 Joan was born in about 1394, and when very young became the second wife of the elderly Sir Maurice Russell (d.1416) of Dyrham, Gloucestershire, who had only two daughters by his first wife.Joan produced for him a son and heir Thomas, who however died as a young man in 1431 leaving a pregnant wife named Joan, whose resulting daughter named Margery died at two days old.Thus ended the line of Russell of Dyrham.