More C.P. Additions/Corrections: Joan Beaufort, wife of Robert St. Lawrence, Lord Howth, and Richard Frye, Esq.
Douglas Richardson
Complete Peerage, 12(1) (1953): 49-58 (sub Somerset) includes an
account of the life history of Edmund Beaufort, K.G., 2nd Duke of
Somerset, who was slain at the 1st Battle of St. Albans 22 May 1455.
By his wife, Eleanor Beauchamp, he had a total of nine children. For
some unknown reason, a list of their children is not provided in the
footnotes of this or any following account; this, in spite of the fact
that their five daughters were co-heirs to their brother, Edmund
Beaufort the younger, on the latter's death on 4 May 1471, following
the Battle of Tewkesbury.
A brief record of Duke Edmund and Eleanor Beaufort's daughter, Joan
(or Jane) Beaufort, can be found elsewhere in Complete Peerage, 6
(1926): 604-605 (sub Howth), which account concerns Lady Joan's first
marriage to Robert St. Lawrence, Knt., 2nd Lord Howth:
"[Robert St. Lawrence] married, 2ndly, in England, in June or July
1478, Joan, sister and (1471) coheiress of Edmund, Duke of Somerset,
being daughter of Edmund (Beaufort), Duke of Somerset, by Eleanor,
daughter and coheiress of Richard (Beauchamp), Earl of Warwick. He
died 1486, in London, and was buried in the Blackfriars. His widow
married in 1489 Richard or Joihn Fry. She died 11 August 1518." END
OF QUOTE.
We are immediately confonted with one error, as Robert St. Lawrence is
stated to have died in 1486, in London, whereas I find that Lord Howth
left a will dated 16 July 1487, proved 11 March 1487/8 (P.C.C. 7
Milles). Thus, he can only have died in 1487 or 1488, not in 1486.
A second odd error is contained in the statement that Joan Beaufort
married (2nd) Richard or John Fry, for the footnotes show that this
man left a will dated 21 June and probated 19 October 1504. The name
of the testator belonging to this PCC will is Richard Frye, not John
Frye.
No evidence is advanced by Complete Peerage to support either Robert
St. Lawrence's marriage to Joan Beaufort, not her remarriage to
Richard Frye. However, both marriages are attested in a contemporary
pedigree of the Beaufort family family published in Collectanea Top. &
Gen., 1 (1834): 308-309, a portion of which reads:
"Jane [Beaufort], 1st wedd. to the Ld. Howth of Ireland, after to
Fry." END OF QUOTE.
Joan Beaufort's place in the Beaufort family tree is likewise attested
in three other contemporary records.
First, a list of the heirs of Duchess Eleanor Beaufort occurs in an
Act of Parliament dated 1492, a transcript of which act is published
in Strachey, Rotuli Parliamentorum, 6 (1777): 452-454. This list
includes the following parties:
"Richard Frye Squier, and Jane his Wyfe, another daughter of the same
Duches." END OF QUOTE.
Second, in 1505, an inquisition was taken on the estate of Eleanor,
late Duchess of Somerset, who died in 1467. According to the
inquisition, the Duchess died in possession of tenements in London,
which after her death were entered by various parties (i.e., her
heirs), including:Joan, Lady Howth [Reference: George S. Fry,
Abstracts of IPMs Rel. to the City of London, 1 (Index Library 15)
(1896): 21].
Third, in 1509, King Henry VIII granted various manors in England to
"Joan Lady Howethe, widow of Richard Frye, daughter of Eleanor, late
Duchess of Somerset [Reference: Letters & Papers... Henry VIII 1(1)
(1920): 69].
I find that Joan Beaufort employed her own surname, Beaufort, as an
adult. She is specifically named as Dame Jane Beuford in the will of
her first husband, Robert St. Lawrence, Lord Howth [Reference: P.C.C.,
7 Milles, found on [FHL Microfilm 91898]. She likewise occurs as Joan
Beaufort, executrix of Richard Frye, Esquire, in cases relative to her
second husband's estate in 1506 [Reference: Somerset & Dorset N&Q, 19
(1929): 69-71]. She is similarly called Lady Joan Beyford ["domina
Johanna Beyford"] in an inquisition dated 1517 regarding her lands in
Beedon, Berkshire [Reference: Leadam, Domesday of Inclosures 1 (1897):
111; VCH Berkshire, 4 (1924): 41]. This is yet another example of a
high born English woman using her maiden name as an adult. In this
case, she employed her maiden name both during AND after her
marriages.
I find no evidence to suggest that Joan Beaufort had surviving issue
by either of her husbands. The new Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography, however, includes a biography of Joan Beaufort's first
husband, Robert St. Lawrence (see http:// www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24511).
This biography alleges that Joan Beaufort was the mother of Robert St.
Lawrence's six children, including his son and heir, Nicholas St.
Lawrence, afterwards 3rd Lord Howth. Complete Peerage, 6 (1926): 605
(sub Howth) shows that Robert St. Lawrence's son and heir, Nicholas
St. Lawrence, was the child of Robert St. Lawrence's 1st marriage to
Alice White. And, I suppose his other children were by the first
marriage as well.
Lastly, there are many published statements that Joan Beaufort's 2nd
husband, Richard Frye, was a knight. See for example The Genealogist,
n.s. 19 (1903): 214, 302-304. After studying the available
contemporary records, the evidence is clear that Richard Frye was an
esquire at the time of his death and was never knighted.
For interest's sake, I've posted below a record of Joan Beaufort's
life, which record greatly expands the account of Joan Beaufort found
in my books, Plantagenet Ancestry (2004) and Magna Carta Ancestry
(2005).
Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
Account of Joan (or Jane) Beaufort, wife successively of Robert St.
Lawrence, Knt., 2nd Lord Howth, and Richard Frye, Esquire:
1. JOAN (or JANE) BEAUFORT, married (1st) in June or July 1478 (as his
2nd wife) ROBERT SAINT LAWRENCE, Knt., 2nd Lord Howth [in Ireland], of
Howth, Ireland, Sheriff of the County of Dublin, 1456, Chancellor of
the Green Wax of the Exchequer in Ireland, Clerk of the Common Pleas,
son and heir of Christopher Saint Lawrence, 1st Lord Howth, Constable
of Dublin Castle, by Anne, daughter of _____ Plunkett. He was born
about 1436 (said to be aged 28 in 1464). He was in favor with the
Yorkist kings. In 1472 he was elected a Knight of Saint George in
Ireland. In 1474 and again in 1479 he was one of those appointed to
supervise the defense of the English pale. He was appointed Lord
Chancellor of Ireland in Jan. 1483, but Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of
Kildare, refused to admit him, despite successive renewals of his
patents in May and July 1483, and letters from King Richard III in
December 1483. He died at London in 1487 or 1488. He left a will
dated 16 July 1487, proved 11 March 1487/8 (P.C.C. 7 Milles),
requesting burial in the Blackfriars, London. His widow and
executrix, Joan, married (2nd) in 1489 RICHARD FRYE, Esq., of London,
Esquire of the Body to King Henry VII, son and heir of Thomas Frye,
Esq., of Glastonbury, Somerset, by his wife, Sibyl. They had no
issue. He and Thomas Frye were co-executors of the will of Richard's
father, Thomas Frye, which was proved about 1483. In 1494 he
acknowledged that he owed £40 to Alured Rawson, citizen and mercer of
London. He was a legatee and named executrix in the 1498 will of his
mother, Sibyl Cammell, widow, of Glastonbury, Somerset. He was
present in 1500 at Calais at the meeting of King Henry VII and
Archduke Philip of Austria. In 1504 he and Thomas Frye were sued in
Chancery by John Frye regarding the detention of deeds relating to
lands in Pynkesmore, Somerset. RICHARD FRYE, Esq., left a will dated
20 June 1504, proved 19 Oct. 1504 (P.C.C. 18 Holgrave), requesting
burial in the church in the Friars Minor, Stamford, Lincolnshire. His
widow and executrix, Joan, occurs in lawsuits relative to her husband,
Richard Frye's estate in 1506. In 1509 the king granted her for life
the manors of Beedon, Berkshire, Edingworth, Somerset, Draycot Foliat
and Sernecote, Wiltshire, and Grafton Flyford, Worcestershire,
together with lands in the City of Worcester, formerly held by her
mother, Eleanor, Duchess of Somerset. Joan Beaufort, Lady Howth,
died 11 August 1518.
References:
Sandford, Gen. Hist. of the Kings of England (1677): 324. Strachey,
Rotuli Parliamentorum 6 (1777): 452-454. Lodge, Peerage of Ireland 3
(1789): 187-189. Nash, Colls. for the Hist. of Worcestershire 1
(1781): 469. Brydges, Collins' Peerage of England 1 (1812): 222-243.
Baker, Hist. & Antiqs. of Northampton 1 (1822-30): 55-56 (Beaufort
pedigree). Coll. Top. & Gen., 1 (1834): 308-309 (Beaufort pedigree:
"Jane [Beaufort], 1st wedd. to the Ld. Howth of Ireland, after to
Fry."). Banks, The Dormant & Extinct Baronage of England 4 (1837):
338-348. Notes & Queries, 2nd ser. 7 (1859): 129-130. St. George,
Lennard & Vincent, Vis. of Devon 1620 (H.S.P. 6) (1872): 47-50 (Cary
pedigree: "Joan [Beaufort] = St. Lawrence Lord of Heth in Ireland").
Misc. Gen. et Heraldica, 2nd Ser. 2 (1888): 53. Fry, Abs. of IPMs
Rel. London 1 (Index Library 15) (1896): 21. Leadam, Domesday of
Inclosures 1 (1897): 111. Weaver, Somerset Medieval Wills 1 (Somerset
Rec. Soc. 16) (1901): 270-271, 372-373. Genealogist n.s. 19 (1903):
214, 302-304. List of Early Chancery Procs. 4 (PRO Lists and Indexes
29) (1908): 218. Somerset & Dorset N&Q, 9 (1905): 61; 19 (1929): 69-
71. Letters & Papers... Henry VIII 1(1) (1920): 69; 3(1) (1867): 15.
VCH Berkshire 4 (1924): 40-41. VCH Worcester 4 (1924): 86-87. Ball,
The Judges in Ireland, 1221-1921 1 (1926): 202 (biog. of Thomas St.
Lawrence) (alleges Thomas St. Lawrence was son of Joan Beaufort).
C.P. 6 (1926): 604-605 (sub Howth). Baker, Reports of Cases by John
Caryll 2 (Selden Soc. 116(2)) (2000): 650-653. Registered will of
John Cammell [step-father of Richard Frye] dated 3 Oct. 1487, proved
19 Nov. 1487 (P.C.C. 6 Milles) [FHL Microfilm 91898]. Registered will
of Robert St. Lawrence, Lord Howth dated 16 July 1487, proved 11 March
1487/8 (P.C.C. 7 Milles) [FHL Microfilm 91898] (names his wife, Dame
Jane Beaufort, and unnamed son [presumably his son and heir, Nicholas
St. Lawrence]). Registered will of Sibilla Cammell [mother of Richard
Frye] dated 20 Jan. 1498, proved 20 June 1499 (P.C.C. 34 Horne) [FHL
Microfilm 91901]. Registered will of Richard Frye dated 20 June 1504,
proved 19 Oct. 1504 (P.C.C. 18 Holgrave) [FHL Microfilm 91904] (names
his wife, Lady Joan, and his kinsman, James Mors). Oxford D.N.B.
(biog. of Robert St. Lawrence) (available online at http://
www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24511). PRO Document, C 241/270/10
(Debtor: Richard Frye, esquire of the body of the King [of London].
Creditor: Alured Rawson, citizen and mercer of London. Amount: £40.
Before whom: John Brown, Knight, Mayor of the Staple of Westminster.
When taken: 27/10/1494. First term: 25/03/1495. Last term:
25/03/1495. Writ to: Sheriff of [London]. Sent by: John Brown,
Knight, Mayor of the Staple of Westminster. Endorsement: Surr',
Essex', Midd', London'. Coram domino Rege in Cancellaria sua in xv
pasche proximo futura) (abstract of document available online at
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp).
Paul J Gans
>Dear Newsgroup ~
Doug:
Could you please stop crossposting to soc.history.medieval?
--
--- Paul J. Gans
pj.evans
Another (secondary) source: AR Justice, Ancestry of Jeremy Clarke and
Dungan Genealogy, p63.
Peter Jason
"Paul J Gans" <ga...@panix.com> wrote in
message
news:f456um$bv2$1...@reader2.panix.com...
OF really. Surely we need all the medieval
content possible.
Renia
> In soc.history.medieval Douglas Richardson <royala...@msn.com> wrote:
>
>>Dear Newsgroup ~
>
>
> Doug:
>
> Could you please stop crossposting to soc.history.medieval?
Why? It's the only medieval stuff in here.
Doug McDonald
>
> Another (secondary) source: AR Justice, Ancestry of Jeremy Clarke and
> Dungan Genealogy, p63.
>
An unreliable source. Justice was not a charlatan, but he was
overly reliant on unproven if realistic guesses. Thomas
Dungan, my ancestor, did not have the Dungan ancestry postulated by Justice.
Doug McDonald