♀Isolda de Grendon

Isolda de Grendon was a Derbyshire heiress of the early thirteenth century, a daughter of Serlo de Grendon, lord of Bradley, and the wife of Henry Brailsford (died about 1243), lord of Brailsford. Her parents had five sons, yet it was to Isolda and her two sisters, Johanna and Agatha, that the inheritance ultimately descended. She was the twenty-third great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Henry Brailsford (died about 1260). Through Henry she was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Family

Isolda’s mother, Margaret, was a daughter of Ralph son of Geremund, and brought her husband half the manor of Ockbrook as her marriage portion. The Grendons were benefactors of the abbey of Dale: Isolda’s brother Bartholomew became a canon there, her brother William was its advocate, and William and their brother Serlo gave the canons land in Ockbrook. Her father later married a second wife, Matilda, and had more sons by her.

Marriage and children

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.

Engenulf, a younger son, gave his wife land in Bradley as her dower, most likely part of his mother’s share of the Grendon inheritance, and after the death of Isolda’s brother Serlo he confirmed to Dale the gift of land in Ockbrook that his uncles William and Serlo de Grendon had made.

Widowhood

Henry died about 1242–43. 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 her 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

Her parents, brothers and sisters

Isolda’s family is described in the chronicle of Dale Abbey written by Thomas de Musca, one of its canons, translated by Charles Kerry in Depedale, and the Chronicle of Thomas de Musca, Canon of Dale Abbey (1883), chapter VII. It says that Serlo de Grendon, “the lord of Bradleye”, received “Margery, the daughter of the aforesaid Radulph, the son of Geremund, as his wife, and with her the half of the Manor of Okebroke in free dowry”, and that “By her he had three daughters; viz.: Johanna, Isolda, and Agatha, to whom … the inheritance ultimately descended”, and five sons, “Bartholomew, who was afterwards canon with us, William … our advocate; Fulcher, Jordan, and Serlo”. The chronicle does not say how the inheritance came to the daughters. The abbey’s chartulary, abstracted by J. C. Cox in the Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 24 (1902), pp. 82–150, names the mother “Margaret” in the brothers’ grants for the souls of “Serlo his father and … Margaret his mother”, and that is the form used here.

Her marriage

S. P. H. Statham, “The Brailsfords”, Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 59 (1938), p. 72, writes that Henry Brailsford’s “association with the Grendons arose from his marriage with Isolda, one of the three daughters and co-heirs of Serlo de Grendon”, citing Samuel Pegge’s History of Beauchief Abbey (1801), p. 94. The Dale chartulary bears the marriage out: it records a confirmation by “Engenulf son of Henry de Braylesford” of a gift by “William de Grendon and Serlo his brother, uncles to the said Engenulf”. That the Bradley land Engenulf gave his wife was part of his mother’s inheritance is Statham’s presumption.

Her children

Statham’s chart (p. 66) and text give Henry, the heir, Engenulf and Hawise. William, Roger and Serlo rest on Pegge’s History of Beauchief Abbey alone, which is also the source for Roger as rector of Dronfield.

A 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.