♂Thomas Denton

Thomas Denton was an Englishman of the Denton family of Apleton and Eaton in Berkshire who married a daughter of Sir John Wike of Wike. Through his son John Denton he was an ancestor of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son John Denton.

Family

According to the family’s pedigree, Thomas was the son of John Denton, the first of the line the heralds called the Dentons of Apleton and Eaton in Berkshire. He married a daughter of Sir John Wike of Wike, whose given name is not recorded. Their son, John Denton of Fifield in Berkshire, was the father of Thomas Denton of Fifield, whom the pedigree dates to the eleventh year of the reign of Richard II, 1387–1388. That is the only date the pedigree gives for the early generations of the family. The records do not give the dates of Thomas’s birth or death; he most likely lived in the fourteenth century.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son John Denton, John’s son Thomas Denton, Thomas’s son Thomas Denton, the younger Thomas’s son John Denton, John’s daughter Alice Denton, her son Edward Purefoy, Edward’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley (1576–1653) and Thomas Dudley’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

The Denton pedigree

The Denton pedigree in the Oxfordshire heraldic visitation^W (The Visitations of the County of Oxford, 1566, 1574 and 1634, Harleian Society vol. 5, 1871, pp. 228–229) is the only source for Thomas, his parents and his wife. It is headed “Denton of Apleton & Eaton in com. Barks.” and runs from “John Denton.” to “Thomas Denton.= . . . daur. to Sr John Wike of Wike.”, then to “John Denton of ffifield in Com. Berk.”, and then to Thomas Denton of Fifield, “A°. 11. R. 2.”, the husband of “Agnes daur. to Wm. Baldington of Shipton in Com. Oxon.” The Victoria County History of Berkshire (vol. 4, ‘Appleton’) says that “The Dentons sprang from a family established at Fyfield”, but its footnotes cite only this pedigree, so it does not add a second witness.

His dates

The pedigree gives no date for Thomas himself. His grandson Thomas Denton of Fifield is dated to 1387–1388, two generations below him, which most likely places Thomas in the fourteenth century.