♀Isabel de Duston

Isabel de Duston (died after 1276) was an English heiress, the eldest daughter of William de Duston. Her guardian, Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York^W, married her to his own nephew, Walter de Grey of Rotherfield. She was the twenty-first great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Robert de Grey (died 1295).

Heiress and ward

William de Duston, a Northamptonshire landholder, died leaving three daughters under age as his heirs. Their wardship passed to the archbishop, who arranged the marriages of all three, and Isabel, the eldest, was married to his nephew Walter. Their son Robert succeeded to his father’s lands.

Widowhood

Walter died before 5 January 1268, when Robert is said to have done homage for his father’s lands. Isabel outlived him by at least eight years. In April 1271 the jurors on her father’s lands found her in seisin^W of her share of the inheritance. In 1276, after her sister Joan died, the inquest on Joan’s manor of Wicken in Northamptonshire left out three and a half virgates^W that Isabel still held there.

Her inheritance

Under Edward II her great-grandson John de Grey (1300–1359), Lord of Rotherfield, petitioned the king over the advowson^W of St James, Northampton, the right to name its priest. He set out that it had been held until the time of “Isabel, daughter and heir of William de Duston, his great-grandmother”, and that in her minority she had been in Henry III’s wardship.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Robert de Grey and her grandson John de Grey (1266–1311). One comes down through Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844); the other reaches Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825). The two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Parentage and marriage

The inquest on William de Duston, taken on 24 April 1271, found that “he had 3 daughters his heirs, who were under age when their father died”, that “Walter, sometime archbishop of York, who afterwards had the wardship of the heirs, married them”, and that “Isabel, the eldest daughter, who was married to Walter de Grey” was in seisin; it names her sisters as Roesia and Joan, “the third daughter” (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 1, no. 760). In one passage the calendar calls William de Duston the “grandfather of Isabel de Grey”; the rest of the inquest, her great-grandson’s petition and the Complete Peerage all make her his daughter. The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, p. 144) makes her son Robert “s. and h. of Sir Walter de Grey … by Isabel, eld. da. and coh. of William de Duston”. Walter’s place as the archbishop’s nephew rests on royal charters of 1245 and 1246 (see his page).

Her land at Wicken

The inquest on her sister Joan, late the wife of Mauger le Vavasur, followed a writ of 28 October 1276 and found the manor of Wicken (written Wycle) held in chief, “excepting 3 1/2 virgates land which Isabel de Grey holds” (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2, no. 176). Her date of death is not known. Walter’s death before 5 January 1268 rests on the Complete Peerage (vol. 6, p. 144), which gives Robert’s homage for his father’s lands on that day from the Fine Rolls.

The petition

The petition of John de Grey, Lord of Rotherfield, dates from Edward II’s reign (1307–1327) and calls Henry III the “grandfather of the present king”; it concerns the advowson of St James, Northampton (The National Archives, SC 8/17/838).