Sir John le Blount, Kt.

Disproved wife

John le Blount was not the husband of Lady Eleanor Beauchamp

notes

From Slektsforum -> Slektsfaglige diskusjoner -> Nyhetsgrupper (arkiv) -> Fora der du MÅ skrive engelsk -> soc.genealogy.medieval -> Mountjoy family - ancestors of the Blounts 18 Feb 2008 Nathaniel Taylor: Ah--but here the earlier sources (followed by Coll. Hist. Staffs.) seem to be in error, which has since been corrected by CP (s.n. Mountjoy). As CP shows, Sir John Blount (d. 1358) can only be shown to have had one wife, Isolda de Mountjoy. Older sources assign him a second wife, Eleanor Beauchamp (of Hache) who is made to be the mother of his younger sons (including the one whose descendants took the peerage title 'Mountjoy'). On the alleged Blount-Beauchamp marriage, an article by Cecil R. Humphery-Smith, "The Blount Quarters," _The Coat of Arms_ 4 (1957), 224-27, is corrected by G. D. Squibb, "The Heirs of Beauchamp of Hatch," ibid., pp. 275-77, showing that the particular claimed marriage cannot have happened.

More importantly, Isolda is documented as still wife of Sir John Blount in 1352, well after the apparent birth year of Walter, ancestor of the lords Mountjoy. Croke (in his Blount work back in 1823) quoted the 1352 charter but didn't realize the chronological implication, repeating the two-wife fallacy.

I think the origin of the fallacious marriage is that the Blounts quartered a chequy coat (like Beauchamp of Hache) whose origin was a mystery for quite some time.

• John le Blount1
• M, #11197, b. 1298, d. 1358
• Father Sir Walter Blount d. 1322
• Mother Joanna of Sodington b. c 1274, d. a 1331
• John le Blount was born in 1298 at of Sodington, Worcestershire, England; Age 39 in 1337. He married Isolda de Mountjoy, daughter of Sir Thomas Mountjoy, Baron Mountjoy, circa 1340.2 John le Blount married Eleanor Beauchamp, daughter of Sir John de Beauchamp, 2nd Lord Beauchamp of Hacche and Margaret de St. John, in 1347.2 John le Blount died in 1358 at of Passingham, Northamptonshire, England.
• Family 1 Isolda de Mountjoy b. c 1307, d. 1347
• Children
  • Sir John Blount+ b. 1343, d. 1424
  • Sir Richard Blount b. 1345, d. a 1358
• Family 2 Eleanor Beauchamp b. c 1328
• Children
  • Sir Walter Blount+ b. 1348, d. 22 Jun 1403
  • Sir Thomas Blount b. c 1350, d. 1400
• Citations
• 1.[S2958] Unknown author, Some Early English Pedigrees, by Vernon M. Norr, p. 27; Wallop Family, p. 101; Magna Charta by Wurts, p. 1122; Stemmata Robertson, p. 203.
• 2.[S11588] Some Early English Pedigrees, by Vernon M. Norr, p. 28.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p373.htm#i...
• ________________
• Sir John Blount1
• M, #165265, d. 1357
• Last Edited=10 May 2008
• Sir John Blount was the son of Sir Walter Blount.1 He married, firstly, Isolda Mountjoy, daughter of Sir Thomas Mountjoy. He married, secondly, Eleanor Beauchamp, daughter of John Beauchamp, before 1357.1 He died in 1357.1
• He lived at Sodington, Worcestershire, England.1
• He was ancestor of the Blounts, Lords Mountjoy, by his second wife.1
• Children of Sir John Blount and Isolda Mountjoy
  • 1.Sir John Blount+1 d. 1423
  • 2.Richard Blount1 d. a 1359
• Citations
• 1.[S37] BP2003 volume 1, page 405. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p16527.htm#i165265
• __________________
• John Blount1
• M, #213101, d. 1358
• Last Edited=24 Nov 2006
• John Blount was the son of Sir Walter le Blount.1 He died in 1358.1
• Child of John Blount and Eleanor Beauchamp
  • 1.Sir Walter Blount+1 d. 21 Jul 1403
• Citations
• 1.[S1916] Tim Boyle, "re: Boyle Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 16 September 2006. Hereinafter cited as "re: Boyle Family."
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p21311.htm#i213101
• ________________
• A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct peerages of the British empire (1978)
• https://archive.org/details/agenealogicalhi00burkgoog
• https://archive.org/stream/agenealogicalhi00burkgoog#page/n74/mode/1up
• Pg.54
• The younger,
• SIR WILLIAM LE BLOUNT, m. the Lady Isabel de Beauchamp, dau. of William, 1st Earl of Warwick, and widow of Henry Lovet, of Elmley Lovet, co. Worcester, and d. 9th or 10th of EDWARD II. (1315 or 1316), having had issue,
  • PETER, one of the chmaberlains in 1313 to King EDWARD II., d.s.p.
  • WALTER, of whom we treat.
• The 2nd son,
• SIR WALTER LE BLOUNT, of the Rock, co. Worcester, m. JOHANNA, 3rd sister and co-heir of SIR WILLIAM DE SODINGTON, who d. 30th EDWARD I. (anno 1301), and thus became proprietor of the manor of Sodington, co. Worcester. He d. in 1322, and was s. by his son,
• SIR WILLIAM LE BLOUNT, of Sodington, who had a command in Scotland in 1335. He m. Margaret, 3rd dau. and co-heir of Theobald de Verdon. Lord of Alton Castle, co. Stafford, lord justice of Ireland. The lady was b. in 1310; there was no issue of the marriage, and Sir William dying, 11th EDWARD II. (anno 1337), seized of the castle of Weobly, in Herfordshire, Batterby, and lands in Fenton, Romesore, and Biddulph, in Staffordshire, Sodington and Timberlake, in Worcestershire, was s. by his brother,
• SIR JOHN LE BLOUNT, then thirty-nine year of age, who was in the service of the Earl of Lancaster, and had obtained from that nobleman a grant for life of the manor of Paddingham, co. Northampton. He had also lands from the earl in Holland and Duffield, co Derby, and Tiberton, in Gloucestershire. He had two wives, 1st ISOLDA, dau.; and heir fo Sir Thomas de Mountjoy, by whom he acquired a large accession of estates, and had issue,
  • JOHN (Sir), who m. twice, 1st Juliana, dau. of --- Foulhurst, and 2ndly, Isabella, dau. and heir of Sir Bryan Cornwall, of Kinlet. By the 2nd he was ancestor of the Blounts of Kinlet, co Salop, whose heir-general is WILLIAM LACON CHILDE, Esq., of Kinlet. By his 1st wife, Juliana Foulhurst, Sir John had a son,
    • JOHN BLOUNT, of Sodington, ancestor of the BLOUNTS, Baronets of Sodington.
  • Walter, d.s.p.
• Sir John Blount's 2nd wife was Eleanor, 2nd dau. of John Beauchamp, of Hache, co. Somerset, and widow of John Meriet, of Meriet, in the same shire. By this lady he left at his decease, 32nd HENRY III. (1358) a son, the heroic
• SIR WALTER BLOUNT, so celebrated for his martial prowess in
• https://archive.org/stream/agenealogicalhi00burkgoog#page/n75/mode/1up
• Pg.55
• the warlike times of EDWARD III., RICHARD II., and HENRY IV., and immortalized by the muse of Shakespeare for his devotion, even unto death, to King HENRY. Sir Walter fell at the battle of Shrewsbury, 22 June, 1403, wherein, being standard bearer, he was arrayed in the same armour as his royal master, and was slain according to the poet, in single combat, by the Earl of Douglas, who had supposed he was contending with the king himself.
• In 1367 we find Sir Walter accompanying the BLACK PRINCE and his brother, the DUKE OF LANCASTER (John of Faunt), upon the expedition into spain to aid PETER THE CRUEL, King of Castile, and assisting on 3 April in that year at the battle of Najore, which restored PETER to his throne. Thenceforward for a series of years, indeed until the prince's decease, he appears to have been immediately and confidentially attached to the duke, having chosen his wife, whom he m. about the year 1372, from amongst the ladies in the suite of CONSTANTIA OF CASTILE (eldest dau. of PETER, and his successor on the throne, who became the royal consort of JOHN OF GAUNT) when the princess visited England in 1369. In 1398 the duke granted 100 marks a-year to Sir Walter for the good services which had been rendered to him by the knight and his wife the lady Sancia. The Lady Sancia's maiden designation was DONNA SACHA DE AYALA; she was the dau. of Don DIEGO GOMEZ DE TOLEDO, alcalde mayor and chief justice of Toledo, and notario mayor or principal secretary of the kingdom of Castile, by his wife, Inez Alfon de Ayala, one of the most ancient and illustrious houses in Spain. JOHN OF GAUNT, at his decease, appointed Sir Walter one of his executors, and bequethed in a legary of 100 points, L6 6s. 8d.
• In 1374, Sir Walter's half-brother, Sir John Blount, of Sodington, conveyed to him numerous manors, whoch he had inherited from his mother, Isolda, heiress of the Mountjoy family. In 1381 he became propietor, by puchase of the large estates of the BAKEPULE family, in cos. Derby, Stafford, Leicester, and Hertford. In 1385 he obtained a charter for a fair and free warren in his demesne lands at Barton, and other manors in Derbyshire. In 1399 he was ranger of Needwood Forest and knight of the shire for co. Derby. By his wife, Donna Dancha, who survived him, and lived until 1418, he left issue, ....
• _____________________________
• The genealogical history of the Croke family, originally named Le Blount (1823) Vol. 2
• https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist02crok
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/136/mode/1up
• Pg.136
• Sir John Blount married two wives. The first was Isolda, the daughter and heir of Sir Thomas de Mountjoy, the son and heir of Sir Ralph de Mountjoy, to whose property he succeeded. .... etc.
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/138/mode/1up
• Pg.138
• By his first wife Sir John Blount had two sons, Sir Richard and Sir
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/n34/mode/1up
• Pg.139
• John. From this marriage and inheritance the Sodington family, the descendants of Sir John and Isolda, have always quartered the arms of Mountjoy, gules, three escutcheons, or.
• His second wife was Eleanor, whose maiden name was Beauchamp, but who was then the widow of Sir John Meriet. She was the second daughter of John Beauchamp of Hache in Somersetshire, who died in 1343(a). His son John Beauchamp, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, died the 7th of October in the thirty-fifth year of Edward the Third, 1361, without issue(b). His heirs were two, first, his sister Cecily de Beauchamp, then forty years of age, and who married first Sir Roger Seymour, and afterwards Richard Tuberville of Bere Regis in Dorsetshire : and secondly, John Meriet, the son of Eleanor his other sister, who was then fifteen years of age. The partition of the property was made the year after his death . And thus ended the eldest male line of the Beauchamps of Hache. In the division of the estates, the manor of Hache, with other manors, was transferred with Cecily to Sir Roger Seymour, in whose family it long continued, and who was the ancestor of the Dukes of Somerset. Eleanor, who first married Sir John Meriet of Meriet in Somersetshire, son and heir of Sir Simon de Meriet, had by him this son Sir John Meriet, who succeeded to her property, as well as his father's, and died in the third year of Richard the Second, 1380, leaving an only daughter Elizabeth, married to a Seymour(d). After the death of Sir John Meriet, Eleanor became the second wife of Sir John Blount, by whom he had two sons, Sir Walter Blount who married Sancha de Ayala, and was the ancestor of the Lords Mountjoy, and the family at Maple-Durham, and who will be the subjects of the third and fourth chapters ; and Thomas, who died without issue(e).
• The dates of these events, which are correctly known from the records,
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/n35/mode/1up
• Pg.140
• perfectly agree with the fact, that this Eleanor Beauchamp was the wife of Sir John Blount, and not the wife of Sir Walter Blount of Rock, who died in 1322, as is stated by Bigland in his two pedigrees. As John Meriet, Eleanor's son, was fifteen years of age at the death of her brother John de Beauchamp in 1361, he was born in 1346, when her first husband Sir John Meriet may be supposed to be living. Isolda, Sir John Blount's first wife, died the year after in 1347. After that event, as soon as Eleanor's first husband Sir John Meriet was dead, of which the time does not appear, as there is no inquisition upon his death, Sir John Blount might have married her. And between the death of his first wife in 1347, and his own death in 1358, there was a period of eleven years, which was amply sufficient for the events of the death of Sir John Meriet, Sir John Blount's marriage with his widow, and the birth of his two children.
• Eleanor's second husband Sir John Blount is not mentioned by Dugdale, because his account of her is taken from the inquisitions relating to her property, which came from her brother, and went to her son John Meriet, and therefore Sir John Blount did not appear in them. All the subsequent accounts are echoes of Dugdale. The Blount family therefore did not inherit any of the Beauchamp property, but all of that family who were descended from Eleanor have always quartered the Beauchamp arms, vairy, argent, and azure, as the Mountjoy, and Maple-Durham branches.
• https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/n178/mode/1up
• Pg.252
• Chart
• Sir Walter le Blount, of Rock, died about 1316. = Johanna de Sodington; ch: Sir William (m. Margaret de Verdun), Sir John (m. Isolda Mountjoy & Eleanor Beauchamp), Walter Blount (m. Maud _) Blount.
• Sir John Blount of Sodington. = Isolda Mountjoy, first wife.; ch: Richard, Sir John (m. Juliana Foulhurst & Isabella Cornwall) Blount; = Eleanor Beauchamp, second wife.; ch: Sir Walter (m. Sancha de Ayala), Thomas Blount.
  • Sir John Blount, of Sodington, died 1424, 3 Hen. VI. Transferred the Mountjoy estates to his brother Walter in 1374. = Juliana Foulhurst, first wife.; ch: The Blounts of Sodington, Geneal. No. 8.; = Isabella Cornwall.; ch: The Blounts of Kinlet, Yee, &c. Geneal. No. 9, 10. Burton-upon-Trent, No. 17.
  • Sir Walter Blount died 1402. Acquired the Mountjoy estates from his brother Sir John in 1374. = Sancha de Ayala. Geneal. No. 11.; ch: Sir John, Sir Thomas (m. Margaret Greseley), James, Peter, Constantia (m. John Sutton, Lord Dudley), Anne (m. Thomas Griffith, Esq.) Blount.
• ______________________________________

The Marbury Ancestry by Meredith Bright Colket (The Magee Press, Philadelphia, 1936)

Ref 171 (Marbury Ancestry) names John Blount's 2nd wife, and mother of Walter Blount, as Eleanor, daughter of John Beauchamp of Hache, Somerset - Beauchamp arms, Vair, quartered on subsequents Blount coats. The book points out though that her identity has not been positively determined - exactly WHICH John Beauchamp was her father.

"Sir John Blount of Sodington, co. Worcester, b. ca 1298, d. 1358, seised of lands in co. Gloucester and co, Stafford; m. (1) Isolda Montjoy who died 1347, m. (2) Eleanore Beauchamp of Hache, co. Somerset. (Beauchamp arms, Vair, quartered on subsequent Blount coats)."

Sir John Blount. b. abt 1298 of Sodington, Worcester ENG. d. in 1358. aft 1347 John married Eleanor Beauchamp.

The Marbury Ancestry cites Alexander Croke's "History of the Croke Family Originally Named Le Blout". Sir John Blount is the father of Sir Walter who married Sancha de Ayala and it was he who married Eleanor Beauchamp.

• _________________________________
• John BLOUNT (Sir)
• Born: ABT 1298, Sodington, Worcester, England
• Died: 1358
• Father: Walter BLOUNT (Sir Knight)
• Mother: Johanna De SODINGTON
• Married 1: Isolda De MOUNTJOY (b. ABT 1307 - d. 1347) (dau. of Thomas Mountjoy, B. Mountjoy) ABT 1316
• Children:
  • 1. John BLOUNT (Sir Knight)
  • 2. William BLOUNT
  • 3. Richard BLOUNT (Sir Knight)
  • 4. Walter BLOUNT
  • 5. Thomas BLOUNT
• Married 2: Elizabeth ? ABT 1328, Sodington, Worcester, England
• Children:
  • 6. Walter BLOUNT
  • 7. William BLOUNT
• Married 3: Eleanor De BEAUCHAMP (dau. of Sir John Beauchamp and Margaret St. John) ABT 1347, Sodington, Worcester, England
• Children:
  • 8. Walter BLOUNT (Sir Knight)
  • 9. Thomas BLOUNT
  • 10. Alice BLOUNT
  • 11. William BLOUNT
• From: From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BLOUNT1.htm#John BLOUNT (Sir)1
• ____________________________
• John de Beauchamp, 2nd Baron Beauchamp of Somerset (4 October 1304 - 19 May 1343) was born at Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somersetshire, England, to Sir John de Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Somerset and Joan Chenduit.
• He married Margaret St John daughter of John St John, 1st Baron St John of Basing and Isabel Courtenay. Margaret and John de Beauchamp had issue:
  • 1.Eleanor de Beauchamp (c. 1307 - 13 June 1391) married (1) John Blount (2) John De Meriet (3) Henry Lunet
  • 2.Cicely de Beauchamp (c. 1321 - 7 June 1394) inherited the manors of Hatch Beauchamp, Shepton Beauchamp, Murifield and one third of the manor of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, the manors of Boultbery and Haberton, Devon, of Dorton, Buckinghamshire, and of Little Haw, Suffolk; married (1) Sir Roger St. Maur or Seymour, Kt. (Even Swindon, Wiltshire, 1314 - bef. 1361) (2) 14 September 1368 Sir Richard Tuberville or Sir Gilbert Turberville of Coity, Glamorgan
  • 3.Margaret de Beauchamp (born c. 1326)
  • 4.John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp of Somerset (20 January 1329/1330 - 8 October 1361) married Alice Beauchamp
  • 5.Edward de Beauchamp (born c. 1330)
  • 6.William de Beauchamp (born c. 1331)
• From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Beauchamp,_2nd_Baron_Beauchamp_(first_creation)
• _________________
• Sir Walter Blount (died 1403), was a soldier and supporter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He later supported John's son and heir Henry Bolingbroke in his bid to become king Henry IV and in later battles against his enemies. At the Battle of Shrewsbury he served as the royal standard bearer, was mistaken for the king and killed in combat.
• He appears as a character in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, part 1, in which he epitomises selfless loyalty and chivalry.
• Blount was almost certainly the son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by his second wife, Eleanor Beauchamp, widow of Sir John Meriet.
• In 1367 Blount participated in Edward, the Black Prince's expedition to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of Leon and Castile. This expedition was successfully terminated by the Battle of Nájera in 1367. Blount returned to England.
• As a result of his role in the campaign, Blount married Donna Sancha de Ayála, the daughter of Don Diego Gomez, who held high office in Toledo, by his wife, Donna Inez de Ayála. Blount's new wife was also a niece of Pero López de Ayala.
• Donna Sancha appears to have first come to England in attendance on Constantia, the elder daughter of Peter of Castile, whom John of Gaunt married in 1372. .... etc.
• From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Blount_(soldier)
• _________________
• BLOUNT, Sir Walter (d.1403), of Barton Blount, Derbys.
• 3rd s. of Sir John Blount (d.1358) of Sodington, Worcs. by his 1st w. Iseult, da. and h. of Thomas Mountjoy of Derbys.; yr. bro. of John Blount II*. m. by 1374, Sancha (d.1418/19), da. of Diego Gomez of Toledo, principal sec. of the province of Toledo, by his w. Ines de Ayala, 5s. inc. Thomas II* (1s. d.v.p.), 2da. Kntd. by Mar. 1372.1
• Immortalized by Shakespeare as one of the three loyal knights who gave their lives by impersonating Henry IV at the battle of Shrewsbury, Sir Walter Blount was indeed a devoted supporter of the house of Lancaster. In this he followed a well-established family tradition which was continued into the next generation. His early prospects were by no means promising, for although his parents owned extensive estates in Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Gloucestershire, he was only a third son, and thus not likely to inherit much in the way of property. He must have still been very young when his father died in 1358, since his eldest brother, Richard, was then only 13 years old. We first encounter him in 1367 on the expedition which the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, led to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Peter IV (‘the Cruel’) to the throne of Leon and Castile. Two years later he conveyed his manor of Hazelwood in Derbyshire to his kinsman, Sir Godfrey Foljambe, in a charter witnessed by Gaunt, with whom he had by then become closely connected: he was, indeed, to take part in at least five more of the duke’s military ventures between 1369 and 1395. Richard Blount, too, was a soldier; and Sir Walter agreed to act as his attorney while he campaigned in Aquitaine with the Black Prince. He was evidently killed in action, for by 1374 John, the second of Sir John Blount’s three sons, had succeeded to the family estates. It was then that John reached an agreement with Sir Walter, whereby the latter was to receive their mother’s manor of Gayton in Staffordshire together with several Derbyshire properties in return for an assurance (made later in 1381) that he would advance no further title to any other part of the Mountjoy estates.5 Sir Walter had, meanwhile, become a member of Gaunt’s household, being in receipt from 1372 onwards of regular wages, as well as an annuity of 17 marks and occasional gifts. .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/bl...
• ________________
• BLOUNT, John II (aft.1345-1425), of Sodington, Worcs.
• b. aft. 1345, 2nd s. and event. h. of Sir John Blount (d.1358) of Sodington, prob. by his 1st w. Iseult, da. and h. of Thomas Mountjoy of Derbys.; er bro. of Sir Walter*. m. (1) Juliana (?Foulhurst), 2s. d.v.p.; (2) c. Apr. 1383, Isabel, da. of Sir Brian Cornwall† of Kinlet, Salop by Maud, da. of Fulk, 1st Lord Strange of Blackmere, sis. of Sir John Cornwall*, 1s.; ?(3) Ellen. Kntd. bet. Sept. 1403.
• John was one of the sons of Sir John Blount, himself a younger son of Sir Walter Blount† of Rock, Worcestershire, and Joan, the heiress of the manor of Sodington. Among the more prominent members of the family, whose principal estates were at Belton in Rutland and Hampton Lovett in Worcestershire, had been Thomas, Lord Blount (d.1328), sometime steward of Edward II’s household, and John’s uncle, William, Lord Blount (d.1337); while the main line of the family ended in John’s lifetime at the death of Alice, the daughter and heiress of his grandfather’s eldest brother John, Lord Blount, and wife of Sir Richard Stury, one of the knights of Richard II’s chamber. The Blounts had established a tradition of service to the house of Lancaster: John’s grandfather had been of the Lancastrian party under Edward II, and his father had fought in Gascony under Henry, earl of Lancaster, who had granted him for life the manors of Passenham (Northamptonshire) and Tibberton (Gloucestershire). This connexion was long to continue, for John’s younger brother, Sir Walter, became one of John of Gaunt’s most trusted retainers, and his nephews, Sir John and Thomas Blount II*, were to have close associations with Gaunt’s son Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter.1
• When Blount’s father died in 1358 the heir was his eldest son Richard, but the latter did not long survive, soon leaving the inheritance to young John. By settlements made in 1356 John had already obtained lands in Balterley, Biddulph, Fenton and Ramshorn, Staffordshire, from his aunt Margery (widow of William, Lord Blount and at that time the wife of Sir John Crophull of Nottinghamshire), and in June 1358 the King, respiting his homage for these lands until he should come of age, granted him seisin. The rest of his substantial paternal inheritance (which, besides Sodington, included the manors of Timberlake and Mamble and several other properties in Worcestershire) came to him only after he attained his majority. In 1364 he was evidently a ward of Nicholas Fitzherbert, for in that year Eleanor, countess of Arundel (daughter of Earl Henry of Lancaster) acknowledged receipt of 11 marks from Fitzherbert as ‘the guardian of the lands of my dear cousin Janckin Blount’. Ten years later Blount, no longer a minor, reached an agreement with his brother Walter that the latter should have all the Mountjoy lands in Derbyshire falling to them on the death of their mother, he himself to have other family properties in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in lieu; and accordingly, in 1381, Walter relinquished to him all claim to lands in Denstone, Elvaston, Quixhill and Waterfall.2 .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/bl...
• ________________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 05 by Sidney Lee
• BLOUNT, Sir WALTER (d. 1403), soldier and supporter of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was almost certainly the son of Sir John Blount of Sodington, by his second wife, Eleanor Beauchamp, widow of Sir John Meriet. In 1367 he accompanied the Black Prince and John of Gaunt in their expedition to Spain to restore Don Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Leon and Castile. After the return of the expedition, which was successfully terminated by the battle of Navarette (1367), Blount married Donna Sancha de Ayála, the daughter of Don Diego Gomez, who held high office in Toledo, by his wife (of very high family), Donna Inez de Ayála. Donna Sancha appears to have first come to England in attendance on Constantia, the elder daughter of King Pedro, whom John of Gaunt married in 1372. In 1374 John Blount, Sir Walter's half-brother, who had succeeded his mother, Isolda Mountjoy, in the Mountjoy property, made over to Walter the Mountjoy estates in Derbyshire, and to them Walter added by purchase, in 1381, the great estates of the Bakepuiz family in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Hertfordshire. Permission was granted Blount in 1377 to proceed with Duke John of Gaunt to Castile in order to assert the duke's right by virtue of his marriage to the throne of Leon and Castile; but the expedition did not start till 1386, when Blount probably accompanied it. On 17 April 1393 he, with Henry Bowet [q. v.] and another, was appointed to negotiate a permanent peace with the king of Castile. In 1398 Duke John granted to Blount and his wife, with the king's approval, an annuity of 100 marks in consideration of their labours in his service. Blount was an executor of John of Gaunt, who died early in 1399, and received a small legacy. He represented Derbyshire in Henry IV's first parliament, which met on 6 Oct. 1399. At the battle of Shrewsbury (23 July 1403) he was the king's standard-bearer, and was killed by Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas, one of the bravest followers of Henry Percy (Hotspur). Blount was dressed in armour resembling that worn by Henry IV, and was mistaken by Douglas for the king (Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana, ed. Riley, ii. 258; Annales Henrici Quarti, 367, 369). Shakespeare gives Blount, whom he calls Sir Walter Blunt, a prominent place in the first part of his ‘Henry IV,’ and represents both Hotspur and Henry IV as eulogising his military prowess and manly character. He was buried in the church St. Mary ‘of Newark,’ Leicester. His widow Donna Sancha lived till 1418. In 1406 she founded the hospital of St. Leonards, situate between Alkmonton and Hungry-Bentley, Derbyshire.
• Sir Walter had two sons: 1. Sir John, who was at one time governor of Calais; was in 1482 besieged in a castle of Aquitaine by a great French army, which he defeated with a small force (Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustriæ, Rolls Ser., p. 437); was created knight of the Garter in 1413; and was present at the siege of Rouen in 1418: 2. Sir Thomas, who was treasurer of Calais during Henry VI's wars in France (Stevenson's Letters, &c., illustrating the wars in France temp. Henry VI, Rolls Ser., ii. passim), and founded a chantry at Newark in 1422 (at the expense of the Duke of Exeter) in memory of his father and mother. Sir John died without male issue. Sir Thomas was the father (by Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Gresley of Gresley, Derbyshire) of Sir Walter Blount, first Baron Mountjoy [q. v.]
• From: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Blount,_Walter_(d.1403)_(DNB00)
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From Slektsforum -> Slektsfaglige diskusjoner -> Nyhetsgrupper (arkiv) -> Fora der du MÅ skrive engelsk -> soc.genealogy.medieval -> Mountjoy family - ancestors of the Blounts 18 Feb 2008 Nathaniel Taylor:

Ah--but here the earlier sources (followed by Coll. Hist. Staffs.) seem to be in error, which has since been corrected by CP (s.n. Mountjoy). As CP shows, Sir John Blount (d. 1358) can only be shown to have had one wife, Isolda de Mountjoy. Older sources assign him a second wife, Eleanor Beauchamp (of Hache) who is made to be the mother of his younger sons (including the one whose descendants took the peerage title 'Mountjoy'). On the alleged Blount-Beauchamp marriage, an article by Cecil R. Humphery-Smith, "The Blount Quarters," _The Coat of Arms_ 4 (1957), 224-27, is corrected by G. D. Squibb, "The Heirs of Beauchamp of Hatch," ibid., pp. 275-77, showing that the particular claimed marriage cannot have happened.

More importantly, Isolda is documented as still wife of Sir John Blount in 1352, well after the apparent birth year of Walter, ancestor of the lords Mountjoy. Croke (in his Blount work back in 1823) quoted the 1352 charter but didn't realize the chronological implication, repeating the two-wife fallacy.

I think the origin of the fallacious marriage is that the Blounts quartered a chequy coat (like Beauchamp of Hache) whose origin was a mystery for quite some time.

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• Links
• http://www.celtic-casimir.com/webtree/17/60265.htm
• https://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I192958&tre...
• http://www.mathematical.com/blountjohn1298.html
• http://fabpedigree.com/s060/f331161.htm
• http://www.familycentral.net/index/family.cfm?ref1=5640:3206&ref2=5...
• http://records.ancestry.com/john_blount_records.ashx?pid=14129759
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Heir to his brother