Stephen Devereux of Bodenham and Burghope

Stephen Devereux (d. 1350) of Bodenham and Burghope was a member of a prominent knightly family in Herefordshire during the reigns of Edward I, Edward II and Edward III. An important retainer of the de Bohun Earls of Hereford, he gave rise to the Devereux Earls of Essex and Viscounts of Hereford. Ancestry and childhood Stephen Devereux was born probably in the range 1289-1295, the son of Walter Devereux of Bodenham and his wife, Margery de Braose. His grandmother, Alice Grandison, died shortly after the birth of his father, and his grandfather married a second time to Lucy Burnell. She gave birth to his half-uncle, John Devereux of Frome, whose descendants would later contend with Stephen over control of their patrimony. His grandfather spent his life struggling to regain control of the lands forfeited by Stephen's great-grandfather who had died in rebellion at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and were subject to the Dictum of Kenilworth. Stephen Devereux's coat of arms was the same as his father: argent a fess gules, in chief three torteaux. Marriage He married Cicely. They had children: Walter Devereux of Bodenham. About 1331 Sir Walter Devereux witnessed the grant for life by Walter fitzRichard of Bulley (Gloucestershire) to Hugh and Mabel de Bradfield of 20 acres of land and a fourth part of the meadow held in Bulley of the fee of the Hospital for 20s and rent of 2s yearly. This probably means he had to then at least be an adult (aged 21). A copy of this grant is held in the Devereux Papers at Longleat House</ref> On 1 February 1338 he set out on pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. With the outbreak of the war with France, Devereux was back in support of the Earl of Northampton, and probably participated in the battles of Sluys and of Morlaix, and the campaigns in Brittany. Walter Devereux was in the retinue of the king when Edward III invaded France in 1346. He was present at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346. As a retainer of William de Bohun, he probably fought in the second division. On 10 November 1351, Devereux received a commission with Thomas de Cary, sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, to arrest Nicholas de Poyntz and his servants. Walter Devereux seized Hoke and Stapulford in Dorset on 6 January 1355 following the death of Joan, widow of Robert Syfrewast of Hoke, claiming to be the chief lord of these lands. Devereux held the estates until 1 August 1355 when they were taken into the king's hands.