Joan Middleton, heiress of Frenze

Joan Skelton

• Born about 1380 in Armathwaite, Cumberland, England
• Died about 17 MAR 1449/50
• Daughter of Clement Skelton & Joan Orton

Joan Skelton, daughter of Clement Skelton, married 1) Richard de Blennerhassett, of Carlisle 2) Sir John de Middleton

Children include

1. Ralph (Blennerhasset) Blennerhassett
2. John Blennerhassett
3. Sir John Middleton m 2nd to Elizabeth (Anne) de Ogle
4. Richard Middleton of Great Linford

Please see pages 50-52' in: — Graham, T. H. B. (1932) “Art. VI – Landed Gentry,” in Collingwood, W. G. (ed.) Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 32 (series 2). Kendal, Cumbria, UK: Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, pp. 45–56. doi: 10.5284/1063199.

Notes

https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/iLY6XjNllE8

I have Richard Middleton of Great Linford in my database with a death date of 14 November 1489. He married by 1464, Maud Throckmorton (died by 1499), daughter of Sir John Throckmorton of Coughton (c.1382-1445) & Eleanor Spine, and widow of Sir Thomas Greene of Greens Norton (c.1427-1462).

Richard Middleton was a younger son of Sir John Middleton of Belsay Castle, Northumberland (c.1373-1441) and his wife, Joan Skelton (d. 1450). There is a bio for this Richard Middleton of Great Linford in Wedgwood's HOP.

Expansion at Belsay, henceforward Sir John’s principal seat, probably followed upon his marriage, in, or just before 1409, to Joan, the widow of Sir John Blennerhasset, whose will they were then both helping to execute. As one of the three daughters and coheirs of Sir Clement Skelton, Joan had for some years been in possession of the manor of Staunton, near Penrith, one third of the manor of Orton (which had belonged to her mother) and other property in Carlisle, Thornby, Grinsdale and Burgh in Cumberland. All these lands were entailed upon John Blennerhasset, the child of her first marriage, but Sir John Middleton still enjoyed the use of them throughout his life.

Joan and her two sisters also advanced a claim to land in the Cumbrian villages of Bothel, Blindcrake, Bowness, Carleton and Torpenhow, which had belonged to her late cousin, Thomas Skelton. The latter’s executors complained to the court of Chancery that Middleton and his brothers-in-law (one of whom was Sir William Leigh*) were ‘de si graunde aliaunce et cosinage’ that no one in the north dared make a stand against them. Yet, despite the fact that both Sir John and Sir William got themselves elected to the April Parliament of 1414, along with William Middleton, one of the burgesses for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who almost certainly helped them to argue their case in person, they failed to carry the day. Eventually, after long deliberations with members of the ‘council learned in the law’, the chancellor ordered the three heiresses and their husbands to make full restitution to the executors and vacate the premises in question.

Sir John died shortly before Easter (held Sunday, Apr. 16) 1441, and was survived for nine years by his widow Joan, who promptly began litigation, concerning her rights of dower, against Sir William Euer† and his brother, Ralph. She and Sir John had four sons, two of whom entered the service of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and only narrowly escaped hanging, in 1447, after their master’s death and disgrace. Sir John Middleton, the eldest, succeeded to the bulk of his father’s estates, while property in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire was entailed upon his brothers. As his second wife, this Sir John married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Robert Ogle*, a leading figure in Northumberland, who was already related to the Manners family.[10]

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“…John, the M.P. for Carlisle in 1381 and 1384. This John was undoubtedly the father of Ralfe, the M.P. for Carlisle in 1413, and he was the father of John, the mayor and M.P., who died in 1471. Ralfe the M.P. of 1413 married, as her first husband, Jane or Joan, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Clement Skelton by Joan (born in 1345), daughter and co-heiress of Giles de Orton, of Orton and Stainton…”
Source: Roberts, G. B. (1984) English Origins of New England Families. From The New England Historical and Genealogical Registers, in Three Volumes, Vol. 2. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company.
Snippet Available at: GoogleBooks.

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Where was Stanton Manor?

Was there more than one Stanton Manor? It seems there was a manor of the same name in both Cumberland and Derbyshire. Could they have been the same but incorrectly assigned different locales? Maybe.

The first two sources say the Stanton Manor was in Cumberland, but the second source mentions a town called "Horsely", which was in Cumberland. After review, no "Horsely" existed in Cumberland, though the same-named town existed in Northumberland and Derbyshire.

RE Cumberland: The first source is dated ca. 1572—a little over 100 years after Joan (Skelton) Middleton died.

1. “The Queen to the Justices of Peace [of Cumberland]. Our servant, John Thornborough of Shotfield, co Hants, complains that having recovered at law of Roger Kirkby of Croshouse, co. Lancaster, the manor of Stanton, co. Cumberland, he is impeached by Kirkby and his adherents in possession of the same…. [Warrant Book I., p. 15.]”
Source: Green, M. A. E. (ed.) (1871) “Vol. XXI – 1572?,” in Calendar of State Papers: Domestic Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth; Addenda, 1566–1579. London: Longman & and Trubner, Parker, and Macmillan, A. & C. Black, A. Thom Mary Anne Everett Green, p. 437. Available at: GoogleBooks.

2. “In 1640, Sir William [Fenwick] had his residence at Stanton Hill of Stanton Manor, in the parish of Horsely, Cumberland...”
Source: Steward, W. and Steward, T. G. (1913) “Fenwick; His Colony,” in Gouldtown, a Very Remarkable settlement of Ancient Date. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott, p. 23. Available at: GoogleBooks.

Sources 3 & 4 show "Stanton Manor" in Derbyshire. Here, we find a descriptions of Stanton Manor bing somewhere between Over Haddon and the River Lathkill.
The last source indicates that "Over Haddon" was once itself a manor, which explains the bracketed word in the quote. Only in Northumberland and Cumberland were/are there towns called named "Haddon". Therefore, "Over Haddon Manor" was a little over a mile away from Derbyshire's Stanton Manor once was..

3. “Stanton, a manor between one and two miles south-west of [Over] Haddon…"
Source: Britton, J. and Brayley, E. W. (1802) “Derbyshire,” in The Beauties of England and Wales; or Delineations Topographical, Historical and Descriptive of Each County. London: Vernon & Hood, Longman & Rees, Cuthell & Martin, J. & A. Arch, W. J. & J. Richardson, J. Harris, and B. Crosby, p. 498. Available at: GoogleBooks.

4. “…in 1264, the king confirmed the grant which Prince Edward had made to Adam (of Jesmond) of the manors of Buxton, Stanton, Cowdale, Sterndal, ‘Strerebroke,’ Over Haddon, Taddington and Priestcliffe, all situate in the Peak district of Derbyshire. [Fn. Charter Roll, 48 Henry III., m. 7. Yeatman’s Feudal History of Derbyshire, second 3, p. 7. What subsequently came of these Derbyshire manors, now property of the Duke of Devonshire, must be left to Derbyshire historians to trace…]”
Source: Dendy, F. W. and Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (no date) “An Account of Jesmond,” in Archaeologia æliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: R. Robinson & Company, p. 44. Available at: GoogleBooks.

References

1. https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00642687&tree=LEO cites
   1. [S00110] ~Burke's Irish Family Records, 1976 . 133
   2. [S02450] NEHGR, magazine . 98:274
2. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id... - accessed 13 Aug 2016 Footnotes
3. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe. SKELTON, Sir Clement (b bef 1345), of Stainton and Orton, Cumb. < link >
4. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe < Sir John Middleton, 1373-1441 >
5. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition ... Page 391. < GoogleBooks >
6. American Mosaic: The Known Ancestors of Robert Hilton Squires II. By Richard Endress. Page 63. < GoogleBooks >
7. https://wc.rootsweb.com/trees/162642/I32486/-/individual