♂Sir William St. Omer

William St. Omer (died before 1353) was an English knight, lord of the manors of Britford, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, and Bramshaw, which he held for some thirty years after his father’s death. In June 1318, four weeks after his widowed mother had released her claims in Bramshaw to him, he granted all his lands there back to her for her lifetime, at a yearly rent of a clove of gillyflower at Christmas. He was the nineteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Thomas St. Omer (died 1364).

Early life

William was the son and heir of Sir Thomas St. Omer and his wife, Alice, who held lands at Bramshaw together. After his father’s death Alice released to him, on 5 May 1318, all her claims to the family’s holdings in Bramshaw, and on 2 June he granted the houses, fields, meadows, woods and rents there to “his very dear mother” to hold for her life. The gillyflower was a token rent^W: the lands were hers to use until she died. His brother James also had land in Bramshaw from their mother, and in 1337 James granted a house and croft there, which he had bought from her, to William and William’s wife, Elizabeth. The couple had probably married by 1319, when the manor of Brundall in Norfolk is said to have been settled on the two of them.

Lord of Britford

As lord of Britford William settled a plea of novel disseisin^W in March 1329, brought by his neighbor Oliver de Servington of Longford, who claimed common pasture there. Over the years he added to the estate, buying arable land, meadow and rents in Britford and Bramshaw from his neighbors. He is also said to have sat for Norfolk as a knight of the shire^W in 1330 and, as patron, to have named the rectors of Brundall and Mulbarton.

In December 1340 one of his tenants at Bramshaw, John le White, was hanged for felony, and the house and land he held were taken into the king’s hands. A jury at Salisbury found in May 1341 that John had held them of William for 30s. 4d. a year, and that November the king ordered them released to William on payment of the same sum.

Later years

His son Thomas married Petronilla Malmains, and their daughter Alice was born at Britford on 25 March 1340. Petronilla’s churching^W after the birth was held “in the manor of Sir William de Sancto Omero, father of the said Thomas, at Brutford”, and William is said to have settled land at Mulbarton on the couple. William was still living in 1347, when he made a final concord at Westminster over a rent in Britford. He had died by 1353, when his widow, Elizabeth, is said to have held an annuity of £25 for life. He had at least two sons: Thomas, his heir, and William, to whom Thomas granted Britford and Bramshaw for life in 1359.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Thomas, 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 (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).

The family

The king brought a suit against his son William over the manors that Thomas had granted to William, Henry and Walter for their lives. The king’s officers claimed that Thomas had still held Britford and Bramshaw when he died, with his daughter Elizabeth, a minor and his heir, in the king’s wardship^W, and that William had entered them by collusion, to the king’s loss of £200. The case was adjourned again and again, and at Salisbury in 1370 the jurors said that Thomas had not held the manors at his death, but had given them to William, Henry and Walter for their lives.

Notes

Bramshaw and his mother

The deeds are calendared in J. L. Kirby, ed., The Hungerford Cartulary, Part Two (Wiltshire Record Society 60, 2007): grants of 1310 and 1316 to “Thomas de Sancto Omero, knight, and Alice his wife” (nos. 1080–1084); Alice’s quitclaim of 5 May 1318 to “William de Sancto Omero, her son” (no. 1088); the charter of 2 June 1318 of “William son and heir of Thomas de Sancto Omero” to “Alice de Sancto Omero, his very dear mother”, for “a clove of gillyflower at Christmas” (no. 1087); Alice’s grant of 1323 to “James de Sancto Omero, her son” (no. 1089); and James’s charter, dated at Mulbarton on 5 June 1337, to “William de Sancto Omero, knight, and Elizabeth his wife” (no. 1090). The Victoria County History of Hampshire, vol. 4, p. 624, also makes William the son of Thomas by his second wife, Alice, and 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, agrees. Two memoranda copied into the same cartulary (no. 1003 and the note after no. 1052) trace Britford from Thomas to William and from William to his son Thomas.

Britford and the hanged tenant

The settlement with Oliver de Servington (19 March 1329), the final concord of 1347 and his purchases are in the Hungerford Cartulary, nos. 1004–1006 and 1012–1015. The king’s letters patent of 21 May 1341, the Salisbury inquisition of 15 May and the writ of 24 November 1341 are nos. 1096–1098 (calendared in the Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1340–3, p. 201).

Norfolk

The settlement of Brundall rests on a fine of 13 Edward II, in which William and Elizabeth his wife were plaintiffs, as given in Blomefield’s History of Norfolk, continued by Charles Parkin, vol. 7, pp. 219–220; Parkin also has William presenting rectors to Brundall in 1319, 1329 and 1338, and Blomefield (vol. 5, p. 76) has Sir William presenting to Mulbarton in 1330 and 1339. His seat for Norfolk in 1330 and his gift of land at Mulbarton to his son Thomas and Pernell are from Craig, p. 220, citing the Calendar of Close Rolls and the Calendar of Fine Rolls. Some online trees call his wife “Elizabeth de Parkin”, a name most likely taken from Blomefield’s continuator; her family is not known.

His death and his family

The churching of Pernell, Thomas’s wife, is from Alice’s proof of age, taken at Britford in June 1356 (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 10, no. 336). The same proof of age gives him the title “Sir William de Sancto Omero, father of the said Thomas”, the record behind the knighthood in the opening paragraph. The annuity and the date by which William had died are from Craig, p. 220, citing the Calendar of Close Rolls; Blomefield (vol. 5, p. 76) names “Lady Eliz de St. Omer” as patroness of Mulbarton in 1352 and 1353, and an account of 1356–57 in the National Archives (SC 6/978/15) is headed with the lands of Lady Elizabeth de Sancto Omero at Bramshaw. The grant of 1359 to “William de Sancto Omero his brother” is in the Hungerford Cartulary, no. 1007.

The suit over the manors

The king’s claim is in the Hungerford Cartulary, Part Two (Wiltshire Record Society 60, 2007), no. 1009, a plea at Westminster of Michaelmas 1366. It records the king’s claim that Thomas held the manors at his death, that his daughter Elizabeth was his heir and a minor in the king’s ward, and that William entered the manors by collusion after Thomas’s death, to the king’s loss of £200. The writ of privy seal of 1367, the pleas of 1368 and the nisi prius hearing before the justices of assize at Salisbury, in the Hilary term of the 43rd year (1370), are in no. 1010, printed pp. 15–16. The jurors’ finding is that Thomas gave the manors to William, Henry and Walter for their lives and did not hold them at his death.