John (Clavering) FitzRobert (bef. 1193 - bef. 1241)

Born before 1193 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Ada (Balliol) de Balliol — married about 1220 in England

Descendants

Died before 20 Feb 1241 at about age 48 in England

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Magna Carta Surety Baron John FitzRobert was one of the twenty-five medieval barons who were surety for Magna Carta in 1215. Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Biography

Birth and Parents

John was the son and heir of Robert FitzRoger and Margaret de Chesney.^[1][2] He was said to be of age at his father's death (in 1212 or 1214 - secondary sources disagree on the year - see Research Notes (below), pointing to a birth date before 1193. His father held lands in several counties and his birthplace is not known.

Marriage and Children

John married Ada de Balliol, daughter of Hugh de Balliol and Cecily de Fontaines.^[1][2] Their marriage date and place are not known, but their oldest son Roger was a minor at John's death in 1241, and this may point to their marrying in about 1220. They had the following children:

• Roger, his heir^[1][2]
• Robert, who married Isabel de Merlay^[1][2]
• Hugh^[1][2]
• Stephen, who became Rector of Mitord, Northumberland^[1][2]
• Ingram^[1][2]
• Cecily, who married Patrick of Dunbar^[1][2]
• Alice^[1][2]
• Annor^[1][2]
• Margery^[1][2]

Life

John served as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1213 to 1215.^[3]

In 1215 John joined the barons who compelled King John to sign the Magna Carta, of which he was one of the Sureties.^[1][2]

In 1221, during the rebellion of William de Forz, John fought on the side of Henry III's forces in the siege of Bytham Castle, Lincolnshire.^[1][2]

In 1224 John was given permission to hold an annual fair at Stokesley, Yorkshire.^[1][2]

In 1224-5 and 1227-8 John was Sheriff of Northumberland.^[4] In 1225-6 he was appointed an itinerant Justice in Yorkshire.^[1][2]

Lands

From his father, John inherited lands at Warkworth and elsewhere in Northumberland, at Clavering in Essex and in other counties.^[1][2] Part of his inheritance was the Barony of Whalton, Northumberland.^[5] His marriage brought him the lordship of Stokesley, Yorkshire.^[6]

Death

John died before 20 February 1241: entries for that date in the Fine Rolls of Henry III contains orders to the sheriffs of Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxfordshire and Suffolk to take John's lands into royal possession following his death.^[7] This suggests that he died either in late 1240 or early 1241, more probably the latter as such orders were normally issued quickly after someone's death.

John's wife survived him. In 1241-2 she agreed to pay 2000 marks to have the custody and marriages of their sons Roger and Hugh.^[8] She died on 29 July 1251.^[1][2][9]

Coat of Arms

John Fitz Robert: Quarterly or and gules; a bend sable. ^[10][11]

Quarterly or and gules a bend sable.

The arms of John Fitz Robert are found among the earliest examples of heraldry ever recorded, the Matthew Paris shields (MP39).

These arms can also be found for his sons and grandsons in the Falkirk Roll 1298 (H5, H17), the Caerlaverock Poem 1300 (K12, K13), the Parliamentary Roll 1312 (N27), the Camden Roll (D89 ), St. George’s Roll 1285 (E49 ), Charles’ Roll 1285 (F94).

The descendants of his son Hugh de Eure bore the same arms with three escallops argent on the bend.^[12]

From The History of Warkworth Castle:^[13][14][15]

"Quarterly or and gules; a bend sable.^[16]

"John, constable of Chester, and his descendants differenced this coat with a label, till, at the end of the thirteenth century, Henri de Laci, earl of Lincoln, assumed a new coat—or, a lion rampant purpure.

"Sir John de Clavering bore (during his father's lifetime) a label vert at Caerlaverock, 1300 ; Sir Alexander charged the bend with three mullets argent, as did Sir Alan with three mullets or.

"Sir Hugh de Eure and his descendants bore three escallops argent on the bend."

Seal

On a seal to a document in which John transferred a meadow to the monks of Durham, John is depicted on horseback in a cylindrical helmet with holes to allow him to breathe, and with a heavy sword.^[17]

Research Notes

Birth Date and Date of Father's Death

In Royal Ancestry, Douglas Richardson gives two different years for the death of John's father: 1214 in the entry for his father, and 1212 for the entry for John himself.^[2] Sanders' English Baronies gives the year as 1214.^[5] 1214 would point to John being born before 1193; 1212, to before 1191.

Previously-attached daughter Margaret, alleged wife of Gilbert Vale

A Margaret de Clavering, currently (30 July 2023) shown as wife of a Gilbert Vale, has previously been shown as a daughter of John FitzRobert. Margery's and Gilbert's profiles are unsourced. Margaret and Margery were alternative forms of the same name, but no reliable evidence has been found that John's daughter Margery married Gilbert Vale. See the Research Notes on Margaret's profile.

Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Biography

For the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015, Professor Nigel Saul wrote a set of biographies of the Surety Barons. He and the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee generously gave permission for them to be reproduced on WikiTree. They can be viewed here.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. I, pp. 487-488, CLAVERING 1, Google Books
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. II, pp. 219-221, CLAVERING 4
3. ↑ List of Sheriffs for England And Wales, Public Record Office Lists and Indexes, Vol. IX, 1898 (Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1963) , p. 86, Internet Archive
4. ↑ List of Sheriffs for England And Wales, p. 97, Internet Archive
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} I J Sanders. English Baronies, a Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 150
6. ↑ 'Parishes: Stokesley', in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1923), pp. 301-308, British History Online, accessed 30 July 2023
7. ↑ Henry III Fine Rolls Project, 25 HENRY III (28 October 1240–27 October 1241), accessed 30 July 2023
8. ↑ Henry Lewin Cannon (ed.). The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Twenty-sixth Year of the Reign of King Henry the Third, A. D. 1241-1242, Yale University Press and Oxford University Press, 1918, p. 45, Internet Archive
9. ↑ Yorkshire Inquisitions of the Reigns of Henry III and Edward I, Vol. 1, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series, 1892, pp. 25-26, Internet Archive
10. ↑ Gerard J Brault. Aspilogia II: Rolls of Arms of Edward I, 1272-1307. (London, 1967): pages 33, 66.
11. ↑ Gerard J Brault. Aspilogia III: Rolls of Arms of Edward I, 1272-1307, 2 vol. (London, 1997).
12. ↑ See image on Hugh's profile.
13. ↑ The History of Warkworth Castle (accessed 14 September 2019).
14. ↑ The image shown in his Wikipedia article is not the same as the image shown by Richardson (see the beginning of for the Clavering chapter in Richardson's Magna Carta Ancestry, I:487). Both links accessed 14 September 2019.
15. ↑ See also this image of FitzRobert arms (accessed 14 September 2019).
16. ↑ The black and white image in Richardson's Magna Carta Ancestry (I:487 Clavering), and the image uploaded (Clavering-13-1) and the image attached (The_Parliamentary_Roll-31) on 14 September 2019 match the description "Quarterly or and gules; a bend sable" ("or and gules" are gold and red).
17. ↑ A History of Northumberland. issued under the Direction of the Northumberland County History Committee, Andrew Reid and Company (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company (London), 1899, pp. 26-27, Internet Archive

• Cawley, Charles. JOHN FitzRobert of Warkworth, entry in “Medieval Lands” database (accessed 30 July 2023)
• Clay, J W. The Extinct and Dormant Peerages of the Northern Counties of England, James Nisbet and Co, 1913, p. 21, Internet Archive
• Wikipedia: John FitzRobert

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

John Fitz Robert of Clavering is a Magna Carta surety baron and has the Magna Carta Project as a manager.

See Clavering-13 Descendants for profiles of his descendants that have been improved and categorized by the Magna Carta project and are in a project-approved trail to a Gateway Ancestor. See this index for links to other surety barons and category pages for their descendants. See the project's Base Camp for more information about Magna Carta trails.