John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath

John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath (20 July 1470 – 30 April 1539) was created Earl of Bath in 1536. He was the feudal baron of Bampton in Devon.

Origins Bourchier was born in Essex, England, the eldest son and heir of Fulk Bourchier, Baron Fitzwarin (d. 18 September 1479) by his wife Elizabeth Dynham, second daughter and co-heiress of John Dynham, Baron Dynham. He was the brother of Elizabeth Bourchier.

Marriages Bourchier married three times. His first wife was Cecily Daubeny, the daughter of Giles Daubeny, 8th Baron Daubeny and Elizabeth Arundell, the daughter of John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall. Amias, Dorothy who married John Fulford, Giles, Margaret or Margery, Anne, and Eleanor. Margery, a daughter of Lord Fitzwaren, was an attendant at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

Death and burial Bourchier was buried in Bampton Church in Devon, where he had endowed a chantry. Although part of an elaborate chest tomb survives in the church, according to Nikolaus Pevsner it belong's to Bourchier's grandmother Thomasine Hankford, wife of William Bourchier. The first earl's tomb, which was destroyed sometime after 1770, was situated in the north aisle of Bampton Church and showed effigies of himself and his wife Cecily Daubeny with their eight children.