♂Hugh de Meynell

Hugh de Meynell (died 1333) was the lord of Langley Meynell, in Kirk Langley, Derbyshire. When he died, the inquest into his lands found that he “had no heir of his blood”, although a son of his own name, then past thirty, was living; the son came into part of the lands under a settlement his father had made in advance. He was the twentieth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Hugh de Meynell (1302–1363).

Family

Hugh was probably a son of Sir William de Meynell, and so a grandson of Philippa Savage, through whom the Meynells held half of Kingsnewton in Warwickshire. He was most likely the Sir Hugh de Meignill of Langley Meinill who in 1327 was summoned with horse and arms to Newcastle upon Tyne; the antiquary William Dugdale later took that writ for a summons to Parliament as a baron, a reading The Complete Peerage rejects.

His wife was Joan, an heiress in her own right. Through her he held a yearly rent at Melton Mowbray and a third of each of the manors of Newhall in Derbyshire and of Upton and Burton Overy in Leicestershire. She was most likely Joan, daughter of Robert de la Ward^W, steward of the household of Edward I, and sister and coheir of Simon, Lord de la Ward.

Death and the settlement

Hugh had settled his own lands by fines^W, agreements recorded in the king’s court, so that he held Langley Meynell, Kingswood and the half of Kingsnewton, with the advowson^W of its church, for his life only. He died before 12 August 1333, when the king ordered the inquisition post mortem^W, and the Warwickshire jurors met on 26 August. They found no heir of his blood, but that under one of those fines Kingswood and Kingsnewton were to pass to “Hugh son of the aforesaid Hugh”, thirty-one years of age and more. The son came into them by the settlement and not as heir, most likely because he was not born of a lawful marriage. His mother is not named.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Hugh de Meynell, Hugh’s daughter Isabel de Meynell (died 1393), her son Hugh Shirley (died 1403), his son Ralph Shirley and Ralph’s daughter Beatrix Shirley (died 1483), and from her through the Bromes, Dentons, Purefoys and Thornes to Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his 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

The inquest of 1333

The Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 7 (1909), no. 526, “Hugh de Meignill, the elder”: writ 12 August, 7 Edward III; inquest 26 August, 7 Edward III, in Warwickshire, with Leicestershire and Derbyshire also named in the writ. Kingswood (a carucate of land) and a moiety of Kingsnewton with the advowson of the church were “held for life by fine levied in the king’s court”, of the king in chief; the manor of “Longeleymeignill” was held for life by fine of Ranulph de Ry. The Melton Mowbray rent of 22s. 6d. and the thirds of Newhall, Upton and Burton Overy were held “of the inheritance of Joan his wife”. “He had no heir of his blood, but after his decease the said lands, &c. in Kyngeswode and Kyngesneuton shall remain to Hugh son of the aforesaid Hugh by virtue of a certain fine … which Hugh is 31 years of age and more.” The view that the son was born outside marriage is an inference from that wording; no record states it.

His parentage

No record names Hugh’s father. Daniel Lysons’s Magna Britannia, vol. 5 (1817), gives the descent as “Hugh de Meinell, who was of Langley-Meinell in 1251, married the heiress of Edensor; his grandson, Sir Hugh, the heiress of Ward”, which fits this Hugh being a son of Sir William de Meynell. In 1259 Philippa Savage was “wife of Sir Hugh de Meinyl”; William was her heir in 1285, and the Victoria County History of Warwickshire, vol. 4 (Newton Regis), follows her half of Kingsnewton down through her descendants to “Hugh senior”, who died in 1333.

The summons of 1327

The Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 5, 1893, p. 285, note) quotes Dugdale’s Sir Hugh de Meinill who “in 1 Ed. III”, that is 1327, “had summons to Parl. amongst the Barons of this Realm but not after”, and answers that the summons “is erroneous, tho’ his name appears in the writ of summons ‘equis et armis’ to Newcastle upon Tyne. The person indicated was Sir Hugh de Meignill, of Langley Meinill, co. Derby.” This Hugh was alive in 1327 and held Langley Meinill when he died, so the note is taken to mean him; his son, though, was also a knight by 1343.

His wife Joan

The 1333 inquest names her only as “Joan his wife”. The Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 3, 1890, p. 45, De la Ward) makes Robert de la Ward, Steward of the Household, the father of Simon, Lord de la Ward, whose sisters and coheirs were “Joan, sister of the whole blood, who m. Hugh Meynell of Langley Meynell, co. Derby, whose issue assumed the arms of De La Warr”, and Margaret. Craven’s A Derbyshire Armory (1991), p. 110, has “Early c14 Hugh Meynell of Langley etc, marr. Joanna, dau. and heiress of Robert de la Warde, Steward to the Household of Edward I”, and Lysons gives “the heiress of Ward”. None of them says which Hugh, but the thirds of three manors held in Joan’s right in 1333 fit a coheiress’s share. Some online trees name Joan de la Warde as the mother of the younger Hugh, citing no record; the inquest’s finding that the elder Hugh had no heir of his blood weighs against her being his lawful mother.