A Segrave error in the Complete Peerage

[Chris Phillips]

When we were discussing the Segraves a few weeks ago, I had made a note to
check up on some of the Complete Peerage's sources, as I was puzzled by the
statement that there were two John Segraves, both married to women called
Blanche, at about the same time in the 1340s.

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.

Looking into the sources, the dispensation makes it clear that the two
Mowbray spouses were indeed children of Lord Mowbray and the two Segrave
spouses were indeed children of Lord Segrave (moreover, the dispensations
were needed because the parties were related in the 4th degree - that is,
apparently, on account of their mothers' descents from Henry III, and of
course the other John Segrave, Lord Segrave's cousin, did not share this
descent).

So it seems the account under Mowbray is correct.

But the Segrave article is in error:
(1) Mary is said to be aged 15 _days_, not 15 years, in two of the
inquisitions taken after the death of her father John in 1349. (John seems
to have been in his mid- to late-thirties at the time, as he was said to be
either 29 or 30 and more after his father's death in 1343.)
(2) The dates of John's and Mary's deaths are a puzzle. The inquisitions
give, for John, either 8 July (CP says "July") or 23 September, and, for
Mary, either 25 August or 1 September (CP follows the latter). But all these
possibilities are later than the dates of the writs issued after their
deaths, which were 18 May for John and 24 August for Mary (unless the
editors of the Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem have got it wrong).
(3) Finally, there is no mention of John's wife being called Blanche in any
the three sources cited by CP. Maybe there is some more evidence somewhere,
but I can't help wondering whether this John has been confused with his
cousin's son somewhere along the line, and been given a wife Blanche in
error.

Chris Phillips