John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners

Coat of Arms of Sir John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, KG

Garter stall plate of John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners (1415–1474), KG. Arms: Quarterly: 1st and 4th, grand-quarters 1st and 4th: Argent, a cross engrailed gules between four water bougets sable (Bourchier); grand-quarters 2nd and 3rd: Gules billety or a fess of the last (Lovain of Little Easton) over all a label azure for difference of three points each charged with three leopards or;^[1] 2nd and 3rd: Quarterly or and vert (Berners). Crest: A man's (Moor's) head in profile proper ducally crowned or with a pointed cap gules^[2] The mantling is semé with billets or of Lovain, and with water bougets sable and Bourchier knots

John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, KG (died May 1474) was an English peer.

Bourchier was the fourth son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and his wife Anne of Woodstock, Countess of Buckingham, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, and William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin jure uxoris, were his elder brothers. He was knighted in 1426 and in 1455 he was summoned to the House of Lords as John Bourchier de Berners, which created the title of Baron Berners. In 1459 he was further honoured when he was made a Knight of the Garter. He also served as Constable of Windsor Castle from 1461 to 1474.

Lord Berners married Margery, daughter of Sir Richard Berners. He died in May 1474 and was succeeded in the barony by his grandson John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, his son Sir Humphrey Bourchier having been killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. Margery, Lady Berners, died in 1475. His daughter Joan Bourchier married Sir Henry Neville (d. 26 July 1469), son of George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer and Elizabeth Beauchamp, and had issue which included Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer, father of John Nevill, 3rd Baron Latimer.^[3] His daughter Elizabeth Bourchier (d.1470), married Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and survived him by only a few months, and was buried by his side in the church of the Whitefriars in Doncaster. She left a will dated 2 October 1470

John Bourchier was buried at Chertsey Abbey, in the Runnymede borough of Surrey

Ancestry[]

Ancestors of John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners

16. John Bourchier

8. Robert Bourchier

17. Helen Colchester

4. Sir William Bourchier

18. Thomas Prayers

9. Margaret Prayers

19. Margaret de Essex

2. William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu

20. Thomas de Louvaine

10. Sir John de Louvaine

21. Joan de Basing

5. Alianore de Lovayne

22. Sir Thomas Weston

11. Margaret Weston

23. ??

1. John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners

24. Edward II of England

12. Edward III of England

25. Isabella of France

6. Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester

26. William I, Count of Hainaut

13. Philippa of Hainault

27. Joan of Valois

3. Anne of Gloucester

28. William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton

14. Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford

29. Elizabeth de Badlesmere

7. Eleanor de Bohun

30. Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel

15. Joan Fitzalan

31. Eleanor of Lancaster

Peerage of England
New creation	Baron Berners 1455–1474	Succeeded by John Bourchier

References[]

^ Hope, W. H. St. John, The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter 1348 – 1485: A Series of Ninety Full-Sized Coloured Facsimiles with Descriptive Notes and Historical Introductions, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company Ltd, 1901.
^ Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.106
^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 560.

Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source]}^{[better source needed]}
www.thepeerage.com

[1] Hope, W. H. St. John, The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter 1348 – 1485: A Series of Ninety Full-Sized Coloured Facsimiles with Descriptive Notes and Historical Introductions, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company Ltd, 1901.

[2] Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.106

[3] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 560.

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