Elizabeth (Gournay) ap Adam (1272 - 1311)

Born 1272 in Beverston Castle, Beverston, Gloucestershire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1311 at about age 39 in Charlton, Somerset, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Andrew Lancaster [send private message]

Biography

She was of Beviston and Tidenham county, Gloucestershire, England. Married Sir John ap Adam, who was created 1st (and last) Baron (Lord) ap Adam by writ on 6 February 1298/99. On 18 February 1290/91 John did homage, and had livery, of the lands of his father-in-law, John de Gurnay. On 19 July 1296 he inherited the lands of his mother-in-law, Olive Lovel.

His estates were large not only in his own right but he received valuable estates from his wife. Their names are found in most works on extinct peerages. There remains to this day a beautiful stained-glass window in his memory in the church in Tidenham, with his name, coat-of-arms and the date 1310 in the upper part. His coat of arms is given as 'argent, a cross gules, 5 mullets or, crest; that of a ducal coronet, a demi-lion.' This means that on a silver ground was a red cross which extended from the top to the bottom and to each side, and on this cross were five golden stars. The crest as given in Fairbairns' Cressrs, was the head and Principal part of the body of the lion, rampant gardant; that is erect and the right paw raised, (and full-faced).

The Victoria County History for Hampshire:

The immediate holders of the manor [of East Wellow] were the Gurnays. Thus, about 1240, Robert de Gurnay held a quarter of a knight's fee in Wellow, (Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 143b.) and in 1267–8 certain of his tenants at West Wellow complained that by his default they were distrained by Henry de Lacy and his wife Margaret (She was granddaughter and heir of Ela Countess of Salisbury (G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 33)) for suit at the hundred of Amesbury, in which West Wellow was situated. (Feet of F. Wilts. Hil. 52 Hen. III.). Robert de Gurnay died in 1269, (Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), ii, 489, 490.) and the manor evidently passed, with that of Hyde in South Damerham, to his grandson John. In 1296 it was settled, under the name of Wellow Gurnay, upon John de Badeham (i.e. John ap Adam) and his wife Elizabeth, (Cal. Pat. 1292–1301, p. 187.) and in 1322 Roger de Gascelyn died seised of rent in Wellow held for life by grant of John ap Adam, with reversion to the grantor. (Chan. Inq. p.m. 16 Edw. II, no. 6; Chan. Inq. Misc. file 63, no. 1; Cal. Close, 1323–7, p. 390.). In 1413 Christine Spileman died holding a messuage and 6 acres of land in West Wellow of the Earl of Salisbury. This tenement had come into the hands of Edward III on account of the insanity of Christine, whose heirs were her cousins Maud Hakepanne and Isabel wife of William Edryche. (Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Hen. V, no. 20.) The chaplain of Wellow was returned in 1428 as holding for the service of a fourth part of a knight's fee certain land and tenements in Wellow which had belonged to John 'Babeham.' (Feud. Aids, v, 242.)^[1]

It also mentions:

The name John de Badeham is evidently a mistake for John ap Adam, who married Elizabeth daughter and heir of John de Gurnay (Ormerod, Strigulensia, 99–100; Dugdale, Baronage, i, 431; Chan. Inq. p.m. 24 Edw. I, no. 28), for on referring to the fines relating to the settlement it is found that though John is styled 'de Badeham' in a fine of Hilary term 1297, in the following Trinity term the name is given as John Abadam (Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 25 Edw. I; Trin. 25 Edw. I). John de Pageham (this being probably another variation of Ap Adam) held the manor in 1316 (Feud. Aids, v, 199), and was summoned to Parliament from 1299 to 1309.

A work on the de Gournays names her heir as Thomas.

"This John de Gournay died aged 31, in 1291, leaving Olivia his widow, who survived him ; and died five years afterwards, 24 Edward I. in 1296, seized of the manors of Radwyck and Northwyck in Gloucestershire ; East Hampstow in Sussex; Harptree, Caldecote, Hydon, and Barew-Gurney in Somersetshire.

The only child and heiress of John de Gournay and Olivia his wife was Elizabeth, who was sixteen years of age at her father's death, and was then married to John Ap-Adam, who doing his fealty, had livery of her father's lands, and, on the death of her mother in 1296, of those also held by her in jointure.

This John Ap-Adam had summons to Parliament as a Baron from 25 Edw. I. to the 3 of Edw. II. He and Elizabeth his wife had an only son Thomas, who was of age the 18th Edw. II. ; he alienated many of the estates he had inherited ; Barew-Gournay and Beverstone Castle, were sold by him to Thomas de Berkeley, a great warrior in the reign of Edward III. Thomas Ap-Adam married Johanna Basset, and that he died without issue is shewn by the rest of the fiefs of his mother Elizabeth reverting to the other branches of the family of Gournay. "^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ 'Parishes: East Wellow with Dunwood and Embley', in A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4, ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 535-540. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp535-540 [accessed 9 May 2016].
2. ↑ The record of the house of Gournay. [With], Volumes 2-4 by Daniel Gurney https://books.google.be/books?id=dlUBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA636 and https://archive.org/stream/recordofhouseofg04gurn#page/n111/mode/2up

• Welsh Genealogies, AD 300-1400 (1980), Bartrum, Peter C. (Peter Clement), (25 volumes, with supplements containing additions and corrections. [Wales]: University of Wales Press, 1980