BLANCHARD, John

Given his unusual name, it might be thought that John came from the family of Blanchard of Bereford St. Martin in Wiltshire. Thomas Blanchard (d.1387), who held the manor of Bereford and the south bailiwick of Groveley forest, left a son and heir John (b.c.1357),1 CIPM, xvi. 522. who granted the premises to Sir Bernard Brocas† and his wife in tail-male, in return for an annual rent of 40 marks. John died in 1395, leaving as his heir a son, also named John, aged seven,2 CIPM, xvii. 582; CCR, 1396-9, pp. 7, 122; 1405-8, pp. 356-7. whose mother Joan then married Walter Tylly, an esquire in the service of Henry IV, who obtained the boy’s wardship. The Blanchard estate, which included lands in Wilton, Honeybridge and Cutteridge, provided Tylly with an income of £43 6s. 8d. p.a. until the grant was cancelled in 1404 on petition of the King’s sister Elizabeth and her husband Sir John Cornwall.3 CCR, 1399-1402, pp. 219-20; CPR, 1399-1401, p. 97; 1401-5, pp. 367-8; CIMisc. vii. 13, 253; CIPM, xviii. 532; xxvi. 539; SC8/331/15675. What then happened to the heir, John, is unclear, although by 1425 part of the much depleted Blanchard estate in Wiltshire had passed to Thomas Blanchard, his younger brother, while his mother retained their lands in Somerset.4 CCR, 1422-9, pp. 266-7; 1461-8, p. 254; CPR, 1429-36, p. 371; Genealogist, n.s. xxiv. 174; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Savernake Estate mss, 9/12/7.

If the Weymouth MP was the same John Blanchard as this Wiltshire heir, born in 1388, much remains unexplained, particularly as to why he apparently relinquished what remained of his inheritance. There were other Blanchards living in Dorset: one of them, Peter, had attested the shire election to the first Parliament of Henry V’s reign; and a ‘Janyn’ Blanchard was a servant of the Dorset landowner John, earl of Arundel and Lord Mautravers, who in his will of 1430 left him five marks and an annuity of £2 for life.5 Reg. Chichele, ii. 542, 544. It is possible that ‘Janyn’ was a nickname used by the MP.