Jurat and bailiff of Lydd, Kent, England. For interesting details of his life and provisions of his will, see "Ancestors and Descendants of Francis Epes I of Virginia" Vol I.
"The will of Alen Epse of Lyd, Kent, jurat, dated 30 July 1551 and proved 22 September 1551, provided:
"To be buried in the churchyard at Lyd. To my maidservant Agnes Aton a heiffer. To my servant Nicholas Aton a heiffer. To my servant Simon Wynday heiffer and sheep. To my servant Thomas Smythe 2 sheep. To my servant John Rolffe 2 sheep. To my servants Richard Aukyn and Robert Adams sheep. To my maidservants Alice Hollye and Julian Raynolde sheep. To John Wynday sheers and debts he owes me. To Robert Dyne all debts he owes me. To my daughters Johane Epse, Alyce Epse and Margery Epse £20 a piece at 18 or marriage. To my wife’s daughter Elizabeth Harle £10. To my wife Agnes Epse oxen, £15, household stuff in tenement I now dwell in etc. Rest of my moveable goods to my sons William Epse, Thomas Epse & John Epse equally. Said son William Epse to be executor. Thomas Strogle, John Strogle & my brother Thomas Epse to be overseers. Witness Thomas Strogle, jurate, Robert Dyne, John Wynday.
"Will (of lands) To my wife Agnes my principal tenement I now dwell in for life remainder to my three sons William, Thomas & John equally in fee. To said three sons rest of my lands in Lyd aforesaid, Old Romney, St. Martins Pounteney & Brenset or elsewhere in Kent in fee. To my wife my term of years in the Brokes called the Grate Brokes & my term of years in the 14 acres called Mr. Feteplace brokes, behind the watercourse on the backside of my house which I hold to farm of Mr. Feteplace. To my son William Epse half of my term of years in my manor called newe Land which I hold of Mr. Feteplace. To my sons Thomas Epse & John Epse the other half thereof. Said son William Epse to have occupying of all my lands above to said Thomas & John his brethren bequeathed till they are 17. Same Witnesses and Thomas Carpenter.
Agnes Harle was a widow. Her maiden name is unknown.
Several pages of interesting material about the Epes family in England and photographs of Old Romney in Adelia Stewart Sallee's genealogy manuscript "Yea, I Have A Goodly Heritage." This John Epes and his wife Margaret were buried in the floor of Old Romney Church, Kent, England. Brass effigies of John and Margaret Epes ae now mounted on left wall of Old Romney. To be buried before the Rood was a much sought privilege.
John Epes of old Romney, Kent, was born after 1457 since he was under the age of 14 when his father made his will. He was a jurat for Old Romney in January 1520/1, along with his son John, Junior, and is probably the John mentioned as jurat in July 1521 without other designation. His will, made 3 December 1524 as John Eps the elder of the Parish of St. Clement, Old Romney, and proved 8 February 1525/6, provided:
"To be buried in the church in the Aysle part before the Rood. To high altar of St. Martens in New Romney and to high altar of St. Laurence of New Romney. To each of my godchildren 12 pence. To John Epse my godson of Yvechurche, ewes. To Alice Roger my daughter. To John Epps my son. Joan Epps my wife. Agnes, Elizabeth, Cicely and John the children of John Roger. John Garrard my daughter Agnes’ son. Agnes Huggelyn, the daughter of James Huggelyn. Joan my daughter, Anne my daughter, when they reach the age of discretion. Residue to John Epse my son. To Elizabeth Roger.
"Will. Youngest daughters Johane, Amye, Johane when 20. A parcell of land and 16 Acres called Long beche, and the barn with 4 acres lying there, 7 Acres of Land called Brettes, 13 Acres of Land called Daddes, 7 Acres of Land called quarterlandes, 6 ½ Acres of Land which I late purchased of John Arnell. 20 shillings yearly to John for rent, Alice and John Roger to have tenement and garden where they now dwell at rent of 2 shillings to John for their lives. 22 Acres of Land in Hope All Hallows called Seven hay that is to say to the Lands of Allsouls College of Oxenford towards the West and to the land of Richard Hall to the east. Land in Old Romney, St. Martens and St. Laurence, New Romney, Hope, Brookland and Brenzett.
"An undated inscription in St. Clement’s Church names John Ips and his wife Margaret.
"The earliest proved ancestor of Francis Epes I of Virginia was Alan Epes of Brenzett, County Kent, England. Brenzett is partly within the liberty of the town and port of New Romney and therefore within the liberty of the Cinque Ports. A portion of the northern part of the parish, north of the Rheewall, is within the liberty of the Corporation of Romney Marsh.
Sir Knight of Nunney John Paulet
Sir John Paulet, Knight, of Nunney, K.B.(14 Nov 1501), Commander in the army under James, Lord Audley, at the defeat of the Cornishmen 22 June 1497.
Sir William Poulett, knight, of Hinton St George, in the County of Somerset
John Dennehand, Lord of the Manor of Hinton St George, in the County of Somerset.
Surety,Baron of Halton Castle, Earl of Lincoln, Governor of Chester and Beeson Castles John de Lacie
The Lacie strongholds on the Welsh border are Beeston, Chester and Halton Castles. Beeston is now a crumbling ruin. It is hard even to identify the keep, but it could be the large wall tower East of the gate house. The Castle is perched on a height bounded on three sides by sheer drops, and a steep slope on the fourth. Its strength as a defense lay in its inaccessibility. There are two baileys, the innermost on a summit and the other situated on the sloping ground. The inner bailey was guarded on the approachable side by a gate house, two wall towers and a ditch thirty-five feet wide and thirty feet deep, which cut across the promontory. It is important to note that the artificial ravine was fashioned two hundred fifty years before blasting was known. The date of founding was in the 13th Century, and it was founded by Randolph de Blondevill, Earl of Chester.
Chester was the last City to yield to William the Conqueror, and the surrender came in 1070. Once the Normans had the Castle, William's nephew, Hugh Lupus, Palatine Earl of Chester, was appointed as head of the border patrol.
Chester Castle was originally built by the first Norman Earl of Chester, and now consists of modern buildings, the assize-court, jail and barracks. The one remaining Norman relic is "Julius Caesar's Tower," standing by the River. It is a square tower which has been used as a powder magazine, but is scarcely recognizable as a Norman building, because it has been recently recased in red stone. With the exception of this tower, another of the round style, and adjacent buildings in the upper ward, the Castle was dismantled at the end of the 18th Century. From Julius Caesar's Tower one can see the ruins of Beeston Castle, which met a like fate in 1646. Of Halton Castle nothing is left. But Lincoln Castle, on the other side of the Island(l, is an important monument.
Lincoln was the fourth City of the Realm when the Normans invaded, and it seemed to William to be a logical site for a castle. The Domesday Book states that one hundred sixty-six houses were torn down to make way for it. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle held that on his return to York in 1068, William erected the Castle on the site of a Roman fort. Since the land was rather flat, a great bank was built up around it. There are two mottes, the larger one crowned by a polygonal shell wall, which may have been built by Ralph de Gernon's widow. In 1140 King Stephen captured the Castle and, in 1216, the Surety Barons had charge of it.
JOHN de LACIE, the Surety, born 1192, seventh Baron of Halton Castle and hereditary constable of Chester, was one of the earliest Barons to take up arms at the time of Magna Charta. He was also appointed to see that the new statutes were properly carried into effect and observed in the counties of York and Nottingham. He was excommunicated by the Pope. Upon the accession of King Henry III, he joined a party of noblemen and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, rendering valuable service at the Siege of Damietta.
In 1232 Lacie was made Earl of Lincoln and, in 1240, governor of Chester and Beeston Castles. He died 22 July 1240, and was buried in the Cistercian Abbey of Stanlaw in co. Chester. The monk, Matthew Paris, records: "On the 22d day of July, in this year (1240), which was St. Magdalen's Day, John, Earl of Lincoln, after suffering from a long illness went the way of all flesh." His first wife was Alice, daughter of Gilbert 'd’Aquila, but by her he had no issue. She died in 1215 and he married second, after his marked gallantry at the Siege of Damietta, Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Robert de Quincey, a fellow Crusader, who died in the Holy Land, eldest son of Saire de Quincey, the Surety. They had three children, Lady Margaret survived him and married second Walter Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.