♂Ralph de Tony

Ralph de Tony was an English knight of the early thirteenth century and the first husband of Parnel de Lacy, a daughter of Walter de Lacy^W. Between 1232 and 1240 her father gave Ralph the manors of Britford in Wiltshire and Yarkhill in Herefordshire with her, and promised that if he could not make the gift good, he would make it up from his other lands in England or, failing those, from his castle of Trim^W in Ireland. Ralph was the twenty-first great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) through his son Roger de Tony (died 1264), and her twenty-second great-grandfather by two more lines through his daughter Constance (living in 1266): three separate lines of descent in all.

Marriage and lands

Ralph is said to have been lord of Castle Maud (now Painscastle) in Radnorshire, of South Tawton in Devon and of Kirtling in Cambridgeshire, and Baron of Flamstead in Hertfordshire. Walter de Lacy, who held the barony of Weobley in Herefordshire, granted Britford and Yarkhill to Ralph in frank-marriage^W with Parnel: the manors were to pass to Ralph and his heirs by Parnel, and to come back to Walter and his heirs if she died without children. Among the witnesses to the charter was Philip de Eclevill, then Ralph’s steward.

Ralph and Parnel had a son and heir, Roger, and a daughter, Margaret, and probably a second daughter, Constance. Roger, who is said to have been born about 1235, was not yet four when an agreement was made on 30 June 1239 for his marriage to Alice de Bohun, a daughter of the Earl of Hereford.

Death and the Tony claim

Ralph seems to have died while Roger was still a boy, for the king granted the custody of his lands to Queen Eleanor^W, though not the marriage of his heir. Parnel lived on into the 1280s. As his widow she gave half of Yarkhill to Fulk FitzWarin and his wife, Constance, in frank-marriage, and on 4 August 1278 she granted Britford to Thomas St. Omer.

Ralph’s descendants did not let Britford go. His great-grandson Robert de Tony sued Thomas for Britford and Bramshaw, saying that Ralph had held them in his own right in King Henry III’s time and that they had come down from him to Roger, from Roger to his son Ralph, and from that Ralph to Robert. Thomas answered that Parnel, as Ralph’s widow, had enfeoffed him, and on 25 April 1307 Robert gave up all his right in both manors for 170 marks, keeping only Thomas’s homage and the service of a chaplet of roses. The same year Robert sued to recover the half of Yarkhill as well.

Lines of descent

One line runs through his son Roger de Tony (died 1264), Roger’s son Ralph de Tony (died 1295) and Ralph’s daughter Alice de Tony (died 1325), and on through the la Zouche, Botetourt, Peshale and Mitton families to, probably, John Washburn (died 1547), and down to Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885). The other two run through his probable daughter Constance, her son Fulk FitzWarin (1251–1315) and Fulk’s probable daughter Hawise FitzWarin (died 1344), and down to Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683); they part there and meet again in Sarah Dudley (1795–1839). All three lines come together in Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908), whose parents, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), both descend from Ralph and Parnel.

Notes

The marriage charter

Walter de Lacy’s charter granting Britford and Yarkhill to Ralph de Tony “in frank marriage with Parnel his daughter”, with the promise of an exchange from his lands in England or, failing that, from his lands in Ireland, “of the castle of Trim”, is no. 999 in J. L. Kirby, ed., The Hungerford Cartulary, Part Two (Wiltshire Record Society 60, 2007), dated by the editor to between 1232 and 1240. Its witnesses include John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, William Longespey and “Philip de Eclevill, then steward of Ralph”.

His lands and title

The Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 5, p. 495) calls him “Sir Ralph de Tony, of Castle Maud (now Painscastle), co. Radnor, South Tawton, Devon, and Flamstead, Herts.” Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), p. 824 (Tony 3), calls him “Ralph de Tony, Knt., of Painscastle, Kirtling, etc., Baron of Flamstead, Hertfordshire”, and is the source for Roger’s birth about 29 September 1235, the marriage agreement of 30 June 1239, and the grant to Queen Eleanor of the custody of Ralph’s lands, “but not the marriage of his heir”, which he cites from the Close Rolls of 1237–1242 (p. 422). No date of death for Ralph is given in these sources.

Constance

The records that name Constance call her only the wife of Fulk FitzWarin. The Complete Peerage (vol. 5, p. 495) calls her a daughter of Sir Ralph de Tony; its evidence is that Parnel, as Ralph’s widow, passed half of Yarkhill to Fulk and Constance in frank-marriage, a gift normally made for a daughter of the family. In 1307 Robert de Tony, “son of Ralph, son of Roger, son of the said Ralph de Tony”, sued John Pryde to recover it, and Pryde called on Constance’s son to warrant his title.

The Tony suit

Robert de Tony’s plea against Thomas St. Omer for Britford and Bramshaw, in which Thomas answered that “Ralph and Parnel had issue Roger. Parnel survived Ralph and enfeoffed Thomas”, is no. 1001 in the Hungerford Cartulary; Robert’s quitclaim of 25 April 1307, which calls Parnel “Robert’s great-grandmother”, is no. 1002. The Yarkhill suit is from De Banco, Easter 35 Edw. I, m. 186, as abstracted in the Complete Peerage (vol. 5, p. 495, note d).