Baron John le Despenser ¹

  General Notes:

John Le Despencer, one of the barons who rebelled against Henry III, lived at Swallowfield in his half-brother's house. Despite the parish church's east window suggesting a date of about 1130, he is known to have written to the Pope, in 1256, to complain of the distance he had to travel to church in Sonning and gained permission to build a place of worship of his own. His grave was found under the church floor during restoration work in 1869. John lay in a stone coffin with a large flat cross upon it. He was surrounded by cloves and a wooden dish, probably for salt, rested on his chest.

John married Joan Anne De Lou about 1252 in Defford, Worcestershire, England. (Joan Anne De Lou was born in 1240 in England and died in 1275 in Defford, Worcestershire, England.)