♀Margery (surname unknown)

Margery (living in 1337) was the twentieth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Henry Brailsford. With her husband, Ralph Brailsford, lord of Brailsford in Derbyshire, she received the manor of Wingerworth in 1337. Through Henry she was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Marriage

Her family and surname are not known. Her husband served the Crown in Derbyshire, levying a scutage in 1319, holding the office of sheriff for a few weeks in 1324 and collecting the subsidies in 1336 and 1337. In 1337 Thomas de Brailsford, the rector of Brailsford, and John Barrington granted to “Ralph de Brailsford and Margery, his wife” the manor of Wingerworth, together with 128 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, 64 acres of pasture and 25 acres of wood, and holdings at Chesterfield, Barlow and Dronfield. Ralph was dead by 1344, and his son Henry succeeded him; Henry was most likely Margery’s son. When she died, and whether she outlived Ralph, is not known.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Henry Brailsford, Henry’s daughter Joan Brailsford, her son Thomas Basset, Thomas’s daughter Joan Basset and 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

The 1337 grant

The grant is known from S. P. H. Statham, “The Brailsfords”, Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 59 (1938), pp. 75–76, citing J. P. Yeatman’s Feudal History of the County of Derby, vol. II, p. 317. It is the only mention of Margery, and it shows only that she and Ralph were married by 1337.

Her son

Statham names Henry as Ralph’s son and successor but does not name Henry’s mother. Margery is the only wife of Ralph’s on record, and she is taken here as Henry’s mother on that ground.