♂Henry Brailsford

Henry Brailsford (died about 1260) was lord of Brailsford in Derbyshire in the middle of the thirteenth century and the king’s escheator^W for the county in 1252–53, a landholder whose quarrel with the prior of Tutbury over rights in Ednaston went as far as the waging of a trial by combat^W before it ended in a settlement and a payment in 1254. He was the twenty-second great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Henry Brailsford (died about 1304). Through Henry he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Family

Henry was probably the son of Henry Brailsford, lord of Brailsford, who died about 1243, and of Isolda de Grendon, a daughter and coheir of Serlo de Grendon. Henry is said to have married Isabel Picot, the sister and heir of Ralph Picot. Their son Henry Brailsford succeeded to Brailsford, and Robert, and Thomas, who was rector of Brailsford, may have been younger sons.

Lord of Brailsford

Between July 1241 and February 1245 Walter, the abbot of Darley, disputed with Henry, lord of Brailsford, the right to choose the priest of Brailsford church. The abbot gave way, agreeing that the advowson^W, the right of presentation, should remain with Henry and his heirs for ever. The lord in that dispute was most likely this Henry rather than his father.

In 1252–53 Henry served as escheator of Derbyshire, the officer who looked after the king’s rights in the lands of tenants who died. At about the same time he was pressing a claim to services and customs in Ednaston, a manor near Brailsford that belonged to the prior of Tutbury^W. In the courts of the day a dispute over land and its dues could be put to trial by combat, and waging the duel was the formal pledge to fight it. The quarrel went that far before it was ended by a final concord^W made in the county court of Nottingham, under which the prior owed Henry 16 marks. In 1254 Henry gave Prior William a receipt for eight marks, and in August a receipt for the whole sum.

Death

Henry witnessed deeds between 1250 and 1258. The date of his death is not known; it is put at about 1260.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Henry Brailsford, Henry’s 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 third Henry of the family (pp. 73–74). Statham takes the Darley dispute from the Darley chartulary, the escheatorship from the close rolls of 1251–53, and the Ednaston settlement and the two receipts from the Tutbury chartulary, which describes the agreement as “a fine and concord made between them in the ‘County’ of Nottingham after a duel waged”. He gives Henry as a witness to deeds between 1250 and 1258. His chart (p. 66) has Henry “ob. c. 1260”, while his text says that “The date of his death is uncertain”.

His parents

Statham’s chart makes Henry the son of Henry Brailsford and Isolda, a daughter and coheir of Serlo de Grendon, and dates the elder Henry’s death to 1242–43, though he says that date “is not certain”. The elder Henry, in Statham’s words, “presented the church of Brailsford to Darley”, and Statham reasons that the lord who disputed the presentation with the abbot of Darley “must have been, one would imagine, the son of the donor”; the parentage and the dispute rest partly on that reasoning. The heralds’ visitation^W pedigree of Shirley for Sussex makes a Nicholas Brailsford Henry’s father, but on Statham’s showing Nicholas, who died before 1166, was his great-grandfather.

His wife and children

The marriage to Isabel Picot rests on Samuel Pegge’s History of Beauchief Abbey (1801), p. 94, as reported by Statham, who says only that Henry was “said to have married Isabel, sister and heir of Ralph Picot”. Henry’s son and heir, Henry, was given a respite of knighthood in 1275, and Statham suggests he was still a minor when his father died. Of Robert, and of Thomas, rector of Brailsford between 1281 and 1337, Statham says only that they “may have been” Henry’s sons.