John Darras (c.1355–1408) was an English soldier, politician and landowner, who fought in the Hundred Years' War and against the Glyndŵr Rising. A client of the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel, he served them in war and peace, helping consolidate their domination of his native county of Shropshire. He represented Shropshire twice in the House of Commons of England. He died by his own hand.
Background and early life John Darras was the son of: Ralph Darras or Daras of Neenton and Joan Forcer, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Forcer,Roskell et al, DARRAS, John (c.1355–1408), of Sidbury and Neenton, Salop. – Author: L. S. Woodger and, together with her sisters Burga and Elizabeth, coheiress of Sir Henry Ribbesford of Ribbesford, near Bewdley in Worcestershire, who was the brother of their grandmother, Avice or Hawise le Forcer.Page and Willis-Bund: Ribbesford with the Borough of Bewdley – Manors The Darras family were not large landowners but part of the emerging landed gentry. Ralph Darras held the manors of Neenton and Sidbury,Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III, Addendum to Vol. X, no. 355. both south-west of Bridgnorth in Shropshire, part of the Welsh Marches. Although most such families were of Anglo-Norman origin, Darras, originally rendered de Arras, or d'Arras, signifies origins in Arras, historically the chief town of Artois in Flanders.Hanks et al, p. 160 It is generally rendered Daras in late medieval documents.Feudal Aids, volume 4, p. 246.
Ralph Darras, John's father, died in December 1461, when John was only about seven years of age. This was during the second major outbreak of the Black Death in Shropshire,Baugh and Elrington (1989), Domesday Book: 1300–1540, note anchor 23. although there is no record of Ralph Darras's cause of death. The plague brought great economic shifts alongside the human cost. Shropshire inquisitions post mortem taken during the plague outbreak show that land lay uncultivated and some landowners struggled to pay even very modest rents,Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III, Volume 11, File 166, no. 233. and some estates were considered worthless.Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III, Volume 11, File 179, no. 537. While the majority of the rural population was placed at an advantage by labour shortages, landlords were forced to relax conditions imposed on tenants and to buy in labour.Baugh and Elrington (1989), Domesday Book: 1300–1540: Demesne agriculture, note anchor 196-199. This is the economic and agrarian background to John Darras's lifelong struggles to consolidate and extend his estates and to find additional sources of income, mainly through business and military service.
John Darras's mother, Joan, must also have died in his childhood. He fought legal battles to secure her inheritance, but alongside his aunts, not his mother.
Landowner
The inquisition following his father's death, taken at Bridgnorth on 19 March 1362, shows that the main estates Darras inherited from his father were the manors of Sidbury and Neenton, which were held of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March.Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward III, Volume 11, File 168, no. 270. in return for providing a hobelar (a light cavalryman mounted on a hobby) for Wigmore Castle when there was war in the Welsh Marches. There were also a few other small, scattered holdings, notably a third of the manor of Linley, held of the Prior of Wenlock.Currie et al, Linley – Manor and other estates. This was a small patrimony and Darras fought legal battles, sometimes backed by force, at several points in his life to extend his holdings, although with limited success.
In 1379,Page and Willis-Bund: Ribbesford with the Borough of Bewdley – Manors, note anchor 193 and again in 1383,Page and Willis-Bund: Ribbesford with the Borough of Bewdley – Manors, footnote 196 Darras and his aunts Burga and Elizabeth contested ownership of the manors of Ribbesford and Rock, Worcestershire, which had been held by Sir Henry Ribbesford, also under the Mortimers of Wigmore. They were opposed by John de Resunden, the husband of their distant relative, Iseult. They won their suit but for reasons unknown the estates were bothPage and Willis-Bund: Rock or Ake – Manors. soon in the hands of Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, one of the Lords Appellant, who was temporarily stripped of all his lands during Richard II's counter-coup of 1397.
Patronage of the churches on most of these estates, potentially a lucrative right, went to Darras. The rectory of Sidbury was in his gift and he is known to have made presentations to it. On 16 June 1386 Darras authorised an exchange of clergy, by which the local priest went to St Katherine's chapel in Hereford Cathedral and the former cathedral chaplain, Philip Kentles, became rector of Sidbury.Registrum Johannis Gilbert, p. 125. St Katherine's chapel served the Bishop's Palace,Hereford: Ecclesiastical in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Herefordshire, Volume 1, South west. so this exchange must have been of importance to John Gilbert, presumably earning Darras a modicum of episcopal favour. In April 1392 Darras appointed a successor after Philip's death.Registrum Johannis Trefnant, p. 176. At Neenton too Darras held and used the advowson, presenting Roger Murimore as incumbent of the church in November 1399.Registrum Johannis Trefnant, p. 183. Linley's church was a chapel of Holy Trinity Church in Much Wenlock,Currie et al, Linley – Church. which was in the hands of Wenlock Priory, the feudal overlord, leaving Darras with no control. However, while he had effective control of Ribbesford, the advowson must have been his to exercise, as it went with the manor.Page and Willis-Bund: Ribbesford with the Borough of Bewdley – Advowsons. In the case of Rock, however, the principal manor in the parish was not Rock itself but Alton, and the advowson of the church went with it: although there had been challenges from the Ribbesford family, the advowson was held by the Abbey of Saint-Evroul in Normandy during the 14th century.Page and Willis-Bund: Rock or Ake – Advowson.
As a substantial, if not grand, landowner, Darras was evidently enjoyed a degree of trust among the local landed gentry. He is known to have acted for others in land transactions, including Malcolm de la Mare, Thomas Whitton and John Meisy.Shropshire Archives Document Reference: 3365/67/40, Recognizances 1377–1378, at Discovering Shropshire's History. His business associates tend to recur as personal and family allies throughout his known career.
Derived from the table given by Wrottesley.Wrottesley. Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls, p. 134. and further information from the Victoria County History.
Marriage and family
Darras married Joan Corbet. The marriage took place before 1390. However, as Darras is not recorded as active on Joan's behalf in the Corbet property disputes of 1385, it must have been in the second half of the 1380s. Darras formally entered the Arundel affinity in 1387, which may coincide approximately with his marriage.
Joan Corbet was the daughter of Sir Robert Corbet (died 1375) of Moreton Corbet, and Elizabeth Le Strange, daughter of Fulk, 1st Baron Strange of Blackmere.Corbet, pedigree facing p.368, The Corbets of Moreton Corbet had taken over as the senior line of Corbets in the region, as the Corbets at Caus Castle had petered out in 1347. The Le Strange family were another important dynasty of Marcher Lords with many branches. The Blackmere barony was of fairly recent foundation. Elizabeth's father was called to parliament by Edward II and served him as Seneschal of Gascony,Fulk Lestrange at the Gascon Rolls Project (1317–1478), accessed 4 December 2013 the head of the administration of the remaining Plantagenet possessions in France. The title could be passed through both male and female, and the tortuous line of descent of the Le Stranges may have been one of the factors predisposing the Corbets towards reinforcing male primogeniture through dubious property transactions. From 1383 it passed via female descent and marriage to the Talbot family, and was one of the many titles collected together by John Talbot, Baron Furnivall and later Earl of Shrewsbury.
Joan was the widow of Robert de Harley of Willey and had a daughter and heiress, Alice, who married Sir Hamo Peshall or Hamon Peshale. Joan brought a range of properties, acquired from her own family and her first husband, which must have greatly increased Darras's comfort and security while she was alive. She had a considerable amount of jointure property from her first marriage – in Shropshire at Harley, Gretton, Willey and Kenley, and in Worcestershire part of a manor at Hampton Lovett, known as Over Hall.A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3: Hampton Lovett – Manors, cf. footnote 28. Some of these properties passed to Roger Willey, a relative of Sir Robert Harley, in 1400, presumably on Joan's death: Willey was a business associate of Darras. The Hampton Lovett property, however, was destined for Alice, Joan and Robert Harley's daughter, who married Sir Hamo Peshall.
Joan was almost certainly some years older than Darras. It is not clear whether they had children, although Darras may have left a son named Roger. Joan seems to have died around the turn of the century, with her properties largely leaving his control, prompting Darras to an active and fairly successful search for further sources of income in the years following.
Joan's family, the Corbets of Moreton Corbet Castle were one of the rising gentry families, steadily increasing their estates and their influence.Baugh and Elrington (1989), Domesday Book: 1300–1540: Landlords However, they were not of the first rank, and both they and Darras were increasingly to seek advancement through the affinity of the FitzAlans, the Earls of Arundel, who were supreme both economically and politically in Shropshire as well being among the greatest magnates in England.
The Corbet property disputes
Joan Corbet's brother, Sir Roger, was preoccupied with family disputes over property, many of which involved Joan. Darras inevitably took his wife's side, sometimes bringing him into disrepute with the king and his government.