Notes |
- From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
The founder of the Hornby line was John Conyers (d. in or before 1412), a lawyer in the service of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster [...] John's exact place in the wider Conyers pedigree remains uncertain. He was the younger brother of Sir Robert Conyers, who shared with him a grant of the custody of Skelton Castle in August 1403 and was later to be one of John's executors. Their father was also called Robert, and it is probably the three of them who were accused of an attack on the prior of Guisborough's estates, including Ormesby, in 1376. Robert Conyers le filz and John his brother were also involved, at about the same time, in a dispute with Philip Darcy, although this was evidently later resolved, and John acted as Darcy's attorney in 1398. Robert the father may have been a younger brother of John Conyers of Sockburn (d. 1395), whose heir was also, confusingly, called Robert but was never knighted—which distinguishes him from John of Hornby's father and brother. John of Hornby's mother is unknown. It was probably his father who, c. 1373, was married to Alice, but this seems to have been a second marriage, with the sons of the first marriage already adult. The elder Robert married a third time, if he can be identified with the Sir Robert Conyers and Joan, his wife, who received papal letters of plenary remission in 1394. Sir Robert the son married Alina, who can probably be identified with the heir of William Percy of Kildale, who brought Ormesby into the family; their son was John Conyers of Ormesby (d. 1438). A third brother, William, was also the father of a son called John.
John Conyers of Hornby died in or just before 1412. He had acquired at least one further manor, that of Solberge-on-Wiske, which he had been granted by Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and which he used to make provision for his younger sons, Richard and Thomas.
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