Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Walter Devereux was the eldest son of Sir Richard Devereux, who was created a Knight of the Bath on 20 February 1547 and died that same year, in the lifetime of his father, The 1st Viscount Hereford. Walter Devereux's mother was Lady Dorothy Hastings, daughter of The 1st Earl of Huntingdon and Anne Stafford, said to have been a mistress of Henry VIII. Through his paternal ancestry he was related to the Bourchier family, to which previous Earls of Essex had belonged: John Devereux, son of Walter Devereux who died at the Battle of Bosworth, married Cecily Bourchier, sister of Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Walter Devereux (1387–1419)
On 20 January 1418 John Walwyn died holding a moiety of the manors of Wellington and Addesore, 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.