Margaret de Somery, of Dudley

NOTE: There are two Margaret de Somerys. One m. Ralph Bassett and Ralph Cromwell. One m. John de Sutton.

Margaret de Somery Sutton's father is half brother to Margaret de Somery Bassett Cromwell.

Detangling is in process. (janet palo-jackson)

http://thepeerage.com/p11697.htm#i116970. does not include husband william bitfield, daughter maud, or son roger. documentation would be appreciated.

She became a nun after Ralph's death.

c 1200

Parents: Roger de Someri m Anabel Chaucambre:

Please see Stevens Genealogy for continuing lines Sir Roger Somery

Spouse: Baron Ralph Basset

Child: Baron Ralph Basset m Joan Gray

Shurtleff Genealogy pub 1917, Vol 1 pg 149

https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/45935/Haz...

Although her sons, Ralph V and Roger, are listed has having been born in the 1240s, her daughter Matilda Basset is noted to have been born shortly before her father’s death at Evesham.70

After Ralph IV (d. 1265) died and Margaret received her land, her son, Ralph Basset V took up arms and attended King Edward I at Worcester in 1277 against Llewellyn, the Prince of Wales. Five years later, he fought against the Welsh; the following year, he went to Shrewsbury to consider judgment for the Welsh Prince held captive. He fought for the king in Gascony, Flanders, Scotland, and at Portsmouth, and was eventually summoned to Parliament as a Baron by Writ.71 This indicates that even though his father was a rebel, fighting and dying alongside Simon de Montfort, Ralph Basset V took on the political positions of his mother and maternal lineage. Eventually Ralph Basset V would go on to marry Helewise de Grey, the daughter of John de Grey (d. 1265), and in doing so, would connect with another important and wealthy family.

Although Margaret connected the Somerys and Bassets, her marriage to Ralph de Cromwell II of Cromwell, Nottinghamshire, and West Hallam, Derbyshire in 1270 indicates her interest in maintaining her influential and noble status. The Cromwells were another emerging noble family.73 In fact, Margaret de Somery had a child with Ralph Cromwell, Ralph Cromwell III. He was not only politically active, but, like his half- brother, Ralph Basset V, served King Edward I in Wales in 1277, and was summoned for military service in 1276 and 1282, and attended the king at Shrewsbury in 1283.74 His first wife was Joan de Grey, from the prestigious De Grey family.75 By the late ourteenth century, the Cromwells were well known aristocratic landowners, acquiring the estate of Tattershall Castle in 1375.76 Their success continued into the sixteenth century. This second marriage of Margaret de Somery to Ralph de Cromwell further highlights the ways in which family networks, especially families like the Somerys, whose influence was waning, could marry into families, like the Cromwells, whose influence was growing.