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43 PART III EARLY HISTORY OF HADDON HALL BY S. RAYNER
“Richard de Vernon, Vernun, or Vernoun, was returned from the Cos. of Notts. and
Derby, as holding lands or rents, to the amount of £20 yearly value, or upwards, either in
capite, or otherwise; and as such, was summoned on a general writ to perform military
service in person, with horses, and arms, &c. in Scotland. Muster at Nottingham, on
Sunday next after the octave of St, John the Baptist (7th July) 25th Edward I.” Richard
de Vernon, (doubtless the same person) was also summoned in like manner, for the Co.
of Stafford, to serve against the Scots, in 29th Edward I.
Three or four knights of this family bore the name of Richard de Vernon, in the 14th
century; and it is not always easy to discriminate one from another. However “Richard,
son of Richard de Vernon and Matilda his wife,” mentioned in a record dated 16th Edward
II [1322] as holding half the manor of Nether Haddon, half that of Basslawe at 60s rent,
and the moiety of a water-mill, was doubtless the personage of that name, who died in
1322, before his father. His mother, Matilda Camville or Campvill, long survived her
husband as well as her son. On the Patent Roll, 11th Edward III [1337] is noticed a grant
or confirmation for the manor of Lanstephen, in Carmarthenshire, to Matilda, formerly the
wife of Richard de Vernon, and Eleanor her sister, the daughters and heiresses of William
de Campvill. The estates of her late husband were then held by Richard de Vernon, the
grandson, or great grandson, who, in 1330, had obtained from Edward III a grant of freewarren
for his manors in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. This knight married Juliana, the
relict [widow] of Richard de Pembridge, who becoming a second time a widow betook
herself to a convent. The fact of such a retirement in the case of this lady is proved by a
memorandum on the back of the Patent Roll of 51st Edward III [1377], relating to a
judicial inquiry concerning injurious treatment she had experienced from certain persons of
Staffordshire, perhaps in consequence of disputes concerning property in that county. The
published notice of this affair is too brief to satisfy curiosity: merely referring to “an
inquest against William Bagott and Thomas Maundeville, with others in the Co. of
Stafford, because they had ill-treated (“eo quod male tractaverunt”) Juliana, who had been
the wife of Richard Vernon, Knt.; and who had taken the vow of chastity, and assumed the
mantle and the ring, before the Bishop of Lichfield.
It may be presumed that Sir Richard de Vernon, of Haddon and Harlaston, who
married Joanna, the daughter of Rice ap Griffith, was the knight of that name who
engaged in the insurrection against Henry IV [reigned 1399-1413], under Henry Percy
and Owen Glendower, and who being made prisoner in the battle of Shrewsbury, in 1403,
was, a few days afterwards, executed. The royalists, commanded by the King, in person,
and his son Henry Prince of Wales, defeated the rebels, or insurgents, in a battle which
took place near Shrewsbury, on Saturday, July 21, being the eve of St. Mary Magdalen,
1403. Percy was slain, many others fell, on both sides, and “The Earls of Worcester and
Douglas, Sir Richard Vernon, and the Baron of Kinderton, were taken Prisoners.” All the
latter, except Douglas, were beheaded, on the Monday after the battle was fought.