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Crimson’s Creative Challenge

When, circa 1260, Walter Jernegan married Isabel FitzOsbert he could not have known that her brother would die without heirs. And that the line of Isabel’s cousin John de Nougon would also fail, this at his grandson.

Thus it mattered not a wit how the FitzOsbert estate was divided at Lady Katherine’s death in 1338, for it all landed square in the hands of Walter’s grandson John.

With his marriage to Isabel, Walter Jernegan provided his family with a ‘cheat’, a fast doubling of land and step up the Ladder. Tenant-in-chief, a baron eligible for summons to parliament; it meant his heirs could now look to other barons for wives. It meant larger dowries. Alas, it meant larger dowers too.

But without that marriage the Jernegans, notable amongst them, Elizabeth, Sir Richard, Sir Edward and Sir Henry, would not have become figures at the Tudor courts

The pictured gate belongs to Somerleyton Hall, just north of Lowestoft, which the Jernegans inherited from the FitzOsbert estate.

The notable Jernegans are… (note the change in spelling during Henry VIII’s reign)

Elizabeth Jernegan: Mistress of the Nursery to Prince Henry (Henry VIII), later governess to Princess Mary (Queen Mary I)

Sir Richard Jerningham: Deputy and Treasurer of the City and Marches of Tournay, Knight of the Body and later ambassador to the French King.

Sir Edward Jerningham: Chief Cup Bearer of the Queen’s Chamber at the coronation of Henry VIII.

Sir Henry Jerningham: Master of Horse for Princess Mary, and subsequently Steward to the household of Princess Mary, Gentleman Pensioner at the court of Henry VIII, Vice Chamberlain of the Household, Captain of the Guard and Master of the Horse (to list but a few of his positions).

Although Sir Henry Jerningham spent his child years at Somerleyton, he was later granted the massive estate that then was Cossey, in Norfolk… where centuries later I was born.