John de SUTTON OR DUDLEY

                   Sources:
1. Burke's Dormant Peerage p 521
2. Complete Peerage C. E. C. V4 p 479
3. Dict. of Not'l Biog. V16 p 107-108-124.
4. Herald & Gen V5 p 117
5. Notes & Queries 2nd Series V11 p.272
Bapt. also 1 Jun 1915
End. also 30 Mar 1916
Lord Lt. of Ireland
First Lord Baron of Dudley, Knight of the Garter

Tylers Quarterly History Jan 1934
Colonial Families of America V5
Cokayne, Complete Peerage
Ormerod, Chester
H. Sidney Grazebook, The Barons of Dudley

       Sir John de Sutton he first Lord Dudley or Baron Sutton of Dudley, by 1423-24, and he was a Knight of the Garter by 1459.
       He carried the Standard at the funeral of King Henry V in 1422 (having served in France under him,) and from 1428 to 1430 he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, succeeding Sir John de Grey.  He made a savage attack on the O'Brynes, who threatened the borders of the Irish Pale, and in 1429 presided over a parliament in Dublin; he resigned the following year.
       He was constable of Clun Castle in 1435, member of Parliament from 15 Feb 1439/40 until his death in 1487, and Constable of Wigmore Castle, 20 May 1460.  In 1440 he was appointed one of the commissioners to attempt to negotiate a truce with the Duke of Burgundy.
       In 1444 he was granted 100 pounds annually to be paid out of the petty customs of the Port of London by King Henry VI.  In 1447, as one of the Lords of the King's council, he was an ambassador, with the Bishop of Chichester, to the Duke of Brittany in an effort to make peace.  In 1449 he and others were appointed to settle issues with Burgundy, and trade issues with the Flemish.
       The House of commons petitioned for his removal, with others, from the King's councils in 1451, and that year he sided with the Lancastrians, was surprised at Gloucester on his return from Ireland by Richard Duke of York, and jailed in the Castle of Ludlow.  On 23 May 1455 he was taken prisoner with the King at the Battle of St. Albans, and was sent to the Tower with the King.  However, there is an extant letter dated London, 22 Dec. 1456, written by Richard Duke of York to the King of France, naming "le seigneur de Dudeley" and Jehan Erneys, Esq. to deal with issue of marriage "de Madame Magdalene avecques mon aisne filz Comte de la Marche who was afterwards King Edward IV.
       He returned to the service of King Henry VI and was wounded at Blore Heath on 23 Sep 1459.  On 23 Nov 1459 he was awarded considerable income as a reward for his services.  On 26 Nov 1460 he was of record as being about to set said for France in the retinue of the Earl of Warwick.
       As a favorite of King Edward IV he was awarded more revenues in 1466.  He was constable of the Tower from 1470 to 1483 and Chamberlain, with Richard (Fiennes,) Lord Dacre, to Elizabeth, the Queen consort. In 1477 he was on another diplomatic mission to the King of France with the Earl of Arundel.  In 1483-84, and under King Henry VII he was awarded more lands.
       They were ancestors of President George Washington through their son Edmund by his first wife and of Capt. Mark Phillips by his second wife of President Grover Cleveland through their daughter Jane, of President Herbert Clark Hoover through their son John Dudley, President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. through their daughter Eleanor.
                  

                   Sources:
Tylers Quarterly History Jan 1934
Colonial Families of America V5