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John de Havering

English military and civil servant

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ42890500
Source-derived summary

John de Havering (died 1309), Lord of Grafton was an English military and civil servant. He was considered one of the most experienced administrators of King Edward I, serving as Seneschal of Gascony and as Justiciar of North Wales.

Life

John de Havering was a son of Richard de Havering, who was steward of the estates of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. His father died in 1267, whereupon de Havering inherited his possessions. During the reign of King Henry III he was Lord of Grafton in Northamptonshire.

From October 1274 to October 1278, de Havering served as Sheriff of Hampshire. After the Conquest of Wales, he became Deputy Justiciar of North Wales in 1284. In July 1287 he was one of the commanders of the army, which suppressed the rebellion of the Welsh lord Rhys ap Maredudd. After the suppression of the rebellion Havering was replaced in November 1287 as Justiciar and travelled with the king into Gascony.

Before returning to England in the summer of 1289, Edward I appointed de Havering Seneschal of Gascony.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John de Havering” as english military and civil servant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Havering and English.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1309, 1267, 1274, 1278—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1250. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Havering and English providing the first useful test.
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Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John de Havering”, the useful work is to connect “english military and civil servant” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42890500. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1309, 1267, 1274 and 1278.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from John de Havering” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.