The Two John Watertons

In the early part of the fifteenth century there were two cousins called John Waterton in the service of Henry IV. They are often difficult to distinguish apart in contemporary records and this has caused a lot of misleading genealogical information concerning them and their descendants to be published over the years. One of the leading mistaken details about the two Johns is that one of them died in 1430 [1]. As I show below, both of them died before November 1417.

The information below concerning the two Johns is taken from contemporary records without considering later interpretations in secondary works. One of the easiest ways to tell them apart in records after 1399 is that although they are both titled, esquire, one of them was a king’s esquire. This does not help much when it comes to records such as feet of fines, but if the context and location of the record is considered, it is usually possible to make an educated guess.

John Waterton of Waterton, King’s Esquire

John Waterton of Waterton, Lincolnshire, Burgham and Bramley, Surrey, the son and heir of William son of Reiner Waterton of Waterton, was probably born about 1350. He was the elder brother of Sir Hugh Waterton, and was the heir to the family’s manor of Waterton [2].

His brother Hugh had been retained by John of Gaunt since at least 1372 [3], but there is no evidence that John Waterton was closely connected to Gaunt at that time. He first appears in official records in March 1380, when John Waterton of Waterton was one of the collectors of a tax of a tenth and a fifteenth in Lindsey, Lincolnshire [4]. Again in November 1383, he was one of those appointed to collect a tenth and a fifteenth in Lindsey [5]. In 1388, John Waterton was one of the men of Lincolnshire who swore an oath to support the Lords Appellant [6]. He appears to have served John of Gaunt in some capacity, because in 1410, John’s son Henry IV gave John Waterton a grant, “for service to the king's father and the king” [7]. During this time John was married and had at least one child, a daughter Eleanor. The name of his first wife is not known and she evidently died in or before 1399.

Henry IV was crowned in October 1399, and shortly afterwards on 8 November 1399, the king's esquire John Waterton, brother of the king's knight Hugh de Waterton, was granted a tun of Gascon wine yearly from the king's store in the port of Kingston on Hull [8]. On 18 February 1400 he was granted custody of the confiscated manor of Pyworthy, in the far west of Devon, for 10 years [9]. Five days later, he was awarded the forfeited lands in Surrey and Hampshire of Thomas Wintershall, who was executed for treason on 12 January 1400, together with the custody and marriage of Wintershall’s children [10]. John Waterton decided to marry Thomas Wintershall’s widow Joan, and on 24 April 1400 John Waterton and Joan, relict of Thomas Wintershall, had license from the bishop of Winchester to marry at the chapel of the manor of Burgham in the parish of Worplesdon, Surrey [11]. On 24 November 1400 he was appointed as sheriff of Hampshire [12]. He evidently lived on his wife and stepson’s estates in Surrey and Hampshire and on 20 June 1401, John Waterton and Joan his wife were granted a license for a private oratory for three years by Bishop Wickham [13]. He was selected as one of the members for Surrey in the Parliament which met in October and November 1402 [14]. On 6 March 1404, the grant to him of a tun of Gascon wine at Christmas was again confirmed [15].

On 27 April 1405, the king pardoned him and Joan his wife from payment of the issues of Thomas Wintershall’s lands, for the previous year, which had been resumed into the king’s hand by an act of Parliament [16]. On 6 October 1405, the king granted his esquire John Waterton the forfeited goods of Robert Morton to the value of £20 [17].

In 1409, John Waterton’s daughter Eleanor married Robert Babthorpe of Babthorpe, Yorkshire, already a king’s esquire and recently appointed as steward of the duchy of Lancaster's honour of Leicester for life. In November 1409, John Waterton gave up his life grant of a tun of wine at Christmas, which was granted instead to his son-in-law Robert Babthorpe [18].

On 3 February 1410, the king granted to him and the heirs male of his body, all lands late of William de Bowes in the city and suburbs of York to the value of 10 marks [19]. On 10 December 1411, John Waterton, esquire was appointed sheriff of Surrey and Sussex [20].

In 1412, John Waterton was holding lands in Frobury (in Kingsclere) and Eastleigh in Hampshire worth £32 and land in Surrey valued at £20 6s. 8d. [21].

Henry IV died in March 1413, and it is clear that the new king Henry V placed a lot of trust in John Waterton’s abilities. On 26 June 1413, he was confirmed as king’s esquire [22]. On 31 October 1413, he was granted £20 yearly for life from the coinage and other issues of the county of Cornwall [23] and on 20 January 1414, appointed as constable of Windsor castle for life, a position previously held by his brother Hugh before his death [24].

From July 1414 John Waterton started a new career as a diplomat. On 23 July 1414, Sir Walter Hungerford, knight, Simon Sydenham, canon of Salisbury, and John Waterton were commissioned to negotiate an alliance with Sigismund, king of the Romans and Hungary [25].

On 27 July 1415, John Waterton and Master John Kemp (later archbishop of both York and Canterbury) were appointed to negotiate an alliance with Ferdinand, King of Aragon, and also to arrange a marriage between the king and Ferdinand’s daughter Mary [26].  The two ambassadors departed for Spain on 21 July and returned to England in September, for which they received £101 6s. 8d. for their expenses.   They were soon on their way back to Aragon for further negotiations with Ferdinand, who died in April 1416. Their second journey started in September 1415 and they did not return to England until June 1416, for which they received £133 6s. 8d wages and £392 expenses [27]. On 5 August 1416, the Bishop of Coventry, John Waterton, and John Burghope were commissioned to arrange an interview between the King and the Duke of Burgundy [28].

On 6 August 1416, John Waterton, king’s esquire, was granted the custody of the lands of Sir Alexander Metham, during the minority of Thomas his son and heir [29]. John Waterton’s daughter Mundane married Thomas son of Alexander Metham. Thomas Metham was born on 16 January 1402, so if Mundane was younger than him, then she was a daughter of John Waterton’s second marriage to Joan, widow of Thomas Wintershall.[30]

On 1 March 1417 he was ordered to supervise the muster of soldiers at Southampton on 19 March [31].  The last official notice of John Waterton occurs on 1 October 1417, when he was appointed as one of the ambassadors to France [32]. He must have died shortly afterwards because on 1 November 1417, the custody of Windsor castle, which he had been holding for life, was granted to Sir Walter Hungerford [33].

John Waterton’s lands in Waterton, Lincolnshire evidently passed to his eldest daughter Eleanor and her husband Sir Robert Babthorpe, although nothing much is heard of Waterton for about 90 years until the manor was part of the inheritance of Isabel daughter of Robert Babthorpe (died 1496). Isabel married William Plumpton (died 1547) and the manor of Waterton passed to the Plumptons.

John Waterton, Esquire

John Waterton, esquire was the son of Richard, son of William, son of Ingram de Waterton and was the brother of the king’s esquire Robert Waterton. He was probably born between 1360 and 1370.

The first notice we have of him and his brother Robert is that they were with Henry Bolingbroke, earl of Derby on his expedition, firstly to Calais, then to Prussia and Lithuania in 1390-91, together with their cousin Sir Hugh Waterton, who was Bolingbroke’s chamberlain. John Waterton received pay as an esquire during the expedition until 30 April 1391 [34]. John and his brother Robert, master of Henry’s horses, sailed with Henry to Danzig in July-August 1392, at the start of his journey to Jerusalem, but returned from Danzig to England in September 1392 [35]. 

John Waterton appears to have taken up residence firstly in Yorkshire and later in Lincolnshire, but exactly where is difficult to say. On 10 July 1407, John Waterton, esquire, of the county of York was one of the sureties for Henry Retford for the keeping of the county of Lincoln [36]. On 20 January 1408, John Waterton and Richard Fleming, clerk (probably the brother of Robert Waterton’s wife Cecily) bought the manor of Hessle (probably near Ackworth, Yorkshire) from John Usflete of Gunneys and Margaret his wife [37]. On 1 February 1408, John Waterton of the county of York was a surety for Hugh Mortimer [38] and again on 17 February for Sir John Tiptoft [39]. He was again a surety for Hugh Mortimer on 14 May 1409 [40]. On 24 February 1410, he and his brother Robert Waterton, esquire were owed 10 marks by Sir John de Ashton and John Tuxford of Tuxford [41]. On 8 March 1410, he and his brother Robert were members of a commission of walliis et fossatis in Lindsey, Lincolnshire [42].

He was sheriff of Lincoln between 29 November 1410 and 10 December 1411, when his brother Robert replaced him as sheriff [43]. In April 1413, John de Waterton, donsel, nobleman, and his present wife, damsel, noblewoman, of the diocese of Lincoln had a papal indulgence to have a portable altar [44]. This is the only reference that I have been able to find concerning the wife of John Waterton. From the papal indulgence, it is apparent that he married more than once, but the names of his wives do not appear in any contemporary documents. Much nonsense has been published over the years claiming that his wife was from the family of Burgh or Methley, but there is no evidence for this at all.

After Henry V came to the throne in 1413, John Waterton appears to have been given two positions by the new king; as master of his horses, taking over from his brother Robert who had served as master of the horse to Henry Bolingbroke; and secondly as steward of the royal soke of Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire.

On 28 April 1415, Robert Waterton and Cecily his wife granted the manor of Barlow (Barley) in Brayton, Yorkshire to John Waterton [45]. On 16 May 1415, John was on a commission of walliis et fossatis in Lincolnshire [46].  

John Waterton was in Henry V’s retinue as Master of the King’s Horse in the expedition to France in August 1415 [47]. On 25 October 1415, he was at the battle of Agincourt with six men at arms [48].

John Waterton survived the battle and returned to England. On 4 February 1417, he was on a commission of walliis et fossatis in Lincolnshire [49] and on 16 March 1417, he was a surety for Nicholas Tourney as sheriff of Lincoln [50].

This is the last notice that I can find for John Waterton. On 5 November 1417, Sir Gerard Usflete was appointed to the office of steward of the royal soke of Kirton in Lindsey in place of John Waterton, deceased [51].

John Waterton was succeeded by his son Richard, who was probably born about 1400. Early in 1421, Richard Waterton, son and heir of John Waterton, Nicholas Harewood and William Withornwick, executors of John Waterton’s will, petitioned Henry V for letters discharging them from the custody of some gold cups and other plate which had been pledged to John Waterton as a security for his wages during the Agincourt campaign [52].  On 2 May 1421, Richard son and heir of John Waterton, esquire, and his executors had a pardon from the king of “all debts, accounts, prests, receipts, liveries, wastes, stripments, dilapidations, exiles, trespasses, impeachments, misprisions, losses, actions, complaints, demands, farms, arrears, concealments, fines, issues and amercements” which seems to have covered just about everything except murder [53].

Richard Waterton later married Constance Asshenhul and was the ancestor of the Waterton family of Burn (in Brayton), Walton, Cawthorne, and Minsthorpe (in South Kirkby), Yorkshire and Corringham, Lincolnshire. 

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[1] W. B. Stonehouse, The History and Topography of the Isle of Axholme (London, 1839), 452.

[2] The reasoning for this statement is given below.

[3] Sydney Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt’s Register, vol. 1, Camden Society 20 (London, 1911), 32.

[4] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 9, Richard II: 1377-1383 (1926), 187.

[5] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 10, Richard II: 1383-1391 (1929), 17.

[6] Rotuli Parliamentorum ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento Tempore Ricardi R. II, vol. 3 (1783), 402.

[7] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 4: 1408-1413 (1909), 162.

[8] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 64.

[9] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 12, Henry IV: 1399-1405 (1931), 43.

[10] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 207.

[11] T. F. Kirby, ed., Wykeham's Register, vol. 2, Hampshire Record Society (London, 1899), 498.

[12] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 12, Henry IV: 1399-1405 (1931), 94.

[13] T. F. Kirby, ed., Wykeham's Register, vol. 2, Hampshire Record Society (London, 1899), 525.

[14] Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry IV: vol. 2: 1402-1405 (1929), 124-127.

[15] Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry IV: vol. 2: 1402-1405 (1929), 326.

[16] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 3: 1405-1408 (1907), 14.

[17] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 3: 1405-1408 (1907), 84.

[18] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 4: 1408-1413 (1909), 232.

[19] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 4: 1408-1413 (1909), 162.

[20] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 221.

[21] H. C. Maxwell Lyte, ed., Inquisitions and Assessments Relating to Feudal Aids, vol. 6 (London, 1920), 453, 518.

[22] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 75.

[23] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 133.

[24] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 155.

[25] The Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1883), 554.

[26] The Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1883), 573.

[27] Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, vol. 61 (Paris, 1901), 29.

[28] The Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1883), 583.

[29] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 2: 1416-1422 (1911), 40.

[30] The Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (London, 1883), 583.

[31] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 2: 1416-1422 (1911), 74.

[32] Thomas Duffus Hardy, ed., Rotuli Normanniae in Turri Londiensi Asservati, Johanne et Henrico Quinto Angliae Regibus, vol. 1 (London, 1835), 168.

[33] Thomas Duffus Hardy, ed., Rotuli Normanniae in Turri Londiensi Asservati, Johanne et Henrico Quinto Angliae Regibus, vol. 1 (London, 1835), 195.

[34] Lucy Toulmin Smith, ed., Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land Made by Henry Earl of Derby, Camden Society, New Series, 52 (London, 1894), xlvi.

[35] Ibid., lii.

[36] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 76.

[37] CP 25/1/279/151, number 5.

[38] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 100.

[39] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 101.

[40] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 147.

[41] Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry IV: vol. 4: 1409-1413 (1932), 75-93.

[42] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 4: 1408-1413 (1909), 181.

[43] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 13, Henry IV: 1405-1413 (1933), 203, 221.

[44] Calendar of Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 6: 1404-1415 (1904), 345.

[45] CP 25/1/280/153, number 16.

[46] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 1: 1399-1401 (1903), 345.

[47] N. Harris Nicolas, History of the Battle of Agincourt and of the Expedition of Henry the Fifth into France in 1415; to Which Is Added the Roll of the Men at Arms in the English Army, 3rd ed. (London, 1833), 387.

[48] Ibid., 363.

[49] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 2: 1416-1422 (1911), 82.

[50] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 14, Henry V: 1413-1422 (1934), 191.

[51] Thomas Duffus Hardy, ed., Rotuli Normanniae in Turri Londiensi Asservati, Johanne et Henrico Quinto Angliae Regibus, vol. 1 (London, 1835), 196.

[52] Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, vol. 2 (London, 1834), 280.

[53] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry V, vol. 2: 1416-1422 (1911), 341.