♂Sir Thomas St. Omer

Thomas St. Omer (died between 1316 and 1318) was an English knight who held the manors of Britford, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, and Bramshaw for almost forty years. In August 1278 the widowed Parnel de Lacy granted him her whole manor of Britford, to hold to him and his heirs for a bunch of roses at Midsummer, and in 1307 he paid 170 marks to end her great-grandson’s claim to it. He was the twentieth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son William St. Omer (died before 1353).

Britford

Thomas was probably a son of William St. Omer, who by 1277 was married to Parnel, the widow of Ralph de Tony. Parnel’s father had given Britford to her and Ralph in frank-marriage^W, and on 4 August 1278, at Coulston, she granted the manor to Thomas. Thomas is also said to have married her daughter, Margaret de Tony, so that his stepmother became his mother-in-law. On 30 September 1281, before the king’s justices at Salisbury, a fine^W was levied by which Parnel recognized Britford as his by her gift. A National Archives record of that year, the ninth of Edward I, calls him “Sir Thomas de Sancto Omero, knight.” He held Bramshaw as well, certainly by 1284.

The Tony family did not let the matter rest. Parnel’s great-grandson Robert de Tony sued Thomas for Britford and Bramshaw as the inheritance of his line. Thomas answered that Parnel had enfeoffed him as a widow, and that their fine had been made before the Statute of Westminster 1285^W, while such a gift was still lawful. On 25 April 1307 Robert gave up all his right in both manors to Thomas and his heirs, keeping only Thomas’s homage and the service of a chaplet of roses; Thomas paid him 170 marks.

Later life

Thomas is said to have gone overseas on an embassy in 1288, and in 1316 he is said to have been lord of Brundall, Swainsthorpe, Mulbarton, Carlton and Swardeston in Norfolk, as well as of Britford and Bramshaw.

By 1310 he had married Alice, whose family is not known, and together they added to their lands at Bramshaw. On 13 October 1310 they paid John le Proute 60 marks for his tenement there, and they bought more from John de Grimstede for 20 marks and a clove of gillyflower each Christmas. A grant of 20 June 1316 to “Thomas de Sancto Omero, knight, and Alice his wife” is the last record of him alive; he had died by 5 May 1318, when Alice, as his widow, released her claims at Bramshaw to their son William. Thomas and Alice had two sons, William, his heir, and James.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son William, William’s son Thomas St. Omer (died about 1364), Thomas’s daughter Alice St. Omer (born 1340), Alice’s daughter Margaret Hoo, Margaret’s daughter Edith Saint Clair (born about 1423), Edith’s daughter Alice Harcourt (died 1526), Alice Harcourt’s daughter Elizabeth Bessiles, Elizabeth’s daughter Anne Fettiplace, Anne’s daughter Mary Purefoy, Mary’s daughter Susanna Thorne, Susanna’s son Thomas Dudley^W (1576–1653), later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Thomas’s son Samuel Dudley (about 1608–1683). One comes down through Samuel’s son Stephen Dudley (about 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

Britford and the Tony suit

The deeds are calendared in J. L. Kirby, ed., The Hungerford Cartulary, Part Two (Wiltshire Record Society 60, 2007): Parnel’s charter “in widowhood”, dated at Coulston on 4 August 1278, granting Britford for “a bunch of roses at Midsummer” (no. 1000); Robert de Tony’s plea against Thomas, which recites the fine of 30 September 1281 (no. 1001, Common Pleas, CP 40/149); and Robert’s quitclaim of 25 April 1307, which calls Parnel his great-grandmother and records the 170 marks (no. 1002, CP 40/163). The catalog of the National Archives lists Parnel’s grant and the final concord of 9 Edward I (E 210/9962). That Thomas held Bramshaw “certainly as early as 1284” and was still in possession in 1316 is from the Victoria County History of Hampshire, vol. 4, p. 624; F. N. Craig, “Maternal Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley: Hoo, St. Omer, Malmains, St. Leger, Fitzwarin and Andevill Lines”, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 140 (1986), p. 220, has him holding it as early as 1283.

Parentage and first marriage

That William and Parnel were married by 1277 is from a case of Michaelmas term 1277 in Select Cases in the Exchequer of Pleas (Selden Society 48, 1932), p. 88, no. 147. Thomas’s descent from William rests on a memorandum of about 1400 copied twice into the Hungerford Cartulary (no. 1003 and the note after no. 1052), on Blomefield’s History of Norfolk (vol. 5, p. 76) and on Craig (p. 219), who writes that William “is thought to have had an earlier wife, who was mother to his heir Thomas”. The memorandum instead makes Margaret de Tony the wife of William and the mother of Thomas; the Victoria County History and Craig (p. 220) both marry Margaret to Thomas, Craig calling her “the daughter of his stepmother”, and this page follows them. Blomefield also merges Thomas with a justice of 1275 named Thomas son of William; the two are not shown to be one man.

Norfolk and the embassy

The embassy of 1288 and the Norfolk manors of 1316 are from Craig, p. 220, who takes the manors from the Parliamentary Writs; Craig places Bramshaw, with Britford, in Wiltshire, where the Victoria County History treats it under Hampshire. Craig spells the first manor Brundale.

His death

The deeds of 1310 and 1316 to Thomas and Alice are Hungerford Cartulary nos. 1080, 1082 and 1084, and Alice’s quitclaim of 5 May 1318 as his widow is no. 1088. A grant of a rent at Bramshaw dated 12 March 1317 was made to Alice alone, without calling her a widow (no. 1085). The Victoria County History makes William the son of Thomas by his second wife, Alice; the cartulary’s charter of 2 June 1318 by “William son and heir of Thomas de Sancto Omero” to “Alice de Sancto Omero, his very dear mother” (no. 1087) confirms it. Some online trees make Margaret de Tony William’s mother.