William de Vescy, sometimes spelt Vesci, Baron de Vesci (died 24 June 1314), was an illegitimate child of
William de Vesci
William de Vesci (c.1125–1184) was an Anglo-Norman feudal lord and Sheriff. Born William fitz Eustace at Knaresborough Castle, Yorkshire, the son of Eustace Fitz John and Beatrix de Vesci, he took his mother's surname.
He was appointed Sheri ...
and Devorgille, daughter of Donal Roe Macarthy Mor, Prince of Desmond. He was born in Kildare, Ireland. As he was illegitimate, he had no right to inherit any of his father's properties. In anticipation of this, his father had therefore entered into a number of covenants with
Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham designed to enable his son to acquire the properties through entail. Early in Edward I's reign, William asked the king to intervene to enforce the implementation of these covenants.
In 1300, William was summoned to serve in an army against the Scots.
He or his guardian Antony Bek, Prince Bishop of Durham, sold
Alnwick Castle on 19 November 1309 to
Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy. (For more details, see the entry on Lord Percy). It is unclear how much of the money William actually received. William was summoned to parliament on 8 January 1313, as
Baron Vesci of Malton.
On 24 June 1314, while serving as a retainer of
Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, William perished at the
Battle of Bannockburn
The Battle of Bannockburn ( gd, Blàr Allt nam Bànag or ) fought on June 23–24, 1314, was a victory of the army of King of Scots Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II of England in the First War of Scottish Independence. It was ...
.
His body was conveyed to York and interred in the chancel of
St Mary's Abbey, York.
Marriage and legacy
Although it is sometimes said that William married Maud, widow of Thomas Neville of Cleatham, this is unlikely.
[ Waugh (2005).] On William's death, his estates devolved upon a distant relation,
Gilbert d'Aton.
Arms
William's
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
is recorded by the fourteenth-century ''Parliamentary Roll''. It is
emblazoned: ''
Or, a plain cross
Sable
The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...
''. The same coat of arms was borne by his uncle,
John de Vesci (died 1289). William's stone
effigy
An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
of an armed knight, that seems to have originally sat at St Mary's Abbey, shows the Vescy family coat of arms
differenced with a
bend sinister, a symbol of bastardy.
[ I'Anson (1929) pp. 3–5; I'Anson (1924) pp. 130–131.]
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vescy, William
1314 deaths
14th-century English people
Year of birth unknown
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
Barons in the Peerage of England