General Notes

Stephen de Segrave, who, in the 5th King John [1204], was constable of the Tower of London, and, remaining faithful to that monarch in his conflicts with the barons, obtained a grant (17th John) [1216] of the lands of Stephen de Gant, lying in the cos. Lincoln and Leicester, with the manor of Kintone, co. Warwick. In the 4th Henry III [1220], he was made governor of Saubey Castle, Leicestershire, and the next year constituted sheriff of the cos. Essex and Hertford, and afterwards of Leicestershire. In the 8th of the same reign, he was governor of the castle at Hertford, and in two years after, one of the justices itinerant in the cos. Nottingham and Derby. About this period we find this successful person, whom Matthew Paris says, in his young days "from a clerk was made a knight," acquiring large landed property by purchase. In the 13th Henry III [1229], he bought the manor of Cotes, in the co. Derby, from the daus. and heirs of Stephen de Beauchamp, and he afterwards purchase from Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln, all the lands which that nobleman possessed at Mount Sorrell, co. Leicester, without the castle, as also two carucates and a half lying at Segrave which himself and his ancestors had previously held at the rent of 14s. per annum. In the 16th Henry III, he obtained a grant of the custody of the castle and county of Northampton, as also of the cos. Bedford, Buckingham, Warwick, and Leicester, for the term of his life, taking the whole profit of all those shires for his support in that service, excepting the ancient farms which had usually been paid into the exchequer.

Having been of the king's council for several years, as also chief justice of the Common Pleas, he succeeded, in the 16th Henry III, Hubert de Burgh in the great office of justiciary of England, being at the same time constituted governor of Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, &c., and constable of the Tower of London. After this we find him, however, opposed by the bishops and barons and his manor house at Segrave burnt to the ground by the populace, as well as another mansion in the co. Huntingdon. The king, too, in this perilous crisis, deserted him and cited him, along with Peter de Rupibus, bishop of Winchester, and others who had been in power, to appear forthwith at court in order to answer any charge regarding the wasting of the public treasure, which might be preferred against them. Some of those persons, conscious of guilt, fled to sanctuary, and Stephen de Segrave sought an asylum in the abbey of Leicester, where he openly declared that he was and had been a priest, and that he resolved to shave his crown again to be a canon of that house. Nevertheless, upon second thoughts, he braved the storm and appeared at court under the archbishop's protection, where the king called him a wicked traitor, and told him that it was under his advice that he had displaced Hubert de Burgh from the office of justiciary and cast that eminent person into prison, nay, that had he gone the full length of his council, Hubert would have been hanged, and divers of the nobility banished. In twelve months subsequently, however, Stephen de Segrave made his peace by paying 1000 marks to the king, and he afterwards grew again into such favour that, in the 21st Henry III [1237], he was the means of reconciling the king with some of his most hostile barons. Subsequently he was made justice of Chester and the king's chief councillor, and "being now," says Dugdale, "advanced in years, deported himself by experience of former times with much more temper and moderation than heretofore."

This eminent person m. twice - 1st, Rohese, dau. of Thomas le Despencer, and 2ndly, Ida, sister of Henry de Hastings, with whom he had in frank-marriage, the manor of Bruneswaver, co. Warwick. Of Stephen de Segrave, so distinguished in the reign of Henry III, Matthew Paris, thus speaks -- "This Stephen, though come of no high parentage, was in his youth, of a clerk made a knight; and in his latter days, through his prudence and valour, so exalted that he had the reputation of one of the chief men of the realm, managing the greatest affairs as he pleased. In doing whereof, he more minded his own profit than the common good, yet for some good deeds and making a discreet testament, he d. with much honour." He departed this life in 1241, and was s. by his son, Gilbert de Segrave. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 484, Segrave, Barons Segrave of Barton Segrave]