♂Henry Brailsford

Henry Brailsford (died about 1304) was a Derbyshire knight who held Brailsford in the last decades of the thirteenth century, and who in 1302 received from Edward I a royal grant of free warren^W in all his demesne lands at Brailsford and Wingerworth, the right to take small game there. He was the twenty-first great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Ralph Brailsford (died by 1344). Through Ralph he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Family

Henry was the son of Henry Brailsford (died about 1260). His mother is said to have been Isabel Picot, the sister and heir of Ralph Picot. The name of his own wife is not known. His son Ralph was his heir. His daughter Elizabeth married in 1291 John, the son and heir of Sir Henry de Chandos; another daughter, Katharine, is said to have married Nicholas de Longford; and Roger, a chaplain in 1316 and 1333, was probably a younger son.

Life

In 1275 Henry was given a respite from taking up knighthood, but by 1280 he had been knighted and was Sir Henry. He was witnessing deeds by 1272 and was still doing so in 1304. On 30 April 1302 the king granted him free warren in his demesne lands at Brailsford and Wingerworth, and in 1330 his son Ralph defended his own right to it by pointing to that grant to Henry, his father.

Henry died about 1304; the exact date is not known. His son Ralph succeeded him.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Ralph Brailsford, Ralph’s son Henry Brailsford, Henry’s daughter Joan Brailsford, her son Thomas Basset, Thomas’s daughter Joan Basset and Joan’s daughter Beatrix Shirley (died 1483), and on through Governor Thomas Dudley (1576–1653) and his son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). One comes down 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

Henry’s life is set out in S. P. H. Statham, “The Brailsfords”, Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 59 (1938), pp. 66–80, where he is the fourth Henry of the family. Statham gives the respite of knighthood in 1275, “Sir Henry” in 1280, and his appearances as a witness from 1272 to 1304; his chart (p. 66) has him “ob. 1304”, while his text says that “The exact date of his death has not been established”. The 1302 grant of free warren is in the Calendar of the Charter Rolls, vol. III, p. 24. J. P. Yeatman’s Feudal History of the County of Derby, vol. II, p. 449, records that in the quo warranto^W pleas of 1330 Ralph claimed free warren by Edward I’s charter of 30 April 1302 to “Henry de Brailsford, his father”. The Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, vol. I (1916), no. 1298, names “Henry de Braylisford and Ralph de Monjoye, knights” in 1283.

His place in the family

A plea of 1424 in the Court of Common Pleas^W, Henry Knyveton against Ralph Shirley of Brailsford the younger, printed in The Genealogist, new series, vol. 17 (1901), pp. 22–23, opens the Brailsford descent with “Henry de Braylesford, son of Henry de Braylesford, living 14 E. 1” (1285–86), and runs on through Ralph and a second Henry to Joan, daughter and heir, the wife of Sir John Basset. Statham makes the elder Henry the escheator of Derbyshire in 1252–53 and says he was “said to have married Isabel, sister and heir of Ralph Picot”, citing Pegge’s History of Beauchief Abbey (p. 94). The heralds’ visitation^W pedigree of Shirley for Sussex has fewer generations: it makes a Nicholas Brailsford the father of the elder Henry, where Statham places Nicholas, who died before 1166, several generations earlier.

His children

Statham gives Elizabeth’s marriage in 1291 to John, son and heir of Sir Henry de Chandos, from the Radbourne charters. Katharine’s marriage to Nicholas de Longford he gives only as “said”, and Roger, a chaplain in 1316 and 1333, only as “probably” Henry’s son.