Joan Toly

  General Notes:

...but the Colton manor, save for the small portion named in the previous suit, which had passed to William Wasteneys, was the property of their mother Joan, who had taken a second husband, Sir John de Gresley. It was no unusual practice, Genl. Wrottesley states, to convey an estate for life to a wife, for it saved the waste and destruction caused by the sale of the custody to the highest bidder, as was frequently done in the case of a minority; whilst in troubled times it was a precaution, very possibly, against immediate forfeiture. The valuable series of Gresley Charters, recently edited by Mr. Jeayes (B.M.), establish this marriage by a lease of John de Gresley, Kt., and dame Joan his wife, to Nicholas de Gresley, "son of the said John," of lands at Norton, to hold to Nicholas and Thomasine his wife, begotten of the said Joan (1364 A.D. - 38 Ed. 3) (French). Besides approximately dating the latter marriage, this deed clearly establishes the former, of which, though previously convinced, we needed proof. An Ingestre charter (v. appendix) shows that it had taken place not later than 1352 A.D. The double tie, first between their mother and Sir John de Gresley, and now between Nicholas his son, and their sister Thomasine, who, failing issue of her brothers, succeeded as the Wasteneys heiress, was very probably no small trial to William, Thomas, and John de Wasteneys; they were certainly at variance with their step-father (witness the Plea Rolls).

[de Wasteneys pp 86-87] ⁶

  Events

• Will, 23 May 1393. ¹

• Probate, 28 Dec 1393. ¹

Joan married Sir Richard Peshall.¹ (Sir Richard Peshall died before 1352 ¹.)

Joan next married Sir Thomas de Wasteneys, son of Sir William de Wasteneys and Joanna Bret, before 1339.^{2 3} (Sir Thomas de Wasteneys died in 1350 ⁷.)

Joan next married Sir John de Gresley of Drakelowe, Derbyshire, son of Sir Geoffrey de Gresley of Drakelowe, Derbyshire and Margaret Gernon, about 1345.^{1 4} (Sir John de Gresley of Drakelowe, Derbyshire was born about 1328 and died before May 1396 ¹.)