Bryan

The following extract is from a book named «Knights Of The Order» and it refers the the Knights of the Garter. It is in the library of the Society of Genealogists in London. These notes were copied by Eardley Bryan on 18th July 1991 by Eardley Bryan from photocopies that he made at an earlier date.

pp 179-181 EDWARD III.

LI.

GUY LORD BRYAN.

This great man was the son and heir of sir Guy Bryan, of Tor Bryan, in Devonshire, and succeeded his father in 1349, at the age of about thirty-nine,(1) His first military essay was made in the expedition against Scotland, soon after the coronation of Edward III; and he was with that monarch near Stanhope park,(2) in Durham, at the bold but unsuccessful attempt of Douglas to surprise the English camp in the night of the 4th August 1327.(3) In July 1330 he is described as one of the king's valets and of full age, in a proceeding to settle a dispute between him and his father concerning the barony and castle of Walwayn in Pembrokeshire.(4) In 1337 he was again in the Scottish war.(5) In 1339 he served in Flanders, and was with the army at Vironfosse and at Ourney St. Benoyt.(6) He was appointed, in 1341, governor of St. Briavell's castle in Gloucestershire, and warden of the forest of Dean.(7) In May 1347 he received orders to hasten, with various other persons, most of whom were peers, to the king at Calais, in the expectation of an attack from the powerful army of king Philip.(8) In the autumn of that year he probably returned with theSovereign to England.(9) In 1349 he was intrusted with the temporary custody of the great seal on the resignation of the chancellor Ufford.(10) In December of the same year, he bore the king's banner in the romantic expedition of Edward and his son, which gallantly frustrated the project of Geoffroi de Chargny to gain repossession of Calais by a bribe to the governor; and his valour and conduct upon that occasion were rewarded by a pension of 200 marks on 1st April 1350.(11) On the 25th November in the last-mentioned year, he was to parliament among the barons of the realm; and, from that we find him constantly employed in martial and diplomatic affairs of high importance. He was, in 1353, a commissioner to treat with Louis count of Flanders for the observance of the truce;(12) and in the same year, by the style of «dominus de Lagherne,» ambassador to negotiate a treaty of peace with France;(13) and that object being , he was nominated, with Henry duke of Lancaster and others, ambassador to Rome, to procure a ratification of it from the pope.(14) On the 24th November 1355, he was ordered to hold himself in readiness, with forty men-at-arms, to proceed against the Scots who had taken Berwick;(15) and he served in the army which, in the following year, retook that town. In May 1357, by the style of dominus de Chastel Gawayn, one of the king's councillors," he was a party to the truce concluded with Scotland.(16)

Lord Bryan was in the army before Paris in the spring of 1360; and, upon the conclusion of the treaty of Chartres, one of the four barons who were sent to the French capital to swear, in Edward's name, to its observance.(17) He had, with his three colleagues, the custody of Calais upon the king's return to England;(18) and, in October of the same year, swore, at Calais, with the prince of Wales and his great officers, to the fulfilment of the articles of peace.(19) In 1361 he was again ambassador to the pope.(20) He was constituted, in 1369, admiral of the fleet to be employed against the French;(21) served, in the course of that year, under the duke of Lancaster in Normandy;(22) and, on 6th February 1369-70, had the appointment of admiral of the fleet in the parts westward.(23)

After the death of the renowned Chandos (which happened on the 31st December 1369), he was elected into the Order of the Garter, and filled the eleventh stall on the Sovereign's side, where his plate still remains. Robes were issued to him in 1371, 1373, 1375 to 1378, 1383 and 1387 to 1389.(24)

The public records show that lord Bryan was employed in various high commissions until within a short time previous to his death on 17th August 1390. His remains lie interred under a splendid tomb in the church of Tewkesbury.(25) Genealogists differ respecting the name and family of his first wife; who, by some is stated to have been Ann or Alice, daughter and heir of William Holway, of Holway, com. Devon; and, by others, Joan, daughter of sir John Carew. He married, secondly, Elizabeth daughter of William Montacute first earl of Salisbury, (by Katherine Granson,) and relict, first, of Giles lord Badlesmere; and, secondly, of Hugh lord le Despenser. She died 31st May 1359. By his first marriage lord Bryan had only a daughter, Elizabeth, the wife of sir Robert Fitzpayne: by the second, he had three sons: sir Guy who died before him, sir William, and sir Philip; and a daughter, Margaret, the wife of sir John Erlegh. William and Philip died without issue; and the issue from sir Guy, the son, became extinct in the third generation. The representatives, therefore, of our distinguished knight, and the coheirs to his barony of Bryan, are the heirs-general of Thomas Percy seventh earl of Northumberland, K.G.,(26) as heirs of the body of Elizabeth Fitzpayne; and George- Warwick Bampfylde, lord Poltimore, and Mary baroness Sherborne, daughter and heir of Henry lord Stawell, as the descendants and coheirs of Margaret Erlegh.

ARMS.

or, three piles, conjoined in base, Azure.

CREST.

On a chapeau Gules, faced Ermine, a hunting-horn Sable, garnished Or.

(1). Esc. 23 Ed. 3. No. 80. The jury found that he was 30 years old and upwards.
(2). Scrope and Grosvenor roll, p. 76.
(3). Lord Hailes' Annals of Scotland, p. 120. Knyghton, 2552.
(4). Esc. 5 Ed.3, No. 163, Pembr.
(5). Rot. Scoc. 11 Ed. 3, m. 19.
(6). His deposition in the Scrope and Grosvenor suit.
(7). Rot. Fin. 15 Ed. 3, m. 9.
(8). Rym. Foed. vol. v. p. 563.
(9). In an account of John Coke, provider to the great wardrobe, between Sept. 1347 and Jan.
1348-9, the following entry occurs;-
«Ad faciend. iij Jupouns datas per ipsum regem dnis Guidoni de Bryen,» et aliis.
(10) Rym. Foed. vol. iii. p. 1. 11.
(11) Pat. 23 Ed. 3, p. 2, m. 3.
(12) Carte's Gascon rolls, vol. ii. p. 54.
(13) Rymer, vol. iii. p. 1-82. 91. 100.
(14) Ypod. neustr. 122, n. 40.
(15) Rot. Scoc. vol. 1. p. 784.
(16) Ibid. vol. i. p. 803.
(17) Froissart, tom. iv. p. 73.
(18) Ibid. p. 80.
(19) Ibid. p.89; tom. v. p. 9.
(20) Rot. Pat. 35 Ed. 3, p. 2, m. 24.
(21) Claus. 43 Ed. 3, m. 1.
(22) Rot. Franc. 43 Ed. 3, m. 1
(23) Ibid. 44 Ed. 3, m. 27.
(24) Wardrobe accounts for these years in the Queen's Remambrancer's office.
(25) Engraved in Stothard's monumental effigies.
(26) See page 158. (Not copied, EWHB)