♂Henry Brailsford

Henry Brailsford (died about 1243) was lord of Brailsford in Derbyshire for more than forty years, from before 1199 until his death, and the husband of Isolda de Grendon, a daughter and coheir of Serlo de Grendon, lord of Bradley. In 1216, in the middle of the First Barons’ War^W, he and Robert de Vernon were serving the king in the company of Earl Ferrers^W, and King John’s writ took them under his special protection from any molestation. He was the twenty-third great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Henry Brailsford (died about 1260). Through Henry he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Lord of Brailsford

Henry was the son of Robert Brailsford and his wife Cecilia, and he had succeeded his father before 1199. He confirmed Robert’s gift of meadow and land to the priory of Sempringham^W, with his brother Hugh as a witness, and the seal on his deed bore his name, “Sigillum H(EN)RI de Brailisford”. Hugh was apparently the rector of Dronfield, and Henry later granted the church of Dronfield to Hugh’s son, Thomas the clerk. Henry also presented the church of Brailsford to the abbey of Darley.

Twice Henry appears beside William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby: in 1216, in the earl’s company in the king’s service, and early in the century as a fellow witness, with his brother-in-law William de Grendon, to an agreement between the prior of Tutbury^W and Hugh de Okeover over the manor of Snelston. In 1235–36 he granted lands to Mary, the widow of a Ralph de Brailsford.

Marriage and family

Henry married Isolda de Grendon, one of the three daughters and coheirs of Serlo de Grendon, and the marriage drew him into the affairs of her family. Henry and Isolda had a son and heir, Henry, who held Brailsford after his father; a son Engenulf, who married Hawise, the daughter of Robert de Duin; and a daughter, Hawise, who married Gerard de Fanecurt. They probably also had three more sons, William, Roger, who is said to have been rector of Dronfield, and Serlo.

Death

Henry died about 1242–43, the year in which a Henry de Brailsford is listed as holding half a knight’s fee^W in Brailsford. Isolda may have outlived him and married again: in 1259 Elias de Jorz and his wife Isolda granted three and a half bovates of land in Woodthorpe to Ralph Bubbe.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Henry Brailsford (died about 1260), Henry’s son Henry Brailsford (died about 1304), 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 second Henry of the family (pp. 71–72). Statham takes the 1216 protection from the close rolls of 17 John, writing that Henry and Robert de Vernon “were with earl Ferrars in the king’s service and were especially protected from any molestation by the king’s writ”; the Snelston agreement from the Tutbury chartulary; the Dronfield grant from Samuel Pegge’s History of Beauchief Abbey (1801), p. 94; and the grant to Mary, widow of Ralph de Brailsford, “of whom I know nothing”, from Yeatman’s Feudal History of the County of Derby. The Sempringham confirmation, with its witness “Hugo frater domini Henrici” and the seal, is calendared in the Historical Manuscripts Commission’s Manuscripts of the Duke of Rutland, vol. 4 (1905), pp. 53–54. Statham also notes that “A Henry de Brailsford” witnessed a grant by Serlo de Grendon in 1188, which may be this Henry, though he does not say so.

The date of his death

Statham first writes that Henry “died about 1242-3”, and later that “I have dated the death of Henry II 1242-3 but it is not certain”. For the Book of Fees^W entry of 1242–43 he gives only “a Henry de Brailsford” holding half a fee in Brailsford, which could be either Henry or his son.

His children

Statham’s chart (p. 66) and text give Henry, the heir, Engenulf and Hawise. Of the other sons he writes: “The chief authority for giving William, Serlo and Roger as sons of Henry is the statement in the History of Beauchief”, which is also the source for Roger as rector of Dronfield. That the heir was the Henry who disputed the Brailsford church with the abbot of Darley in the 1240s rests partly on Statham’s reasoning that the disputant “must have been, one would imagine, the son of the donor”.

Isolda’s second marriage

Statham writes that “It is possible that after Henry’s death his widow was re-married to Elias de Jorz”, citing a Derbyshire fine of 1259 in which Elias de Jorz and Isolda his wife granted land in Woodthorpe. Statham gives no other evidence that this Isolda was Henry’s widow.