page_title: Maurice Russell, knight
section_title: Gorges Inheritance
hierarchical_section_title: Maurice Russell, knight / Family background / Gorges Inheritance
caption_attribution_description: English: Armorials "lozengy Or and azure, a chevron gules", known as "Gorges modern", as adopted by Theobald Russell de Gorges in 1347 following a challenge made by John de Warbleton brought before a Court of Honour held at the Siege of Calais presided over by Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Lancaster. It appears on the Denys funerary brass in the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Olveston, Gloucestershire, England, UK.
context_page_description: Sir Maurice Russell of Kingston Russell, Dorset and Dyrham, Glos. was an English nobleman and knight. He was a prominent member of the Gloucestershire gentry. He was the third but eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Ralph Russell and his wife Alice. He was knighted between June and December 1385 and served twice as Knight of the Shire for Gloucestershire in 1402 and 1404. He held the post of Sheriff of Gloucestershire four times, and was Coroner and Justice of the Peace, Tax Collector and Commissioner of Enquiry. His land holdings were extensive in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was descended from an ancient line which can be traced back to 1210, which ended on the death of his son Thomas, from his second marriage, as a young man without male issue. Most of his estates, despite having been entailed, passed at his death into the families of his two daughters from his first marriage.
context_section_description: Ralph Russell's and Isabel's son Sir William Russell died as a young man in 1310/11, but not without having inherited in 1298 the lands of his two elder brothers, James (who had a son Ralph, d. 1295, s.p.) and Robert (died s.p. 1298). The Russell lands at Dyrham were in 1311 one of the largest arable demesnes in Gloucestershire, that is lands farmed in-hand, not let out to tenants, comprising 420 acres arable and 60 acres of meadow. William produced a male heir, Theobald (1303–1349), by his wife Jane Peverell (or poss. Katherine de Aula from which family the Russells inherited Yaverland, Isle of Wight). Thus, the infant Theobald, having lost father and grandfather, was granted by King Edward II in wardship to Ralph de Gorges, 1st Baron Gorges of Wraxall & Bradpole (Som.), Knighton (IoW), Tothill (Lincolnshire). In 1316, Theobald Russell, as a minor, was recorded as holding 8 manors; 2 in Glos., 1 in Wilts., 1 in Som. & 4 elsewhere. Gorges had a son, Ralph, 2nd Baron Gorges, and 3 daughters, Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Joan. He appears to have married his second daughter Eleanor to the young Theobald Russell. Before the death of the 2nd Baron without issue shortly after his father, clearly keen to see his family name and armorials continue, he formed the plan of bequeathing the Gorges estates to the younger son of his sister Eleanor Russell, on condition, apparently, that he should adopt the name and arms of Gorges. This is precisely what occurred when Theobald Russell II, 3rd son of Theobald and Eleanor, his 2nd elder brother William having died, adopted the name Gorges, and founded a revived Gorges line, which flourished, based at Wraxall, Somerset. (see Gorges family and Ferdinando Gorges). When, however, Theobald “Gorges” tried to adopt the Gorges arms, taken from the Morville heiress who had brought them Wraxall, he was challenged by the Warburton (or Warbleton) knight of Cheshire who happened to be serving with him at the Siege of Calais in 1346, who noticed they both bore the same arms on their shields, "Lozengy or and azure". The case was brought before the Earl Marshal, who adjudged on 19 July 1347 in favour of Warburton and forced Theobald Russell "Gorges" to add a "chevron gules" to the Morville arms as a difference. Thus the new Gorges arms became "Lozengy or and azure, a chevron gules", and one of the more celebrated and historic cases heard in the Earl Marshal's court was recorded. The ancient Gorges canting arms of "Argent, a gurges azure", gurges signifying, in Latin, a whirlpool, had been retained some generations before by the senior Gorges line seated at Tamerton Foliot, Devon, the cadet line having married the de Morville heiress. The eldest son of Theobald I, described as of Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight, and Eleanor was Ralph Russell (died 13 February 1375), described as “of the Isle of Wight”, the father of Sir Maurice Russell, the subject of the present article.
caption: New arms ("Gorges modern") adopted by “Russell” Gorges family, post 1347
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "MP190 series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "MP Navigator EX 1.0", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:06 12:00:16", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "210", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "450", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10720", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:06 12:00:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1233", "EXIF FileSource": "Reflection Print Scanner", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto"}