John Dod of Farndon and Calverhall
c
1330 to c 1410 (estimated)
DOD00043
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1330
John Dod was the son of
Roger Dod of Edge (DOD00035) and may have been born
in or about 1330.
1342
A prodigal cousin perhaps
There was a John Dod of
the county of Chester who was indicted before John de Cherleton and his
fellows, late justices of oyer and terminer in the county of Salop, of robbing
Richard de Yal of 20 marks at Soutlordeswode,
on Wednesday after the invention of the Holy Cross, 10 Edward III, and assaulting
him, and who have fled from the county of Salop and are now vagabond in the
counties of Lincoin and Nottingham, as appears by the complaint of the said
Richard. Then in October, there a further record of the appointment of
Adam de Hampton, bailiff of the wapentake of Lovedon, and Adam del Wode of Grantham to arrest, wherever found, Robert son of
Walter de Sutton and John Dod of the county of Chester, who, as appears by an indictment
before John de Cherleton and his fellows, late justices of oyer and terminer in
the County of Salop, on Wednesday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 10
Edward III, robbed Richard de Yal of 25 marks
sterling at Soutfordes Wode,
and as the latter complains, have fled from that county, and are lurking as
vagabonds in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham, so that they cannot be
justified on the indictment, and imprison them in the castle of Shrewsbury, in the
custody of the sheriff of Salop, until the king give further order herein.
Changed by C. because sealed at another time. (Patent Rolls of the reign of Edward III, 1340
to 1343, page 539).
The search for John Dod and Walter de Sutton continued in 1343 (Patent Rolls of the reign of Edward III, 1343
to 1345, pages 71,
169).
This outlaw was presumably someone different, but his
association with Cheshire suggests he may have been a relative.
Soutlordeswode translates from Middle English to South Lord's Wood, presumably
a localised woodland area or boundary marker that fell under the jurisdiction
of the Shropshire justices at the time.
If this John Dod was related to the family, perhaps a
younger son, by 1353, he was preventing the men and servants of William
de Kirkeby, clerk, from hoeing, reaping and collecting his crops and
mowing his grass at Erdyngton, co. Salop, and sending
others with carts and wagons to carry the crops and the hay from the grass to
his house, and they carried away his goods and assaulted the men and
servants (Patent Rolls of the reign of Edward III, 1350
to 1354, pages 448).
1349
There was a John Dod who
was referred to as one of forty customary tenants in the manor of Feirefod in Gloucestershire in the Inquisition Post
Mortem of Hugh le Despenser taken on 12 March 1349 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post
Mortem, Volume 9, (Edward IIII, 1347 to 1352),
Folio 428 (p332)).
Fairford is halfway between Gloucester and Oxford in the Cotswolds and some way
south. It is possible that the younger son was here, before his association
with Ightfield.
The reknown
father-and-son figures named Hugh le Despenser (the Elder and the Younger, infamous
royal favourites of King Edward II) had both been dead for over two decades,
having been brutally executed during the rebellion of Queen Isabella and Roger
Mortimer in 1326. However, a surviving male member of the family carrying the
name Hugh le Despenser (c 1308/9 to 8 February 1349), was the grandson of Hugh
the Elder and the nephew/son-related heir to the family's residual estates.
Because he died without
issue, his death triggered a shift in the family peerage. His nephew Edward (son
of his brother Edward, who died at the siege of Vannes in 1342) became the
primary heir to the family name and lands, eventually being created Baron le
Despenser in a new creation in 1357.
It is therefore possible
that this John Dod had involvement with Despenser
lands further south.
That said, by his marriage
in 1380, he was associated with Farndon and then later, through marriage, with
Ightfield.
1380
There was a John of Egge who gave evidence in an inquiry
into proof of age of Thomas, son of John de Hynton in Shropshire on 30 February
1380. John de Egge and William Cokesson, aged 54 years and more, agree and
say that on Saturday after St Simon and Jude in the same year they rendered
account of goods etc bequeathed to St Mary in the parish of Whitchirche
at divers times, as is enrolled in the missal there (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume
15, (Richard II, 1377 to 1384), Folio 449).
This seems likely to be our John Dod of Edge.
John Dod married Johanna,
daughter and co-heiress of John Warren of Ightfield. Through her marriage,
Johanna brought her inherited portion of the adjoining Calverhall
and Cloverley lands directly into the Dod family. Her husband, John Dod,
benefited greatly from her status as co-heiress.
The
Ightfield estate went to William Mainwaring of Peover
who had married Johanna’s sister, Margaret (Baker, J Bellyse (1982), Highfields,
Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and Baker Families, Audlem
District History Society, page 3).
John was also referred to
as John Dod of Calverhall (Baker, J
Bellyse (1982), Highfields, Audlem: Sixteenth Century Home of the Dod and
Baker Families, Audlem District History Society, page 3).
There are
two entries in Burne’s Landed Genrty, which may refer
to the same person:
John Dod,
of Farndon, Cheshire, married, and had issue.
John Dod
of Calverhall, in Prees Pares, Shropshire, living in
the time of Richard II, married Johanna, daughter and heiress of John
Warren, of Ightfield, Shropshire, and had issue.
(Burke, John and Burke,
Sir Bernard (1836)(Eighteenth Edition, 1972), Bellyse
Baker of Highfields in Burke’s Landed Gentry, Volume 3, pages
35 to 38).
John
Dod, ancestor of the Dods of Cloverly and Highfields (Burke, John and Burke,
Sir Bernard (1836)(Eighteenth Edition, 1972), Wolley
Dod of Edge in Burke’s Landed Gentry, Volume 3, pages
258 to 259).
1383
William Dod (DOD00050) was John Dod’s son.
1395
Hugh Dod (DOD00051) was John Dod’s son.
1400
There was a Robert Hall
who appealed that Robert Dod had committed treason and had pursued the appeal
to a duel in Northumberland and was killed, and his goods forfeited to Richard
II, Henry IV granting the goods to his widow, Mary (Patent Rolls of the reign of Henry IV, 1399
to 1401, page 119). Robert Dod might have
been related to the Dods of Cheshire.
On 22 May 1400 there was a
general pardon by Henry IV, following his usurpation of the Crown from Richard
II, to all the king’s lieges of the county of Chester for all treasons,
insurrections, felonies, rebellions and trespasses committed by them from
Christmas last to the Purification, except murders and rapes, but a number
of men were excluded from this general pardon including John Davidson leche
of Malpas; David Dodde; John del Malpas; Thomas de Grene of Malpas; Robert de
Sutton of Frodesham; and David Dodde of Egge. (Patent Rolls of the reign of Henry IV, 1399
to 1401, page
285 to 286).
This general pardon on 22
May 1400 was granted by Henry IV to suppress anti-Lancastrian unrest in the
County of Chester following the Epiphany Rising. The named individuals, including
John Davidson, David Dodde, and Robert de Sutton, were excepted because they
were identified as die-hard Ricardian loyalists, former members of Richard II’s
private Cheshire
Guard, or primary instigators of the local revolt who were forced to
sue for individual pardons.
When Henry Bolingbroke
usurped the throne from Richard II in autumn 1399 to become Henry IV, he
inherited a deeply unstable kingdom. No region was more hostile to his new
regime than Cheshire. Richard II had elevated Cheshire to a principality,
showered its gentry with titles and annuities, and recruited his infamous,
highly loyal personal bodyguard, the Cheshire
Guard, directly from the county. When Henry's invading forces marched
through Cheshire in 1399, they subjected the area to harsh retribution and
violence.
In January 1400, a
conspiracy of counter-revolutionary nobles launched the Epiphany Rising to
assassinate Henry IV and restore Richard II. Simultaneously, an
anti-Lancastrian rebellion flared within Cheshire itself. Rebels attacked
Chester Castle and attempted to hold the county for the deposed king. The
rebellion failed, and Richard II died mysteriously, likely starved on Henry’s
orders, at Pontefract Castle in February 1400 to eliminate him as a focal point
for future revolts. By May 1400, Henry IV used a mix of tactical leniency and
intimidation to pacify the county: a general pardon designed to sweep up the
lesser offenders, restore basic legal order, and prevent Cheshire from
remaining an open hotbed of insurrection.
The Calendar of the Patent
Rolls lists over 100 men explicitly excluded from this blanket mercy. They were
isolated for three primary reasons. Some were core ringleaders and activists. Rather
than giving a free pass to the ringleaders who orchestrated the attacks on Chester
Castle, Henry's government singled them out to prevent immediate immunity. Many
of those excepted were former retainers, archers, and loyalist elements of
Richard II’s military affinity. Men from Malpas, Frodsham, and Edge belonged to
prominent local families that had heavily benefited from Richard II's
patronage. For example, the Suttons and Doddes were
deeply embedded in the county’s military structures. Being excepted from
a general pardon did not necessarily mean immediate execution. Instead, it
meant these men were compelled to sue for individual pardons.
By forcing men like John
Davidson, David Dodde, and Robert de Sutton to surrender independently, the
Crown achieved two goals. It forced them to formally acknowledge Henry IV's
legitimacy, and it required them to find financial sureties, large
monetary bonds, from their neighbours to guarantee their future good behaviour.
See McNiven, Peter, The
Cheshire Rising of 1400.
The Dods of Edge or Egge
were one of Cheshire's oldest and most martial gentry families, deeply woven
into the fabric of the county's military aristocracy. During the political
upheaval of 1399 to 1400, their deep loyalty to Richard II and their actions
during the Cheshire Rising of 1400 put them at direct war with the newly
crowned Henry IV. The
family's alignment with Richard II was rooted in direct royal patronage. Edge is located in the parish of Malpas (Broxton hundred), at the
epicentre of Richard II's recruitment ground for his infamous Cheshire
Guard. In
the 1390s, Richard II bypassed traditional feudal levies to build a highly
personal, 2,000-man bodyguard composed primarily of Cheshire archers and
gentry. The Lords of Edge and their close kin, including John Dod and David Dod,
were part of this elite, fiercely loyal military affinity. They wore Richard's
personal badge, the White Hart.
When the Epiphany Rising
flared in England in January 1400, the Cheshire gentry orchestrated a
coordinated internal insurrection. The Dods of Edge used their regional
influence to muster the local population around Malpas. Armed with their
longbows, the men of Edge marched on Chester. Alongside other local commanders,
they successfully seized Chester Castle, took control of the city, and publicly
proclaimed that Richard II was still alive and marching to join them. For
several weeks, they effectively held the county in open defiance of the
Lancastrian usurpation.
When the wider national
coup failed and Richard II was confirmed dead, the Cheshire rebellion
collapsed. Because David Dod was designated as a ringleader, Henry IV excluded him
from the General Pardon of May 1400. However, their story did not end in
execution, but rather in a calculated political and financial submission.
To secure individual
pardons, those excluded from general pardon had to provide immense financial
sureties. They were forced to sign recognizances for debt to the King, massive
monetary bonds that would be completely forfeited if they, or any of their
tenants at Edge, showed a shred of future disloyalty.
The Lords of Edge survived
the Lancastrian transition.
1403
The true test of their
pacification came just three years later in 1403, when Henry Hotspur
Percy launched a second, massive rebellion in Cheshire against Henry IV. While
many of their neighbours rose up and died at the bloody Battle of Shrewsbury.
The Dods of Edge, heavily restricted by their 1400 financial bonds, largely
stayed out of the active fighting.
Or (to review
further)
However there is an alternative
view to check: Cheshire was a fierce
stronghold of loyalty to the deposed King Richard II. When Hotspur arrived in
the Palatinate in July 1403 to raise an army, the vast
majority of local elite families and their highly skilled Cheshire
archers joined his banner. The Dods of Edge mobilised alongside neighbouring
families, such as the Massies of Coddington, who
married into the Dod family. On 21 July 1403, the rebel forces clashed with the
Royalist army at the Battle of Shrewsbury. The Cheshire gentry took catastrophic casualties
during the intense longbow exchanges and subsequent melee. Following Hotspur's
death and the collapse of the rebellion, King Henry IV exacted harsh penalties
on the surviving Cheshire rebels. Members of the family faced the temporary
forfeiture of their lands and were forced to pay steep fines or secure royal pardons
to reclaim their ancestral manor at Edge.
See McViven, Peter (1979), The
Men of Cheshire and the Rebellion of 1403 in Transactions of the Historic
Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Volume 129.
Having successfully
navigated the transition, the family retained their ancestral lands at Edge.
Over the coming decades, they were fully rehabilitated into the Lancastrian
apparatus. By the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI, the Dods of Edge were once again
serving as local magistrates, royal commissioners, and prominent local
benefactors.
1410
John may have lived until
or about 1410.