Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

John de Gournay III (fl. c. 1300–1353)

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Recovered the family estates from his uncle the Rector; Lord of Harpley 1332–c.1353.

Born
c. 1290–1300, Norfolk. Son of Sir William de Gournay III (G26) and Katherine Baconsthorpe. Of age to be named in the 9 Edward II (1315/16) fine in which his uncle John (Rector of Harpley) settled the Harpley estate on him and his wife Jane in tail. First attested by name in 1331 in a deed of the same uncle. 1
Died
c. 1353 or later. Living in 27 Edward III (1353). 2
Occupation / Status
Lord of Harpley and associated Norfolk manors (Swathings in Hardingham, Hingham-Gurneys, and others). Patron of the living of Harpley (presented to the church in 1332). 3
Buried
Unknown. No record. 2
Marriage(s)
Jane de Lexham — daughter of Edmund de Lexham; married before 1324, or in that year. Through this marriage, John continued the family line; son John IV (G24) born c. 1330. 4

Highlights

  • Recovered the family estates through his uncle's death — the classic medieval succession by nephew. His father Sir William III had conveyed all the Gournay Norfolk manors to his brother John (Rector of Harpley) in 1294. When the Rector died in 1332 without heirs, the estates reverted to William III's son — John III. The pedigree describes him as "heir to his uncle John, Rector of Harpley" — a nephew-inheritance that preserved the direct male line through an unusual gap in the normal pattern. 5
  • Presented to the living of Harpley in 1332 — the very year he succeeded. As lord of Harpley, John III immediately exercised one of the most tangible symbols of manorial authority: the right of advowson, the presentation of a new incumbent to the church living. In 1332 he presented to the church of Harpley, the same living his uncle had held as Rector. 6
  • His wife Jane de Lexham is named and dated — unusually precise for this generation. Genealogist Daniel Gurney's pedigree records that Jane was the daughter of Edmund de Lexham and that she married John "before 1324, or in that year." This is one of the earliest marriage dates in the junior Norfolk branch with a named wife and an approximate date — a mark of how the documentary record begins to thicken in the 14th century. 7

Children

Name Dates Mother Notes
John de Gournay IV fl. c. 1330–1370; lord of Harpley 1354 Jane de Lexham G24 in direct line. Mentioned in deed of uncle John (Rector) 1331. Lord of Harpley, held court there in 1354. Father of Edmund Gournay (G23). 8

Narrative

John III’s story is quieter than his grandfather’s rebellion or his son’s rise, but it has a satisfying turn: the Harpley lands went sideways to a priest, then came back to the nephew who could carry the family forward. When Rector John died in 1332, John III stood as heir and received back the manors of Harpley, Swathings in Hardingham, Hingham-Gurneys, and associated holdings.5

The documentary record for John III is sparser than for his more dramatic predecessors, but it is clear and consistent. He first appears in a deed of his uncle John (Rector of Harpley) dated 6 Edward III (1331), and the 1315/16 fine recorded by Blomefield had already granted the Harpley estate to John and his wife Jane, to pass only to their direct heirs.1 The following year he succeeded to the estates and exercised advowson at Harpley, presenting a new rector in place of his deceased uncle.6

Jane de Lexham gives this otherwise spare generation one human anchor. She is named in Daniel Gurney’s pedigree, and Blomefield’s Harpley account independently places John and Jane together in the 1315/16 settlement. Their son John IV (G24) appears in the 1331 deed and became lord of Harpley in his turn by 1354.48

John III’s long life — attested from at least the early 14th century to 1353 — spanned the early decades of the Hundred Years’ War and the catastrophic Black Death of 1348–49. No surviving record connects him personally to those events, so his documented legacy is simpler and more durable: he re-established the Gournay line in possession of the Harpley estates and fathered the son whose household would launch Edmund Gournay into the family’s most consequential medieval alliance, the marriage with Katherine de Wauncy and the West Barsham inheritance.28

Citations

  1. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "JOHN DE GURNEY, III. heir to his uncle John, Rector of Harpley, presented to that living in 1332; living 27 Edw. III." Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay (1848), Part II, p. 356: "Son and heir of John de Gurney and Joan his wife, occurs in the deed of John, rector and patron of Harpley, 6th Edward III (1331)." Independently corroborated by Blomefield, Norfolk vol. viii (Harpley entry, pp. 452–459), reporting the fine of 9 Edward II (1315/16): "by a fine levied in the 9th of Edward II. he settled it on John de Gournoy, (son of Catherine,) and Jane his wife, in tail; remainder to William and Edmund, brothers of John, his nephews." The 1315/16 fine pushes John III's birth no later than c. 1295. -- Note: DG Part II p. 356 uses the older numbering "John de Gournay IV" for the man the project JSON numbers as G24; his father (G25 in project JSON) is "John de Gurney and Joan his wife." The Jane/Joan first-name variation is preserved across DG (Jane in pedigree, Joan in Supplement) and Blomefield (Jane). Source IDs: dg-rec-pt1, dg-rec-supp, blomefield-norfolk. ↩
  2. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "living 27 Edw. III" = 1353. ↩
  3. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286 and Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay (1848), Part II, p. 355 (Harpley church). ↩
  4. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "JANE, dau. of Edmund de Lexham, married before 1324, or in that year." Independently confirmed by Blomefield, Norfolk vol. viii (Harpley entry, pp. 452–459), reporting the fine of 9 Edward II (1315/16) in which Rector John "settled it on John de Gournoy, (son of Catherine,) and Jane his wife, in tail; remainder to William and Edmund, brothers of John, his nephews" -- naming Jane as wife, Katherine as mother (G26), and William and Edmund as G25's brothers. The 1315/16 date pushes John III's birth no later than c. 1295 (of age to be named in the fine). Available at british-history.ac.uk/.../vol8/pp452-459. Source IDs: dg-rec-pt1, blomefield-norfolk. ↩
  5. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), p. 279: "John, his nephew (son of William), became his heir." Pedigree p. 286: John III "heir to his uncle John, Rector of Harpley." ↩
  6. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "presented to that living in 1332." Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay (1848), Part II, p. 355. Independent corroboration from Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, vol. viii (London: William Miller, 1808), "Freebridge Hundred and Half: Harpley," pp. 452–459 — the Harpley parish entry, which lists "Gourney's Manor" among the named Harpley manors and provides the rector-presentation series. The Norfolk Gurney tenure of Harpley was from the Earl Warren / Earls of Arundel; Edmund Gournay G23 was retained as steward of the Norfolk estates of Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, "from whom the Gurneys held their manor at Harpley" (History of Parliament Online biography of Sir John Gurney d. 1408). Available via British History Online. ↩
  7. Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "JANE, dau. of Edmund de Lexham, married before 1324, or in that year." ↩
  8. Daniel Gurney, Record of the House of Gournay (1848), Part II, p. 356: "Son and heir of John de Gurney and Joan his wife, occurs in the deed of John, rector and patron of Harpley, 6th Edward III (1331)." Daniel Gurney, Record (1848), pedigree p. 286: "JOHN GURNAY, Junior, IV. mentioned in a deed of his uncle's, 1331." ↩