Matilda de Segrave - Her paternity according to FMG Medlands Project

This Nicholas?

Nicholas de Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave

Thanks Erica Howton I'm working on the subject as we speak, and will have another post up here shortly. But I'm thinking it is the younger Nicholas ("Baron of Stowe"), who may or may not actually be this man's son.

The first Baron Nicholas (duplicate?, idk) that I linked above was hastily deleted, anonymously and without notice or explanation. So I now only have these two to work with.

Nicholas de Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave

Nicholas de Segrave, 1st Baron Segrave of Barton and Stowe

It's a bit problematic, because apparently there is nothing solid to link the younger Nicholas, Baron of Stowe, with the elder Nicholas Segrave (son of Gilbert) and his wife. Further confusing is the fact that the younger Nicholas (Baron of Stowe) has been given a wife by the same name as the elder Nicholas's: Matilda. This younger wife is undocumented. Yet, according to MedLands the Nicholas of Stowe had a *daughter by that name, who married Edmund de Bohun.

Of the elder Nicholas, Cawley states:

NICHOLAS de Segrave, son of GILBERT de Segrave & his wife Amabil de Chaucombe ([1238] - before 12 Nov 1295, buried Chaucombe Priory).

An undated writ after the death of "Gilbert de Segrave" names "Nicholas his son, age variously stated as 16 and 17 as his heir".

He was summoned to Parliament 24 Jun 1295, whereby he is held to have become Lord Segrave.

[I'm not sure, does that mean he was created Baron? Also it looks like he died within a few short months of attending parliament.]

married MATILDA, daughter of ---------

Lord Nicholas & his wife had two children:

1. JOHN de Segrave ([1256] - before 4 Oct 1325, buried Chaucombe Priory).

He succeeded his father as "Lord Segrave".

married CHRISTIAN[A] du Plessis, daughter of HUGH du Plessis Lord Plessis & his wife ------ ( - after 8 May 1331). Lord John & his wife had two children:

1a. STEPHEN de Segrave ( - before 12 Dec 1325, buried Chaucombe Priory).

He succeeded his father in [1325] as Lord Segrave. married ALICE FitzAlan of Arundel

1b. CHRISTIAN[A] de Segrave. married (contract May 1305) JOHN de Mohun, son of JOHN de Mohun Lord Mohun & his first wife Ada ------ ( - before 1330).

2. ELEANOR de Segrave The Book of Lacock records that “Alanus de la Souch” married “Alianoram filiam Nicholai de Segrave” by whom he had “Elam, Matildam, Elizabetham, Rogerum de la Souche”. married ALAN [III] la Zouche, son of ROGER [II] la Zouche & his wife Ela de Longespee (9 Oct 1266 - [1313/14]).
________________________________________________

Then separately, Cawley listed the Baron of Stowe, with his only known family being Matilda Bohun:

1. NICHOLAS de Segrave. Baron of Stowe, Staffordshire. married ------. The name of Nicholas's wife is not known. Nicholas & his wife had one child:

a) MATILDA de Segrave. married EDMUND de Bohun, son of JOHN de Bohun of Haresfield & his wife ------.
________________________________________________

In addition to the above information provided by Cawley's site, from British History Online there is a profoundly interesting record of the trial of Nicholas de Segrave during the reign of Edward I, when said Nicholas was arrested, imprisoned, and released on bond until 7 May in the first year of Edward II (ca.1307-8):

ca.1305: "I went in person to Stowe, to the manor of Nicholas of Seagrave, and at the aforesaid manor, in the presence of the aforesaid four knights, I summoned him and firmly instructed him to appear before you at your next parliament, as the writ requires."

"And although the same Nicholas of Seagrave under the aforesaid judgment ought to have suffered the death sentence, the lord king nonetheless, of his special grace, moved by pity, preferring the life of those who submit themselves to his will to their death, remits to the same Nicholas the judgment of life and limb...

"Whereupon Alexander Cheveroyl, Henry of Seagrave, Theobald de Neville, Robert of Leybourn, John de Lisle of the Isle of Ely, William Touchet and John Paynel stood surety for the aforesaid Nicholas on the aforesaid terms. Therefore the same Nicholas is to be released from prison on the aforesaid mainprise..."

"Whereas our beloved and faithful Nicholas of Seagrave was arrested and imprisoned for certain trespasses which he committed in the time of our beloved father and when our said father gave him grace of release, he bound himself by his letters, and by recognisances made in our said exchequer, and in various other places . . . in full parliament, of which you have the rolls . . . to return to prison whenever our said father wished to demand it, and also to answer to our same said father for all the issues of his lands from the day of the release thenceforward, whenever our said father wished to demand them, and we, of our special grace, for the good service which the said lord Nicholas has given us and will yet give us, have released him from this bond, and have had his said letters returned, and have promised him that we will have the said recognizance withdrawn and annulled..."

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-mediev...

https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISHNOBILITYMEDIEVAL3P-S.htm#_T...

It appears that Cawley is mistaken about Stowe being in "Staffordshire". According to my other source, the manor of Stowe was in Northamptonshire.

Here's Wikipedia on our Baron of Stowe:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Seagrave

Extracted from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

"Seagrave [Segrave], Nicholas (d. 1321), administrator and soldier, lord of Stowe, Northamptonshire, was the second son of Nicholas of Seagrave, first Lord Seagrave (1238?–1295), and his wife, Matilda de Lucy. He was born later than 1256, the probable year of birth of his elder brother..."

https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0...

Baronia Anglica Concentrata is a bit more informative. It reveals more children (five sons) belonging to Nicholas Segrave, Sr. and Matilda de Lucy: John, Nicholas, Geoffrey, Peter, and Gilbert.

John succeeded his father as Baron of Segrave. Nicholas was their second son. The others may have died young (probable, since they're not mentioned anywhere else).

"THIS Nicholas was the second son of the before named Nicholas, and was of Barton Segrave, in the county of Northampton, which he had by the gift of Nicholas his father, in whose lifetime he was also summoned to parliament the 23 Edw. I., by the distinction of Nicholas de Segrave, Junior, as his father was by that of Nicholas de Segrave, Senior. He was afterwards summoned from the said year to the 14 Edw. II., and to the coronation of that king, as was his brother John. In the 29 Edw. I. he was one of the barons who in the parliament at Lincoln subscribed the letter to the pope, being then written "Nicholaus de Segrave Dominus de Stowe." He died circ. 15 Edw. II., without male issue, leaving Maud his daughter and heir married to Edmund de Bohun, in whose representatives (if any) the barony may be considered now vested."

https://archive.org/details/baroniaanglicaco01bankuoft/page/398/mod...

So I think that I have provided enough evidence to establish the fact that Matilda Bohun was his daughter.

I am also now persuaded that he was in fact the son of Nicholas, Sr. and Matilda de Lucy. (It's just kind of weird that Cawley has him erroneously located in Staffordshire.)

Of John de Segrave (Nicholas, Sr.'s successor), according to Baronia Anglica Concentrata:

"John de Segrave was the next baron; and had summons to parliament from the 24 Edw. I. to the I8 Edw. II., and was summoned to the coronation of that king. He died circ. 18 Edw. II., having had issue by Christian de Plessets, his wife, a son Stephen, and four daughters: 1. Eleanora Kiriel, 2. Margareta, 3. Alicia, and 4. Christiana de Moune.

"The said Stephen died before his father, having married Alicia de Arundel, and had issue a son Edmund who died young, and John de Segrave successor to his grandfather Nicholas."

Of Nicholas Segrove, Sr.'s g-grandson, John Segrave, Jr.:

"He had summons from the 10 to the 25 Edw. III., and died circ. the 27 of the same reign, leaving by Margaret his wife, daughter and coheir of Thomas de Brotherton, earl of Norfolk, (eldest son of king Edward I., by his second wife, Margaret,)

"...an only daughter and heir Elizabeth, who married John, baron de Mowbray, and had issue John, earl of Nottingham; and Thomas, his brother, afterwards created duke of Norfolk; in whose coheirs general (as noticed under the article of Mowbray) the barony remains in abeyance, viz : the earl of Berkeley, and the lords Stourton and Petre."

So our Nicholas Seagrove, Baron of Stowe's eldest brother, John Segrove, Sr. married Christiana du Plessis, whose son Stephen died before his father leaving the lordship to Nicholas, Sr.'s g-grandson, John, Jr. (whose wife was Margaret Brotherton).

Then John Segrove, Jr. and Margaret Brotherton's only child Elizabeth married Baron John Mowbray and their sons eventually became known as the "Earl of Nottingham" and the "Duke of Norfolk".