Citation
Data
  • Category: Research
Detail
  • Author: Baldwin, Stewart
  • Publisher: soc.genealogy.medieval, July 29, 1998
Images
Content
  • Text: A claimed descent from Henry I, king of England to the American immigrant Christopher Branch of Virginia (an ancestor of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States), is given by Gary Boyd Roberts in "Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants", page 407. (The same line is also given in his "Ancestors of American Presidents".) The first 13 generations of this line overlap with a line which is of interest to me in my own research, and include one generation for which I have been unable to find any proof, and might therefore be regarded as a weak link in the said line. (I mentioned this weak link briefly a few weeks ago as part of a posting which could easily have been missed because of the unrelated subject line.) I will list the generations as given by Roberts, along with my comments.

    1. Henry I, king of England.
    2. Robert, earl of Gloucester (illegitimate) md. Mabel FitzHamon.
    3. Maud of Gloucester md. Ranulph de Gernon, earl of Chester.
    4. Hugh Kevelioc, earl of Chester.
    5. Amicia (illegitimate) md. Ralph de Mainwaring.
    6. Bertrade de Mainwaring md. Henry de Audley.
    7. Emma de Audley md. Gruffudd ap Madog, prince of Powys Fadog.

    Some of these links are not adequately proven by the authorities cited by Roberts, but they are proven in "The Complete Peerage" (and authorities cited therein), which Roberts does not cite here for some reason. (Look under "Tuchet" for the link between generations 6 and 7, and under the obvious headings for the others. Of course, the [il]legitimacy of Amicia [#5] was once the subject of a[n] [in]famous controversy,)

    8. Margred ferch Gruffudd md. Sir John Arderne.

    As far as I can tell, none of the sources cited by Roberts is sufficient to prove the link between generations 7 and 8. Proof that Gruffudd's daughter Margred (Margaret) was the wife of John de Arderne is given in a Calendar of Enrollments (item 46 on page 16) of "A Memoir of the Cheshire Domesday Roll" by George Ormerod (1851, available on FHL film number 1656913), which is an enrollment of grant by Peter de Arderne, Lord of Aldford, to John his eldest son, and Margaret his wife, daughter of the Lord Griffin of Bromfield [as Gruffudd ap Madog was sometimes called] of the entire manor of
    Congleton. Gruffudd had no known wife other than Emma, who is adequately attested as the mother of Gruffudd's sons, so this link between Emma and Margred looks reasonable, although it would still be nice to have better evidence that Margred was also Emma's daughter.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    9. Agnes Arderne md. Sir John Whetenhall [Wettenhall]

    This is the possible weak link, for which I have not been able to find any proof. Ormerod vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 755 states the following:

    "19 Edw. III. John de Arderne and Elen his wife, levied a fine of the manor in favour of the said Robert de Hampton and John de Motlowe, who in the same year, but on what ground does not appear, were sued by Agnes, who was the wife of John de Wetenhale, (and sister of Sir John), for dower of that manor and of Alderley."

    It is not clear whether the parenthetical statement "(and sister of Sir John)" is intended to be an explanatory comment by the author or was actually stated in the source (not explicitly stated). However, the former seems more likely, as the Plea Rolls of Cheshire show the following entry with no relationship between Agnes and John explicitly stated (28th Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, p. 45):

    "19 Edw. 3. Wetenhale, Agnes who was the wife of John de, against Robert de Hampton, parson of the church of Alderelegh, and John son of Roger de Motlowe. Dower of the manors of Aldeford and Alderlegh. [19 & 20 Edw. 3. m. 3, 12]"

    In his account of Wettenhall, Ormerod states that "John de Wetenhale, senior, and Agnes his wife, obrtained the manor of Wetenhale, by fine, from Margery, daughter of John de Arderne," giving "Williamson's Cheshire Evidences, p. 12" (of which I have never seen a copy) as the source.

    The above sources certainly suggest a connection between the Arderne and Wettenhall families, but I do not see how the exact nature of the likely connection can be proven by the sources indicated. (The Cheshire Plea Rolls are not indexed, and I could have easily missed a relevant reference in my perusal of them.) Based on the sources cited and/or quoted by Ormerod, it looks likely that the exact Arderne-Wettenhall link was actually only a conjecture by Ormerod, done by assigning Agnes as a daughter of the chronologically most likely Arderne.

    Can this link be solidified?

    10. Margaret Whetenhall md. Adam Bostock.
    11. Adam Bostock md. Janet Bradshaw.
    12. Sir Ralph Bostock md. Isabel Lawton.
    13. Sir Adam Bostock md. Elizabeth Venables.

    Generations 9 through 13 appear to be well documented, based on Inquisitions post mortem and other documents abstracted by Ormerod. I have not examined copies of the original documents themselves, but there seems to be no good reason to expect a problem with these generations.

    From this point on, my interest in the Bostock family follows a different branch from the one said to be ancestral to the immigrant Christopher Branch. I suspect that my ancestor, the Quaker immigrant John Simcock of Chester co., PA, was a descendant of the above Sir Adam Bostock, but there is still one seriously weak link between Adam Bostock and John Simcock (plus a couple of others which wouldn't be hurt by some extra support). Thus, even if the Arderne-Wettenhall weak link can be fixed, I still need more Bostock data from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to satisfy my own research goals. I have not examined the remaining generations down to Christopher Branch, which are given here from RD500 without any
    comment, positive or negative, regarding their potential reliability:

    14. Nicholas Bostock md. Catherine Mobberley.
    15. Hugh Bostock md. Joan Del Heath.
    16. George Bostock md. Joan Horne.
    17. Joan Bostock md. William Jennings.
    18. Thomas Jennings md. Alice Bright.
    19. Catherine Jennings md. William Branch.
    20. Lionel Branch md. Valentia Sparkes.
    21. Christopher Branch of VA, the immigrant.
    22. Christopher Branch Jr. md. _____
    23. Mary Branch md. Thomas Jefferson
    24. Thomas Jefferson Jr. md. Mary Field
    25. Peter Jefferson md. Jane Randolph
    26. President Thomas Jefferson
Personal Names
PersonClaimDetailEvidence
Henry de AudleyNameHenry de Audley [S775:IX.120] [S954] [S2859] [S3168]
research
Hugh Keveliok, Earl of ChesterNameHugh Keveliok , Earl of Chester [S878:164] [S2859]
research
Mabel fitz HammonNameMabel FitzHamon [S954] [S2859]
research
Matilda FitzRobertNameMaud of Gloucester [S756] [S2859]
research
Ranulph II, 4th Earl of ChesterNameRanulph de Gernon , Earl of Chester [S775:VII.675] [S2859]
research
Robert de Caen, Earl of GloucesterNameRobert, , Earl of Gloucester [S2859]
research
Relationships
PersonClaimDetailEvidence
Robert de Caen, Earl of GloucesterFatherHenry Beauclerc I, King of England (1068-1135) [S756] [S954] [S2718] [S2859]
research
Hugh Keveliok, Earl of ChesterFatherRanulph II, 4th Earl of Chester (~1100-1153) [S756] [S775:VII.675] [S954] [S2859]
research
Hugh Keveliok, Earl of ChesterMotherMatilda FitzRobert (e1111-1189) [S756] [S775:VII.675] [S954] [S2859]
research
Matilda FitzRobertFatherRobert de Caen, Earl of Gloucester (~1090-1147) [S756] [S954] [S2859]
research
Matilda FitzRobertMotherMabel fitz Hammon (e1091-1157) [S756] [S954] [S2859]
research