William Dansey, Esq.

From Index to Burke's dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (Google eBook) Sir Bernard Burke Colburn and Company, 1853 - Heraldry. Page 92

Roger Dansey, Esq. of Brinsop, who also served as high-sheriff of Herefordshire. By Ann, his wife, he was father of a son and successor,

William Dansey, Esq. of Brinsop, who m Lady Douglas Dudley, and had three sons, William, Richard, and Edward; of whom the eldest, ...

From English Homes, Period I-[VI] ... By Henry Avray Tipping. Page 136.

Brinsop was the halting-place for “ the King’s troope ” on June 18th, 1645, and adversity had not destroyed Symonds’ faculty for archxological observation. He found the east window of the church “ fairly painted,” and among the coats of arms it contained he recognised that of the Danseys. He also noted “ divers old-fashioned flat stones in the Chancel with a flowery crosse wrought on them.” Roger’s son William was styled Captain ' Dansey, and probably saw service abroad during the Thirty Years’ War, and there met his bride. Her grandfather had been that Sir Robert Dudley whose father, Elizabeth’s favourite Earl of Leicester, had denied his legitimacy. He had lived abroad, a good deal made of by Kings and Courts, where he was apt to style himself Duke of Northumberland. His daughter was created Duchess of Dudley in Stuart times, and it was one of her children who became the wife of William Dansey. A flat stone in Brinsop Churchyard still commemorates “ The Rt Honourable Ladie Doughlas Dudley.” As their son William lived to 1715, it may well have been he who brought the central portion of the Court into line with the taste of the day.

From The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, Volume 35. "Robinson's Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire.". Page 427.

The court, the church, and the valley, once seen, are not easily forgotten. Some parts of Croft Castle date back to the fourteenth century, and so does the ancient hall of Brinsop Court, which has a good timber roof. A moat round the court, which is now a farmhouse, is the only other vestige of its antiquity. In connexion with the Danseys or Daunteseys, to whom Brinsop belonged from the fifteenth century till fifty years ago, Mr. Robinson has made a curious discovery by the aid of a flat .stone in the neighbouring churchyard—namely, that one of them, the son of the cavalier Roger Dansey, married (perhaps while on foreign service) the Lady Douglas Dudley, granddaughter of Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester. The date of this marriage must have been before 1643, and it is a contribution towards the history of the favourite's progeny. In the pedigree of the Danseys, the first John Dansey is given as of Herefordshire and Wiltshire. We believe that a slab in the chancel at Elton, near Wigmore, traces the name Dansey to Dauntsey near Chippenham.

• http://www.dancy.net/his_tree/danname.htm
• https://www.brinsopcourt.com/history-of-brinsop-court
• http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/brinsop-court-h...
• http://www.crsbi.ac.uk/site/1092/