♂Ralph de Tony

Ralph de Tony (died 27 May 1295) was an English knight, Baron of Flamstead in Hertfordshire and lord of Painscastle in Radnorshire, who served Edward I in his wars in Wales and died on campaign in Gascony. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Alice de Tony (died 1325).

Wardship and marriage

Ralph was the son and heir of Roger de Tony by his first marriage, to Alice de Bohun, and he was born about 1255. His father died shortly before 12 May 1264, when Ralph was about nine, and on that day his marriage was granted to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and the custody of his lands to Edmund, the king’s son. On 8 August 1265 both were granted again, to Sir Richard de Brus of Writtle in Essex, a younger son of Robert de Brus, lord of Annandale^W. Under wardship^W, the man who held a minor heir’s marriage could choose his bride.

Ralph married Mary before 1276, and she was probably a sister of his guardian. Their son and heir, Robert, was born on 4 April 1276, and a court record of 1297 places his birth in Scotland, at “Thornby”, most likely Turnberry Castle^W, the home of Richard’s elder brother, Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick. Mary was still living in 1283.

War and death

Ralph fought in the Welsh wars^W of 1277, 1282–83 and 1287, and in 1285 he was preparing to go overseas with the Earl of Hereford and Essex. In 1294 he went to fight in Gascony, in the Gascon War^W between Edward I and the king of France over the duchy. There he is said to have been taken prisoner at Risonces on 31 March 1295, and he died in Gascony on 27 May, having made a will.

The news of his death reached England only around 9 July. In the weeks between, his attorneys had gone on paying his creditors as he had ordered, and when the escheator^W took his lands into the king’s hands and tried to recover that money, Ralph’s executors and his son Robert petitioned the king not to be charged for those weeks.

The family

Ralph and Mary had a son, Robert, and two daughters, Alice and a daughter whose name is not known, who was espoused to Robert Tybotot in 1295. Robert de Tony^W was married by a contract of 26 April 1293 to Maud of Strathearn, a daughter of Malise, Earl of Strathearn. He fought at the Battle of Falkirk^W on 22 July 1298 and at the siege of Caerlaverock^W in 1300, and he was summoned to Parliament as Lord Tony from 6 February 1298/9. In 1309 he was setting out to “serve God against the Sarazyns” in Spain, and he died shortly before 28 November that year; his sister Alice was his heir.

Through Alice’s descendants the line runs on to John Washburn (died 1547), who is probably the John Washburn of Bengeworth named in the pedigrees; the reasons are in Notes.

Notes

Sources

Ralph’s parentage, his birth about 1255 (he was aged 22 in 1277), his wardship, his marriage, his service in Wales and Gascony, his capture and his death are given by Douglas Richardson in Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), in the Tony chapter, with the account of his son Robert. Richardson abstracts a petition of 1295 from Ralph’s executors and his son (The National Archives, SC 8/75/3747), which gives the day of his death as the Friday in Pentecost week, 27 May, and the news reaching England at the quinzaine of St John, 9 July. Robert’s birth at “Thornby” rests on a plea roll of 1297 (Placita Coram Domino Rege), and the reading of “Thornby” as Turnberry is Richardson’s. Alice’s inheritance from her brother Robert in 1309 is given by Richardson in his Beauchamp chapter.

His wife

Richardson suggests that Mary was a daughter of Robert de Brus, lord of Annandale, and so a sister of Ralph’s guardian, Richard, from the wardship, from her son’s name and from his birth at the Brus castle of Turnberry, but he adds that “Conclusive evidence of Mary’s parentage, however, is lacking.” Her surname is left blank here.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce Botetourt’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is given here as probable.