♂John Denton

John Denton (died 12 July 1497) was an English gentleman of Wightam in Berkshire in the later fifteenth century, who married Isabel Brome, the widow of Philip Purefoy of Shirford. Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, was his great-great-great-grandson through his daughter Alice. He was the fourteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Alice Denton.

Family

According to the heraldic visitation^W pedigree of Oxfordshire, John was a son of Thomas Denton of Fifield, Oxfordshire, and his wife Alison Dauncey, a daughter and coheir of William Dauncey.

Marriage and children

John married Isabel Brome, a daughter of John Brome of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire. Her first husband, Philip Purefoy, had died in 1468. John and Isabel had a son, Thomas Denton of Caversfield, and two daughters: Anne, who married Sir Edward Greville of Milcote, and Alice, who married Nicholas Purefoy, the son of Philip Purefoy’s brother John.

In 1491 the crown is said to have granted John the wardship and marriage of Nicholas, who was then under age: the right to hold the boy’s lands until he came of age and to arrange his marriage. Nicholas married John’s daughter Alice.

Will and death

On 1 September 1493 John made his will, in English. If his wife remained unmarried, she was to have all his lands in Oxfordshire and Berkshire for her life, “to the use of her and her children”, and the revenues of his manor of Foxcote were set aside during the nonage of his son. He provided a priest to sing for the souls of himself, his own parents and Isabel’s, “my ffader Browne and my moder his wyf”, and left a bequest to the Grey Friars of Oxford^W. He named “my sonne Thomas Denton”, called Isabel’s first husband “my broder her housbonde Purfey”, and made “my wif Isabell” his executrix.

John died on 12 July 1497. At the inquisition post mortem^W held on his lands that September, he was found to have held the manor of Appleton in Berkshire with the right to present its parson, land at Appleton, East Hanney, Lyford and West Wittenham, the manor of Foxcote and land at Shalston in Buckinghamshire, and land at Littlemore in Oxfordshire. The Shalston land he held of his own wife, “Isabel Denton”, as lady of the manor of Shalston. His son and heir Thomas was then aged twenty-two and more. Isabel, as “Isabelle relicte et executricis”, his widow and executrix, proved the will at Lambeth on 17 November 1497.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his 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’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

His parents and his marriage

The Oxfordshire visitation pedigree (Visitations of the County of Oxford, 1566, 1574 and 1634, Harleian Society vol. 5, 1871, pp. 228–229) sets out the family: Thomas Denton of Fifield, the “3rd. Husband” of Alison, one of the daughters and heirs of William Dauncey, who had married first William Browning and also Richard Wightam of Barkly; their son John Denton of Wightam in Berkshire; his wife Isabel, daughter of John Brome of Baddesley in Warwickshire, whose first husband was Philip Purefoy; and their children Anne (wife of Sir Edward Greville of Milcote), Thomas Denton of Caversfield (who married Jane Webbe) and Alice (wife of Nicholas Purefoy of Shalston). The Victoria County History of Berkshire (vol. 4, 1924, ‘Wytham’, pp. 427–430, and ‘Fyfield’, pp. 344–349) corrects the order of Alison’s marriages: her first husband was Richard of Wytham, by whom she had an only daughter, Agnes, who married William Browning about 1437, and her second was Thomas Denton, who held land at Wytham in her right by 1428. William Browning was therefore Alison’s son-in-law, and this page follows the county history. The Warwickshire visitation of 1619 (Harleian Society vol. 12, p. 97) gives Isabel the same two husbands. Wightam has been taken for Wytham, near Oxford, where his father held land in Alison’s right; the county history’s account of Appleton (vol. 4, p. 338) identifies it as Wittenham, and John held land at West Wittenham when he died.

Alice’s father

The Leicestershire visitation of 1619 (p. 33) and the Buckinghamshire visitation (Harleian Society vol. 58, p. 200) both call Alice a daughter of “Tho. Denton”, of Caversfield and of “Basyles Lye”. The Oxfordshire chart shows Thomas Denton of Caversfield as her brother and John and Isabel as her parents, and this page follows it. John’s own will settles that Philip Purefoy’s widow Isabel was John’s wife, and that his son was Thomas.

The inquisition and the will

The inquisitions on John’s lands are printed in the Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, vol. 2 (1915), pp. 40–41, nos. 40–42: “He died 12 July, 12 Henry VII … Thomas Denton, aged 22 and more, is his son and heir.” The first inquisition was taken on 17 September 1497 and the Buckinghamshire one on 18 September; the last finds a messuage and four virgates in Shalston “held of Isabel Denton, as of the manor of Shalston”. The will is registered in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W (PROB 11/11, Register Horne, f. 139r). It opens “In dei nomine amen the yere of our lord M CCCC lxxxxiij the first day of Septembre I John Denton make my testament”, and the priest is to sing “for the soules of me my ffader and moder my broder Philip Purefoy his ffader my ffader Browne and my moder his wyf”. These are prayers for the dead, and “my ffader Browne” fits Isabel’s father, John Brome, killed in 1468; the Buckinghamshire visitation likewise calls her a daughter of “Brown”. The probate is entered in Latin: “Probatum fuit suprascriptum testamentum coram domino apud Lamehith xvij die mensis Novembris Anno domini Millesimo CCCC nonagesimo septimo iuramento Isabelle relicte et executricis”. Nicolas’s Testamenta Vetusta (1826, vol. 2, p. 415) prints an abstract dated 6 September 1493, which runs the list of souls together as “my brother Philip Purefoy’s father” and asks whether Isabel was his wife; the register copy answers both.

The wardship

The grant of Nicholas Purefoy’s wardship and marriage to John Denton in 1491 is given by the Magna Carta Project’s profile of John on WikiTree, which cites the Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 1485–1494, p. 346. The calendar entry is given here at second hand, from that citation.