Key Facts

Snapshot:	tortured to death for rebelling against King Edward II
Parents:	8406496Alexander de Cheyne 8406497Agnes de Say
Born:	circa 1274 location unknown
Died:	not long after 22 March 1322 perhaps York, England
Buried:	unknown

4203248William Cheyne's parents are 8406496Alexander de Cheyne1-4 and 8406497Agnes de Say.1,2 4203248William was born circa 1274 (An inquisition dated 4 July 1296 states that he was 22 years old3).

His father had died by May 1296, and 4203248William inherited his property in Streat, which included a messuage, a garden, at least 100 acres of arable land, a pasture, 10 acres of meadow, a watermill, and various feudal rents.3,5

He married 4203249Margaret Shurland,6 although I don't know when.

Douglas Richardson's Royal Ancestry, which is generally recognized as a reliable reference work, states that 4203248William "served in France and also against the Scots under King Edward I," 7 but I have seen no contemporary evidence to support this statement. (You may recall King Edward I from the 1995 movie Braveheart, in which he was depicted—in a somewhat exaggerated manner—as a ruthless psychopath. If Richardson's description is accurate, 4203248William likely would've been serving in Scotland at roughly the same time as the events depicted in the movie.)

4203248William allegedly served in Scotland under King Edward I,7 depicted here as played by Patrick McGoohan in the 1995 film Braveheart.

In 1316 4203248William was pardoned a debt he owed the government, in consideration of the "good service done by [his father] Alexander to the late king [Edward I] in Gascony" in 1296.4

In 1322 4203248William joined an unsuccessful rebellion against King Edward II, which culminated in the ill-fated Battle of Boroughbridge. I provide a few details below, but to learn more I recommend: Roy Martin Haines, King Edward II: Edward of Caernarfon: His Life, His Reign, and Its Aftermath, 1284-1330 (McGill-Queen's, 2003), pages 135-142.

We know that 4203248William joined the rebellion because he's named alongside other co-conspirators who were captured with the rebel leader, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster.8 A map from Historic England shows that the battlefield was around coordinates N54.09773 E1.39707.

The rebel leader was executed a few days after the battle, and other high-ranking rebels were also executed soon thereafter, including 4203248William. A few decades after the battle, historian Thomas Walsingham wrote:

[Numerous other rebels] et Willelmus Cheyne, qui capti sunt cum Thoma Comite, propter roberias et felonias, et resistentiam quam fecerunt contra Regem ad villam de Burtone, occidentes Regis familiares, et Regis transitum prohibentes, ac partem villæ prædictæ in recesssu suo comburentes, cæteraque perpetrantes, quæ dicto Thomæ Comiti imponuntur, adjudicati sunt, de prædictorum Comitum et Baronum consilio, tractioni et suspensioni apud Eboracum.

Translation: "[Numerous other rebels] and William Cheyne, who were captured with Earl Thomas, on account of robberies and felonies, and the resistance which they committed against the King at the town of Burton, killing the King's family members, and forbidding the King's passing, and burning a part of the aforesaid village during their retreat, and committing those things which are imposed on the said Earl Thomas, were adjudged, on the advice of the aforesaid Earls and Barons, to be drawn and hung at York."

A parliamentary writ includes "Sire William Cheyne" on a list of men who were treynez ⁊ penduz ("hung and drawn") in the wake of the failed rebellion.9 Haines' abovementioned book (Edward II) cites other sources that mention 4203248William in the aftermath of the battle (See citation #362 on page 141, and described on page 427.), like this medieval manuscript:

4203248William's capture mentioned in a medieval manuscript. Full page.10

On the back of a document pertaining to the rebellion, someone apparently wrote a brief description of 4203248William's coat of arms: "de gul frettee dor label dargent." 11 In plain English this might read, "red, with gold interwoven lines, and a silver decoration resembling a horse-strap."

Online genealogies that include 4203248William often cite Douglas Richardson's Royal Ancestry as a source, but without specifying which original, underlying record(s) support(s) their assertions. Therefore, below I've copied Richardson's entry for 4203248William in full.11 9. WILLIAM DE CHEYNE (or CHEYNEY), of Streat, Sussex, and Patrixbourne, Kent, son and heir, born about 1274 (aged 22 in 1296). He married MARGARET DE SHURLAND (or SHIRLAND), daughter of Robert de Shurland, Knt., of Shurland (in Eastchurch), Isle of Sheppey, Kent, by his wife, Margery. They had three sons, William, Robert, Knt., and Peter. His wife, Margaret, was co-heiress to her brother, Robert de Shurland, and sole heiress to her sister, Maud de Shurland. He served in France and also against the Scots under King Edward I. In 1316 he was pardoned a debt of 102s. 1-¼d. in consideration of the good service done by his late father, Alexander de Cheyne, to King Edward I in Gascony. He opposed Peter de Gaveston, and then Hugh le Despenser, and fought at the Battle of Boroughbridge against the King's forces in March 1322. WILLIAM DE CHEYNE is said to have been hanged at York or Pontrefract following the battle. Hasted Hist. & Top. Survey of Kent 6 (1798): 246-249; 9 (1800): 279. Clutterbuck Hist. & Antiqs. of Hertford 1 (1815): 133 (Cheyney ped.). Sussex Arch. Colls. 25 (1873): 108-111 (Cheyney ped.); 65 (1924): 20-53. Arch. Cantiana 14 (1882): 169-170; 20 (1893): 173, 178, 179, 186; 21 (1895): 205, 210-211 (re Shurland). C.C.R. 1313-1318 (1893); 377. Benolte et al. Four Vis. of Berkshire 1532, 1566, 1623 & 1665-6 2 (H.S.P. 57) (1908): 102-105 (Cheney ped.: "Wm Cheney son and heire 22 annor' ad mortem patris. = Margarett da: & herie of Sr Robert Sherland of Sherland."). Misc. Gen. et Heraldica 4th Ser. 3 (1910): 313-317. Year Books of Richard II 5 (Ames Found. 8) (1937): 14-19. Taylor Recs. of the Barony & Honour of the Rape of Lewis (Sussex Rec. Soc. 44) (1939): 78-79. VCH Sussex 7 (1940): 114. Richardson's citation of Archaeologia Cantiana, volume 20 (1893), pages 173 (entry #171) and 178-179 (entries #201 and #205) could lead to confusion, since these records actually refer to 4203248William's son William, whose wife's name was (confusingly enough) Margeria/Margeret. Cross-referencing the three records with William's (i.e., the son's) inquisition post mortem helps clear up the matter.

Sources Cited:

1: Rotulorum Originalium in Curia Scaccarii Abbreviatio, Volume I (1805), page 96.

2: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office, Volume VII, Edward III (London, 1909), page 416. The key phrases are "moiety was sometime in the hand of William de Say;" "the said William [de Say] [...] gave the said moiety [...] to Alexander de Cheyny [...] and to Agnes his wife;" and "William de Cheyny, son of the said Alexander and Agnes."

3: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office, Volume III, Edward I (London, 1912), page 205-6.

4: Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward II, 1313-1318, page 377.

5: Records of the Barony and Honour of the Rape of Lewes (Sussex Record Society, Volume 44) (1939), pages 78-79.

6: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents Preserved in the Public Record Office, Volume VII, Edward III (London, 1909), page 416.

7: Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Volume IV, page 459.

8: Thomæ Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, Volume I, page 165. The text is apparently a transcription of part of Royal MS 13 E ix.

9: Francis Palgrave, Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons [...], Volume II, Division II (1830), appendix page 201.

10: Trinity College Cambridge manuscript R.5 41, folio 118r. The College has made this image available under a Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 license.

11: Francis Palgrave, Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons [...], Volume II (1830), page 199.