DARELL, Sir Edmund

The Darells traced their descent back to Normandy, the family taking its name from the village of Airel near Saint-Lô, and were seemingly established in Yorkshire by the middle of the twelfth century. They may have acquired their seat at Sessay near Thirsk by the close of that century, and were certainly there by the 1230s. Sir Edmund’s grandfather, William Darell, left a number of sons, two of whom headed south and forged careers which quickly outshone that of their elder brother, Marmaduke. William Darell settled at Littlecote in Wiltshire, while his brother John Darell founded a family at Calehill in Kent, and both rose to sit in Parliament and hold various offices, not only in their new localities but also within the royal court and administration.1 VCH Yorks. (N. Riding), i. 446-9. However, it was the eldest son, Marmaduke, who inherited the main family estates in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire. He married Joan, the daughter of Sir John Bigod of Settrington, one of his prominent neighbours and five times an MP between 1366 and 1385, but his own career was unremarkable. He held few administrative offices beyond commissions to collect taxes and raise loans in the North Riding, although at his death in the summer of 1423 he was serving as verderer of the royal forest of Galtres, to the north of the city of York.2 CPR, 1416-22, pp. 142, 385; CFR, xii. 190; xiv. 219; CCR, 1422-9, p. 156.

Edmund was probably of age at his father’s death, as no evidence survives in respect of his minority. His mother’s survival significantly diminished his income: in September 1423 his father’s feoffees settled upon her a life annuity of 50 marks.3 A.J. Pollard, ‘The Neville-Darell Indenture’, in The Fifteenth Cent. XIV. ed. Clark, 68. None the less, his inheritance was fairly extensive and he supplemented it by marriage. His patrimony centred on the manor of Sessay, held from the Percy earls of Northumberland as part of their extensive manor of Topcliffe, and much of the family’s other property lay in this region, in particular the manors of Eldmire and Dalton, also held of the manor of Topcliffe, and Thirkleby, pertaining to the Mowbray manor of Thirsk. In the West Riding Darell held the manor of Brodsworth.4 Feudal Aids, vi. 278, 291, 317, 320-1; C140/21/38. His wife Isabel was the daughter and heiress of George Etton, younger brother of Sir John Etton† of Gilling, and her inheritance included the North Riding manors of Terrington and Liverton with other property at Sibsey in Lincolnshire. While these lands would eventually pass to Edmund and Isabel’s descendants, quite how much was enjoyed by Edmund himself is uncertain, although he had interests in the property as early as 1427, several years before Isabel’s father died.5 C140/21/38; CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 138; VCH Yorks. (N. Riding), ii. 203, 384; CIPM, xxiii. 113 (p. 61); Feudal Aids, vi. 292.

Edmund first appears in the records in an active role in August 1424 when he bound himself to abide arbitration in a dispute with the master and brethren of St. Leonard’s hospital in York. In January 1427 he was named as the supervisor of the will of another neighbour, Marmaduke Thweng, and in 1430 he was distrained along with his uncle John for not taking up the honour of knighthood.6 Yorks. Deeds, ix (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. cxi), 192; Test. Ebor. i (Surtees Soc. iv), 412. The first significant act of his career came soon afterwards. On 14 May 1431 he made an enfeoffment of all his lands to a group of his intimates, headed by his uncle and his father-in-law, with instructions to make provision for his wife, pay his debts and provide for his children if he should die before the lands could be re-conveyed to him.7 N. Yorks. RO, Northallerton, Dawnay mss, ZDS 1/2/1, 14 May 1431. There can be no doubt, given what is known of his later career, that this settlement was made preparatory to his intended departure for France in the retinue of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury. Although proof is lacking it is likely that he remained in France to witness Henry VI’s coronation in Paris on the following16 Dec., and it is near certain that it was during this period that he was knighted. He was, in any event, certainly a knight by 3 Oct. 1432, when he was described as such in the will of his kinsman, George Darell.8 Pollard, 72; Test. Ebor. ii (Surtees Soc. xxx), 27-28. George named Sir Edmund as supervisor of his will and bequeathed him a book containing copies of all the statutes passed between 1377 and 1413.

As a knight, Darell now had a new importance in his native shire, and in a county where belted knights had a monopoly over representation he was now qualified to represent it in Parliament. He was duly returned to the Parliament of 1433, along with Sir Robert Hopton*, who like him was to represent the county only once.9 C219/14/4. Much more significantly, on 20 Aug. 1435 he entered into a formal indenture with the earl of Salisbury and the earl’s mother, Joan Beaufort, dowager countess of Westmorland. The agreement is a very curious one for Darell accepted what appear to be rather disadvantageous terms. He agreed that his fee of £10 p.a., which he already enjoyed (perhaps from before he had served with Salisbury in 1431), was to be reduced to £5 p.a. for the period of the countess’s lifetime. Further, if a settlement should be reached in his dispute with the countess’s tenants of Raskelf, neighbouring Sessay, he would continue to serve at no fee at all.10 Pollard, 75. What precisely lay behind this second odd stipulation can only be a matter of speculation, but it did not deter him from further active service to the Nevilles. In the following spring he was again making preparations to depart for France in Salisbury’s military retinue: on 18 Apr. he made another feoffment of his estates under the same terms as those he had laid down five years before.11 Yorks. Deeds, ix. 149-50. This, however, proved to be nearly the last act of his life. The ensuing campaign in Normandy in the late summer of 1436 was relatively successful, but our MP did not survive it: he was either wounded or fell ill during the fighting for Fécamp. It was there that he made a short will on 6 Sept., in which he asked to be buried at Sessay and appointed his wife Isabel and his stepfather, the obscure Sir William Crawford, as his executors.12 Borthwick Inst., Univ. ofYork, York registry wills, prob. reg. 3, f. 498; Pollard, 73. Probate was not granted until 5 July 1437. In 1424 Crawford had fought in the retinue of the famous Yorks. soldier, Sir John Keighley, and it is possible that he was a career soldier of negligible income: E101/51/16.

Darell probably died soon after making his will, since on 12 Nov. 1436 his widow appointed attorneys to receive seisin of various lands from her late husband’s feoffees in accordance with the enfeoffments. At the same time, these attorneys were also to take seisin of the properties in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire which had descended to her following the death of her own parents, her father having died a few months earlier, in June.13 Yorks. Deeds, x (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. cxx), 56. George Etton’s will was dated 10 June 1436 and proved five days later: York registry wills, prob. reg. 3, f. 456. She survived until 14 May 1448 and was presumably buried with her husband in Sessay church, where the treble bell carries an inscription referring to its dedication by the couple.14 Test. Ebor. iv (Surtees Soc. liii), 172n.; VCH Yorks. (N. Riding), i. 449. By this date their son George had married Margaret, daughter of the wealthy Yorkshire knight, Sir William Plumpton*, a prominent servant of the Percys. The match was probably made by Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, into whose wardship George appears to have briefly come.15 CP40/704, rot. 143d. The marriage took place before 19 Apr. 1440 when Sir Edmund’s feoffees appointed attorneys to deliver seisin of the manor of Brodsworth to the couple: Yorks. Deeds, ix. 46-47. The match was an important one, for it seems to have determined George’s political loyalties during the civil war of 1459-61. He committed himself to the Percys, who, after all, were his feudal overlords, rather than his father’s master, the earl of Salisbury. Along with his Plumpton father-in-law he was among the many Percy retainers appealed by the countess of Salisbury as accessories to the murder of her husband after the battle of Wakefield on 30 Dec. 1460, and it is likely that he was in the Percy retinue at the decisive battle of Towton. Although he escaped attainder, he and Plumpton were bound under heavy sureties by the new Yorkist government.16 KB27/804, rot. 65; Plumpton Letters (Cam. Soc. ser. 5, viii), 311-12. He died in 1466, and after his three sons had all died childless, the lands of the main Darell line passed to his daughter, Joan, and her husband, Guy Dawnay of Cowick (Yorkshire), in 1502.17 CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 138; VCH Yorks. (N. Riding), i. 447.