Richard Stucley (died 1441), of Merston and Chewton Mendip, was an English landowner, administrator and politician who married an heiress and through his son Hugh, who also married an heiress, became the ancestor of a major Devon family.[2][3][4]
As a considerable and wealthy landowner, from 1398 on he undertook various responsibilities in local government, primarily in Sussex and Somerset or adjoining counties. In Sussex, through the MP Sir William Percy he came under the patronage of the local magnates, the Earls of Arundel, first Richard and then from 1406 Thomas.[2]
In 1414 his wife died and by a settlement the two had made in 1410 he was able not only to retain her estates for life but also to pass some on to their elder son Roger. This arrangement was challenged by his elder stepson William, who obtained judgements which by 1422 stripped Stucley of all his late wife's lands except possibly for a part of Merston. Though no longer a significant landowner, he was not impoverished and, while no longer seeking public office, his credit was still good for private transactions with noble and gentry associates such as Lord Botreaux, the MP Sir Richard Stafford, and Sir Edward Stradling.[2]
By an agreement dated 6 December 1396, he married Elizabeth (1370–1414), widow of Sir John Bonville (died 21 October 1396) and daughter and sole heiress of John FitzRoger (died before 1372), of Chewton,[2] and his wife Alice (died 1426). Elizabeth's paternal grandfather was Sir Henry FitzRoger (died 1352), of Chewton, who married Elizabeth Holland (died 1387), daughter of Robert Holland, 1st Baron Holand. As well as the FitzRoger lands she had inherited, Elizabeth brought him three or four Bonville stepchildren: William, later 1st Baron Bonville,[2] Thomas, Isabel,[6] and possibly Philippa.[7]
He and Elizabeth had two known children:
Roger (born c. 1397), who does not seem to have lived long.[2]
Hugh (c. 1398 – 1457),[2]High Sheriff of Devon in 1448, who married Catherine Affeton, heiress of the Affeton estate in Devon, and founded a family that was prominent in the West Country for generations.[3]
^ abVivian, Lt.Col. J.L. (1895), The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, pp. 721–3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215: The Barons Named in the Magna Charta, 1215 ... By Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, William Ryland Beall, p.114 [1]
^Rogers. The Strife of the Roses & Days of the Tudors in the West, (1890): pp. 43–44. "John Bonville, ... , married Elizabeth, only child and heiress of John Fitz-Roger... John Bonville had two sons, William eldest and heir, Thomas, and one daughter Isabel."