Here is another post debunking the Wilcox connection to the Plantagenets:
Re: Wilcox/Plantagenet connection?
By Jim Fina January 22, 2011 at 12:29:09
In reply to: Wilcox/Plantagenet connection?
Alan Wilcox 1/19/11
I wasn’t able to find anything that might help connect John Wilcox, of Bury St. Edmunds, with an earlier William Wilcocke. But the premise that this William Wilcocke married “Jean Beaufort (1410-1445) daughter of John of Gaunt” is completely baseless. John ‘of Gaunt,’ Duke of Lancaster, did not have a daughter named ‘Jean’ by any of his wives or mistresses. Also, as he died 1398/99, it would have been impossible to have a daughter born eleven years later. That she was connected to the Plantagenet dynasty through John ‘of Gaunt’ seems to be more or less based on the incorrect assumption that anyone surnamed Beaufort had to be of this one particular family. In fact, there are over a dozen towns and villages in France alone named Beaufort from which numerous families in France and England took the surname de Beaufort (meaning of or from a place named Beaufort).
John ‘of Gaunt’ did have a daughter Joan (which arguably is a French form of the name Jean) by his then mistress (later wife) Catherine de Roet. But this Joan was born c.1079 and married (1) Robert de Ferrers. After his death she married (2) Ralph de Neville, Earl of Westmorland. Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland died 13 Nov 1440 and was never connected with anyone named Wilcocke. John, Duke of Lancaster had four illegitimate children by Catherine de Roet, three sons and the one daughter, all of whom were given the surname ‘Beaufort’ after one of their father's French estates. In 1396 John married his former mistress, Catherine, and the four children; John, Henry, Thomas and Joan were legitimized a year later by Parliament (Statute 20 Rec. II), with the provision none could inherit the crown.
I can easily provide source citations for all of the facts above, but as they’re only useful in debunking this part of the story and little else, I didn’t think it necessary to post them here. But I’d be happy to provide any or all if it would help in some way.
At any rate best of luck in tracing your John Wilcox. Even if you can eventually prove he was a descendant of William Wilcocke there is still no connection to the Plantagenets because her story can’t be proved. But carefully tracing and documenting (with solid evidence as you go) may lead you to another connection to English, French or other royalty. You should have typically six generations between the two, which is six wives to trace. Who knows where any of these connections might lead? It’s certainly a good incentive to keep looking. Just keep clear of the typically undocumented junk genealogy web pages that are all over the Internet. Good information is often available if you learn to look in the right places.
Jim
http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/plantagenet/1633/
I also spent a couple of hours this evening looking for sources for a Wilcox/Beaufort connection and found nothing.
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