Joan de Valletort and Richard of Cornwall
John Carmi Parsons
general interest.
On the marriages of Joan de Valletort/Vautort, mistress of Richard of
Cornwall and the mother of at least one of his illegitimate children, Joan
wife of Richard Champernowne of Modbury:
Joan's parentage is unknown. She must not be confused with the Joan Basset of
Headington who married our Joan's elder brother Reginald de Vautort (d.s.p.
1245/46). On the Vautorts see Sanders, _English Baronies_, pp. 90-91. It
may be noted that shortly after the death of Joan's son Reginald de Vautort,
his heir for the barony of Trematon, an uncle Roger (d. 1298?) sold the
entire barony to Richard of Cornwall himself.
Our Joan's first husband was Ralph de Valletort/Vautort of Trematon d. 1256,
younger son but ultimately heir of Roger de V. of Trematon d. 1206? by his
wife Alice (parentage unknown). By Ralph Joan had one son, Reginald, still
underage 1257, d. by 1269 (Sanders says 1270). Joan de Vautort was living
1299 by which time she had also married, before Feb. 1270, Alexander de Oxton/
Okeston and then Andrew de Trellek/Trelluk (E.B. Powley, _The House of de la
Pomeray_ [Liverpool, 1944], pp. 36-37).
At the morrow of All Souls' at the end of 5 Edw I (= CE 1277), Andrew de
Treslok and Joan de Vautort his wife had an action before the Exchequer
touching Joan's dower lands from her marriage to Ralph de Vautort (Plea roll
of the Exchequer 6 Edw I, Public Record Office E13/6 m. 6r). So by Nov.
1277 Alexander de Okeston was dead and Joan had already married Trellek.
I am not sure, however, that Joan de Vautort/Okeston/Trellek was the mother of
all Richard of Cornwall's illegitimate children. Certainly Joan Champernowne
was her daughter, and probably her son was the Richard de Cornwalle who is
said to have fallen at Berwick in 1297, leaving issue by Joan [fitz Alan of
Oswestry?] his wife (Reade, _The House of Cornwewall [1908]).
Richard of Cornwall's son Philip, however, occurs as a cleric in 1248, when he
was dispensed to hold an additional benefice with cure of souls. This must
mean that he was of canonical age to be a fully ordained priest, which at that
time meant at least 25 years old. So he could not have been born any later
than ca 1223, which obviously means Richard of Cornwall, b. 1209, must have
fathered him at a very early age indeed (which is by no means impossible).
The dates and careers of Richard of Cornwall's other natural children do
not conform closely to the supposition that they were born so early in his
life, and I tend to think they were sired during one of Richard's periods of
widowhood, either between the death of his first wife Isabella Marshal in 1240
and his second marriage to Sancha of Provence in 1243, or after Sancha died in
1261 and before his 1269 third marriage to Beatrix von Falkenberg.
John Parsons
Benjamin Hertzel
John (or ANYONE),
> Our Joan's first husband was Ralph de Valletort/Vautort of Trematon d. 1256,
> younger son but ultimately heir of Roger de V. of Trematon d. 1206? by his
> wife Alice (parentage unknown).
Do you have anything on a Hugh de Valletort (son of John and ?), who
married Lucy (?). This Hugh was the father of Julian (who married Godfrey
Lyffe, and was the mother of Richard Lyffe). Hugh was also the father of
Elizabeth (who married Richard Champernoun, and was the mother of Thomas
Champernoun).
The only dates I can provide are for the husband of Amice, daughter of
Richard Lyffe (and Margery Stawell). Baldwin Mallet (son of John Mallet,
died 1349, and Elizabeth Kingston), husband of Amice Lyffe, died in 1416.
He and Amice were the parents of Hugh Mallet (who married Joan Roynon),
Thomas, and Philippa.
Thank you for anything you can tell me about these Valletort ancestors.
Benjamin
John Carmi Parsons
have come from a cadet branch of the Valletort lineage, but I personally have
no information about this group. Note that descent of the baronial line in
Sanders' _English Baronies_ is fragmentary, with the exact relationships among
several successive Valletort males left uncertain; from which I would hazard a
guess that it might be very difficult to ascertain in which generation any
cadet lines originated.
John Parsons
Henry Sutliff
John Carmi Parsons wrote:
May I suggest that readers of this newsgroup might want to refer to a magnificent
pedigree of the Valletort family presented by Todd Farmerie in a posting titled
"Re: Valletort c. 1536", dated Aug 19 1996. This can be found via dejanews and is
certainly the most comprehensive presentation of this family which I have seen to
date.
Henry Sutliff
ss...@earthlink.net