After Carlaverock castle surrendered, Segrave’s banner, from his having acted as Marshal during the siege, was displayed on its battlements. In the 30th of Edward I., he was a party to the Letter from the Barons to the Pope, in which he is styled “John Lord of Segrave;” and about that time was appointed Governor of Berwick, and Warden of Scotland. In the same year, whilst riding out of Berwick with a small escort, he was surprised by an ambuscade of the Scots, wounded, and taken prisoner; which event is thus noticed by Langtoft (p. 319.)
“Our men in Scotland with sautes sodeynly,
The Segrave myght not stand, Sir Jon tok the gayn stie.
His sonne & his brother of bedde als thei woke,
& sextene knyghtes other, the Scottis alle them toke.”
His captivity was however, it appears, of short duration; for, on Edward’s return to England, Segrave was left as his Lieutenant of Scotland. At different periods during the reign of Edward I., he obtained grants of free warren and other privileges in several of his manors, and possessed that elevated place in his sovereign’s confidence and esteem, which his long and zealous services so justly merited. Nor was he less distinguished by his successor, for soon after the accession of Edward II., he was constituted Governor of Nottingham castle, which had belonged to Piers de Gaveston, and was likewise appointed to his situation of Justice of the Forests beyond the Trent, and Keeper of all the Rolls thereto belonging; but he resigned these offices in the following year, when they were conferred upon Henry de Percy. In the 2d Edward II., he was again appointed Warden of Scotland; in the 6th Edward II. he was taken prisoner at the battle of Bannockburn, and about twelve months afterwards Thomas de Moram and several other Scots, then prisoners in the Tower of London, were delivered to Stephen de Segrave, son and heir of the Baron, to be exchanged for him. In the 8th Edward II., commissioners were appointed to hear and determine all disputes relative to the taking up of carriages by him or his agent, in consequence of his offices of Keeper of the Forests beyond the Trent, and of the castles of Nottingham and Derby. He was summoned upon several occasions to serve in the Scottish wars during the early part of the reign of Edward II., and to Parliament from the 26th August, 24th Edward I., 1296, to the 6th May, 18th Edward II., 1325. In the 10th Edward II., in recompence of his great services, and of his imprisonment in Scotland, he received a grant of L.1000; but what was then due to the crown for money received by him from the time of his appointment of Warden of the Forests beyond the Trent and Governor of Nottingham Castle, was to be deducted from that sum.
The tide of royal favour at last turned, and he accidentally fell a victim to the displeasure of his sovereign. Having, in 1325, excited Edward’s anger by the escape of Roger Lord Mortimer from the Tower, he sent Segrave and the Earl of Kent into Gascony, under the pretence of defending that province, where he was attacked with a disease then prevalent there, of which he shortly afterwards died, aged about seventy years, leaving John de Segrave, his grandson, son of his eldest son Stephen, who died in his lifetime, his heir.
The preceding unadorned narrative of John de Segrave’s services forms a splendid monument of his fame: for, whilst the impossibility of colouring the biography of his contemporaries with meretricious ornaments of language, is strongly felt when their actions are few or obscure, the absence of such assistance tends to the advantage of those who need no other eulogy than the simple record of the occasions upon which they were present in the field, or were selected to execute high and important duties.
John de Segrave, the next Baron, added to the honours of his ancestors in an unprecedented manner, by marrying Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Thomas de Brotherton, Marshal of England, younger son of King Edward I. Through the marriage of Elizabeth, their daughter and heiress, with John Lord Mowbray, that family attained the Marshalship of England. The present representatives of John Baron Segrave, the subject of this article, are the Lords Stourton and Petre and the Earl of Berkley. The arms of John de Segrave were sable, a lion rampant, argent, crowned or.