BOURCHIER

Of the early history of this illustrious house from the era of its Norman patriarch to the time of the second Edward, we know nothing; but in the reign of that monarch, Sir JOHN DE BOURCHIER became one of the judges of the Court of King's Bench, and acquired in marriage the lordship of Stansted in Essex. His son, ROBERT DE BOURCHIER, constituted (14 Edward III.) Lord Chancellor of England, united the civic and military characters, and was gallantly distinguished in arms, particularly at the battle of Cressy. This eminent person left two sons, John, second Lord Bourchier, whose line soon became extinct, and William, whose son William Earl of Ewe, in Normandy, married Anne Plantagenet, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III,, and had issue 1. Henry Earl of Ewe and Essex; 2. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury; 3. William Lord Fitzwarine; 4. John Lord Berners; and 5. Anne, consort of John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The eldest of the sons, Henry Earl of Ewe and Essex, Lord Treasurer of England, was grandfather of Henry, the second and last Earl of Essex, a gallant courtier of his day, and captain of Henry the Eighth's body guard, who attended his royal master into France as Lieut.-General of all the Spears: and at the famous tournament which Henry held in the eighth year of his reign, the Earl of Essex, with the King himself, the Duke of Suffolk, and Nicholas Carew, answered all comers. A few years after, his lordship again attended his sovereign to France, and swelled the pageantry upon the field of the Cloth of Gold. The Earl died in consequence of a fall from his horse in 1539, and his barony of Bourchier was eventually inherited by the descendants of his sister Cicely, wife of John Devereux, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, and they became also by creation Earls of Essex.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey roll)