DUDLEY 483 about 76. (^) His widow was bur. 12 Jan. 1649/50, in St. Margaret's, Westm. Will dat. II Sep. 1649, pr. 3 Feb. 1 650/1. VI. 1643. 6. FranceSjC") suo jure Baroness Dudley, grand- daughter and h., being only da. and h. of Sir Ferdinando Sutton, or Dudley, K.B. (1610), by Honora, da. of Edward Seymour, styled Lord Beauchamp (s. and h. ap. of Edward, Earl of Hertford), which Ferdinando was only s. and h. ap. of the last Lord, but ci. v.p., 22 Nov. 162 I, aged 33. She was l>. at Dudley Castle 23 July, and kip. there 18 Aug. 1611; reg. at St. Thomas, Dudley. Being an orphan (') at the age of 10, she was in her 17th year given in marriage (settl. 17 Feb. 1628), by her grandfather and guardian, to Humble Ward (then in his 15th year), only s. of W^illiam Ward, of Cheapside, London, goldsmith, by Elizabeth, da. (whose issue became h.) of Richard Humble, of Goose- hays, in Hornchurch, Essex. She was raised to the rank of the da. of a Baron (" as if her father had been actually Lord Dudley ") 24 June 1635, in the lifetime of her grandfather, on whose death, 23 June 1643, she inherited the family honours. Her husband was knighted the following day by the King at Oxford, and was, 23 Mar. 1643/4, cr. BARON WARD OF BIRMINGHAM, cd. Warwick, with rem. to the heirs male of his body by his said wife.('^) He d. 14, and was bur. 17 Oct. 1670, at Himley, co. Stafford, aged about 57. Will pr. Nov. 1690. His widow survived him nearly 27 years, being bur. 1 1 Aug. 1697, at Himley, aged 86. (*) John Dudley, or Sutton, of Sedgley Park, only br. and h. male of the last Lord {bap. 30 Nov. 1569), survived him, and was bur. 3 Mar. 1644/5, ^t Sedgley, as "Mr. John Dudley." Of John's five children, all were dead in 1660, and only one had issue, viz. Anne, who m. Edward Gibson, of York. Her eldest son, Edward Gibson, aged 1 8 in 1639 (Visit, of co. York), presented a petition, 26 June 1660, to the House of Lords claiming the Barony and Castle of Dudley as "grandchild and heir to John, Lord Dudley," and stating that in the reign of Queen Mary, "Dudley Castle with all its honours," ^c, was entailed on the heirs male of the body of Edward Sutton, which were (i) Edward, Lord Dudley, who ti. s.p.m., temp. Car. I, and (2) John, to whom "the Barony then came," who d. leaving two daughters, viz. (i) Elizabeth, who ii. s.p., and (2) Anne, mother of the Petitioner. This petition was referred to the Committee for Privileges, but no further proceedings are mentioned. The claim of one who was not h. male, though he was h. general, to succeed a person in a title whose only (alleged) right was that he (though not h. general to the title in question) was h. male, is not likely to have received much attention. C") An interesting table of the trente-deux quartiers of Frances, suo jure Baroness Dudley (without a blank therein), is given by Grazebrook in his Barons of Dudley. See ante, p. 479, note " c." (') Her mother, Honora, d. before Sir Ferdinando, and was bur. 23 Mar. 1620, in St. Edmund's, Dudley; Sir Ferdinando was hur. 23 Nov. 1621, in St. Margaret's, Westm. C^) His name appears in the House of Lords in the Pari, of 1 66 1 (13 Car. II), though it is to be observed that the Barony he held was less than a Barony granted to him and the heirs male of his body. So, also, Thomas (Villiers), Baron Hyde, appears to have sat in that House in right of a Barony of similar nature cr. 1756.
