♂John Twyford

John Twyford (died after 1346) was an English knight of Kirk Langley in Derbyshire and Stretton Baskerville in Warwickshire, twice knight of the shire^W for Derbyshire under Edward II and a follower of the earls of Lancaster. He was the twenty-first great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Robert Twyford. Through Robert he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W. His loyalty to Lancaster put him on the wrong side of the crown, and in 1322 he made fine for his life and lands “for having been a rebel and an adherent of rebels”.

Lands

In 1301 Ralph Pipard granted John the manor of Stretton Baskerville, keeping a life tenure for himself at a rose rent, a token payment. The Pipards had also held Kirk Langley, Spondon and Chaddesden in Derbyshire, and Kirk Langley and Spondon became the Twyford family’s home. By 1316 Sir John was lord of Stretton Baskerville and of the whole township of Kirk Langley, and he later held part of a fee at Spondon that had once been Ralph Pipard’s. In 1327 the king granted Sir John and Margaret, his wife, view of frankpledge^W in Kirk Langley, the right to hold the court that kept order among the men of the manor.

Lancaster’s man

Sir John sat for Derbyshire in the parliaments of 1314 and 1318, but he was also a retainer of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster^W, the leader of the barons who opposed Edward II. In 1318 he was pardoned as one of the earl’s adherents, and in 1321 for anything done against the Despensers^W, father and son, the king’s favorites. Earl Thomas was defeated and executed in 1322, and Sir John paid £100 to keep his life and lands; in 1325 he was pardoned 100 marks of that fine.

He did not stay out of trouble. In 1329 he came armed to the Parliament of Bedford among the followers of Henry, Earl of Lancaster^W, and David, Earl of Atholl, and had to pay £200 for a pardon.

Later career

His part in the risings seems to have cost him his standing in the county, for he held no office again until he was named to the commission of the peace for Staffordshire in 1331 and for Derbyshire in 1332. After that he was back in royal service: on commissions of oyer and terminer^W in 1331, 1333 and 1341, as a justice in eyre^W for the forest of Pickering in 1334, and as a tax commissioner for Derbyshire in 1340. In 1343 he gave his son Robert land in Spondon and Chaddesden. He last appears in 1346, as a witness to a deed of Alice, widow of Giles de Astley, and in February 1346/7, when he was assessed for land in Warwickshire. The records do not give the date of his death.

Family

Sir John married Margaret, whose own family is not known. John and Margaret were, according to the family pedigrees, the parents of Robert, the eldest son, and Edward (died 1375), and probably of John, a vicar of Spondon, and Thomas, a knight of the shire in 1381; one copy of the pedigrees adds Michael, Philip and a daughter, Isabella.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Robert Twyford, Robert’s daughter Joan Twyford, her daughter Joan Brailsford, Joan Brailsford’s son Thomas Basset, Thomas’s daughter Joan Basset and that Joan’s daughter Beatrix Shirley (died 1483), and on through Governor Thomas Dudley (1576–1653) and his son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). One comes down 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

M. J. Sayer, “Twyford of Kirk Langley and Spondon: Problems in the History of a Medieval Derbyshire Family”, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 94 (1974), pp. 26–31, works from the printed calendars of the public records: the Feudal Aids for his lands in 1316, 1330 and 1346, the Calendar of Charter Rolls for the grant of 1327, the Calendar of Patent Rolls for the pardons of 1318, 1321 and 1325, the Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous for the Parliament of Bedford, and the Calendar of Fine Rolls for the Warwickshire assessment of 10 February 1346/7. The quoted words of 1322 are from the pardon of 1325 as Sayer quotes it. The pardon of 1321 was granted on the testimony of Sir Hugh Daudele the son. Sayer has him called knight in deeds of 1318 and 1346 and on all the Twyford pedigrees.

The Victoria County History of Warwickshire, vol. 6, pp. 240–1, under Stretton Baskerville, has Ralph Pipard granting the manor “to John de Twyford, reserving a life tenure for himself at a rose rent” in 1301, citing the Warwickshire feet of fines, and “John de Twyford was returned as lord of Stretton Baskerville cum membris in 1316”. The Twyfords held the manor until 1488.

His origins

No record names his parents. Sayer suggests that he “may have been a relation of Master John de Twyford, one of the seven executors of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby in 1255, and to the Twyfords of Twyford, Leicestershire”. The Pipard and Twyford arms were variants of the same design, and Sayer thinks that between the two families “there may well have been a marriage”, though he doubts the older claim of Daniel and Samuel Lysons that the Pipards took the name of Twyford.

In 1334 he was styled “John de Twyford the elder”, which implies a younger John de Twyford alive at the same time; the records do not say who he was.

His children

Three versions of the Twyford pedigree survive, one at the College of Arms and two in copies of the 1611 heralds’ visitation^W of Derbyshire at the Bodleian Library and Queen’s College, Oxford. Robert and Edward appear as Sir John’s sons on all three, and Sayer adds John, vicar of Spondon in 1361 and 1383, and Thomas, knight of the shire in 1381, as probable sons. The gift of land to Robert in 1343 is recorded on the College of Arms pedigree. The Queen’s College copy also gives Sir John the children Michael, Philip, Isabella, wife of John Chandos, and Elena, wife of John Curzon, and a daughter first written “Elizabeth”, then crossed out and replaced by “Joanna wife of Henry -“. Sayer thinks it possible that there was a second son named Robert, vicar of Spondon in 1352.

Edward was with the king in France in 1360, held the castle of Horston for the king from 1363 until his death in 1375, and married Elizabeth, widow of Hervey Dyves; he seems to have had no children.

This page, like the pages of his son and granddaughter, follows the Sussex visitation, which makes Joan, wife of Henry Brailsford, a daughter of Sir Robert. The Queen’s College copy would make her Sir John’s own daughter instead, and Sayer finds “some confusion as to the generations”.