Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/24

 number of persons alleged to have taken a large fish, 'qui dicitur cete,' from the manor of Walton, in violation of a charter of Henry III, by which the chapter claimed the exclusive right to all large fish found on their estates, the tongue only being reserved to the king. In the same year he was engaged in trying cases of extortion by legal officials in Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, and persons indicted before the conservators of the peace in Lincolnshire. In December of this year he was summoned to parliament for the last time. He was reappointed justice of the common bench shortly after the accession of Edward III, the patent being dated 24 March 1326-7. The last fine was levied before him on Ascension day 1329. He died shortly afterwards, as we know from the fact that in the following year his heir, Robert, was put in possession of his estates by the king. By his marriage with Helen, daughter and heir of Walter of Colchester, he acquired the manor of Stanstead, in Halstead, Essex, adjoining an estate which he had purchased in 1312. He was buried in Stanstead Church.



BOURCHIER, JOHN, second (1467–1533), statesman and author, was the son of Humphrey Bourchier, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Frederick Tilney, and widow of Sir Thomas Howard. His father was slain at the battle of Barnet (14 April 1471) fighting in behalf of Edward IV, and was buried in Westminster Abbey ( Funerall Monuments, 1632, p. 482). His grandfather, John, the youngest son of William Bourchier, earl of Ewe, was created Baron Berners in 1455, and died in 1474. [q. v.], the Earl of Ewe's eldest son and the second Lord Berners's granduncle, became Earl of Essex in 1461. Another granduncle, [q. v.], was archbishop of Canterbury from 1454 to 1486.

In 1474 John Bourchier succeeded his grandfather as Baron Berners. He is believed to have studied for some years at Oxford, and Wood conjectures that he was of Balliol College. But little is known of his career till after the accession of Henry VII. In 1492 he entered into a contract 'to serue the king in his warres beyond see on hole yeere with two speres' (, Fœdera, xii. 479). In 1497 he helped to repress the Cornish rebellion in behalf of Perkin Warbeck. It is fairly certain that he and Henry VIII were acquainted as youths, and the latter showed Berners much favour in the opening years of his reign. In 1513 he travelled in the king's retinue to Calais, and was present at the capture of Terouenne. Later in the same year he was marshal of the Earl of Surrey's army in Scotland. When the Princess Mary married Louis XII (9 Oct. 1514), Berners was sent with her to France as her chamberlain. But he did not remain abroad. On 18 May 1514 he had been granted the reversion to the office of chancellor of the exchequer, and on 28 May 1516 he appears to have succeeded to the post. In 1518 Berners was sent with John Kite, archbishop of Armagh, on a special mission to Spain to form an alliance between Henry VIII and Charles of Spain. The letters of the envoys represent Berners as suffering from severe gout. He sent the king accounts of the bull-baiting and other sports that took place at the Spanish court. The negotiations dragged on from April to December, and the irregularity with which money was sent to the envoys from home caused them much embarrassment (cf. Berners to Wolsey, 26 July 1518, in Letters &c. of Henry VIII). Early in 1519 Berners was again in England, and he, with his wife, attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in the next year. The privy council thanked him (2 July 1520) for the account of the ceremonial which he forwarded to them. Throughout this period Berners, when in England, regularly attended parliament, and was in all the commissions of the peace issued for Hertfordshire and Surrey. But his pecuniary resources were failing him. He had entered upon several harassing lawsuits touching property in Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and elsewhere. As early as 1511 he had borrowed 350l. of the king, and the loan was frequently repeated. In December 1520 he left England to become deputy of Calais, during pleasure, with 100l. yearly as salary and 104l. as 'spyall money.' His letters to Wolsey and other officers of state prove him to have been busily engaged in succeeding years in strengthening the fortifications of Calais and in watching the armies of France and the Low Countries in the neighbourhood. In 1522 he received Charles V. In 1528 he obtained grants of manors in Surrey, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Oxfordshire. In 1529 and 1531 he sent Henry VIII gifts of hawks (Privy Purse Expenses, pp. 54, 231). But his pecuniary troubles were increasing, and his debts to the crown remained