Carter v Harreis. Plaintiffs: John Carter. Defendants: John Harreis, Elizabeth, his wife, William Andrew and Margaret, his wife, and Alice Trymlet, single woman. Subject: A tenement called `Southome,’ in Glastonbury, held on lease from defendants by plaintiff, Isabel, his wife, and John, their son, for their lives. Somerset. 1515-1518. (C 1/400/2).

Harreis v Dyer. Plaintiffs: Thomas Harreis. Defendants: Sir Thomas Dyer. Subject of decree: Customary land in the manor of Greinton, Somerset, involving alleged conventual lease by abbot of Glastonbury; dismission. Nov 19, 1554. (C 78/13/43).

John Carter was the plaintiff (against John Bonvyld, Henry Cate, Thomas Crekehaye, John Cowde, John Hamme, and others), concerning land in Colyton, Devon. (STAC 2/24/217). John Bonvyld’s dau., Florence, was the wife of John Bourchier lord Fizwarren, recently wife of Sir Humfrey Fulford. John Bourchier was the son of Fulk Bourchier (who m. Elizabeth Dynham (d. 1516), the dau. of Sir John Dinham (1406–1458) of Nutwell, Devon), the son of William Bourchier and Thomasine Hankford, a dau. and coheiress of Sir Richard Hankford of Annery, Devon, baron of Bampton. By Elizabeth Dynham Fulk Bourchier had issue: Elizabeth Bourchier (d. 1557), who m., as his second wife, Sir Edward Stanhope (d. 1511), by whom she was the mother of Anne Stanhope (c. 1497–1587), the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, br. of Queen Jane Seymour. Florence’s sister, Elizabeth, m. Sir Thomas West. Sir Edward Stanhope, by a first wife, was the father of Sir Michael Stanhope. John Bonvyld held land (of Glaston. Abbey) in Lydeard St. Lawrence, Somerset: Feoffment: John House of ‘Ylmester’ to John Trevelian, knt., John Sydenham of Orchard, esq., John Bonvild,esq. and Will Huett, gent: all mess. etc. in Westow in Lydeard St. Lawrence. (Somerset Arch., DD\SAS\C/795/PR/143, 1517).

Sir Richard Hankford was the son of Sir William Hankford: Robert I de Heriz, ob. by 1128, of Tibshelf, Stapleford, and Oxcroft, held of William Peverel 1., benefactor of Lenten priory, Sheriff of Notts. and Derbys., 1110-1114. Fifth in line from him was Richard de Heriz (Hoblyn MS.). His son,‘John Heris’, m. Joan Vyvian, dau. of Richard Vyvian and Constance Peverel, descendant of William Peverel I. (See Visitations of Cornwall, Comprising the Heralds’ Visitations of 1530, 1573, & 1620, with additions by J. L. Vivian, 1887, p. 17). ‘John Heris’ was the great-grandfather of Sir John Harris, 3rd at Radford, ob. ante 1430, who m. Katherine Hankford, da. of Sir William Hankford, of Hankford, in the parish of Bulkworthy, and of Annery, in the Parish of Monkleigh, Devon, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench. Sir John Harris, 3rd at Radford, had issue: John Harris, 4th at Radford, ob. ante October 16, 1485, father of Francis Harris, who m. Philippa Grenville, born 1489, sister of Katherine Grenville, 1487-1545., the wife of John Arundel, b. 1474, in Lanherne, son of Sir Thomas Arundel of Lanherne, b. 1452, who m. (1473), Katherine Dinham (d. 1501), of Nutwell, Devon, sister of Elizabeth Dynham, aforementioned. John Harris, half-brother of John Harris 4th at Radford, m. ‘a dau. and heiress of Stone’.

Sir John Arundel was the father of:
(1) John Arundel (d. 1557), who m. Mary (Belknap) Dannet; whose niece, Elizabeth Belknap, m. Sir Philip Cooke, whose sister, Beatrix Cooke, m. Sir Nicholas Rawson of Aveley, Essex. Their dau., Anne Rawson, m. Michael Stanhope, who was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1552, as was his brother-in-law, Edward Seymour, Protector Somerset. Elizabeth Belknap and Sir Philip Cooke had issue: John Cooke, whose dau. Joanna Cooke, m. ‘William Harris, b. by 1502, prob. 1st s. of John Harris of Prittlewell Essex by w. Joan. (Bindoff, Hist. Parl. Trust, 1982).
(2) Katherine Arundel, who m. Thomas Tregian, whose mother was the heiress of Wolvedon. (Joseph Polsue, A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, vol. 4, p. 92, 1872). The Wolvedon Arms were: — Arg. a chevron between three wolves’ heads erased, sable.

The East Anglian: Or, Notes and Queries, ed. Samuel Tymms, pp. 140, 172, 1866: Church of All Saints, Maldon: ‘Besides some of the arms which I have already noted as still extant, the following monuments and arms are recorded in Harl MS. 4944, which have been since destroyed. Robert Darcy, and Alice his wife. Arg. 3 cinquefoils Gu. … William Harris, son of William Harris and Jane his wife, which William died 14th May, 1559. Per pale on a chevron engrailed between 3 wolves heads. Sir Thomas Harris, and Cordelia his wife, on the wall. Quarterly; 1 and 4, on a bend Az. 3 cinquefoils … on a canton Or, a lion rampant Gu. (Vyvian: Trelowren-Park, Cornwall, ar. a lion, rampant, gu. armed sa. Vyvian (Cornwall) ar. a lion, rampant – M.S).

Muilman, writing in 1770, says, “There are in a window of Darcy’s chapel, the arms of Peverell, impaling Assigny. Thomas Darcy, b. ca. 1460, m. Margaret Harleston (see TNA 11/7/329), who held ‘Crixheth, Crixseth, Criksea’ manor: ‘Distant from Maldon nine miles, and from London, forty-two. In 1498, Thomasine Hopton held it of Thomas Darcy, esq., and Robert Darcy died possessed of it in 1516. ‘The Harrys or Harris family had a large brick mansion here, pleasantly situated and enclosed in a park, well stored with timber. Some remains of the outer court, and the site of the building, and of fish-ponds, are yet to be seen’ (Hist. Essex, Cricksea Hall).

The Harris assumed the cinquefoil arms of their Darcy overlords.

John Harreis (defendant against John Carter) may have been he of this case: Harreis v Byckenell. Plaintiffs: John Harreis, clerk (of the bishop – M.S), and Thomas Stamp, executors of John Bonvyld, esquire. Defendants: John Byckenell, knight, executor of Dame Katherine Arundell. Subject: A debt of dame Katherine Arundell. Somerset, Dorset. 1493-1500. (C 1/205/70). John Byckenell was a tenant of the abbot of Glastonbury. He died Aug. 23, 1502, and was interred “in the sepulture of Glastonbury”. John Byckenell m. (1) Joan Sydenham, (2) betw. 1485 and 1488, Elizabeth Chokke, relict of John Seymour, and dau. of Sir Richard Chokke, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, seated at Staunton Drew and Long Ashton, in Somerset.

John Harreis may have been a son John Harris (half-brother of John Harris 4th at Radford), or some such close relation, and father of Thomas Harreis, of Glastonbury. John Harreis was highly likely to have been a kinsman of the Harris of Prittlewell.

The sheer weight of circumstance precluded happenchance.

By such measure, the Harris family of Wiveliscombe and Wedmore/Cheddar, were of equal standing, at least, to such as the Bennetts, of Wiveliscombe and Virginia.

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