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As summarized by the 18th century antiquarian Hasted:[1]
- He resided at Otterden, where he kept his shrievalty anno 20 Richard II. and dying in the 10th year of Henry IV. was buried under a tomb erected for him in this church, near the high altar. His arms being, Fretty, on a chief, two mullets, impaling semee of sleurs de lis, were on his tomb; which last are said in the Aucher pedigree, to be those of Juliana Potyn his wife; but it must be here remarked, the similarity of this coat to that of Peysorer, which was, Six sleurs delis, whose daughter and heir Philipott says she was. He left one daughter and heir Joane, and his widow Juliana, surviving, who died possessed of this manor in the 5th year of Henry V. on which, Joan their daughter, then the wife of Henry Aucher, esq. of Losenham, in Newenden, entitled her husband to the possession of it.
4 Feb 1380: Grant by Thomas de Sancto Leodegario, and Juliana his wife, to Robert Tyrwhyt, of the county of York, of lands, etc, in Beverley. Witnesses:—Sir Robert de Gatton, and others (named). Saturday next the Purification, 3 Richard II. Yorkshire.[2]
In 1396 he was sheriff of Kent.
He was buried at the High Altar, Otterden, Kent, England. His monumental brass was discovered in 1894 beneath the flooring of some pews in Otterden church. The church had been completely rebuilt in 1753-4 and the brass was never seen afterwards until discovered in 1894.[3]
Research Notes
His parents are uncertain. Some sources state that his parents were Ralph (Leger) St Leger (abt.1340-) and Beatrice (Haighton) St Leger (-aft.1411), while others says they were Thomas St Leger and Lora Peyforer.
This Otterden branch of the St Leger family (which might be only one generation, but is probably two) probably descends from the family who held Ulcombe, which is also in Kent. However, no one seems to have found any real evidence for the connection. According to Wykeham-Martin, the first Thomas is the son of Bartholomew St Leger. He therefore shows two generations of Thomas St Leger in Otterden. As a primary record for the first one he cites a fine of 1343, which is indeed much earlier than 1408. The wife of this Thomas was Lora Peyforer, for whom he also cites a fine of 1348/9.[4]
The Peyforer family held Otterden previous to Thomas St Leger, and their arms appear on the grave monument of Thomas who died in 1408. The 17th century herald Thomas Philipot reported this marriage, but it might have been his interpretation of that evidence.[5]
However, Thomas who died in 1408 is known to have been married to Juliana Potyn, who had two previous husbands and could not have married him until after 1376. Hasted therefore proposed that there must have been a Peyforer marriage in a generation for which no evidence seems to survive.[1]
Alternative scenarios which have been published:
- The 18th century antiquarian of Kent Edward Halsted, there was only one Thomas St. Leger of Otterden in Kent, and he was "second son of Ralph St. Leger, of Ulcomb, knight of the shire anno 51 Edward III" [1377], the grandson of Bartholomew. That would mean that this profile is the same person as St_Leger-144. He cited a manuscript pedigree of Aucher and St. Leger, but gave no details of where this manuscript could be found.[1]
- The 19th century Kent pedigree given by William Berry also has only one Thomas of Otterden, the one married to Juliana Potyn, but he makes him a son of Arnold de St Leger, a different grandson of Bartholomew.[8]
- Paul A. Fox also sticks to one generation, but places him one generation earlier in the Ulcombe pedigree, making him the son of Bartholomew's son Ralph, and therefore a brother to Ralph and Arnold. [11]
- Problem: no son is named Thomas appears in the will of this elder Ralph's widow Joan (see their profiles).
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Otterden', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (Canterbury, 1798), pp. 533-549. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp533-549 [accessed 7 December 2023].
- ↑ National Archives, Kew, C 146/2389
- ↑ W.A. Scott Robertson, "Discovery of an unrecorded monumental brass", The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist, Volume 8, 1894, pp. 233-234 [1]
- ↑ Charles Wykeham-Martin, The History and Description of Leeds Castle, Kent p.156.
- ↑ Thomas Philipot, Villare Cantianum Surveyed. [2]
- ↑ In legal cases of 1413 Julia the widow of Thomas of Otterden is active in the same period as the son of Ralph who was still concerned with Ulcombe https://waalt.uh.edu/index.php/CP40/609:_K-Z
- ↑ https://waalt.uh.edu/index.php/CP40/636
- ↑ William Berry, County genealogies : pedigrees of the families of the county of Kent (scan available on Ancestry.com), p.287.
- ↑ Calendar of Inquisitions p.37
- ↑ https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-close-rolls/hen6/vol1/pp76-78
- ↑ Paul A. Fox, Great Cloister: A Lost Canterbury Tale: A History of the Canterbury Cloister, Constructed 1408-14, with Some Account of the Donors and their Coats of Arms, p.596.