Hello All,
The identity of Joan, wife of Sir Richard de Weyland, of
Blaxhall, Suffolk (d. bef 10 Apr 1319) has been a
long-standing matter of discussion on SGM and elsewhere.
This had not been resolved to date although a number of
possibilities have been brought up, in particular her
possibly having been of the Ufford family.
An interesting item was noted today in Weever's Antient
Funeral Monuments (1767). With regard to the priory of the
Black Friars at Dunwich, Suffolk, Weever named among the
individuals buried in the church, "Dame Joan Weyland, sister
of the earl of Suffolk ". This information was taken up
by Page in the Victoria County History for Suffolk, but had
previously escaped notice [1].
There is no previously known marriage of any member of
the Weyland family to an Ufford, or to a sister of a known
Earl of Suffolk. That this Joan (de) Weyland was of the
Ufford family appears quite certain, given the association
of the Dunwich priory with that family. The only possible
Joan who readily fits the description from Dunwich, and the
known chronology of the Weyland and Ufford families, is the
wife of Sir Richard de Weyland. In addition, this
connection provides Cecily de Weyland, daughter of Sir
Richard de Weyland by Joan, with a namesake: Cecily de
Valoins, wife of Robert de Ufford, mother of Robert de
Ufford the 1st Earl of Suffolk, and Cecily de Weyland's
maternal grandmother.
Sir John = Mary de Robert = Cecily
de Weyland I Brewse de Ufford I de Valoins
d. bef 30 I fl c 1279-1316 I fl c 1280 -
Oct 1312 I I 1325
I ___________________I________
I I I III
Sir Richard = Joan de Robert <sibs>
de Weyland I Ufford E of Suffolk
fl c. 1290-1319 I fl 1298-1369
I____
I
Sir Bartholomew = Cecily de
de Burghersh I Weyland
d. 1369 I fl. 1318 -
I
V
This will provide additional lines for Margaret the
unfortunate Countess of Salisbury, Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
Prince William, and a host of others (emigrants and
non-emigrants). Should anyone note any further
documentation or evidence bearing on this identification,
that would of course be of great interest.
Cheers,
John *
NOTES
[1] John Weever, Antient Funeral Monuments of
Great-Britain, Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent
(London: W. Tooke, 1767), p. 460. This information
is recast in W. Page, The Victoria History of the
County of Suffolk (London: Archibald Constable and
Company Limited, 1907), II:122.
* John P. Ravilious