♂Robert Brailsford

Robert Brailsford (died before 1199) was a Derbyshire landholder of the twelfth century who succeeded his brother Henry in the family’s fee at Brailsford, and who made a gift to the Gilbertine^W priory of Sempringham^W for the souls of his father, his mother and his wife, Cecilia. He was the twenty-fourth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Henry Brailsford (died about 1243). Through Henry he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W.

Family and inheritance

Robert was a son of Nicholas Brailsford, who died before 1166, and he appears in his own day as Robert son of Nicholas de Wingerworth. Nicholas was the son of Elfin, who held Brailsford at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, and Elfin gave Osmaston to Tutbury Priory^W with Nicholas’s consent. By 1166 the Brailsford fee was in the hands of Robert’s brother Henry. Henry died without children, and Robert succeeded him as his brother and heir.

Gifts to the church

Some time in the reign of Henry II (1154–1189), with the assent of his son and heir Nicholas, Robert made a gift to the Gilbertine priory of Sempringham in Lincolnshire for the souls of his father and mother and of Cecilia his wife. Cecilia had died by then; her family is not known. Robert also made gifts to Tutbury Priory, the house to which his grandfather had given Osmaston.

Robert had four sons on record, Nicholas, Henry, Hugh and Aitrop, most likely all by Cecilia. Nicholas most likely died before his father, for it was Henry who succeeded to Brailsford and who later confirmed Robert’s gift to Sempringham, with his brother Hugh among the witnesses. Hugh became rector of Dronfield, and Aitrop, also written Eutropius, was known as Eutropius de Osmundeston, from Osmaston, where he is on record between 1191 and 1211. Robert died before 1199; in that year his son Henry answered at the Exchequer.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Henry Brailsford (died about 1243), Henry’s son Henry Brailsford (died about 1260), that Henry’s son Henry Brailsford (died about 1304), his son Ralph Brailsford, Ralph’s 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

Sources for his life

Robert’s place in the family is set out in S. P. H. Statham, “The Brailsfords”, Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 59 (1938), pp. 66–80, especially pp. 67–71, which draws on the Tutbury chartulary and on charters among the Duke of Rutland’s manuscripts. Statham writes that “Robert died at some date before 1199”; his son Henry was answering at the Exchequer in that year. Statham places Henry, Robert and Hugh among the sons of Nicholas, and has the elder Henry die without issue.

The Sempringham charter is calendared in the Historical Manuscripts Commission, The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Rutland, vol. 4 (1905), pp. 53–54. The editor dates it to the reign of Henry II and calls the grantor “evidently the brother and heir of Henry de Brailsford who held the fee in 1166”, citing the Red Book of the Exchequer^W. Robert makes the gift “assensu Nicolai filii mei et heredis” (with the assent of Nicholas my son and heir), “pro animabus patris et matris mee et pro anima Cecilie sponse mee” (for the souls of my father and mother and for the soul of Cecilia my wife), and refers back to “in tempore Henrici fratris mei” (in the time of Henry my brother). The same volume prints his son Henry’s confirmation, witnessed by “Hugo frater domini Henrici” and sealed “Sigillum H(EN)RI de Brailisford”.

His son Nicholas

The charter names Nicholas as Robert’s son and heir, yet it was Henry who held Brailsford after Robert and confirmed the gift. Nicholas is therefore most likely to have died before his father. Henry’s confirmation also has a Hugh son of Nicholas among its witnesses, a different man from Henry’s brother Hugh.

His sons Hugh and Aitrop

Statham (pp. 69–71) gives Hugh as rector of Dronfield, and Aitrop as the Eutropius de Osmundeston of records from 1191 to 1211.

Elfin and Osmaston

The Victoria County History of Derbyshire, vol. 1 (1905), p. 340, gives Brailsford in Domesday Book as held by “Elfin”, and p. 301 traces the line from Elfin through Nicholas to Henry from the Tutbury chartulary and the Red Book of 1166; it suggests the name stands for Ælfwine or, “more probable”, Ælfsige. The gift of Osmaston is in the younger Earl Robert de Ferrers’s confirmation to Tutbury, printed in Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. 3 (1846), p. 392: “villam quae Osmundeston dicitur, quam Alfinus de Breleford, concedente patre meo Roberto de Ferariis domino suo, et Nicolao Alfini filio … dedit”.