♂Sir Philip Saint Clair

Philip Saint Clair (about 1365 – 16 May 1408) was an English knight who inherited the St. Clair manors in Somerset and Sussex as a young man of twenty-one, and who died six days after his wife, Margaret Loveyne, leaving two small sons. He was the seventeenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Thomas St. Clair (1401–1435).

Inheritance

Philip was the son and heir of Sir John Saint Clair, a knight, who died on Monday 28 January 1387. When the inquisitions post mortem^W into his father’s lands were taken that May and June, Philip, already a knight himself by then, was “aged 21 1/4 years and more”, so he was born about 1365. His mother’s name is not known. He is said to have been given possession of the inheritance the same year, the manor of Bradfield St. Clere in Suffolk among it.

Marriage and family

Philip married Margaret Loveyne, the widow of Sir Richard Chamberlain, in or before 1398. They were already husband and wife in 1396–97, when the Crown enquired into their wish to grant away the reversion of houses in the London parish of All Hallows the Great, which her widowed mother held for life. Margaret was the daughter and heir of Sir Nicholas de Lovaine, a knight, and she brought to the marriage a young son by her first husband, Richard Chamberlain.

On 4 April 1397 the St. Clair manors in Sussex, among them Brambletye and Lavertye at East Grinstead, Tarring and Brighton, were made over to Philip and Margaret together, with Chalgrove in Oxfordshire and Ashby Magna in Leicestershire. Their elder son, John, was born on 1 November 1397, and their younger son, Thomas, at East Grinstead on 28 October 1401. In 1403 Philip was being pursued in Chancery for a debt of £100 to William of Wykeham^W, the Bishop of Winchester.

Death

Margaret died on 10 May 1408 and Philip six days later, on 16 May, leaving two young sons: John, then ten, was the heir, and Thomas was six. Inquisitions into Philip’s lands were taken in Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire and Surrey. John died still under age on 2 November 1418, and Thomas, who had just turned seventeen, became the heir to the St. Clair estates.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Thomas, 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 father’s death and his own age come from the inquisitions taken in 1387 after Sir John’s death (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 16, Richard II, nos. 458–459): “Philip Seynclere, knight, his son, aged 21 1/4 years and more, is his heir”. His death, his wife’s and his son John’s age come from the inquisitions taken after his own death (vol. 19, Henry IV, nos. 453–459), the Surrey jury at Godstone on 26 May 1408 finding that “Margaret died on 10 May, Philip on 16 May last”. His possession of the lands in 1387 (Calendar of Fine Rolls), the marriage in or before 1398, when he and Margaret had livery of the manors of Margaret and her first husband (Calendar of Close Rolls), and Bradfield St. Clere are from F. N. Craig, “Maternal Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley: St. Clair and Audley Lines”, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 139 (1985), pp. 283–284.

The London houses are in an inquisition of 20 Richard II (The National Archives, C 143/427/18), which names “Philip Seyntclere, knight, and Margaret his wife, daughter and heir of Nicholas Loveigne, knight”. The Sussex manors were made over to them by a deed of 4 April 1397 in the Sussex Archaeological Society’s collection (SAS/G1/1). The debt to William of Wykeham was acknowledged at the Staple of Westminster on 7 February 1394, payable that July, and was certified into Chancery in 1403 (The National Archives, C 241/193/63 and C 131/217/13).

His death date

The inquisitions disagree on the day. The Somerset jury gave 18 May, the Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Oxfordshire juries 14 May, and the Surrey jury 16 May. The writ ordering the inquisitions was issued on 17 May, so 18 May cannot stand; 16 May is taken here.

His mother

His father’s widow in 1387 was Mary, the late wife of Sir Roger Belers, who had dower from Sir John’s lands. Craig states that she “was not the mother of Philip”, and his mother’s name has not come down.

An extra generation

Some older printed pedigrees, among them Burke’s Peerage (1869), call Thomas the grandson of a Sir Philip St. Clere, member of Parliament for Sussex in 1377, and some online genealogies give Philip a father named Philip, married to Joan de Audley. Craig does not accept that generation, and the 1387 inquisitions name Philip as the son and heir of John. Burke also calls Thomas Philip’s only son, overlooking his elder brother John.

His name

The name is written Saint Clair, St. Clair, St. Clere, Seynclere, Seyntclere and Seyntcler in the sources.