Margaret (Beauchamp) Welles (abt. 1410 - bef. 1482)

Born about 1410 in England

Ancestors

Wife of Lionel (Welles) de Welles KG — married about 20 Apr 1447 in England

Descendants

Died before 3 Jun 1482 before about age 72 in England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message]

Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Biography

Margaret Beauchamp, Duchess of Somerset and Countess of Kendale^[1][2]

Margaret Beauchamp, daughter of John Beauchamp, Knt., and his second wife, Edith Stourton,^[3] was born about 1410 (aged 11 in 1421).^[2]

father John Beauchamp, Knt. son and heir of Roger Beauchamp by his wife Mary^[4]

mother Edith Stourton, daughter of John Stourton, Knt., of Stourton, Wiltshire, Escheater of Somerset and Dorset, presumably by his second wife Alice (last name not known).^[3]

In 1420, Margaret inherited from her deceased brother, John Beauchamp, the manors of Bletsoe and Keysoe, Bedfordshire, as well as Ashmore in Dorset and Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire.^[1]

Margaret married three times:

1. c1428,^[5] Oliver St John, Knt., of Fonmon and Penmark, Glamorgan, Wales, and Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, son and heir of John St John, Knt., by his wife Isabel.^[2][6] Oliver died in 1437.^[2]
2. after 2 August 1441, John Beaufort, K.G., Duke of Somerset. He died in 1444.^[2]
3. in April 1447, Lionel (or Leo) Welles, K.G., 6th Lord Welles (by date of settlement, 20 April 1447; license dated 14 April 1447). He died in 1461.^[2]

Children

by Oliver St John, Knt.:

two sons

1. John St John, K.B., married (1) Alice Bradshagh, (2) Elizabeth ferch William Mathew Fawr^[7][8]
2. Oliver St John, Esq., married Elizabeth Scrope (Oliver died before 10 June 1497)^[2]

five daughters

1. Edith St John married Geoffrey Pole, Esq.^[2]
2. Mary St John, married Richard Frogenale (or Frogenall), Knt.^[2]
3. Elizabeth St John, married (1) William Zouche, Knt., 5th Lord Zouche of Harringworth, (2) John Scrope, K.G., 5th Lord Scrope of Bolton^[2]
4. Agnes St John, married David Malpas,^[2] as her 2nd husband, after the death of John Heron, Lord Say^[9]
5. Margaret St John, Abbess of Shaftesbury^[2]

by John Beaufort, K.G.:

1. Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, married (1) John de la Pole, (2) Edmund Tudor, Knt., (3) Henry Stafford, Knt., (4) Thomas Stanley, K.G.^[10][11]
   - King Henry VII was the son of Edmund and Margaret Beaufort.^[10]

by Lionel Welles, K.G.:

1. John Welles, K.G., Viscount Welles, 10th Lord Welles, married Cecily, daughter of Edward IV, King of England (John died after 9 February 1498/9)^[12]

In 1471 Margaret was residing at Maxey, Northamptonshire, at the home of her son, Oliver St John, Esq. She died shortly before 3 June 1482.^[1]

Research Notes

Tomb

Margaret Beauchamp has a joint tomb with her husband John Beaufort south of the Wimborne Minster high altar featuring a Purbeck marble tomb-chest and alabaster effigies of them both. But the single-tier tomb-chest is not large enough to contain two coffins, and there is no record that Margaret Beauchamp was actually buried at Wimborne Minster. In 1495 Margaret's family founded a chantry for her at Shaftesbury where a half-sister was abbess, but there is no record of her burial at Shaftesbury either. In the 19th century it was claimed that she was buried in St. Mary's Church in the former Beauchamp manor of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, the burial place of members of the St. John family. The tombs at Lydiard Tregoze were apparently demolished in the 17th century.^[13]

Baroness Beauchamp of Bletsoe

"Margaret de jure suo jure (according to modern doctrine) BARONESS BEAUCHAMP OF BLETSOE, widow of John (BEAUFORT), 1st DUKE OF SOMERSET (who died s.p.m. 27 May 1444), and before that of Sir Oliver ST. JOHN, sister and heir of John BEAUCHAMP, daughter of John BEAUCHAMP, of Bletsoe (according to modern doctrine 4th and 3rd LORDS BEAUCHAMP OF BLETOE), by Edith, daughter of Sir John STOURTON."^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), volume IV, pages 528-533 SAINT JOHN 15.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), volume III, pages 475-478 SAINT JOHN 10.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, III:473-475 SAINT JOHN 9.
4. ↑ Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, III:470-480 SAINT JOHN.
5. ↑ Estimated Date: The marriage date of Oliver St John and Margaret is estimated to be about 1428. Margaret and Oliver had seven children, taking about nine years to accomplish. Born about 1410, Margaret was about 18 in 1428. Oliver died in 1437, and would have started having children at least nine years earlier, about 1428, when he married. jhd
6. ↑ Isabel was a Paveley by marriage, not by birth (see her profile for details).
7. ↑ Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, III:478 SAINT JOHN 11.
8. ↑ Son John St John, K.B. "of Bletneshoe in com. Bedfordshire, Knight, sonne & heire who married Alice, dau of Sir Thomas Bradshawe in Hawe, com. Lancashire, Knight." Source: Frederick Augustus Blaydes, Ed. St. John of Bletsoe; The Visitations of Bedfordshire, 1566, 1582, 1634. London, 1884. Pages 52-55. Accessed Dec 16, 2015.
9. ↑ See this section of Agnes's profile, which provides evidence that David Malpas was her 2nd husband, her first being John Heron, Lord Say.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Richardson, Royal Ancestry, V:200-218 TUDOR.
11. ↑ Richardson does not include husband John de la Pole in the entries for Margaret Beaufort under SAINT JOHN (neither Magna Carta Ancestry, III:478 SAINT JOHN 10.i, nor Royal Ancestry, IV:533 SAINT JOHN 15.i). However, Margaret Beaufort's entry under TUDOR in Royal Ancestry (V:203 TUDOR 13) lists Edmund as her 2nd husband (married before 1455) with John de la Pole as her 1st (married 1450).
12. ↑ Richardson, Royal Ancestry, V:336 WELLES 13.i.
13. ↑ M. Duffy, Royal Tombs of Medieval England, pages 229-233.
14. ↑ Complete Peerage, XII/2:443-4, transcribed by Dave Utzinger

• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City: the author, 2013. See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry.
• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City: the author, 2011. See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.

See also the following sources, which are not considered reliable for Magna Carta Project profiles (see the "Reliable with Conditions" section of the project's Reliable Sources page):

• Wikipedia: Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso
• Weiss, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition.

Acknowledgements

Click the Changes tab to see edits. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this profile.

Magna Carta Project

Margaret (Beauchamp) Welles appears in Magna Carta Ancestry in a Richardson-documented trail from Gateway Ancestors Elizabeth and Thomas Boteler/Butler to Magna Carta Surety Baron Henry de Bohun (vol. I, pages 218-220 BLETSOE). The trail from Elizabeth to Bohun was badged by the Magna Carta Project in September 2019 by Noland-165 and Thomas's in 2020. The trail is outlined in the Magna Carta Trails section of Elizabeth Boteler's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about Magna Carta trails. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".