♀Philippa Savage

Philippa Savage (before 1229 – 9 May 1285) was a thirteenth-century heiress who, married to Sir Hugh de Meynell, brought the Meynells half of Tissington in Derbyshire and half of Kingsnewton in Warwickshire when she shared her brother’s inheritance in 1259. She was the twenty-second great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son William de Meynell (born before 1255).

Life

Philippa was the sister of William le Savage, who held Tissington, Newton in Warwickshire and lands in Worcestershire and Staffordshire. He died in 1259, and the inquisition post mortem^W into his lands, ordered on 2 October, found two heirs: Philippa, then “wife of Sir Hugh de Meinyl”, and Thomas de Ednesouere, the son of their sister Lucy. Both were “aged 30 and more”, which places Philippa’s birth before 1229. As coheir^W she took half of her brother’s estate, among it half of Tissington and half of Kingsnewton, with a half share in the advowson^W, the right to name the priest of Kingsnewton church.

Philippa’s son and heir, Sir William de Meynell, was born before 1255, most likely of her marriage to Hugh. She died on 9 May 1285, the Wednesday after the feast of St John before the Latin Gate, in the thirteenth year of Edward I, and the inquest found her next heir to be “Sir William de Megnill, knight, her son, aged 30 and more”. The half of Kingsnewton she had inherited stayed with her descendants for more than a hundred years, according to the county history of Warwickshire, until the death of Ralph de Meynell in 1389.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son William de Meynell and, most likely, his son Hugh de Meynell (died 1333), then Hugh’s son Hugh de Meynell (1302–1363), his daughter Isabel de Meynell (died 1393), her son Hugh Shirley (died 1403), his son Ralph Shirley and Ralph’s daughter Beatrix Shirley (died 1483), and from her through the Bromes, Dentons, Purefoys and Thornes to Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 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

Her brother’s inheritance

The Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 1 (1904), no. 453, William le Suvage alias le Savage, writ 2 October, 43 Henry III (1259): “Thomas de Ednessouere, son of Thomas and Lucy de Ednesouere his sister, and Philippa, wife of Sir Hugh de Meinyl, his sister, both aged 30 and more, are his heirs”. The lands named are Tissington (Derbyshire), Newton (Warwickshire), Eastwood (Worcestershire), Hints (Staffordshire), and Pouelee, Baddesley, Bathekinton, Wotton and Hulle (Warwickshire). The Victoria County History of Warwickshire, vol. 4 (Newton Regis), names the heirs as “Thomas de Ensor, the son of his sister Lucy, and Philippa, wife of Hugh de Meinyl”, and says the Meynell half “remained in the hands of her descendants”: Hugh senior (died 1333), Hugh (died 1363), Sir Richard (died 1376) and Ralph (died 1389). Daniel Lysons’s Magna Britannia, vol. 5 (1817), has “The co-heiresses of Savage married Meynell and Edensor”.

Her death

Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2 (1906), no. 561, Philippa de Meignyll alias de Menill, writ 12 May, 13 Edward I: a moiety of Tissington, and a moiety of Kings Newton with a moiety of the advowson; “She died on Wednesday after St. John ante Portam Latinam, 13 Edw. I”, which is 9 May 1285. Some online trees give 12 May 1285, the date of the writ. The inquest names William as her heir only and does not list her other children.

Her parentage

No record names Philippa’s parents. Lysons calls Hugh’s wife “the heiress of Edensor”, and a Burke genealogy of 1847 makes her a daughter of Thomas de Ednesoure; the 1259 inquest shows that Thomas de Ednesouere was the husband of her sister Lucy, and that Philippa was a Savage. Some online trees name her parents as Geoffrey Savage and Petronilla, citing no record.