♂Geoffrey St. Leger

Geoffrey St. Leger was an English landholder of the thirteenth century who held the manor of Wartling in Sussex and received the manor of Bucksteep on his marriage to Agnes de Warbleton. He was the twentieth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son John St. Leger (died 1326).

Life

Most of what is known of Geoffrey comes from a roll of deeds of the Hoo family, who later inherited his lands through his granddaughter. On 29 March 1265 he was granted free warren^W, the right to hunt small game, in his manor of Wartling. In an undated charter Thomas de Warbleton gave Geoffrey the manor of Bucksteep in frankmarriage^W with his daughter Agnes, a marriage portion that was to return to Thomas if Agnes died without children.

He was most likely the Geoffrey de St. Leger who witnessed a Sussex charter in August 1264 together with his brother Simon, and who confirmed a grant his father had made to Lewes Priory^W, in a deed that also names land at Wartling.

Bucksteep stayed in the family. On 20 December 1301 Geoffrey’s son John and John’s wife Isabel were granted free warren in Wartling, Bucksteep and other lands, and the charter names him as Geoffrey’s son. The date of Geoffrey’s death is not known.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son John, John’s daughter Isabel St. Leger (1320–1393), her son William Hoo (1335–1410), William’s daughter Margaret Hoo, Margaret’s daughter Edith Saint Clair (born about 1423), Edith’s daughter Alice Harcourt (died 1526), Alice’s daughter Elizabeth Bessiles, Elizabeth’s daughter Anne Fettiplace, Anne’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 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

Sources for his life

The charters of 1265 and 1301 and the grant of Bucksteep are known from the Harleian roll of Hoo deeds as quoted in the Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, under Hoo, Note A, p. 566): “an undated charter is a grant to him of the manor of Bucksteep by Thomas de Warbleton in free marriage with his da. Agnes, reversion to the grantor, if Agnes d.s.p.” The charter of 20 December 1301 names “John, s. of Geoffrey de St. Leger, and Isabel, his wife”.

Other deeds

The National Archives lists a “Confirmation by Geoffrey de St Leger of his father’s grant of Croteslea to Lewes Priory and land at Wartling” (E 40/15493), which does not name the father, and a grant by Geoffrey de St. Leger of land in Lilley, Hertfordshire (DL 25/1348), near Offley, where his son John later held a manor. A charter of 20 August 1264 at the East Sussex Record Office (GLY/1202) has among its witnesses “Geoffrey de St. Leger, Simon his brother”. Wartling ties the Lewes Priory deed to him; the other two are taken to be his on place and date alone. Nothing further is known of Simon or of their father.

His son’s mother

No record names Agnes de Warbleton as John’s mother. She is taken to be so because Bucksteep, given with her in marriage and due to revert to her father if she had no children, was in John’s hands in 1301.