Family and Education

s. and h. of John Dayrell of Lillingstone Dayrell by his w. Joan. m. (1) bef. July 1384, Joan, da. of Thomas Amersham of Amersham, Bucks., 4s. 2da.; (2) Margaret — of Pertenhall, Beds., 1s.1

Offices Held

Tax collector, Bucks. Nov. 1377, Dec. 1380.

Commr. of array, Bucks. Apr. 1385, Mar. 1392, Dec. 1399, Oct. 1403; to collect an aid Dec. 1401; of inquiry Sept. 1404 (insurrection).

Alnager, Bucks. 4 Feb. 1395-11 Feb. 1397.

Biography

By 1369 Roger Dayrell had inherited the manors of Lillingstone Dayrell and Hanworth, which had both been in his family for at least two centuries. But in June 1377, he conveyed all his rights in Hanworth to Alan Ayot* of Shalstone and a clerk named John Chamberlain, in order to implement an agreement he had made with Nicholas Brembre† and another citizen of London, promising them tenure of the manor in return for the sum of £120 payable to him in instalments at Lillingstone. It may well be that this move had been prompted by financial or legal difficulties to which Dayrell was currently subjected. Certainly, at the same time he took out a royal pardon, and in 1381 he was awarded £10 damages at the assizes held at Newport Pagnell, after he had been wrongfully disseised of 12 messuages and other property at Lillingstone. Then, in July 1384, he and his wife Joan, together with her father, Thomas Amersham, were engaged in litigation with John Faukes and Joan his wife over lands at Long Crendon, which suit was referred by the assize judges to four arbitrators, among whom was John de la Chamber*, his own nominee. The award, as put into effect at Easter following, was that a number of properties in Long Crendon, as well as some 270 acres of land, were confirmed in Dayrell’s possession, subject to an annual payment of five marks to Joan Faukes for her lifetime.2

Dayrell apparently travelled through the north of England with Richard II’s army in the summer of 1385, for in July he witnessed a deed at Catton in Yorkshire whereby the King’s half-brother, Sir John Holand (then in deep disgrace for the murder of the earl of Stafford’s heir), vested his northern estates in the hands of trustees. However, there is no other record of a connexion between Dayrell and Holand, and nothing in the pattern of his public service points to his having strong political affiliations thereafter. He does seem to have been highly litigious. For as well as the suits already mentioned, before the end of Richard II’s reign he prosecuted one man for trespass at Lillingstone, and another for leaving his service at Wooburn, where he had possession of ‘The Glory’ manor and certain other properties, formerly belonging to his first wife’s father, Thomas Amersham. In 1404 he recovered seisin of ‘The Glory’ from a lessee, after bringing a suit in the court of common pleas. Moreover, seven years later, he petitioned Chancery for a writ to the sheriff of Buckinghamshire to cause John Payn of Beaconsfield to come before the justices at Westminster in order to acknowledge a release to him and his father-in-law (now deceased) of all actions for debt, account and trespass, alleging that Payn, by unlawfully suing for execution of a recognizance for £40, had made distraint on Amersham’s lands. On this occasion, Dayrell’s mainpernors included the Buckinghamshire apprentice-at-law, John Barton I, whose fourth election to Parliament he had attested in 1407.3

Following Dayrell’s death, which occurred before June 1414, Lillingstone was inherited by his eldest son, John. His widow Margaret, the heiress of the manor of Pertenhall and lands elsewhere in Bedfordshire, took as her next husband Arthur Ormesby† (whom her son Thomas Dayrell was afterwards to confirm in possession of her estates). Margaret and Ormesby also retained Roger Dayrell’s property at Long Crendon, having received confirmation of tenure from William Asselyn and Alice his wife. Alice Asselyn, whose relationship to Dayrell is unclear, would appear to have been the heir to the Amersham lands, for in October 1414 Margaret conveyed to her the estate in Amersham, ‘The Glory’, and other holdings once belonging to Thomas Amersham.4

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. VCH Bucks. iv. 189; G. Lispcomb, Bucks. iii. 31-32; CCR, 1435-41, p. 242.
• 2. VCH Bucks. iv. 189; CIPM, xiii. 125; VCH Mdx. ii. 392; CCR, 1374-7, pp. 549-50; C67/28 B m. 11; JUST 1/1489 m. 19d; Huntington Lib. San Marino, STG Grenville evidences, box 8; CP25(1)21/105/12; Lipscomb, i. 210.
• 3. CCR, 1392-6, p. 224; 1409-13, p. 241; CPR, 1399-1401, p. 494; 1405-8, p. 258; VCH Bucks. iii. 110; C219/10/4.
• 4. VCH Beds. iii. 154; CCR, 1413-19, p. 193; 1435-41, p. 242; Lipscomb, i. 210; iii. 31-32; CP25(1)22/116/6.