♂John de Vere Earl of Oxford

John de Vere^W (about 1312 – 23 January 1360) was an English nobleman who inherited the earldom of Oxford from his uncle at the age of nineteen, and whose wife, Maud de Badlesmere, brought him a share of the Badlesmere inheritance. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Margaret de Vere (died 1398).

Early life and inheritance

John was the son of Alphonsus de Vere, said to be the next younger brother of Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford^W. His father died by December 1328, when John was fifteen, leaving him heir to manors in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. In 1331 his uncle the earl died, and the inquisition post mortem^W into his lands found that “John de Veer, his nephew, aged 19 years and more, is his next heir”. So the young man became Earl of Oxford, and with the earldom, it is said, went the family’s hereditary office of Great Chamberlain^W. When another uncle, Thomas de Veer, died a few years later, John was his heir as well.

Marriage and family

He married Maud de Badlesmere, probably in 1336. When her brother Giles de Badlesmere died in 1338, Maud and her three sisters were found to be his heirs. Her share became part of the earl’s estate: he held the manor of Leonhales in Herefordshire “of the inheritance of Maud his wife”, and many of their manors in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Kent were settled on the two of them jointly and on the heirs of their bodies.

Their son Thomas, born about 1336, was the heir of both. The earl also had a younger son, Aubrey, and a daughter, Margaret, most likely Maud’s children as well. On 10 June 1350 he conveyed the manor of Chesham in Buckinghamshire to Thomas and his young bride, Maud, daughter of Ralph de Ufford, and the heirs male of their bodies.

War and death

John is said to have served in the wars against Scotland and France, and to have held a command at both Crécy^W and Poitiers^W, two of the great English victories of the Hundred Years’ War. He died on 23 January 1360, aged about forty-seven, and the juries found that “Thomas de Veer, knight, his son, aged 23 years and more, is his heir”. He is said to have been buried at Colne Priory^W in Essex, where his uncle Robert lay. Maud survived him by six years.

Lines of descent

Both lines come down from his daughter Margaret de Vere through her daughter Margaret Loveyne (died 1408) and her son Thomas St. Clair (1401–1435) to Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). One continues through Samuel’s son Stephen Dudley (1654–1735) to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844), the other to Nathaniel’s wife, Anna Smith (1764–1825); the two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).

Notes

Sources for his life

His inheritance rests on three inquisitions in the Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 7, Edward III: his father’s (no. 116, on a writ of 20 December 1328: “John, his son, aged 15 years and more, is his next heir”), his uncle Thomas de Veer’s (no. 195, 8 Edward III), and his uncle the earl’s (no. 379, 5 Edward III), which also calls him “son of Alphonsus de Veer, aged 19 at the feast of St. Gregory last past”. His own inquisition is in vol. 10, no. 638 (pp. 513–523); it gives his death, his heir, the jointly held lands, the Herefordshire manor held of Maud’s inheritance “as one of the sisters and heirs of the said Giles”, and the Chesham charter of 10 June 24 Edward III. His wife’s place among Giles de Badlesmere’s heirs is from Giles’s inquisition (vol. 8, no. 185).

Alphonsus as the “next brother” of the earl, the marriage in 1336, the Great Chamberlainship, his service in Scotland and France, his commands at Crécy and Poitiers, his age at death and his burial at Colne Priory “with his sons John and Robert” are from G.E.C., Complete Peerage, 1st ed., vol. 6 (1895), p. 164, which also notes a will dated 1358.

His birth and death dates

Nineteen at the feast of St Gregory (12 March) 1331 puts his birth about 1312; Complete Peerage gives 1313 and an age of forty-seven at death. The Leicester jury found that he “died on 23 January, 33 Edward III”; the Hertford jury gave 24 January, as does Complete Peerage. The regnal year 33 Edward III ended on 24 January 1360.

His mother

None of the three inquisitions names his mother. Complete Peerage gives her as Jane, daughter of Sir Richard Foliot.

His children

The inquisition taken after Maud’s death in 1366 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 12, no. 81) calls Thomas “son of Maud and John”. Margaret is “filia comitis Oxonie”, daughter of the Earl of Oxford, in the register of the Grey Friars of London (C. L. Kingsford, The Grey Friars of London, 1915), and her second husband’s will of 1375 names “Sir Aubrey de Vere, brother to my said wife”. Maud’s inquisition passes two manors to Aubrey under an earlier settlement. Maud as the mother of Margaret is from Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry (2nd ed., 2011), p. 220; she is the only wife Complete Peerage gives the earl.