page_title: Feudal barony of Dunster
section_title: Sir John de Mohun, 2nd Baron Mohun (c. 1320 – 1375)
hierarchical_section_title: Feudal barony of Dunster / Descent / de Mohun / Sir John de Mohun, 2nd Baron Mohun (c. 1320 – 1375)
caption_attribution_description: English: John de Mohun KG from the Bruges Garter Book, 1430/1440, BL Stowe 594
context_page_description: The feudal barony of Dunster was an English feudal barony with its caput at Dunster Castle in Somerset. During the reign of King Henry I the barony comprised forty knight's fees and was later enlarged. In about 1150 the manors retained in demesne were Dunster, Minehead, Cutcombe, Kilton and Carhampton in Somerset, and Ham in Dorset.
context_section_description: Sir John de Mohun, 2nd Baron Mohun, KG, (c. 1320 – 1375) (grandson), the last in the senior male line of Mohun of Dunster. He was the son of John de Mohun (died after 1322) (eldest son of John de Mohun), who predeceased his father, having fought at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 and died some time after in Scotland. He was aged about 10 when he inherited the barony from his grandfather, and being a minor and a tenant-in-chief, became a ward of the King, who sold his wardship and marriage to Henry Burghersh (1292–1340), Bishop of Lincoln and Chancellor of England, who married him to his half-niece, Joan of Burghersh (died 1404), daughter of his half-brother Bartholomew de Burghersh, 1st Baron Burghersh (died 1355). According to Maxwell-Lyte (1909), Joan of Burghersh "was aiming at something more than a life interest in her husband's estates. She seems indeed to have obtained complete ascendency over him, either by the power of the purse or by superior force of character". He fought at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 with distinction and was one of the 25 founding knights of the Order of the Garter in 1348. With no expectation of male children, after having entered into several complicated settlements and resettlements of his estates, his wife Lady Mohun found herself in control of his estates, and despite the existence of her three daughters, "all of whom made brilliant matches", in 1374 she sold the reversion of the castle and manor of Dunster, the manors of Minehead and Kilton, and the hundred of Carhampton to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell (died 1395), wife of Sir Andrew Luttrell (died 1378/81), and a daughter of Hugh de Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (1303–1377) and widow of Sir John de Vere, son of the Earl of Oxford. In the following year 1375 Lady Mohun's husband died, being the last in the male line of Mohun. In the following year 1376, Lady Mohun completed the transaction, namely that her trustees settled the castle of Dunster, the manors of Kilton, Minehead and Carhampton, and the hundred of Carhampton on Lady Mohun for her life, with remainder to Elizabeth Luttrell and her heirs.
  Lady Elizabeth Luttrell never lived at Dunster, as she died in 1395 before Lady Mohun's life interest had expired. But Dunster Castle remained unoccupied after 1376 until Lady Mohun's death in 1404, as she lived the rest of her life at or near the royal court and stayed at Minehead on her rare visits to Somerset. She was buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, where her stone effigy survives.
caption: Sir John de Mohun, KG, (c. 1320 – 1375), from the Bruges Garter Book, 1430/1440
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