My comments are interspersed below. DR
On Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at 6:17:50 PM UTC-6, John Higgins wrote:
< This is an inaccurate and incomplete representation of what Baker relates in < his extensive narrative regarding the dispute over the manor of Dodford.
<
< In your earlier post, you stated that “F.N. Craig was evidently not aware
< that William Purefoy was engaged in several legal actions with another
< Keynes family descendant, Eleanor Aylesbury, wife of Humphrey Stafford,
< Knt., regarding the manor of Dodford, Northamptonshire (a Keynes family
< property).” In fact, Craig WAS aware of the legal action over Dodford
< involving Eleanor Aylesbury, as he mentions it on page 237 of his 1988 NEHGR < article on the Purefoy and Ayot lines – and he cites Baker’s lengthy account < of this legal action. But it wasn’t William Purefoy who was contending with < Eleanor Aylesbury, because he had died in 1466.
My statement is correct. Mr. Craig did not know about the following numerous legal actions between two known Keynes family descendants, William Purefoy, Esq., and Eleanor Aylesbury, widow of Humphrey Stafford, Knt., all of which took place in 1460. William Purefoy, Esq., died in 1466. Thus he was very much the person involved in these Common Pleas lawsuits.
1. In 1460 Eleanor Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, Knt., versus William Purefey, Esq., of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, in a Northamptonshire plea regarding a trespass.
Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/796, image 271f (available at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no796/aCP40no796fronts/IMG_0271.htm).
2. In 1460 Eleanor Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, Knt., versus William Purefey, Esq., of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, in a Northamptonshire plea regarding trespass and contempt.
Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/796, image 272f (available at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no796/aCP40no796fronts/IMG_0272.htm).
3. In 1460 Eleanor Stafford, widow of Humphrey Sta fford, Knt., versus William Purefey, Esq., of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, in a Northamptonshire plea regarding trespass and contempt.
Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/796, image 886d (available at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no796/bCP40no796dorses/IMG_0886.htm).
4. In 1460 Eleanor Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, Knt., versus William Purefey, Esq., of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, in a Northamptonshire plea regarding trespass.
Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/796, image 886d (available at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H6/CP40no796/bCP40no796dorses/IMG_0886.htm).
5. In 1460 Eleanor Stafford, widow of Humphrey Stafford, Knt., sued William Purefey, Esq., of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire, in the Court of Common Pleas in Northamptonshire plea regarding entry de quibus. The record mentions Dodford and Farthingstone, Northamptonshire.
Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/807, image 622f (available at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT2/E4/CP40no807/aCP40no807fronts/IMG_0622.htm).
< Baker 1:352 makes it clear that the claim against Eleanor Aylesbury was
< brought instead by Sir Edward Widville, whose mother Jacquetta, Duchess of
< Bedford, had reputedly bought the Dodford property from Philip Purefoy, son < of William. Baker 1:352 says specifically that Philip’s “title was
< grounded in a pretended descent from William Ayote youngest son of Lettice
< Ayote”.
The descent of William Purefoy's son, Philip Purefoy, from the Keynes family was not pretended, although Baker may have thought so. Roskell's biography of Philip Purefoy's great-grandfather, Alan Ayot (died c.1416), contains the following statement:
"As an old man Ayot was to express his family’s expectations of inheriting the former Keynes estates (in particular, Dodford in Northamptonshire), should the line of his distant kinsmen the Cressys ever chance to fail; but such hopes were not to be fulfilled in his lifetime." END OF QUOTE
Roskell's biography of Alan Ayot can be found at the following weblink:
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/ayot-alan-1416
As stated by Baker (and by me), Philip Purefoy (died 1468) [the eventual heir to Alan Ayot's claims] sold his rights in the manor of Dodford, Northamptonshire to Jacquet Wydeville, Duchess of Bedford. In 1481 King Edward IV awarded the manor of Dodford, Northamptonshire (the chief Keynes family property) to dame Eleanor Stafford and her son, Thomas, who in turn were ordered to pay £200, plus £50 charges, to Edward Wydeville, Knt. (son of Duchess Jacquet), to satisfy his claim to the said manor. If Philip Purefoy's rights in Dodford were worthless as you suggest, the king would not have ordered Eleanor Stafford to pay £200 to extinguish those rights. £200 is a whole lot of nothing.
< It’s clear that Baker at least was dubious about the purported Ayot descent
< of Philip Purefoy. After reading Baker more carefully, it's hard to say
< that "there can be no question that William Purefoy living in 1446 was the
< grandson and heir of Alan Ayot."
My statement above was made with respect to Baker and other evidence such as the legal actions cited above and the passage of Alan Ayot's manor of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire to William Purefoy (died 1466). Had William Ayot, Esq., not been Alan Ayot's grandson, then surely it would not have been claimed in 1445-6 that William Purefoy was the lawful heir apparent to the Keynes family estates.
< And incidentally Philip Purefoy is NOT "a known ancestor of Gov. Thomas
< Dudley". It's his brother John that's the Dudley ancestor - regardless of
< the Ayot descent.
When I was preparing my post, I inadvertedly relied on VCH Buckingham 4 (1927): 224 which implies that Gov. Dudley's ancestor, Nicholas Purefoy [died 1547], was the son and heir of Philip Purefoy [died 1468]. While it is true to Philip Purefoy [died 1468] was succeeded in turn by his sons, John and Nicholas, the Nicholas who eventually came into the ownership (and heirship) of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire was Philip Purefoy's nephew, Nicholas Purefoy [died 1547], of Daventry, Warwickshire, which Nicholas was a minor in 1491. The correct descent is found in Cal. of Patent Rolls, 1485–1494 (1914): 346, which can be found at the following weblink:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293027026362;view=1up;seq=358
The correct placement of Gov. Thomas Dudley's ancestor, Nicholas Purefoy, Esq. [died 1547] in the Purefoy family tree can also be found in a visitation pedigree of the Purefoye family published in Benolte and Cooke, Visitations of Kent 1530–1, 1574 & 1592 2 (H.S.P. 75) (1924): 107–108 (Purefoye ped.). This source can be viewed at the following weblink:
https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE927666
I might add that Nicholas Purefoy, Esq. [died 1547] is correctly placed as nephew to Philip Purefoy, Esq. [died 1468], in my book, Royal Ancestry (5 volume set) published in 2013.