♂Sir John Saint Clair

John Saint Clair (about 1332 – 28 January 1387) was an English knight who became heir to his father’s manors in Sussex and Somerset at the age of three and held them for the rest of his life. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Philip Saint Clair (1365–1408).

Early life

John was the son of John Saint Clair and his wife, Alice. His father died early in 1335, and when the inquisitions post mortem^W into his lands were taken that spring, the jurors found that “John, son of the said John and Alice, aged three years and more, is their next heir”. The Sussex jury, sitting on 9 May 1335, put it more exactly: the boy had been three years old on the feast of St. Gregory, that March. His inheritance was the manor of Chiselborough in Somerset, which his parents had held together, and in Sussex the manors of Jevington, Heighton, Exceat and Tarring, with Brambletye and Larkety at East Grinstead. His mother died on 6 August 1340, while he was still a boy.

Knight and landowner

By 1369 John had been knighted. When the lands of Sir Michael de Poynings were enquired into that year, his manor of Preston in Sussex was found to be held of John Saint Clair, knight, and John Cokefeld, as lords of their manors of Jevington and Firle. John’s son and heir, Philip, was born about 1365; Philip’s mother’s name is not known.

Death

John died on 28 January 1387, “on Monday before the Purification”, the feast of 2 February. Inquisitions into his lands were taken at East Grinstead on 23 May and at Montacute in Somerset on 1 June, and they found him holding the manors he had inherited as a child, Chiselborough, Jevington, Heighton, Brambletye and Larkety among them. His heir was “Philip Seynclere, knight, his son, aged 21 1/4 years and more”. His widow, Mary, was given her dower from his lands.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Philip, Philip’s son Thomas St. Clair (1401–1435), Thomas’s daughter Edith Saint Clair (born about 1423), Edith’s daughter Alice Harcourt (died 1526), Alice’s daughter Elizabeth Bessiles, Elizabeth’s daughter Anne Fettiplace, Anne’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 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

Sources for his life

His parents, his age and his inheritance come from the inquisitions taken after his father’s death (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 7, Edward III, no. 686; writ of 18 February 1335). His mother’s death comes from the inquisition taken in 1343 after her death (vol. 8, no. 416), which names him again as the son of John and Alice and her next heir. The 1369 entry is in the inquisition after the death of Michael de Poynings, knight (vol. 12, no. 404), where the manors are written “Jevyngton and Ferle”. His death, the inquisitions of 1387 and his heir are in vol. 16, Richard II, nos. 458–459, where he is “John Seynclere, knight”.

The manors named in his father’s inquisitions of 1335 and in his own of 1387 are the same, which is what joins the boy of 1335 to the knight who died in 1387.

His age in 1343

The 1343 inquisition after his mother’s death gives him as “aged 9 years and more”, younger than the 1335 inquisitions make him; by those he was about eleven.

His wife and Philip’s mother

The 1387 inquisitions name his widow, Mary, who had dower from his lands. F. N. Craig, “Maternal Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley: St. Clair and Audley Lines”, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 139 (1985), p. 283, states that she “was not the mother of Philip”, and the name of Philip’s mother has not come down.

An extra generation

Some online genealogies give his son Philip a father named Philip St Clere (1330–1387), married to Joan de Audley. That generation goes back to older printed pedigrees; Craig does not accept it, and the 1387 inquisitions name Philip as the son and heir of John.

His name

The name is written Saint Clair, St. Clair, de Sancto Claro, Seyncler, Seynclere and Seyntclere in the sources.