♀Elizabeth Bluet

Elizabeth Bluet was the daughter and heiress of Sir John Bluet of Raglan, in Monmouthshire, who brought Raglan to her second husband, Sir James Berkeley. She was the eighteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son James Berkeley (about 1394–1463).

Marriages

Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir John Bluet and Katherine Wogan, and she was of full age by 1377. Her first husband, Sir Bartholomew Picot, of Wilkesworth in the parish of Wimborne Minster, in Dorset, died in 1388. She then married James Berkeley, a younger son of Maurice de Berkeley, Lord Berkeley, and Elizabeth le Despenser. Through her, James held Raglan, Talgarth in Breconshire and Daglingworth in Gloucestershire, and in 1399 the couple had Raglan and their other lordships confirmed under the king’s seal. Their son James was born at Raglan about 1394.

Widowhood and death

Sir James Berkeley made a will and died on 13 June 1405, when his son was about eleven. His widow later married Sir William ap Thomas^W, steward of Abergavenny, and they had no children. Elizabeth is said to have died in 1420.

Notes

Sources

Elizabeth’s parents, her first marriage and Sir Bartholomew Picot’s death “shortly before 12 July 1388,” her full age in 1377, her marriage to James Berkeley, the confirmation of 1399, her sons and her third marriage are from Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), BERKELEY 8, pp. 73–74, which gives her death in 1420 and says that she and Sir William ap Thomas had no issue. The Complete Peerage, 1st edition, vol. 6 (1895), p. 213, makes her the first wife of Sir William ap Thomas, gives her death in 1420, and records that his purchase of Raglan was made from her eldest son, James, Lord Berkeley. The Complete Peerage, 1st edition, vol. 1 (1887), p. 329, also names her as the daughter and heir of Sir John Bluet of Raglan. These are printed genealogies of the medieval nobility.

Her names

Richardson calls her “Elizabeth (or Isabel)” and her mother “Katherine Wogan (or Gwrgan).” The Complete Peerage, vol. 6, places her father at Daglingworth, in Gloucestershire, rather than at Raglan; Richardson lists Daglingworth among the lands that came to James Berkeley through her.

Her later marriages

Richardson’s later Plantagenet Ancestry, 2nd edition (2011), p. 255, puts another marriage between these two: before Easter term 1408 she married Thomas ap Harry, of Talgarth, whose will was proved in 1416, and only then Sir William ap Thomas. That account has her and Sir William granting Talgarth to feoffees in 1420 and her death before 19 July 1425, and dates his purchase of Raglan from his stepson James to 1430.

A second son

Richardson gives the couple two sons, James and Maurice. Only James, the heir, is part of this family’s line.