♂Lawrence de Sanford

Lawrence de Sanford (died about 1271) was a thirteenth-century English landholder of Melbury Sampford, in Dorset, whose son, Sir Thomas de Sanford, died in 1299 and left his sister Ada as his heir. He was the twenty-first great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his daughter Ada de Sanford (died 1331).

Family

According to the published pedigrees, Lawrence was a knight and married Hawise Corbet, and their children were Thomas and Ada. Lawrence died about 1271. Hawise outlived him by some twenty-five years: in 1297 she exercised the advowson^W of the church of Melbury Sampford, the right to name its priest. Their son, Sir Thomas de Sanford, died in 1299, and his sister Ada was his heir. By 1300–01 Ada had married Walter Foliot, and in 1303 she exercised the advowson herself.

Lines of descent

Through their daughter Ada de Sanford and her daughter Joan Foliot, Lawrence de Sanford and Hawise Corbet were ancestors of Thomas Dudley (1576–1653). Both lines run through Joan de Percy, Beatrice de Braose, the Shirleys, Bromes, Dentons, Purefoys and Thornes to Thomas Dudley and his 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 name, rank and children

Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. 6 (1840), pp. 338–339, “Proofs of the Mautravers Pedigree”, calls his daughter Alda “daughter of Sir Laurence Sampford, of Melbury-Sampford”, and quotes a medieval book of heirs (Cotton MS Claudius C. viii): “Auda s. & h. of Thomas de Saundford, o. 27 Edw. I”, that is, sister and heir of Thomas, who died in the twenty-seventh year of Edward I (1298–99). His knighthood and his place at Melbury Sampford rest on that account. An older pedigree in John Hutchins’s History of Dorset (1774), vol. 2, p. 464, also makes Alda the daughter and heir of Laurence Sampford, though its generations run out of order.

F. N. Craig’s table in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 150 (July 1996), p. 324, gives “Lawrence de Sanford d abt 1271” and his wife “Hawise Corbet liv 1297”, with their children Thomas, who died in 1299, and Ada, who died in 1331. His date of death and his wife’s surname rest on that table alone. His own parents are not known.

The presentations to Melbury Sampford

The Collectanea lists the presentations to the church of Melbury Sampford: by Hawis in 1297, by Alda in 1303, and by “Walter Foliot and Alda, 6 Mar. 1308”. It also quotes Strangways’ records: “Alda, sister to Sir Thomas de Saundford, to Walter Foliot 29 Edw. I”, that is, in the twenty-ninth year of Edward I (1300–01).