Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 12, Part 2: Verdun (PROPOSED CORRECTIONS)

VERDUN

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Volume 12, part 2, page 248:
He [John de Verdun (d. 1274)] m., 2ndly, before 1267, Eleanor.(f)
Note f:
... Presumably his s. Humphrey, b. on the vigil of Pentecost 1267, was by the 2nd wife (Dugdale, Mon., vol. v, p. 661). Nothing is known of Eleanor's parentage but she may have been a Bohun. A seal, said to be hers, bears the Bohun and Verdun arms (Staffs Hist. Coll., William Salt Arch. Soc., 1913, p. 298) and the name of her s., Humphrey, may be significant.

Further evidence supports the identification of Eleanor as a Bohun, probably a daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford (d. 1275). She was still living in 1277.

Cris Nash, in December 2001 and January 2002, reported that the identification of Eleanor as a Bohun is supported by M.S. Hagger [in The fortunes of a Norman family: the de Verduns in England, Ireland and Wales 1066-1316 (2001)], who refers also to a gift of lands in Debden by her son Humphrey to Humphrey de Bohun, in exchange for Nuthampstead [Debden, in Essex, having been previously held by the Bohuns].

Douglas Richardson, in January 2002, provided further confirmation of the Bohun connection - after John de Verdun's death, Eleanor, in 1277, conveyed lands in Debden to John de Grey and Maud his wife [citing Feet of Fines for Essex, vol. 2, p. 13 (1913-1928)]. He also suggested that Maud, the wife of John de Grey, was Eleanor's daughter, and that if so, this would explain the consanguinity between two couples later said to be related in the 4th degree of kindred - (i) John de Bohun, earl of Hereford (d. 1335/6) and his wife Margaret Basset (a granddaughter of John de Grey) and (ii) John de Lisle, Lord Lisle (d. 1355) and his wife Maud de Grey (another granddaughter of John). If this explanation is correct, it suggests that Eleanor was the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford (d. 1275), rather than his son Humphrey (d. 1265), because if she were daughter of the latter the second couple would be related in the 4th and 5th degrees.

[This question and its ramifications were also discussed by John P. Ravilious, Nat Taylor and Rosie Bevan.]