♂Waltheof of Huntingdon

Waltheof of Huntingdon^W (died 31 May 1075) was an English earl of the generation that lived through the Norman Conquest. He was the twenty-sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Maud of Huntingdon (about 1072 – 1130 or 1131).

Waltheof was the son of Siward^W, Governor of Northumbria, and of Elfleda, a daughter of Aldred. He is said to have governed Northumbria in his turn and to have held the earldom of Huntingdon and Northampton. He married Judith of Lens, a niece of William the Conqueror, and left daughters but no son. According to the Complete Peerage, he was beheaded on 31 May 1075.

Lines of descent

The line runs on from Maud through her son Henry of Scotland and Henry’s descendant John Washburn (died 1547). That last link is probably correct; the Notes give the reason.

Notes

Sources

Everything on this page rests on one compiled work, the Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 6, 1895, pp. 67 and 82, under Northampton and Northumberland), which gives Waltheof’s parents, his titles, his marriage to the king’s niece, his beheading on 31 May 1075 and the lack of a son. It is a compilation, not a record, so the facts are worded as reports.

Maud’s descent

The line from Maud of Huntingdon down to John Washburn is probable rather than certain. That the John Washburn who died in 1547 was the son of Joan Mitton is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, in The Washbourne Family (1907), not a record’s.