THIRTEENTH GENERATION

20. Sir John FORTESCUE of Ebrington, Glocs^{(24) (25)} was born in 1395. He died about 1485. He was buried in Ebrington Chapel.⁽²⁶⁾ Sir John studied law at Lincoln's Inn, like his brother Henry. He became Lord Chief Justice of England, and Lord Chancellor to Henry VI. His branch led to the North Devon Fortescues of Filleigh and Castle Hill etc.

Sir John was probably born in about 1395, at Norreis. Volume 1 of Lord Clermont's book is about this John. His monument in Ebrington church was refurbished etc. by his descendant Colonel Robert Fortescue.

P 52 of Prideaux Book has this note -

William's (William Prideaux of Adeston - died 15 April 1472) second wife was a daughter of John Fortescue, and we do not even have her baptismal name. There are reasons for thinking that her father was the future Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor and Chief Justice to Henry VI. Fallapit in East Allington belonged to his family, while William's cousin John Prideaux of Orcharton is on record as settling the contiguous manor of North Allington, and the advowson of the church, on John's brother Martin in 1429. The Fortescues and Prideauxs were near neighbours, and members of both families established branches in North Devon. They would intermarry again in the 17th century and suffer similar divisions in the civil war.


From Chamber's Encyclopaedia published 1969

Sir John C.1394 - 1480 educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn was in 1441 made Sergeant-at-law, and in the following year Lord Chief Justice of the Court of the King's Bench. In the struggle between houses of York and Lancaster he steadily adhered to the latter and was attainted by the Parliament under Edward IV. He accompanied Margaret of Anjou and her young son, Prince Edward on their flight to Scotland and therefore is supposed to been appointed Lord Chancellor by Henry VI. In 1463 he embarked with the Queen and her son for Holland. During his exile he wrote his celebrated work, De Laudibus Legum Angliae, for the instruction of Prince Edward who was his pupil. But on the final defeat of the Lancastrian party at the battle of Tewkesbury, 1471, where he is have been taken prisoner, Fortescue submitted to Edward IV. The De Laudibus Legum Angliae was not printed till the reign of Henry VIII; another valuable work by Fortescue is the Governance of England; otherwise called the Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy

He was married to Isabella JAMYS (daughter of John JAMYS of Philips-Norton, Somerset). Sir John FORTESCUE of Ebrington, Glocs and Isabella JAMYS had the following children:

+29 i. Sir Martin FORTESCUE of Filleigh.
+30 ii. Elizabeth FORTESCUE.
+31 iii. Maud FORTESCUE.