Sir John Dun
d. 1503
Vitals
Family
About
Sir John Donne of Kidwelly was a Yorkist courtier and diplomat, and he is known to more people than he realises: he and his wife Elizabeth kneel in the Memling triptych that hangs in the National Gallery in London, one of the great surviving portraits of an English couple of the fifteenth century. His will, made in January 1503, asks for burial in Saint George's Chapel at Windsor and names Elizabeth his sole executrix. Through his daughter Margaret this family descends from him. The printed pedigrees once ran a road from his wife's family to Edward the Third; the road was tested and does not exist.
Research notes
✓ IDENTIFIED 23 Jul 2026 - HIS WILL BOUGHT AND READ (PROB 11/13/421, register Blamyr - the very will Cokayne cited as 'Sir John Dun, Blamyr 10'): "Ego JOHANNES DON, MILES", will made Jan 1502/3, pr. Lambeth 1503; burial "infra ecclesiam collegiatam de WYNDESORE... infra Castrum dni Regis" = ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR - clinching him as SIR JOHN DONNE OF KIDWELLY (d. 1503), Yorkist-Tudor courtier, soldier and diplomat - THE PATRON OF MEMLING'S DONNE TRIPTYCH (National Gallery, London), in which he and his wife kneel before the Virgin. Sole executrix and life-tenant of all his manors: "domine ELIZABETH uxori mee" (= ELIZABETH HASTINGS, I99588). NB the will names NO children by name ("filios et filias meas"; remainder to a son John) - so MARGARET's filiation to him rests on Cokayne's paired citation, whose other half (will of Edward Trussell, PCC 'Adeane 23', c.1506-08) is the outstanding GBP3.50 test that should name her. Direct ancestor. Added 22 Jul 2026; identified via his will 23 Jul 2026.