Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Johnys, Hugh
JOHNYS, Sir HUGH (fl. 1417–1463), knight-marshal of England and France, is said to have been the son of John Watkin Vaughan, who was the bastard child of Watkin Vaughan. In the muster-roll of the English army, dated July 1417, ‘Here John,’ who is assumed to be identical with Sir Hugh, was enrolled under Thomas de Rokeby with three archers and three cross-bowmen (Gesta Henrici V, Engl. Hist. Soc., p. 270). In a list of the retinue of John, duke of Bedford, serving in the war in France in 1435 occurs the name ‘Here John, Knight,’ captain of Pont Odo (Stevenson, France during Reign of Henry VI, ii. ii. 436, Rolls Ser.) According to an undated memorial brass erected to Johnys's memory in the church of St. Mary, Swansea, he fought under John, emperor of Constantinople, against the Turks between 1436 and 1441, and was knighted at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on 14 Aug. of the latter year. Subsequently, from 1441 to 1446, the same authority states that he was knight-marshal of France under John, duke of Somerset, and became at a later date knight-marshal of England under John, duke of Norfolk. The latter is said to have given Johnys the manor of Landimore.
In 1448 he is referred to as preparing to travel, and about 1452, when Elizabeth Woodville, afterwards the wife of Edward IV, came of age, he was a suitor for her hand. Though personally known to the lady, he made his offer of marriage first through the Duke of York, and secondly through the Earl of Warwick. The letters containing his proposal are extant among the Royal MSS. at the British Museum. In 1438 Sir Hugh acted as ‘councell’—i.e. ‘second’—for one Robert Norres in a trial by combat between Norres and one John Lyalton.
Sir Hugh married Maud, heiress of Rees Cradock. Both Sir Hugh and his wife were living in 1463, when they were granted a tenement in Fisher Street, Swansea; they had five children. Hugh Jones [q. v.], bishop of Llandaff, was connected with the family.
[Miss Strickland's Queens of England, ii. 317–319; Nicolas's Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, vi. 129, 139; Some Account of Sir Hugh Johnys, &c., by the Rev. T. Bliss and G. Grant Francis, Swansea, 1845; Nicholas's Hist. of Glamorganshire; Dineley's Beaufort Progress, 1888, pp. 290–2.]