Sir John Savage, "Savage family," ODNB

[Clagett, Brice]

On December 1, 2004, I wrote you questioning the statement in "Savage
family"
that "John (III) [Savage] died on 29 July, 1463, aged fifty-three,
leaving John, his [son and]
heir, aged forty and more." You replied on January 25, 2005: "I
remember that we
questioned this when editing the text, and referred it back to the
contributor, who confirmed
that that is what the source said. It is not impossible, and in any case
such assessments of
age were often demonstrably only approximate." (Yet the sketch does not
treat the estimates
of age as "only approximate"; it declares that John III was born in
1409/10 and John IV was
born in 1421 or 1422 (or, elsewhere, "c. 1423").)

I have recently learned, thanks to a posting on Genealogy-Medieval by
Todd Whitesides,
that in 1422 "John Sauage junior," who can only be John III, was
named one of the custodians of a minor, Reginald del Dounes. Cheshire
and Chester
Archives: The Downes Deeds, ref. DDS/118. His father, John (II) Sauage,
Kt., was one
of the sureties.

Thus it seems clear that John III was born a good many years prior to
1409/10.