A Segrave error in the Complete Peerage
Brad Verity
"The Segrave article in CP mentions that John, the Lord Segrave who
died in
1353, had a first cousin called John Segrave, who married Blanche and
died
in 1349, leaving a daughter Mary aged 15. Mary died later in the same
year
without issue, leaving John, Lord Segrave, her heir.
"The Mowbray article mentions that the same John, Lord Segrave, had a
son
John, and that in 1349 a double dispensation was granted by the Pope
for the
marriage of the son John to Blanche, daughter of John Mowbray, and for
the
marriage of Lord Segrave's daughter Elizabeth, to John, son of John
Mowbray.
Curiously, the existence of this son John - who must have died without
issue
within a year or two - seems not to be mentioned in the article on
Segrave."
John, Lord Segrave and Margaret de Brotherton had two sons, Edmund and
John, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. From "The Segrave
Family: 1066 to 1935" by Charles W. Segrave:
"According to the Arundell MSS. Edmund died in his cradle, and John
was born at Bretby Castle, co. Derby, on Sept. 13th, 1340 (reg.
Chaucombe priory, Arundell MSS.) He married his third cousin, Blanche
de Mowbray, by Papal dispensation dated March 25th, 1349. (Cal. Papal
Reg. petitions I, p. 451, and letters III, p. 50.) A confirmation of
the dispensation was issued to John, 4th Baron Mowbray and Elizabeth
de Segrave his wife on July 19th, 1365. (Papal Reg. letters IV, p.
50.) This would show that he [John de Segrave] was only eight and a
half years old when the ceremony occurred ... The Register of
Chaucombe Priory, of which the Segraves were patrons, shows that John
de Segrave died soon after his marriage to Blanche de Mowbray and
without issue."
The marriage was undoubtedly never consummated, and as Blanche does
not seem to have received any Segrave lands as dower, she was likely a
young girl herself. She married secondly, Thomas, 3rd Lord Poynyngs
(dsp July 1375, see Cal. Fine Rolls), and married thirdly, Sir John de
Worthe (dsp May 1391, see Cal. Fine Rolls), and, finally, her fourth
husband was Sir John Wiltshire, whom she married before November 1394
(see Cal. Patent Rolls). Blanche died 26 July 1409, and there is an
IPM for her.
The other Segrave daughter, Anne, is said to have become Abbess of
Barking. She appears in a Segrave pedigree in the Chetwynd
Manuscripts (compiled in the time of Henry VIII) in the British
Museum, and is also mentioned in the "Histories and Antiquities of
Leicestershire" by Burton. Yet I would think there should be mention
of Anne in her father Lord Segrave's IPMs, if she had existed? I know
daughters who became nuns could not inherit, but wouldn't there be an
explanation in the IPM of this? also, this would mean Margaret de
Brotherton had two daughters named Anne (anne de Mauny being the
other) - unusual, but not impossible. Perhaps the Abbess Anne was a
sister, not daughter, of Lord Segrave (d. 1353)?
Cheers,
---------Brad