Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fitzjohn, Pain
FITZJOHN, PAIN (d. 1137), judge, was a brother of Eustace Fitzjohn [q. v.] The evidence for this is a charter of Henry I (1133) to Cirencester Priory, in which Eustace and William are styled his brothers. He belonged to that official class which was fostered by Henry I. Mr. Eyton (Shropshire, i. 246–7, ii. 200) holds (on the authority of the ‘Shrewsbury Cartulary’) that he was given the government of Salop about 1127. In the ‘Pipe Roll’ of 1130 he is found acting as a justice itinerant in Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, and Northamptonshire, in conjunction with Miles of Gloucester, whose son eventually married his daughter. He is frequently, during the latter part of the reign, found as a witness to royal charters. In 1134 his castle of Caus on the Welsh border was stormed and burnt in his absence by the Welsh (Ord. Vit. v. 37). At the succession of Stephen he was sheriff of Shropshire and Herefordshire. At first he held aloof, but was eventually, with Miles of Gloucester, persuaded by Stephen to join him (Gesta, pp. 15, 16). His name is found among the witnesses to Stephen's Charter of Liberties early in 1136 (Sel. Charters, p. 114). In the following year, when attacking some Welsh rebels, he was slain (10 July 1137), and his body being brought to Gloucester, was there buried (Gesta, p. 16; Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 98). By a charter granted shortly afterwards (Duchy of Lancaster; Royal Charters, No. 20) Stephen confirmed his whole possessions to his daughter Cicily, wife of Roger, son of Miles of Gloucester. Dugdale erroneously assigns him Robert Fitzpain as a son.
[Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I (Record Comm.); Florence of Worcester (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Gesta Stephani (Rolls Series); Ordericus Vitalis (Soc. de l'Histoire de France); Stubbs's Select Charters; Duchy Charter (Publ. Rec. Office); Cott. MS. Calig. A. iv.; Eyton's Hist. of Shropshire.]