♀Ada de Sanford

Ada de Sanford (died 1331) was an English heiress, the sister and heir of Thomas de Sanford. With her husband, Walter Foliot, she held the manors of Melbury Sampford in Dorset and Whiteford in Devon and settled them on their daughter Joan. She was the twentieth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her daughter Joan Foliot (died 1348).

Inheritance and marriage

Her parents, according to the published pedigrees, were Lawrence de Sanford (died 1271) and Hawise Corbet. Ada was the sister and heir of Thomas de Sanford, who died in 1299, and by 1300–01 she had married Walter Foliot. The advowson^W of the church of Melbury Sampford, the right to name its priest, had been exercised by her mother, Hawise, in 1297; Ada exercised it in 1303, and she and Walter did so together on 6 March 1308.

In 1312–13 a final concord^W settled the manors of Melbury Sampford in Dorset and Whiteford in Devon on Walter and Ada for their lives, and after them on their daughter Joan and her husband, Nicholas de Percy, and the children Nicholas would have by her; failing those, the lands were to go to Ada’s own heirs. Ada died in 1331, and her heir was her daughter Joan, by then the wife of John Mautravers; Joan’s first husband, Nicholas de Percy, had been killed in 1324.

Lines of descent

Through their daughter Joan Foliot and her daughter Joan de Percy, Walter Foliot and Ada de Sanford were ancestors of Thomas Dudley (1576–1653). Both lines run through Beatrice de Braose, the Shirleys, Bromes, Dentons, Purefoys and Thornes to Thomas Dudley and his son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). One comes down through Samuel’s son Stephen Dudley (1654–1735) to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844), and the other to Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825); the two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Her name and parents

The records write her name Alda and Auda, and her family’s name Saundford and Sampford. Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. 6 (1840), pp. 338–339, “Proofs of the Mautravers Pedigree”, calls her “Alda, daughter of Sir Laurence Sampford, of Melbury-Sampford”, and quotes a medieval book of heirs (Cotton MS Claudius C. viii): “Auda s. & h. of Thomas de Saundford, o. 27 Edw. I”, that is, sister and heir of Thomas, who died in the twenty-seventh year of Edward I (1298–99). F. N. Craig’s table in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 150 (July 1996), p. 324, gives her parents as Lawrence de Sanford, who died about 1271, and Hawise Corbet, living in 1297. Her parentage rests on these two accounts.

Marriage and the settlement

The Collectanea quotes Strangways’ records: “Alda, sister to Sir Thomas de Saundford, to Walter Foliot 29 Edw. I”, that is, in the twenty-ninth year of Edward I (1300–01). It also lists the presentations to Melbury Sampford church: by Hawise in 1297, by Alda in 1303, and by “Walter Foliot and Alda, 6 Mar. 1308”. The final concord of 6 Edward II (1312–13), printed on p. 352 of the same volume, was made between Peter de Blunt and “Waltm Folyot & Adam uxem ejus” (Walter Foliot and Ada his wife), with the remainder to “rectis heredibus pdce Ade” (the right heirs of the said Ada).

Her death

The book of heirs has “Johanna, ux. John Mautravers, d. & h. of Alda de Saundford, ob. 4 Edw. III”, that is, Ada died in the fourth year of Edward III (1330–31). Craig’s table gives “Ada de Sanford d 1331”.