Series 4 - John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles

John Welles, 1st Viscount Welles, was half-brother to Lady Margaret Beaufort. He died in February 1499 and named Lady Margaret as one of the overseers of his will (the executors were his wife, Cecily of York, and Sir Reginald Bray, with the King, the Queen, and Lady Margaret as supervisors). In his will, he left his estates to his wife for her lifetime, although she was deprived of them after she remarried without the King's approval in 1507. The documents catalogued here must have come into the possession of the College because they were in Lady Margaret's possession at her death and became part of the collection of documents in the keeping of her executors, who brought about the foundation of St John's. They were never part of the College's own estates