John de Somery

1279 - 1322  (43 years)  Submit Photo / Document

• Name	John de Somery
  Birth	Mar 1279	Dudley, Staffordshire, England, UK
  Gender	Male
  Possessions	1321	Uchel-olau (High-light), Gwenfo, Glamorganshire, Wales, Great Britain
  	The sub-manor of Highlight was held under the lords of Dinas Powys by the service of half a knight’s fee, for which 3s 4d wardsilver was contributed annually. Dinas Powys itself was held from the 12th century by the important family of De Someri, lords of Dudley who in turn held it of the lords of Glamorgan. No early record survives as to whom Highlight was sub-enfeoffed, though a David de Someri, doubtless a junior member of the family is named as its lord in 1291. In 1321-22, the main line of the de Someri family became extinct in the male line and the lordship of Dinas Powys was divided into moieties, one of which was in the possession of the Sutton family, the other in the hands of the lord of Glamorgan. In consequence of the partition separate payments of 1s 8d. wardsilver were paid by the tenants in respect of Highlight to the two overlords, an arrangement which continued from the 14th to the late 18th century, except for a short period following 1617, when the moieties were re-united under Sir William Herbert. In Despencer’s Survey of the Shire Fee of Glamorgan compiled in 1320 for taxation purposes, Highlight manor was reported as containing two ploughlands. The assessments in this survey seem to have been made in respect of the Gwentian acres (3,240 square yards to the acre), in which case Highlight would have contained 240 Gwentian or 160 Statute acres, the arable proportion representing only about 38 per cent. This clearly reflects the local ground conditions of impeded clay subsoil. Rough estimates based on this survey also indicate that in the adjacent parishes to the S.W. such as Barry, Penmark, and Porthkerry, located on freely drained clay loam on limestone, between 50 and 60 per cent of the land was arable. Howard J. Thomas
  Death	1 Jul 1322	Dudley, Staffordshire, England, UK
  Person ID	I105557040	St. John Origin and Ancestry DNA Database
  Last Modified	11 Jul 2022

  
  

  Father	Roger III de Somery, m. Agnes ,   b. 1254   d. 1291 (Age 37 years)
  Relationship	Birth
  Mother	Agnes _____, de Somery
  Family ID	F400771	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Reference

  Suzanne St. John. "John de Somery". The St. John Genealogy Project. https://stjohngenealogy.com/getperson.php?personID=I105557040&tree=OSA0001 (accessed April 24, 2025).