General Notes

BARONY OF HERON (I)

WILLIAM HERON or HEYRUN, son and heir of Sir Roger HERON (c), of Ford in Northumberland, by Elizabeth or Isabel (e), one of the three daughters and coheirs of Adam DE SWINBURNE, was born about November 1304. From 1336 he is frequently mentioned as engaged in some public service, especially in preserving the peace and public safety in the troublous Border district where he lived. In November 1337 he and his wife Isabel made a settlement of the manor of Ford and the advowson of the church, the remainders being to his sons Roger, William, John and Thomas. On 16 July 1338 he had licence to crenellate his manor house of Ford, and in April 1340, for good services rendered as King's yeoman in Scotland and elsewhere, he had licence to hold his fortified house by the name of castle, and to have free warren in his demesne lands. In 1341 payment was ordered to him of £48 as wages for himself and his men-at-arms and hobelers who were employed on the King's service in the March of Scotland, and in 1344 he had a grant of the custody of Trollop. He fought in the battle of Nevill's Cross, near Durham, in 1346, and received a grant of forfeited lands, including a confirmation of the manor of Thornton in Norham, which he had purchased, and was made a knight in or before 1348. In 1346 John Darcy the son, lord of Knayth, claimed the manor of Ford against William Heron and Isabel his wife, alleging a settlement made by Sir William Heron (grandfather of William), but on 2 March 1347/8 he formally renounced all right in the lands.

William Heron was appointed Keeper of Berwick-on-Tweed in 1350, and next year, as chivaler, with Isabel his wife, Roger his brother, and Roger, John, Walter. Thomas, Robert and Andrew, his sons, was called upon to acknowledge the various services by which the lands in Ford and in other places were held by them of John de Coupland, chivaler, of Wooler. In 1353 he was serving in Scotland with ten men-at-arms and twenty archers. He acquired the Tailbois manor of Croydon, in co. Cambridge, about 1354, a tenement at North Gosford in 1361/2, and the manor of Whittingham, near Alnwick, jointly with Sir John Heron in 1371. He appears to have been charged with complicity in the murder of John de Coupland on Bolton Moor, near Alnwick, in December 1363 being next year a prisoner at Winchester, but was able to rebut the charge, for in September 1366 he and his son, Sir Roger, gave a release of all actions to Joan, the widow of John de Coupland, and others who, had sued the evildoers who had killed her husband. He was summoned to Parliament, 8 January 1370/1, by writ directed Willelmo Heron, whereby he is held to have become LORD HERON. He was not summoned again, nor were any of his descendants. At Easter 1373 he and his sons Roger and Thomas were called upon to show by what services they held Ford and other lands of Joan, widow of John de Coupland. He married Isabel. He died 21 December 1379.  [Complete Peerage VI:484-6, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(c) Roger is said to have been a younger son, but heir male, of William Heron, who d. Dec 1296.  The eldest son, Walter, had left a daughter and heir, Emmeline, who m. John Darcy.  Roger is not usually described as a knight, but is so designated in a charter dated 1310, an inquisition of 1314, and a return made in 1323.  He was living in Oct 1332, but d. before 15 Mar 1332/3, when his son William asked permission to pay by instalments a debt which his father Roger had incurred as Constable of Bamborough Castle.  Roger left a widow named Margery, who was living 1346.

(e) She was dead in 1326, when her son William was found to be one of the coheirs of Adam de Swinburne.