♀Alice Denton

Alice Denton was an Englishwoman of the late fifteenth century. She was the thirteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Edward Purefoy and Edward’s daughter Mary Purefoy. She married Nicholas Purefoy, a gentleman of Shirford in Warwickshire and Shalston in Buckinghamshire, as his first wife. Through Edward and Mary, Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, was her great-great-grandson.

Family

Alice was probably a daughter of John Denton of Wightam and his wife Isabel Brome, a daughter of John Brome of Baddesley, and one of their three children, with a sister, Anne, and a brother, Thomas Denton of Caversfield. Her mother had first been married to Philip Purefoy of Shirford, who died without children, and then married John Denton. Philip’s younger brother and heir was John Purefoy of Shirford, the father of the man Alice would marry.

Marriage

John Purefoy most likely died while his son Nicholas was still under age, for in 1491 the crown is said to have granted the young Nicholas’s wardship, with the right to arrange his marriage, to John Denton, the second husband of his uncle’s widow. A wardship gave the guardian charge of a young heir’s lands until he came of age, and the choice of his wife.

Nicholas Purefoy married Alice Denton, most likely a daughter of John Denton and his wife Isabel Brome, so that his guardian became his father-in-law. Their son Edward Purefoy was the heir and married Anne Fettiplace; their daughters Isabel and Alice are said to have died without children.

The records do not give the date of Alice’s death. Nicholas married twice more, first Clemence Lydyat and then Katharine Brafield.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Edward, Edward’s daughter Mary Purefoy, her daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley (1576–1653) and Thomas’s 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 parents

The Denton pedigree in the Oxford visitations (The Visitations of the County of Oxford, Harleian Society vol. 5, pp. 228-229) shows John Denton of Wightam married to “Isabell da. of John Brome of Baddesley”, widow of Philip Purefoy, with three children: Anne, wife of Sir Edward Grevill of Milcott; Thomas Denton of Caversfield; and Alice, wife of “Nicholas Purefoy of Shaldeston”. The Purefoy pedigrees of the 1566 heraldic visitation^W of Buckinghamshire (Harleian Society vol. 58, p. 200) and of the 1619 visitation of Leicestershire (Harleian Society vol. 2, p. 33) instead call Alice a daughter of “Tho. Denton”, of Basyles Lye in the first and of Caversfield in the second. That Thomas is most likely her brother of Caversfield, written in their father’s place. A visitation pedigree was compiled from the family’s own account, a generation or more after the events.

Her mother’s two marriages

Philip Purefoy’s death in 1466 and Isabel’s second marriage, to John Denton, are given by James William Hawes in Edmond Hawes of Yarmouth, Massachusetts (1914). The Buckinghamshire pedigree makes Philip the elder brother of John Purefoy, Nicholas’s father, and notes that he died without issue.

The wardship of 1491

The grant of Nicholas’s wardship and marriage to John Denton is cited from the Calendar of the Patent Rolls^W, 1485-1494, p. 346, in the Magna Carta Project’s compiled account of the Denton family. It is the strongest sign that Alice’s father was John rather than Thomas.

Her daughter Isabel

The 1619 Leicestershire pedigree places the daughters Isabel and Alice under Alice Denton, with the note “Isabell & Alice ob. sine prole”, that is, both died without children. The Buckinghamshire pedigree instead gives an Isabel, wife of “Thomas Goodwine of Oxf.”, as a daughter of Nicholas’s third wife, Katharine Brafield. This page follows the Leicestershire pedigree.