Blanche de Audley, Lady of Whittington

Blanche de Audley has at various times in history been incorrectly recorded as Margaret de Audley or Margery de Audley. Her name was actually Blanche.

Evidence of Blanche's given name and parentage is provided in two contemporary records, the first being a settlement dated 1374-1375 in her lifetime, an abstract of which is copied below. The settlement names Sir James de Audley and Roland, Thomas, and Blanche, his younger children by his second wife, Isabel.

CP 25/1/195/17, number 54.
Link: Image of document at AALT
County: Shropshire.
Place: Westminster.
Date: Two weeks from Holy Trinity, 48 Edward III [11 June 1374].
Parties: James de Audeley of Heley, knight, querent, and Nicholas de Audeley, knight, and Elizabeth, his wife, deforciants.
Property: The manor of Fordeshome.
Action: Plea of covenant.
Agreement: Nicholas and Elizabeth have granted to James the manor and have rendered it to him in the court, to hold to James for his life, of the lord king and his heirs. After the death of James the manor shall remain to Roland, son of James, and the male heirs of his body, to hold of the lord king and his heirs for ever. In default of such heirs, successive remainders (1) to Thomas, brother of Roland, and the heirs of his body, (2) to Blanche, sister of Thomas, for life, and after her death to Fulk Corbet of Morton' and the male heirs of his body and (3) to the right heirs of James.
For this: [James] has given them 200 marks of silver.
Note: This agreement was made by the command of the lord king.
Source: Abstracts of Feet of Fines

Sir Fulk Fitz Warin's wife is specifically identified as Blanche de Audley in a contemporary lawsuit dated 1388, in which her son and heir, Sir Fulk Fitz Warin the younger, stated that his mother was Blanche de Audley "daughter of James and Isabella." [Reference: Wrottesley, Staffordshire Suits: Plea Rolls (Colls. Hist. Staffs. 15) (1894): 6-7].

Link: https://archive.org/stream/collectionsforhi15staf#page/n53/mode/2up

Source: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.genealogy.medieval/QMWh...

Her effigy formerly in Tawstock Church under a recessed arch in wall of north chancel is now in the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon.

The name Margaret is an error recorded in Nicholas Audeley's 1408 IPM and in the Close Rolls. The error got copied into later publications and eventually added to family trees.

Links

• Plantagenet Ancestry named Blanche
• wikipedia.org named Margaret
• findagrave.com named Margaret
• thepeerage.com named Margery