John de Bourchier

John de Bourchier (alias Boussier, etc., d. c. 1330) was an English Judge of the Common Pleas and the earliest ancestor, about whose life substantial details are known, of the noble and prolific Bourchier family, which in its various branches later held the titles Barons Bourchier, Counts of Eu, Viscounts Bourchier, Earls of Essex, Barons Berners, Barons FitzWarin and Earls of Bath.

There is no evidence which confirms this family to have originated in France, and it was possibly of ancient English origin. Its name was however Latinised by scribes to de Burgo Caro, "from the costly town", from a Gallicisation of the name to le Bourg Cher.

Bouchier is first mentioned as deputed by Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford (1257–1331) to represent him in the parliament summoned in 1306 for the purpose of granting an aid on the occasion of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward II (1307–1327)) receiving knighthood. In 1312 he was permitted to postpone for three years the assumption of his own knighthood, an expensive and burdensome honour, on paying a fine of 100 shillings.

In 1314–15 his name is recorded as one of the Justices of Assize for the counties of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, and also on various commissions for the years 1317, 1319, and 1320. On 15 May 1321 he was summoned as a justice to parliament at Westminster, apparently for the first time, and on 31 May 1321 he was appointed a Justice of the Common Pleas.

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