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Margaret Grey (born c. 1397 - died after April 1426 and before October 1427) was a Cambro-Norman noblewoman, the daughter of Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, a powerful Welsh Marcher Lord, who was the implacable enemy of Owain Glyndŵr.

Margaret was the first wife of William Bonville, K.G., first Lord Bonville who was decapitated by Queen consort Margaret of Anjou following the Yorkist defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans. Margaret was the great-grandmother of Cecily Bonville who succeeded to the estates and baronies of Bonville and Harington, thus becoming the wealthiest heiress in England.

Family

Margaret Grey was born in Ruthin Castle, Denbighshire, Wales circa 1397, daughter of Reginald Grey, Knt., 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn (c. 1362 - 1440) and Margaret de Ros (c. 1363 - c. 1413/4). She had two full-blooded brothers and two full-blooded sisters. Her elder brother was Sir John Grey, K.G., who married Constance Holland, the granddaughter of John of Gaunt. Her paternal grandparents were Reginald Grey, 2nd Baron Grey de Ruthyn and Alianore Le Strange of Blackmere, and her maternal grandparents were Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros and Beatrice de Stafford.

Her father was a powerful Marcher Lord of the Welsh Marches. It was his dispute with Owain Glyndŵr over a piece of moorland called the common of Croisau that caused the latter's rebellion against King Henry IV of England. Margaret's father was taken prisoner by Glyndŵr in January 1402, and ransomed for the sum of 10,000 marks which was paid by King Henry. In September 1400, the town of Ruthin had been razed to the ground by the Welsh in revenge for the destruction of Glyndŵr's manor of Sycharth by Grey and his men, however, the castle was left standing, and its inhabitants unharmed.

On 7 February 1415, her father married secondly, Joan de Astley, by whom he had another six children.

Marriage and issue

On 12 December 1414, Margaret Grey married William Bonville, K.G., first Lord Bonville (1392–1461), eldest son of Sir John Bonville and Elizabeth FitzRoger. She was his first wife. They made their home at the Manor of Chewton Mendip, in Somerset, and together they had one son and three daughters:

• Philippa Bonville (living 1464). She married twice, firstly after 12 May 1427, to William Grenville, (died c. 1448), of Bideford, Devon and Kilkhampton, Cornwall. They had three sons and two daughters. Her second marriage, by 1451, was to John Almescombe.
  • Sir Thomas Grenville I (born by 21 January 1432 - died c. 1483).
  • John Grenville, Gent.
  • William Grenville
  • Margaret Grenville (wife of John Thorne)
  • Ellen Grenville (born c. 1438). She married William Yeo of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon in 1453/5. Several medieval stained glass heraldic shields (or escutcheons) survive in the vestry of St. Petroc's Church in Petrockstowe, Devon, England showing the arms of William Yeo (Argent, a chevron sable between three ducks azure), Grenville, Bonville (Sable, six mullets argent pierced gules), and others.
• William Bonville, Esq., (died 30 December 1460), married Elizabeth Harington, by whom he had one son, William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington of Aldingham, who in his turn married Katherine Neville; they were the parents of Cecily Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset. William Bonville, Esq., and his son, the 6th Baron Harington were both slain and left dead on the field during the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Wakefield.
• Margaret Bonville (died before July 1487), married Sir William Courtenay (c. 1428 – September 1485) of Powderham (Bonville's ally against the latter's cousin the Earl of Devon of Tiverton Castle), by whom she had four sons and one daughter:
  • Sir William Courtenay
  • Edward Courtenay
  • Philip Courtenay
  • James Courtenay
  • Joan Courtenay, wife of Sir William Carew
• Elizabeth Bonville (died 14 February 1491), married Sir William Tailboys, by whom she had at least one son, Sir Robert Tailboys (1451 - 10 January 1495). Sir Robert was an ancestor of Virginian colonist, Colonel George Reade.

Margaret Grey's husband, William Bonville, K.G., first Lord Bonville, was knighted before 1417 during the campaigns in France of King Henry V. He was Knight of the Shire for Somerset in 1421, and for Devon in 1422, 1425 and 1427. In 1423, he was appointed by the king as Sheriff of Devon. On 8 February 1461, he was elected as a Knight of the Garter.

Margaret Grey herself died sometime after April 1426 and before October 1427. Her husband married secondly about 9 October 1427 to Elizabeth Courtenay, the daughter of Edward Courtenay, 3rd Earl of Devon. Lord Bonville and Elizabeth Courtenay had no issue. On 10 March 1449, he received a writ of summons to Parliament as Lord Bonville of Chewton and became 1st Baron Bonville.

The Bonvilles were staunch Yorkist supporters during the Wars of the Roses. Lord Bonville and Margaret's son, William Bonville, Esq., and their grandson, William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington, were both slain on 30 December 1460 during the Battle of Wakefield. On 17 February 1461, William Bonville, K.G., first Lord Bonville was taken prisoner after another Yorkist defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans. Queen Margaret, remembering that Lord Bonville was one of the men who had taken King Henry VI into custody after the Battle of Northampton, ordered his execution the next day.

Margaret Grey's great-granddaughter, Cecily Bonville, less than a year old, inherited the Bonville titles and estates, becoming the suo jure 2nd Baroness Bonville, and suo jure 7th Baroness Harington of Aldingham. On 18 July 1474, she married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, a descendant of Margaret's father, by his second marriage to Joan de Astley.

Ancestry

Notes

1. Vivian (1895), p. 102 states, "Sir William Bonville of Chewton = Margaret, da. of ... Meriet." However in Weis (1985), "Margaret, da. of Meriet" was identified as Margaret, the daughter of Reynold Grey, Knt., 3rd Lord Grey of Ruthin and his 1st wife, Margaret de Ros by Robert Behra based on Calendar Close Rolls, 1413-1419, p. 199. (see also Cokayne, Complete Peerage. Vol. 2. (1912): p. 218, author states in footnote (d), "She is generally said to be 'da. and h. of (-) MERRIETT.' See Maclean's *Trigg Minor*; but this is apparently a mistake for the wife of Lord Bonville's grandfather, i.e., Margaret, da. of Sir William d'Aumale, cousin and h. of Sir John Meriet, junior, which Margaret d. 25 May 1399...") .
2. There is conflicting evidence regarding Philippa's relationship to William Bonville. The only two 17th-century sources differ: a Heraldic visitation of 1620 states that she was his sister, but William Pole (1561-1635) recorded that she was his daughter. Scholars have disagreed which is correct, see for example Roskell, 1993, and Weis, 1999. However, while William Pole was compiling pedigrees of West Country families by 1604 as evident from his letter published on pp. iv-vi of the introduction to his Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, he would subsequently comment on the many errors found in the 1620 Visitation of the County of Cornwall-Grenville pedigree (or Heraldic visitation of 1620). Additionally, Weis' third and earlier editions of The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215 stated that Philippa was the daughter of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville.

References

1. Roskell, J. S. The Commons in the Parliament of 1422: English Society and Parliamentary Representation Under the Lancastrians. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1954): p. 153. OCLC 797541879.
2. ^ Roskell, J. S. "BONVILLE, Sir William II (1392-1461), of Chewton-Mendip, Som. and Shute, Devon." The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386–1421. Vol. 2. (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993): pp. 284–288.
3. Britannia:Lympstone From Roman Times to the 17th Century. The early history of Lympstone (Devon), edited by Rosemary Smith. Retrieved 23-02-1
4. Costain, pp. 252–8.
5. Costain, pp. 257–8.
6. Costain, pp. 253–4.
7. Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215. third ed. (1985), p. 16 (author states, "Robert Behra, El Paso, Tex., has identified the wife of Sir William, Lord Bonville, as Margaret, dau. of Reginald, 3rd Lord Grey of Ruthyn, and Margaret de Ros.").
8. Vivian (1895), p. 102. Pedigree of Bonville.
9. Faris. Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists. 2nd ed. (1999): p. 37 : (author states, "MARGARET GREY, was married, with marriage contract dated 12 Dec. 1414, to WILLIAM BONVILLE, Knt., K.G., of Chewton Mendip, Somerset, Sheriff of Devonshire, M.P. for Somerset and Devonshire. . . . They had one son and three daughters.").
10. Glenn, Justin. The Washingtons: A Family History: Volume Three: Royal Descents of the Presidential Branch. (2015): p. 179 (author states, “Elizabeth Bonville (third daughter of William Bonville and his first wife Margaret Grey). . . .”).
11. Vivian, The Visitation of the County of Cornwall in the year 1620. (1874), p. 8.
12. Pole, p. 387.
13. Roskell, J. S.; Clark, L.; Rawcliffe, C. R. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386–1421. Vol. 2. (1993): pp. 284–288 (biog. of Sir William Bonville II): (author states, "These ties were to be strengthened by the marriage . . . of two of his daughters, Philippa and Margaret, respectively to William Grenville . . . and William Courtenay. . . .").
14. Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215. fifth ed. (1999)
15. Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/294/74, number 20. Date: The day after the Purification of the Blessed Mary, 3 Edward IV . Parties: John Sydenham of Colmestoke and William Pomeray, querents, and John Almyscombe and Philippe, his wife, deforciants...
16. Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215. third ed. (1985): p. 16 (author states, "William Grenville of Biddeford, d. c. 1451; m. Philippa, dau. of William Bonville, K.G., Lord Bonville, of Chewton-Mendip, near Wells Somerset.").
17. Granville, p. 57 and "A Pedigree of the Granville Family" at the back of the book.
18. Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215, fifth ed. (1999): p. 30 (author states, "THOMAS GRENVILLE, ESQ., b. say 1430, d. c. 1483.”).
19. Vivian (1895), p. 834. Pedigree of Yeo
20. Granville, p.57
21. "The Yeo Society". yeosociety.com. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
22. Vivian (1895), pp. 102, 246.
23. Vivian (1895), p. 246. Pedigree of Courtenay.
24. Cokayne Complete Peerage. Vol. 2. (1912): p. 218

Bibliography

• Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage edited by Vicary Gibbs. Vol. II. (London: St Catherine Press, 1912).
• Costain, Thomas B. The Last Plantagenets. (New York: Popular Library, 1962).
• Dalton, John, M.A., F.S.A. The Collegiate Church of Ottery St Mary. (Cambridge, 1917).
• Edmondson, Joseph, Esq., F.S.A. A Complete Body of Heraldry. Vol. I. (London, 1780).
• Faris, David. Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists. 2nd ed. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999).
• Glenn, Justin. The Washingtons: A Family History: Volume Three: Royal Descents of the Presidential Branch. (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Publishing, 2015).
• Granville, Roger, M.A., (Rector of Bideford). The History of the Granville Family Traced Back to Rollo, First Duke of the Normans, with Pedigrees etc. (Exeter, 1895).
• Hoskins, W. G. A New Survey of England: Devon. (Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd., 1972).
• Pole, William. Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon. (London, 1791).
• Rogers, W.H. Hamilton. The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West. (Exeter, 1890).
• Roskell, J. S.; Clark, L.; Rawcliffe, C. R. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1386-1421. Vol. 2. (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993).
• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. (Exeter, 1895).
• Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215. third ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1985):

• 1426 deaths
• Daughters of barons
• Grey family
• 14th-century English people
• 15th-century English people
• 14th-century English women
• 15th-century English women