Sir Walter Devereux of Bodenham was a prominent knight of Herefordshire.
Background
Walter Devereux was born on Christmas 1387, and was 15 years old at the death of his father, Walter Devereux of Weobley. He inherited only part of the lands of his father, and his mother, Agnes Crophull, held the majority of his estates in dower during his lifetime.
Career
He is the ancestor of the Devereux Earls of Essex and Viscounts of Hereford. His arms were: Argent a fesse gules, in chief three torteaux. He was knighted in 1403 (4th year of Henry IV).
Walter Devereux was among 14 men below the rank of baron who had been retained for life by Prince Henry (the future Henry V).
Walter Devereux, the son of Sir Walter Devereux, acquired some tenements in Lyde Muscegros, Lyde Godfrey, Lyde Saucy, and Lyde Prior. These tenements would remain in the possession of the Devereux family for the next 100 years.
In 1418 John Walwyn died holding a moiety of the manors of Wellington and Adesor, and left a widow and three underage daughters who became the wards of Walter Devereux. Walwyn’s widow died in 1419, and the next year the eldest daughter, Elena wife of Richard Monington, proved her full age before the escheator and jurors.
Walter Devereux died in 1419, and the escheator of Hereford and the adjacent march of Wales was ordered to take his lands in hand on 20 November 1419.
Brydges, Sir Egerton. "Collins"s Peerage of England. Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical.
Volume VI, pages 1 to 22, Devereux, Viscount Hereford Duncumb, John.
"Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford." (Hereford: EG Wright, 1812). Participant I of Volume II, page 37 and 49, Broxash Hundred Mosley, Charles (editor).
Burke"s Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999.
Page 1378 Robinson, Charles J. "A History of the Castles of Herefordshire and their Lords." (Woonton: Logaston Press, 2002). pages 125 to 129, Lyonshall Castle.