♀Wike

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

Family

According to the family’s pedigree, she was a daughter of Sir John Wike of Wike, and she married Thomas Denton, the son of John Denton, the first of the line the heralds called the Dentons of Apleton and Eaton in Berkshire. Her 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 her birth or death; she most likely lived in the fourteenth century.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her 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

Her name and parentage

Her given name is not recorded; she is known only as a daughter of her father. 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 her, her husband and her father. 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 pedigree does not say where Wike was.

Her dates

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