp. 220-230.
2. ↑ DANVERS, John (d.1449), of Calthorpe in Banbury and Prescote in Cropredy, Oxon.. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
3. ↑ ed. Gordon McKelvie & Michael Hicks., (17 April 2021)., Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and other Analogous Documents preserved in The National Archives XXXV: 1 Edward V to Richard III (1483–1485)., (Introduction summary). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from cambridge core (Here;) Accessed 6 Jul 2023.

• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry (2013) Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol IV, page 394, Bone Danvers.

Also see

• For this line see 'The Danvers Memorials' by MacNamara, cited in N.E. Hist .Gen. Register, 139:230. Available online, and contains pedigree: https://books.google.be/books?id=NkAIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102
• Lee, Frederick George. The History, Description, and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1883) Page 293.
• Visitation of Oxfordshire Page 187: Danvers of Waterstock

• History of Parliament online 1386-1421: DANVERS, John (d.1449), of Calthorpe in Banbury and Prescote in Cropredy, Oxon

• Beesley, Alfred, (1842)., The History of Banbury: Including Copious Historical and Antiquarian Notices of the Neighbourhood. Nichols and Son ... Pickering ... and Rodd, Banbury: Oxfordshire. Retrieved from Google e-Books (Here;) Accessed 7 Jul 2023.