# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mohun, John de (1320-1376)

​MOHUN, JOHN de (1320–1376), baron, lord of Dunster, son and heir of Sir John de Mohun (d. 1322), the eldest son of John de Mohun (1270?–1330) [q. v.], lord of Dunster, was ten years old at his grandfather's death in 1330, and was made a ward of Henry Burghersh [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, at whose instance he received livery of his lands in 1341, though still under age. About that time he married his guardian's niece Joan, daughter of Bartholomew, lord Burghersh, the elder (d. 1355) [q. v.] In the same year he received a summons to do service in Scotland, and in 1342 took part in the expedition into Brittany, marching under the command of his father-in-law. After serving as a commissioner of array for the county of Somerset in 1346, he joined in the invasion of France, where he also appears in later years as one of the retinue of the Prince of Wales. He was one of the original knights of the order of the Garter, and his name and arms are still in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. He served also in later expeditions against the French (Dugdale, Baronage). He seems to have fallen into money difficulties, and in 1369 made over his chief estates, the castle and manor of Dunster, Minehead, and the hundred of Carhampton, to feoffees for the benefit of his wife (Lyte). He gave a charter to the monks of Dunster. He died on 14 Sept. 1376, leaving no sons, and was buried in Bruton priory (ib.) By his wife Joan he had three daughters, who all made grand marriages : Elizabeth married William de Montacute, earl of Salisbury (d. 1397), and died 1415; Philippa married (1) Walter, lord Fitz Walter (d. 1386), (2) Sir John Golofre (d. 1396), and (3) Edward, duke of York (d. 1415), and died 1431; and Matilda married John, lord Strange (d. 1397) of Knockin in Shropshire, and died before 1376, leaving a son, Richard, in whom the barony of Mohun vested (Courthope, Historic Peerage, pp. 324, 453). There is an idle legend that Joan, wife of John, lord Mohun, obtained from her husband as much common land for the poor of Dunster as she could walk round barefoot in a day (camden, Britannia, col. 58; Fuller, Worthies, ii. 289). No such gift can be traced (Lyte). After her husband's death she obtained from the feoffees a conveyance of the estates vested in them to herself for life with remainder to Lady Elizabeth, widow of Sir Andrew Luttrell of Chilton in Thorverton, Devonshire, who paid her for this purchase 3,333l. 6s. 5d. Lady Mohun lived much at court, where she and her daughter, the Countess of Salisbury, used to appear in the robes of the Garter (ib.; Beltz). She built and endowed a chantry chapel in the undercroft of Christ Church, Canterbury, and, dying on 4 Oct. 1404, was there buried. The effigy on her tomb is given by Stothard (Monumental Effigies), and has been copied by Mr. Lyte (Dunster and its Lords). At her death Sir Hugh Luttrell, son of Sir Andrew and Lady Elizabeth, came into possession of Dunster as his mother's heir.
[Lyte's Dunster and its Lords, pp. 19-23, 34; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 498; Beltz's Order of the Garter, cxlix. and pp. 49-51, 248, 249, 255; Nicolas's Historic Peerage, pp. 324, 453, ed. Courthope; Froissart, i. 264, ed. Buchon, i. 218 n.; Camden's Britannia, col. 58. ed. Gibson, 1695; Fuller's Worthies, ii. 289, ed. Nichols.]
W. H.