♂John Baldington

John Baldington (died before 1393) was a fourteenth-century English landowner who, with his wife Alice, held the manor of Albury, in Oxfordshire. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son William Baldington (1377–1419), and through William an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Life

Well before 1376, John and Alice were granted the manor of Albury, written Aldebury, to hold for themselves and the heirs of their bodies, with the remainder to Alice’s own heirs. Their son William was born about 21 September 1377. John died before his wife, who kept Albury as a widow until her death on 4 June 1393. William, then fifteen, was found to be her heir and, being under age, became a royal ward^W.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son William Baldington, William’s daughter Agnes Baldington, her son Thomas Denton, Thomas’s son John Denton, John’s daughter Alice Denton, her son Edward Purefoy, Edward’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley (1576–1653) and Thomas Dudley’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

The grant of Albury

The inquisition post mortem^W taken after Alice’s death (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 17, no. 156), on a writ of 14 June in the sixteenth year of Richard II, records that Aldebury had been granted “long before 50 Edward III” (1376) to John and Alice “and the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to the right heirs of Alice”, that they “had issue a son named William”, and that “Alice survived the said John”. It names “William her son by John Baldyngton, aged 15 years on the feast of St Matthew last” as her heir; the feast falls on 21 September. The records write the name Baldyngton.

His death

No record gives the date of his death. The inquisition shows only that he died before Alice, and the Victoria County History^W of Oxfordshire (vol. 5, 1957, ‘Albury’, pp. 8–14) says that she “continued to hold it after John’s death”. The same history adds that William was a minor and a royal ward after his mother died.