♂John le Despenser

John le Despenser (died before 1349) was a fourteenth-century Oxfordshire landowner, lord of the manor of Albury, written Aldebury, who in 1324 had a royal licence to settle it on himself, his wife Margaret and their son John, with his three younger sons to follow in turn. He was the twentieth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Margaret Despencer, and through her an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Life

He was probably the John le Despenser, “nephew of John de London”, to whom Albury had been granted by a fine^W at Easter 1306, and who was found that year, “aged 36 and more”, to be John de London’s next heir. If so, he was born by about 1270.

On 8 July 1324 he paid 100 shillings for a royal licence to enfeoff^W William le Despenser with the manor of Aldebury and the advowson^W of its church, so that William could grant them back to John, his wife Margaret and their son John and the heirs of the younger John’s body. After them the manor was to pass in turn to the brothers Thomas, Nicholas and Richard, and finally to John le Despenser’s own right heirs.

He was dead by 1349, when his widow is said to have held Albury; she still held it in 1361.

Family

His wife was most likely Margaret de Draycote, of Draycote in Waterstock, whose son Nicholas was named in 1395 as “Nicholas Spencere”. Besides the four sons named in 1324, he was most likely the father of Margaret Despencer, whose daughter Alice and her husband John Baldington were granted Albury well before 1376. A manor entailed^W on John le Despenser’s right heirs coming to his granddaughter is the main sign that Margaret was his daughter.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through Margaret Despencer, her daughter Alice, Alice’s 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 1306 inheritance

The inquisition taken after the death of John de London (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 4, no. 382) records that Albury had been granted by a fine of Easter in the thirty-fourth year of Edward I “to John le Despenser his nephew(?) (nepoti)”, and that “The said John le Despenser, aged 36 and more, is his next heir.” The calendar’s editors marked their reading of the Latin nepos with a query. Land at Knyghtelynton, in Berkshire, also passed to “John le Despenser, nephew of John de London”. That this was the John le Despenser of 1324 rests on the same manor in the same name, held without a break; his parents are not recorded.

The 1324 licence

The Calendar of Patent Rolls^W (1324–1327, p. 6) records on 8 July 1324: “Licence for John le Despenser of Aldebury to enfeoff William le Despenser of the manor of Aldebury with the advowson of the church thereof, and for the latter to regrant the same to the said John and Margaret his wife and John their son, and the heirs of the body of the latter, with successive remainders in tail to Thomas, Nicholas and Richard brothers of the latter, and to the right heirs of the said John le Despenser. By fine of 100s.” How William le Despenser was related to him is not recorded.

His wife and daughter

The licence does not give Margaret’s family. An inquisition of 1395 into Draycote in Waterstock (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 17, no. 455) names “Nicholas Spencere son of the said Margaret”, the sister of Agnes and John de Draycote, and traces his heir through “Alice daughter of Margaret daughter of Margaret sister of Agnes”. The identification of the two Margarets rests on the matching names. That the younger Margaret was John le Despenser’s daughter is a further inference, from Albury coming to her daughter Alice.

His death

The Victoria County History^W of Oxfordshire (vol. 5, ‘Albury’, pp. 8–14) says that John Despenser held Albury in the 1320s and that “his widow did so in 1349 and 1361”, citing the Lincoln bishops’ registers. The date of his death is not recorded.

The later descent of Albury

The same history has his son John holding two fees, including “Albury by Ickford bridge”, in 1368, and says that “in 1380 John’s brother Nicholas Despenser apparently conveyed the manor to Salveyn”. The inquisition taken after Alice Baldington’s death in 1393 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 17, no. 156) says that Albury had been granted to her and her husband “long before 50 Edward III” (1376). The records do not reconcile the two accounts.