Sir Richard de Vernon Knight

   Another name for Richard was Richard le Franceys.¹⁹³

  Information about this person:

• Family Background. ¹²⁶⁸
The Haddon, and the Derbyshire estates of the Vernon family, were in the hands of Gilbert le Fraunceis. "Amongst the Haddon charters there is one dated 47 Hen. III, proving that Gilbert le Franceis was then dealing with the Baslow property, possibly only as a trustee. He, with Reginal Huscota, grandted to Hugo de Edinsbaile a lease of the quarries of Baslow for 10 years. By another charter, sans date, at Belvoir, Gilbert le Franceys, Knight, granted to Richard de Bassilow the bovate which Adam Bond held in Bobenhill. Witnesses: Robert de Herthill, Walter de Den, Rd. le Ragged, Hy. de Tadington, Hy. Foljambe, and other.

"In 2 Rich. I, Roald le Franceys gave land in Dalton to Warin Travers of Dalton Travers. 23 Hen. III, John Franceys, probably a grandson of Ronald, claimed against Robert Travers son of Warin, two bovates of land in Dalton, and in 30 Hen. III, this suit after many delays, so common at that time, came to an end, and by a fine of Trinity term of that year, Robert Travers acknowledged the land to be the right of the said John, as land which Robert, father of John, had by the gift of Warin Francis (this should be Travers), father of Robert whose heir he is, and John gave Robert a soar-hawk.

"No doubt Gilbert le Franceys was heir of his family, but being well provided for by the Vernon inheritance, Adam his father, passed him over, and gave his land to Grimbaldus, probably a younger son, and the following suits show that Grimbaldus and the nephew and heir of Grimbaldus were complelled to call Richard le Vernon, who wa the true heir of these estates to warrent their title.

"29 Edw. I, John fil Ivo de Herford sued Grimbaldus le Franceys, who 32 Edw. I called Richard de Vernon to warranty of 1 messuage, 160 s. of land, 6 a. mead, ½ a mill, in Barton juxta Melsonby, and he called William fil Nic. le Boteler, who was then an infant.

"In the Inq. p. m. of Gilbert le Franceis concerning Haddon shows that Richard, son of Gilbert le Franceis, also called himself le Franceis after the death of his fahter, so that the fact that he was called to warrant the Franceis estates in Cumberland and Yorkshire proves his descent fromthe family beyond all doubt."

"The Vernons of Haddon Hall, " Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, Vol. XVI, pp. 194-196

• Background Information. ²⁰⁷
The manor of Nether-Haddon belonged at an early period to the family of Avenell, whose co-heiresses married Vernon and Basset. The heiress of Vernon, in the reign of Henry the Third, married Gilbert Le Francis, whose son Richard took the name of Vernon and died at the age of 29 in 1296. This Richard was common ancestor of the Vernons of Haddon, Stokesay, Hodnet, Sudbury, &c. The Bassets continued to possess a moiety of Nether-Haddon in the reign of Edward III., but in or before the reign of Henry VI. the whole became vested in the Vernons, who had purchased Basset's moiety.

~Magna Britannia, Vol. V: Derbyshire, pp. 23-43

• Background Information. ²⁰⁷
The first connection of the ancient family of Vernon in Derbyshire was by the marriage of Richard, a younger son of one of the Barons of Shipbrooke, in Cheshire, with a coheiress of the Avenells, of Nether Haddon. This Richard [had a son named Robert who] died without male issue, leaving a daughter and heiress, married to Gilbert le Francis, whose son Richard took the name Vernon, settled at Haddon-hall, and was a common ancestor of the Vernons of Haddon, Stokeasy, Hodnet, Sudbury, &c, Richard, son of Gilbert le Francis, married a daughter of Michael de Harcla, and die in the year 1322 at age 65.

~Magna Britannia, Vol. V, p. liii

Richard married Isabel de Harcla, daughter of Sir Michael de Harcla Knight and Unknown.²⁵⁴ (Isabel de Harcla was born in Hartley, Westmoreland. England.)