House of Plantagenet Descent of Roy Crosby

For more than 330 years Plantagenet monarchs ruled over England. The chart below shows Roy Crosby’s descent from Geoffrey Plantagenet.

Recently (Feb. 2021) I discovered a copy of the 1627 will of John Stratton (10th Great-Grandfather) and found that he bequeathed quite a bit of property to his heirs. This property included two manors (Manor of Kirkton Hall and the Manor of Thurealton). As I dug further, I found that his wife, Ann Derehaugh, was mentioned in the book Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval families (2004, Douglas Richardson). Shortly after her husband’s death, Ann (Derehaugh) Stratton emigrated to Massachusetts and settled in Salem. Accompanying her were her children John and Elizabeth (m. John Thorndike, c. 1637) . Because of her emigration the surnames Derehaugh and Stratton fell into the scope of Richardson’s research.

A partial copy of Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study… (2nd Edition, 2011) is found on Google Books (a link below). However, very many of the pages are purposely excluded from the Google Books version, which makes sense because the book is still in print. Enough pages were included though to support the Derehaugh royal line to Geoffrey Plantagenet. The three volume 2011 edition of the book currently lists for over $175, which is out of my price range. Even used 1st editions list for over $100, so I either needed to find another source for the information or find a library with the book; I managed both.

I made an Inter-Library Loan request through my local (county) library. In the request I specified the latest, 3 volume, edition of Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study…. The library was only able to obtain a copy of the 2004, 1st edition, of the book. But hey!, beggars can’t be choosers. I spent about 3 hours in the library with the book, doing research and then making copies. I spent about another 6 hours, during the course of a rainy weekend, digesting the information and adding it to my tree (with full citations of course). The 2004 edition is not the most complete edition available. I know from the the Google Books version of the 2011 edition that a heading for the Stratton family is now included. Unfortunately, three of those pages are not included with the Google Books preview.

Not all the monarchs could be added to a single chart. The Plantagenet line, as it pertains to Roy Crosby, reached to the thrones of Scotland, Germany, Wales, Holy Roman Empire and even Jerusalem. Many of my newly found ancestors were knights and several of them went on crusade. The most interesting discovery was the number of aunts who were nuns. Before discovering the Deregaugh/Stratton lines I had nobody identified as a nun. Now I have close to two dozen Sisters in my tree. (Although I don’t generally research aunts and uncles, I do record the names of all the children of my grandparents.)

The House of Plantagenet begins with Geoffrey Plantagenet, the royal line extends backwards through other houses/dynasties. Geoffrey was the son of Fulk (Foulques V), King of Jerusalem (a descendant of Charlemagne). He married Empress Maud of England (also known as Matilda), daughter of King Henry I of England and granddaughter of King William I “the Conqueror” who was a grandson of Charlemagne. Royal lines also extend backwards on Maud’s maternal line. Maud’s mother, also Maud, was the daughter of Malcolm III, King of Scotland. The wife of King John of England, Isabella of Angoulême, was also the granddaughter of Louis VI, King of France. Clearly there is much more research left to do.

It is also important to realize that the realms were much different than the current boundaries of countries. The king of England ruled over much more than the British Isles; the realm extended into western Europe. Additionally, English wasn’t the first language of Henry II! It is said that his son, King Richard “the Lionheart“, may not have spoken English at all.

Finding my “gateway ancestor” to royalty resulted in a tremendous amount of information being learned, in a short time. There were at least 5 times more people added to my tree than are included on the chart. The lives of royal people, even in the middle ages, appear to have been quite documented; and the same is true for royal women! One of the lines in the chart moves matrilineally for a span of 310 years (11 generations!), from Ida II Longespée (b. 1224) to Margery Sampson (d. 1534).

Oh, by the way. King John , is the “bad king” in the Robin Hood tales. And his brother, my very distant uncle, was Richard “the Lionheart“, King of England.

Sources Used:

• “English Ancestry of Anne (Derehaugh) Stratton of Salem Massachusetts“, Robert Battle, NEHGR 155: 367-390, 156: 39-61 (2001, 2002). Subscription needed. (New England Historic Genealogical Society)
• “A Royal Descent for John Stratton“, Hal Bradley, NEHGR 160:107-8 (2006). Subscription.
• “The Thorndikes of Aby in Greenfield, Linconshire, and Essex County Massachusetts“, Scott C. Steward, NEHGR 154: 467-76 (2000). Subscription.
• Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Douglas Richardson, 2004, 1st Edition, Inter-Library Loan from Erie County Public Library, Erie, PA.
• Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Douglas Richardson, 2011, 3 Volumes, Google Books. (Incomplete)
• Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Douglas Richardson, 2001, 3 Volumes, Google Books. (Incomplete)
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1st Edition 1885-1900 & 2nd Edition 1908-1909, (94 Volumes) all available for free at archive.org and Google Books — Card Catalog at: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=dnb