Sir John Dawtrey of Petworth, Sussex (Born ~1495)

13^th Great Grandfather – FFFMFFMFMFFFFFF¹

William Dawtrey’s father was John Dawtrey of Petworth.

John Dawtrey was born about 1495 to Sir John Dawtrey and Jane (nee Shirley) Dawtrey. Jane was the daughter of Ralph Shirley, Esquire of Wiston and his wife Jane (nee Bellingham) Shirley.

John married twice. His first wife was Christian Moore. With her John had a son Richard. Richard was born in about 1518, as Richard was 31 years old at his father’s Inquisition Post Mortem, so John and Christian must have married before 1518.

His second wife was Joan Skardeville (or Scarfield)². They were married about 1525. With Joan, John had a further 5 children, William, my 12^th great grandfather, John, Thomas, Edward, Jane and Anne. While the parentage of William, John, Edward and Thomas is pretty clear, from the precedence in John’s will³, it is not 100% clear whether Christian or Joan was Jane and Anne’s mother.

On 31^st March 1544⁴ John is listed as one of the gentlemen of Sussex who could provide soldiers for possible war with France. On the 30^th November 1546⁵ he was appointed High Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex for the year 1547⁶.

John died 17^th December 1549. He was buried at Petworth in the chapel of Saint Thomas, where there was a family vault created by his parents. His Inquisition Post Mortem (see “Inquisition Post Mortem” 2024) taken at Horsham in Sussex on 30^th March 1550⁷states that his eldest son Richard was his heir, but his will which he wrote on 13^th December 1549 leaves his estates to his second son William⁸. This leads to some disputes once Richard dies 5 years later.

His wife Joan died 10 years later and was buried at Petworth on 28^th October 1559⁹.

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