♀Dame Isabel St. Leger

Isabel St. Leger (about 1320 – 1393) was an English heiress, the only child of Sir John St. Leger, whose estates in Sussex, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire passed by her marriage to Thomas Hoo into the Hoo family. She was the eighteenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son William Hoo (1335–1410).

Early life

Isabel was born about 1320 at Hulcote, near Towcester in Northamptonshire. Her father died in 1326, when she was a small child, and left her his estates in Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Sussex. As an heiress under age she passed into wardship^W, and her wardship is said to have been granted to Roger Mortimer^W, the man who ruled England with Queen Isabella until his fall and execution in 1330, and he leased it to Richard St. Leger.

Marriage

Thomas Hoo married Isabel St. Leger, the only child and heiress of Sir John St. Leger, before 31 May 1335. On 31 May 1335 the king ordered the sheriff of Northamptonshire to deliver her estates to her, and she was by then the wife of Thomas Hoo; she was fifteen. As a knight’s wife she was styled Dame. Two years later Thomas obtained grants of free warren^W in his own family’s lordships and, by right of his wife’s Sussex lands, a Tuesday market and a yearly fair at Wartling and three-day fairs at Bucksteep and Dallington. In 1342 Thomas, Isabel and his mother, Dame Hawise, settled the manors of Offley and Wartling on the couple and their children, naming their sons Thomas and then William as heirs in turn.

Their sons were Thomas, William, Robert and John; William, the second son but the eldest to survive, succeeded his father.

Widowhood and death

Thomas is said to have died in 1380 and was buried at St Albans Abbey^W. Isabel outlived him by thirteen years. In 1390 she had the Crown confirm the fairs, free warren and other rights in her Sussex lands to herself and her heirs. She died in 1393 and was buried with her husband at St Albans.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son William, William’s daughter Margaret Hoo, Margaret’s daughter Edith Saint Clair (born about 1423), Edith’s daughter Alice Harcourt (died 1526), Alice’s daughter Elizabeth Bessiles, Elizabeth’s daughter Anne Fettiplace, Anne’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Thomas’s 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

Her birth

The inquisition taken at Northampton on 16 June 1335 after her father’s death (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 7, no. 664) says that she “was born at Hulcote by Toucestre, co. Northampton” and was fifteen “on Monday after St. Augustine, in the month of May last”; the Hertford jury named the feast as that of “St. Augustine the Doctor”. The date of about 1320 rests on this. W. D. Cooper, “Notices of the Family of Hoo”, Sussex Archaeological Collections 8 (1856), p. 105, gives her birth as 25 May 1319 at Holcot, in Northamptonshire, where she was baptized. F. N. Craig, “Maternal Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley: Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, St. Leger, Fitzwarin and Andevill Lines”, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 140 (1986), p. 227, also prints Holcot, citing the inquisition under no. 560.

Her wardship, marriage and widowhood

The wardship, its lease to Richard St. Leger and the writ of 31 May 1335 are from Cooper, pp. 105–106, who cites an inquisition of 9 Edward III and the Patent Rolls; he gives her father’s estates as lying in Sussex, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, under Hoo, Note A, p. 565) gives the marriage “before 16 June 1335, at which date she was aged 15”, and says that she “brought the Sussex and other estates to the family”. Craig (p. 227) has her married to Thomas Hoo in 1336, when she petitioned for her inheritance. The confirmation of 1390 is from Cooper (p. 106).

Her death and burial

Cooper (p. 106) says she “died 2nd July 1393, and was buried with her husband”; an online family tree gives 22 July 1393, so only the year is given here. The Complete Peerage places the couple’s burial at St Albans Abbey, citing the Annals of St Albans (Rolls Series, vol. 1, p. 442).

Her title

The St Albans tomb list in H. T. Riley’s edition of John Amundesham’s Annales Monasterii S. Albani (Rolls Series, vol. 1, Appendix (d), p. 442) places her tomb beside her husband’s and calls her “Domina Ysabella, uxor ejusdem Thomae”. Dame is the English form of Domina, the style of a knight’s wife.

Her sons

The fine of 1342 names the sons Thomas and William, and a grant of 1345 to Sir Thomas, Isabel and their son Thomas names William and Robert as his brothers. The Complete Peerage calls William the “2nd but eldest surviving” son. Cooper (p. 106) names only two sons, John Hoo of Knebworth, who died without children, and William.