Family and Education

s. of William Greville of Horley, Oxon. by Joan (b.c. 1375), yr. gdda. and coh. of Sir Giles Ardern (d.1376) of Drayton; nephew of John*. s.p.

Offices Held

Biography

Richard was a grandson of William Greville (d.1401) the wealthy wool merchant of Chipping Campden. His eldest uncle, Lewis Greville, and his father, another William, were married to sisters—Margaret and Joan, the grand daughters and coheirs of Sir Giles Ardern—and in 1399 arrangements were completed for a division of the former Ardern estates between them, with the result that William and Joan, the younger couple, were allotted the Oxfordshire manors of Horley, Wykham and Ilbury. This William was apparently still living in 1401, when mentioned in an entail of the wool merchant’s manor of Milcote (Warwickshire), and presumably also in 1406 when a similar entail was made with regard to Meon (Gloucestershire), then in the possession of yet another of the Greville brothers; but certainly by 1410 Joan had been widowed and had taken as her second husband Sir Richard Arches* (d.1417).1

It may be presumed that Richard Greville inherited his mother’s manors after her death, which occurred before 1416, although evidence survives only for his tenure of part of the manor of Ilbury. His brief career made little impression in the records. Although, in December 1419, he was named on the list of 12 men sent to the King’s Council by the j.p.s for Oxfordshire in response to an inquiry about those best suited for military service in England, it is hard to discover a reason for his election to Parliament a year later. Perhaps his influential uncle John Greville, a retainer of the King’s brother John, duke of Bedford, had something to do with it. In any case, young Greville died on 15 Sept. 1421 without making further mark in the local community. His heir was his 11-year-old half-sister, Joan Arches, who, after being entrusted to the wardship of Thomas Chaucer*, eventually married Sir John Dynham (d.1458), the prominent Devonshire landowner.2

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. CIPM, xv. 455-6; VCH Oxon. ix. 105-6; x. 47; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 178; Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. xii), 179; CPR, 1401-5, p. 2; 1405-8, p. 282; CP25(1)191/24/71, 72.
• 2. E28/97/24; C138/55/6; VCH Oxon. xi. 95; CP, iv. 377-8; CFR, xiv. 411.