John de Meriet

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁸²
John de Meriet called 'dominus de Meriet,' [Close Roll, 1 E. II. m. 6; Inq.p.m. 1 E. II. no. 62; Inq. 2 E. II. no. 2, and Originalia Roll, 1 E. II. rot 11]. He bore on his shield, Barree, or and sable of six pieces. [Roll of Arms of the Bannerets of England, compiled in the early part of the reign of E. II., taken from the original in the Cotton MSS. ' Caligula A 18].

John de Meriet was born at Meriet, 2 April, 4 E. I., 1276, son and heir of John de Meriet by Ela his second wife, and had seisin of his lands and tenements on making proof of his age in Trinity term, 1297, [' Prob. cetatis Johis fil & hæredis Johls de Meriet in the 'Placita coram Rege' 25 E. I., rot. 3 and 19, no. 152, as extracted by Hugo, 142-6].

He was appointed a Commissioner of Array in Dors'. and Somers'., 16 Sept., 25 E. I., 1297; was returned in Lincolnshire and Somers'. as holding land and rents to the amount of £40 yearly value and upwards, and, as such, was summoned to do military service against the Scots, 24 June, 28 E. I., 1300, and was again summoned for the same purpose, 8 July, 34 E. I., 1306 [Palgrave's 'Parliamentary Writs,' I. 736].

He died in the year 1308, and by the Inquisition on his death, taken at Meriet, 27 March, 1308, it was found that John de Meriet, his son and heir, was on Wednesday next after the Feast of St. Michael, 1 E. II. (which corresponds with 4 October, 1307), of the age of ten years: consequently, his son and heir was born on 4 October, 1297 [Inq.p.m. of' Johannes dominus de Meriet,' 1 E. II. no. 62.]

~Genealogy of the Somersetshire Family of Meriet, pp. 20-21

• Background Information. ¹²⁷¹
At the time of the Conquest the later manor of Merriott formed two estates. The second estate, of five hides, occupied in 1066 by Godwin, had passed by 1086 to Harding son of Eadnoth the staller.

The manor evidently passed from Harding son of Eadnoth, or Harding de Meriet, to his son Nicholas FitzHarding (d. by 1171), followed by his grandson Henry de Meriet (d. by 1192). [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 100-4.] Nicholas de Meriet (d. by 1229) inherited his father's lands in 1212, and in 1229 was succeeded by his son Hugh (d. c. 1236). [Pipe R. 1212 (P.R.S. n.s. xxx), 119, 223; Cal. Inq. p.m. i, p. 2] From Hugh's son Nicholas (d. c. 1258) the manor passed in turn to Nicholas's son John (d. 1285), and grandson, also John. The last succeeded as a minor and received his lands in 1297. [Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, pp. 341-2; Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 293] On his death in 1308 he was followed successively by his sons John (d. by 1322) and George (d. 1328). [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 104-24; Cal. Inq. p.m. vii, p. 119.] From George's son, Sir John de Meriet (d. 1369), the manor descended to his son Sir John (d. 1391), and subsequently to the latter's daughter Elizabeth, wife of Urry Seymour.[Cal. Inq. p.m. xii, pp. 376-7; Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 126-64] On Elizabeth's death without issue c. 1395 the estate was inherited jointly by her cousins Elizabeth and Margaret d'Aumale, granddaughters of George de Meriet (d. 1328) and wives of Sir Humphrey Stafford and Sir William Bonville (d. 1408) respectively. [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 164-7]

~A History of the County of Somerset, Volume IV, p. 53-55

In 1086 there were three separate estates called Lopen. The largest, of 2 hides, had been held T.R.E. by Tofig the sheriff, and in 1086 was in the possession of a king's thegn, the Englishman Harding son of Eadnoth the staller. The largest estate descended in the Meriet family like the manor of Merriott until the death of John de Meriet in 1285. His son, also John (d. 1308), succeeded as a minor and received his other lands in 1297, but Lopen, called for the first time the manor of Great Lopen, was held in dower [Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, pp. 341-2; Cal. Close, 1279-88, 321] by his mother Margaret until 1329 if not later. [Feud. Aids, iv. 315] Her successor was her grandson Sir John (d. 1369), still a minor in 1346. [Feud. Aids, iv. 331,337] Sir John's widow Maud, held Lopen in dower until her death in 1398 when it passed under settlement jointly to William Bonville and Sir Humphrey Stafford and their wives as coheirs of Sir John Meriet (d. 1391).

~A History of the County of Somerset, Vol. IV, 163-170

John married Margaret.¹²⁸² (Margaret died after 1329 in Somerset, England.)