♀Alison Dauncey

Alison Dauncey (died 1479) was an English gentlewoman of the fifteenth century, a daughter and coheir of William Dauncey. She held the manor of Wytham, near Oxford, for life after the death of her first husband, Richard Wightam, and married secondly Thomas Denton of Fifield. Through her son John Denton she was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W. She was the fifteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son John Denton.

Marriages

Alison was one of the daughters and heirs of William Dauncey. Her first husband, Richard Wightam, had held the manor of Wytham in Berkshire, and after his death Alison held it for life. Their only daughter, Agnes Wightam, was the heir to Wytham; she married William Browning about 1437 and died without children in 1444.

Alison then married Thomas Denton of Fifield. In 1428 Thomas was holding a knight’s fee^W at Wytham in right of his wife, that is, by her title to the land rather than his own. According to the family’s pedigree, Thomas and Alison had a son, John Denton of Wightam, who married Isabel Brome, the widow of Philip Purefoy.

Later life

Alison outlived her daughter by many years. In 1459, while she still held Wytham for life, the reversion^W of the manor, the right to it once her life interest ended, was sold to Richard Harcourt. Alison, known by then as Alice Denton, probably died in 1479.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son John Denton, John’s daughter Alice Denton, her son Edward Purefoy, Edward’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s 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 marriages

The Denton pedigree in the Oxfordshire heraldic visitation^W (The Visitations of the County of Oxford, 1566, 1574 and 1634, Harleian Society vol. 5, 1871, p. 228) names her “Alison one of the daurs. & heires of Willm. Dauncey, first marr. to Wm. Browninge”, then married to Richard Wightam “of Barkly”, with Thomas Denton of Fifield as her “3rd. Husband” and their son John Denton of Wightam in Berkshire. It is the only source for John as her son. The Victoria County History of Berkshire (vol. 4, 1924, ‘Wytham’, pp. 427–430, and ‘Fyfield’, pp. 344–349) calls her Alison or Alice Daundesey and gives a different order: she married first Richard of Wytham and had by him an only daughter and heir, Agnes, who married William Browning about 1437 and died without issue in 1444; her second husband was Thomas Denton, who held the knight’s fee at Wytham in right of his wife in 1428 (from the Feudal Aids). William Browning was therefore her son-in-law, and the pedigree most likely confused the mother with the daughter. This page follows the county history. A visitation pedigree was compiled from the family’s own account, long after the events.

Her death

The Victoria County History states that “Alice Denton died in 1479”, citing her inquisition post mortem^W (Chancery, 19 Edward IV, no. 43). The year rests on the county history’s reading of that inquisition.