Sir Lewis John, Sr., Kt.., of West Horndon, M.P.

• Not the son of Sir Richard Fitz Lewis & Elizabeth le Ba
• Perhaps related to Stephen John

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Lewis John was born say 1380 or before and died 27 October 1442. His parents are not known.

Married

1. Alice Vere, daughter of Sir Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl Oxford, Constable of Wallingford & Hadleigh Castles and Alice FitzWalter, before 1 January 1414; as her 2nd husband. They had 5 sons (Lewis; Edmund; Philip; Sir Henry; & John) and 1 daughter (Margaret).
2. Anne de Montagu, Duchess of Exeter, d. 28 Nov 1457, as her 2nd husband. "3 daughters" of this marriage, in 'Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families', p. 373

Rev. H.L. Elliot (1898) "Fitz Lewes, of West Horndon, and the brasses at Ingrave" Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society vol.4 New Series. Page 35. < Archive.Org >

"Sir Lewes John, in his Will, makes provision for the following children : Lewes, Henry, John, Philip, Edmond, Margaret, Elizabeth, Alice, and another Margaret. In this document all the sons are called by the surname of Fitz Lewes, and were probably the first of the family to bear it.”

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Biography

From “JOHN, Lewis (d.1442), of London and West Horndon, Essex.” Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 < link >

Family and Education

?s. of John.1 m. (1) between Sept. 1413 and Jan. 1414, Alice (d.c.1431), da. of Aubrey de Vere, 10th earl of Oxford, by Alice, da. of John, Lord Fitzwalter, wid. of Sir Francis Court of Tytherley, Hants, 2s. inc. Lewis Fitzlewis†; (2) c.1433, Anne (d. 28 Nov. 1457), da. of John Montagu, 8th earl of Salisbury, by Maud, da. of Adam Francis† of London, wid. of Sir Richard Hankford of Hankford, Devon, 3s. 4da. Kntd. Kennington 24 May 1439.2. …

… John died, perhaps while still overseas, on 27 Oct. 1442. In his will made two years earlier, on 2 June 1440, he had requested burial in a tomb already prepared for him in the abbey of St. Mary Graces in London, and among other instructions was one to the effect that the ‘inning’ of the marsh at Woolwich was to be completed and the land so reclaimed made over to the abbey. To Waltham abbey he left £100 for the purchase of property he held on lease and for masses for himself and his two wives. For 20 winters a priest was to pray for him, his parents, his wives and one Master Pierre de Alcabasse. The bulk of his property was left to his widow, with remainder to his children by both marriages (‘my children and her children and myne’). The possession of so much property in Essex made inevitable the establishment of a county family, which adopted the name Fitzlewis. John’s eldest son by his first marriage, Lewis Fitzlewis, obtained the stewardship of Havering in his place and in 1444 undertook to fulfil the obligations contained in his father’s will, should the resources specified prove insufficient. Another son, Henry Fitzlewis, married the youngest daughter of Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, thus continuing his father’s long association with the Beauforts. John’s widow married John Holand, duke of Exeter. By the time of her death in 1457 the only children of her marriage to the Welshman left alive were Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Wingfield†, and Margaret, wife of Sir William Lucy†.12

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/John-748

Lewis John, also known as Lodowick John, or John fitz Lewis, was a successful Welshman in city of London with Lancastrian connections. He became an MP, and eventually a soldier and knight. His family became part of the landed gentry of southeast England during the period of the War of the Roses. Their main manor was West Horndon (sometimes "Thorndon") in Essex.

John/Lodowick married at least twice. Remarkably, both his father-in-laws were earls. As explained by Elliot, "Sir Lewes John, in his Will, makes provision for the following children : Lewes, Henry, John, Philip, Edmond, Margaret, Elizabeth, Alice, and another Margaret."[1] According to Elliot these were as follows:

Alice de Vere, daughter of Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford. She had:

1. Lewes fitz Lewis, or Lewis John, had roughly the same wide variation of names as his father.
2. Henry fitz Lewes
3. Philip fitz Lewes

Anne, widow of Sir Richard Hankford, and daughter of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. She had:

1. Elizabeth, the wife of Sir John Wingfield.
2. Margaret, who married William Lucy, and a member of the Wake family.

Lewis John was made a Freeman of London before 1401.[2] He was knighted in May 1439.

Lewis John died 27th October 1442, perhaps while overseas, leaving property in Essex, Hertford, Somerset and Dorset.[1][3]

Notes

• OCCUPATION: Vintner of London.
• OFFICE: Knight of the Shire for Essex.
• OFFICE: Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire.
• OFFICE: Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall within Devon; of Havering-atte-Bower, Essex. "Sometime in the mid-​​eleventh century Edward the Confessor had a hunting lodge built here, which subsequently became a small palace or bower (and that part of the story is true). On one occasion, while on a visit to this little retreat, Edward was approached by a beggar asking for alms, to which he replied, “I have no money, but I have a ring,”, which he handed over, and that is how Havering got its name. The same beggar later met some pilgrims and passed the ring to them, saying, “Give this to your king, and tell him that within six months he shall die.” And this apparently came to pass. The tale is so far-​​fetched that it scarcely bears repeating, yet the ring in question retains a central position on the borough’s coat of arms to this day (see below left). In fact, the name ‘Havering’ probably derives from a landowner called Hæfer."
• OFFICE: Warden of the Stannaries in Devon
• John Lewis Esquire, as he was known at the time, fought at Agincourt.[5]

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Research notes

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/John-748

Parentage

The old 1936 HOP 1439-1509 edition describes him as son and heir of Richard Fitz-Lewis, by Elizabeth le Ba (p.503). The 1993 article online describes him as a son of John, apparently based on interpreting his name as a patronymic.[3]

A 28 Sep 2003 posting by Chris Pitt Lewis on SGM explains that Lewis John's parentage is unknown, but there are interesting conflicting clues. [4] -

From Chris Pitt Lewis (Sep 28, 2003) post at “MORDAUNT and FITZLEWIS - CP error?”< soc.genealogy.medieval >

We can ignore the statement in the History of Parliament, apparently deriving from Morant's History of Essex, that he was son of a Richard FitzLewis and Elizabeth le Ba. This is part of a fictitious pedigree of the Mordaunt family, deriving him from an illegitimate son of the Dauphin Louis who invaded England in 1216.

In 1414 he had to petition Parliament for exemption from the penal laws which prevented Welshmen acquiring land in England. His petition says that he was a freeman of London and that both his parents had been Welsh (Rot Parl iv 44, quoted by Carr, BBCS). In the 1420s he received a number of testimonials from various officials in South west Wales, such as the Mayors of Carmarthen Pembroke and Cardigan, to counter allegations that he was not of free birth. The Mayor of Carmarthen said that he was "a gentleman of our country"; the Abbot of Whitland said that he was descended from the ancient lords of Wales (also quoted by Carr). These statements may of course be exaggerations, but it is possible that a careful search of Bartram's pedigrees might turn up something.

The other evidence is a pair of entries on the Patent Rolls (CPR 1401-5 p.69 and 1405-8 p.131) referring to Lewis John "administrator of the goods of Stephen John, citizen and vintner of London, who died intestate". Following this clue, I found the Will of Stephen John, citizen and vintner of London, dated 13 Oct 1393, proved in the Archdeaconry of London in 1394 (Register 1 fo.8 - Guildhall MS 9051/1). It names his son Lewis ("Lodewyco filio meo") and wife Julian. He appoints as executors John Marchal Esquire ("armiger") and Hugh Shore vintner. He was to be buried in St Mary Woolnoth.

It is not at all clear whether this Stephen is the same as the one mentioned in the patent roll entry, and if it is, whether his son Lewis is the Lewis John we are concerned with. It is not impossible to reconcile this with the statements about Lewis' Welsh parentage (Stephen could have come from Wales to London with an infant son). Nor is it unlikely that a Welsh family would wobble between an hereditary surname ("John") and a patronym ("(Fitz)Lewis") for a generation or two at this period. Lewis John's eldest son did precisely this. But it is worrying that we have a reference to Lewis John "goldsmith" in 1412 (CCR Henry IV vol 4 p 340) as well as the references to vintners, and more research is needed to be sure that we are not dealing with several different individuals of the same name in the years before 1413.

Note the normal abbreviations:

CPR = Calendar of the Patent rolls
CCR = Calendar of the Close Rolls
CFR = Calendar of the Fine Rolls

References

1. “JOHN, Lewis (d.1442), of London and West Horndon, Essex.” Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 < link >
2. https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1587.htm...
3. http://www.thepeerage.com/p3189.htm#i31886 Citing Burke’s 2003 (wrong wife)
4. http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I8601&tree=N... (dead link)
5. http://mauriceboddy.org.uk/FitzLew.htm (dead link)
6. WikiTree contributors, "Lewis John MP (abt.1380-1442)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/John-748 : accessed 31 January 2024). Cites
   1. Rev. H.L. Elliot (1898) "Fitz Lewes, of West Horndon, and the brasses at Ingrave" Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society vol.4 New Series. https://archive.org/details/transactionsess04socigoog/page/n63
   2. Rotulae Parliamentariae 1414, pp. 44/5
   3. HoP 1993 article.
   4. 28 Sep 2003 posting by Chris Pitt Lewis on SGM "MORDAUNT and FITZLEWIS - CP error?", https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/vgmn9SnRlow/m/...
   5. https://www.medievalsoldier.org/about/agincourt-600/the-english-arm...
   6. 1 Oct 2003 posting of Brad Verity on SGM "MORDAUNT and FITZLEWIS - CP error?", https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/vgmn9SnRlow/m/... See also:
7. Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III. page 198.
8. Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. IV, page 121.
9. Chris Pitt Lewis (Sep 28, 2003) post at “MORDAUNT and FITZLEWIS - CP error?”< soc.genealogy.medieval >
   1. article by H L Elliot in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society
   2. 1. In History of Parliament, Commons 1439-1509 (London 1936) p 503. This article has his parentage wrong, and has no information about his early career. [the online article was an update in 1993 and describes him “of dubious origins”]
   3. 2. J L Fisher - The Petre Documents, in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society NS 23 (1942-45) pp 66-97
   4. 3. A D Carr - Sir Lewis John, A Medieval London Welshman, in Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies Vol 22 (1967) pp 260-270.
10. Morant, Philip. (1768) The history and antiquities of the County of Essex. Compiled from the best and most ancient historians; from Domesday-book, Inquisitiones post mortem, and other the most valuable records and mss. &c., the whole digested, improved, perfected, and brought down to the present time. Page 213. < Archive.Org > (has errors, use with caution)
11. https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/zwrk/temp69.php#fl1 Wright wrote that this family "we are informed, were derived from Lewis, dauphin of France, afterwards king Lewis the eighth, who was invited here by the barons in the time of king John. During his stay, he had an intrigue with an English lady, co-heiress of a great estate, by whom he had a son, Lewis Fitz-Lewis. This lady was afterwards married to a nobleman, from whom some of our greatest families are descended." This kind of 'derivation' makes us nervous so we have placed this family in this temporary page pending finding a source which gives us more confidence in this pedigree.
12. https://soc.genealogy.medieval.narkive.com/Gfz4kJzV/mordaunt-and-fi... “ I don't know. I only know that the FitzLewis/ FitzJohn/ John/ Whatever family is one of the most confusing I've ever come across, and I'd love to see it straightened out.”
13. King's College London, 2014. | Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available at http://www.inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/26-120/122 [Accessed: 31/1/2024] E-CIPM 26-122: LEWIS JOHN, KNIGHT › He died on 27 October 1442. Lewis is his son and next heir, aged 23 n044 and more.