John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath

Origins

Career

Landholdings

Marriages

• Firstly to Elizabeth Hungerford, daughter of Sir Walter Hungerford, of Farleigh, younger son of Robert Hungerford, 3rd Baron Hungerford. By Elizabeth he had one daughter:
• *Elizabeth Bourchier
• Secondly to Eleanor Manners, daughter of George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros by his wife Anne St. Leger. By Eleanor he had children including:
• *John Bourchier, Lord FitzWarin, who predeceased his father. He married his step-sister Frances Kitson, the daughter of his father's 3rd wife from her 1st marriage to Sir Thomas Kitson . Her monument with recumbent effigy exists in Tawstock Church and is covered by the earliest six-columned canopy in Devon. His son by Frances Kitson was William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath.
• Thirdly, on 4 December 1548, to Margaret Donnington daughter and sole heiress of John Donnington of Stoke Newington, a member of the Worshipful Company of Salters, by his wife Elizabeth Pye. Margaret Donnington was the widow successively of Sir Thomas Kitson, the builder of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, and next of Sir Richard Long of Wiltshire, Great Saxham and Shingay, Cambridgeshire, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII. Margaret Donnington was a strong-minded lady who insisted that at the same time as her marriage to Bourchier, his son and heir should marry her own daughter Frances Kitson. The double marriage took place at Hengrave on 11 December 1548. Thus the 2nd Earl's eldest son from his 2nd marriage to Eleanor Manners, John Bourchier, Lord FitzWarin, married his own step-sister, Francesca Kitson, and was by her the father of William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath. Margaret Donnington and Bourchier made Hengrave their home and Bourchier was buried at Hengrave. Stained glass in the cloister of Hengrave Hall survives memorialising the Bourchier residency, showing ten quarterings of Bourchier impaling Donnington

  Children and succession

Death and burial