A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: Q-Spencer
compiled by
Kathy Lynn Emerson
to update and correct
her very out-of-date
WIVES AND
DAUGHTERS, THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (1984)
NOTE: this document exists
only in electronic format
and is ©2008-10 Kathy Lynn
Emerson (all rights reserved)
ELIZABETH QUINEY
JUDITH QUINEY
ANN RADCLIFFE (1576-October 1661)
ANNE RADCLIFFE
see ANNE CALTHORPE; ANNE HASTINGS
BRIDGET RADCLIFFE
ELEANOR RADCLIFFE (d. July 27, 1518)
Eleanor Radcliffe was the daughter of Geoffrey Radcliffe of Farmesdon (d.1505) and Anne Wyndham. She married Sir Thomas Lovell (1453-1524) of Elsinge Manor in Enfield, Middlesex, a fifth son who made a career for himself at the royal court. Lovell was constable of the Tower from 1509 on and one of the leaders of the army that marched north to defend England from Scottish invaders in 1513. He retired from court in 1516. Lady Lovell was at court during the reign of Henry VII and the first part of that of Henry VIII.
ELIZABETH RADCLIFFE
see ELIZABETH STAFFORD
FRANCES RADCLIFFE (1552-1602)
FRANCES RADCLIFFE
see FRANCES MEAUTAS; FRANCES SIDNEY
ISABEL RADCLIFFE
see ISABEL HERVEY
MARGARET RADCLIFFE (January 1573-November 10, 1599)
Margaret Radcliffe was the daughter of Sir John Radcliffe of Ordsall (1536-1590) and Anne Ashawe. She came to court as a maid of honor in the 1590s and there was courted by Lord Cobham’s son, Henry Brooke. Brooke also paid court to Frances Howard, countess of Kildare, and Elizabeth Russell, another maid of honor. When news came in August 1599 that Margaret’s twin brother, Alexander, had been killed in battle in Ireland, Margaret was inconsolable. She returned to Ordsall, where she pined away, refusing to eat. Advised of her maid of honor’s condition, Queen Elizabeth ordered Margaret back to court, which was then at Richmond, but her decline continued and it was there that she died. The queen ordered an autopsy (an unusual step in those days). According to a letter written by Philip Gaudy, Margaret’s body proved “all well and sound, saving certain strings striped all over her heart.” She was buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster. There was a magnificent monument, which no longer exists. Ben Jonson composed the epitaph—not one of his better efforts—which includes the line “rare as wonder was her wit and like nectar ever flowing.” Portrait: called “a lady in court dress” and still extant at Ordsall, this may or may not be Margaret, but the clothing is correct for the 1590s.
MARY RADCLIFFE (1550-1617/18)
Mary Radcliffe was the daughter of Sir Humphrey Radcliffe of Elstow (c.1509-August 13,1566) and Isabella Hervey or Harvey (d.May 8,1594). She was given to the queen as a New Year’s gift in 1561 and actually came to court as a maid of honor in 1564 at the age of fourteen. She spent the rest of the reign at court, earning a stipend of £40 a year. Tracy Borman, in Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen, states that Mary was "something of a beauty" and names one John Farnham as one of her admirers. The description of her as "comely" by Farmham, however, does not really imply physical attractiveness, and her portrait (below) gives a rather different impression. Whatever her appearance, she never married, and she outlived the queen. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Radcliffe, Mary"; a brief account of her life is also given in Eunice H. Turner’s “Queen Elizabeth and her Friends” in History Today, September 1965. Portrait: one of the plainest of a maid of honor of that era!
MARY RADCLIFFE
see MARY ARUNDELL
ELIZABETH RALEIGH
see ELIZABETH THROCKMORTON
KATHERINE RALEIGH
MARGARET RAMPSTON
MARY RAMSEY
AGNES RANDALL (1521-April 22, 1605)
Agnes was from Coventry and was in service with Sir Thomas Lucy Charlecote, Warwickshire when she married his son’s tutor, John Foxe (1516-April 18,1587) on February 3, 1547. It has been said that Agnes’s father helped him attend Oxford. Shortly after the marriage, Foxe became the tutor of the duchess of Richmond’s wards, the children of the executed earl of Surrey. In 1554, however, with the accession of the Catholic queen, Mary Tudor, he was forced to flee into exile because of his religious beliefs. Agnes was pregnant at the time but she left the country with him and their daughter was born in Flanders. Foxe gained fame with the publication of his Acts and Monuments, better known as the Book of Martyrs. Other children were Samuel (1560-1630), Rafe, Mary, Thomas (1564-1625), and Simon (1568-1642). I’m hoping to get a look at a copy of Foxe’s biography, John Foxe by Warren W. Wooden for more information on Agnes.
MARY RAYNER
see MARY BEAUMONT
ANNE READ
see ANNE FERNLEY
ANNE REDE (after 1502-after 1566)
Anne Rede was the daughter of Sir William Rede, Read, or Reade of Boarstall, Buckinghamshire (1470-1527) and Anne Warham. She married three times, first to Sir Giles Greville (d.1528), then to Sir Adrian Fortescue (1476-x. July 8,1539), and third to Sir Thomas Parry (1505-1560). By Fortescue, who was executed for treason, she was the mother of Sir John (1531-1607), Thomas (d.1608), Sir Anthony (1535-1608+), Elizabeth, and Mary. By her third husband she had Thomas (d.1616), Muriel, another daughter and another son. She was in the household of Elizabeth Tudor both before and after she became queen and was a lady of the privy chamber when she retired from the court in 1566. She received an annuity and land in Gloucestershire. Possible portrait: there is an effigy of "Mrs. Anne Parry," 1585, in Wilford, Berkshire but I don't know if this is Anne Rede or another Mrs. Anne Parry.
ELIZABETH REDMAN
see ELIZABETH PICKERING
JANE REHORA (d.1601+)
Jane Rehora was a maidservant to Frances Walsingham, countess of Essex. She married another Essex servant, John Daniels, in 1599. Shortly before their marriage, just after the earl was taken into custody, the countess gave Jane a casket of letters to hide for her. Daniels found the casket under his bed and took some of the letters to have copies made. In January 1600, when the countess reclaimed the casket, she realized that something was wrong. At first Daniels denied all knowledge of the letters, and chastised the countess of putting his wife in danger for hiding them. Then he suggested that Jane’s maid, who had recently been dismissed, must have stolen the missing letters. He offered to get them back for the countess and in March informed her that she would have to pay him £3000 for them. Lady Essex sold her jewels to raise part of the money and gave it to Daniels, but he did not return her letters. When Jane tried to persuade her husband to relinquish them, Daniels informed her that it was only his love for her that kept him from turning them over to the authorities. In June, 1601, however, he attempted to sell the letters to the government and was immediately arrested. Tried for extortion, he was condemned to life in prison and fined £3000.
JEANNE RENARD
AGNES RHYS or RICE (d. August 19, 1574)
ELIZABETH RICH
see ELIZABETH JENKS
KATHERINE RICH
see KATHERINE KNYVETT
PENELOPE RICH
see PENELOPE DEVEREUX
ISABELLA RICHARDSON (1552-November 25,1652)
DIONYSIA RIGHTWISE
see DIONYSIA LILY
ALICE ROBINSON
see ALICE WILKES
AMYE ROBSART (June 7,1532-September 8,1560)
Amy Robsart was the daughter of Sir John Robsart of Syderstone (d. June 8, 1554) and Elizabeth Scott (1504-June 1557). On June 4, 1550, at Sheen, Amye was married to Lord Robert Dudley (June 24,1532-September 4,1588), a younger son of the duke of Northumberland, at a ceremony attended by both Elizabeth Tudor and King Edward VI. When Lord Robert was arrested in 1553, following his father's attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary Tudor, Amye visited him in the Tower of London. He is said by some to have been released in October 1554 and by others not until January 1555, the same month he was pardoned. The whereabouts of the young couple are uncertain for most of the reign of Queen Mary. In 1557, Robert was restored in blood, granted his goods and the manor of Hemsby, and allowed to inherit the Robsart estate. Unfortunately, Syderstone Manor was uninhabitable. From at least mid-1557 until mid-1559, Amye resided primarily in Throcking, Hertfordshire, about ten miles northwest of Bishop's Stortford, the guest of one of two men named William Hyde. This William Hyde (d.1580), who named a daughter Dudley, is not the same man as William Hyde of Denchworth in Berkshire, a house quite near to Cumnor Place. During this period Robert Dudley was most often in London, where he stayed in Christchurch, a house near Aldgate. They visited each other but did not live together for more than brief periods. In August, 1557, Robert Dudley was with King Philip's army in France. He did visit her for a few days at Throcking in the spring of 1559, followed by her visit to him in London for about a month. By September 1559, Amye had moved to Sir Richard Verney's house, Compton Verney, in Warwickshire, and in December she was at Cumnor Place, Berkshire, which was to be her last home. Cumnor Place belonged to William Owen and was leased to Anthony Forster (c.1510-1572), one of Robert Dudley's servants. It appears to have been a large establishment with room for separate quarters for three ladies in addition to Forster and his wife and children. One "apartment" was occupied by Mrs. Owen, identified in some accounts as William Owen's mother, the widow of George Owen (c.1499-October 18,1558), a royal physician. This would be Mary Long (see her entry). The DNB entry for "Owen, George," however, identifies the occupant of Cumnor Place in 1560 as William Owen's wife. This was Anne Rawley, daughter of John Rawley of Billesby, Northamptonshire (or possibly Ursula Fettiplace, said by other sources to have married William Owen in 1558). The other gentlewoman resident, besides Lady Dudley, was a widow, Mrs.Odingsells. Some sources say she was Edith Williams (c.1535-1599+), daughter of Reginald Williams (b.1498) and Elizabeth Fox, niece of John, 1st baron Williams, and wife of Edmund Odingsells. Edith was the sister of Anne, wife of Anthony Forster, so this makes sense. She had a young son, also named Edmund (the Forsters had five children, John, Cynthia, Penelope, Robert, and Henry, at least some of whom must have been born before 1560) but it isn't clear when her husband died. Other sources identify Mrs. Odingsells as Elizabeth Hyde (b.c.1519), widow of John Odingsells of Long Itchington and sister of William Hyde of nearby Denchworth. This also makes sense. John Odingsells reportedly died in poverty, although again I do not have a date, and his property ended up in the possession of Amye's husband, Robert Dudley. Elizabeth Hyde may also have been Edith Williams's mother-in-law, although that, too, is conjecture. Records on the Odingsells seem to be remarkably scarce. But to return to Amye Robsart. In 1559, her husband was made Lieutenant of Windsor Castle, which is about thirty miles from Cumnor Place, but there does not seem to be any documentation of visits to Amye while she lived there. Dr. Simon Adams's research in Dudley records, which has disproved many of the earlier "facts" about Robert and Amye, is ongoing, with a biography of Robert Dudley forthcoming. What is probable, is that Amye had heard rumors by 1560 that her husband and Queen Elizabeth were lovers. She is said to have discovered a lump in her breast at about that same time. Some argue that Amye's death from a fall down a flight of stairs on September 8, 1560 was a suicide. Others argue for murder. A third school favors the actual verdict of accidental death. Robert Dudley’s enemies were unwilling to believe that he had nothing to do with his wife’s death. Ironically, had she died of her cancer, Dudley might have married the queen, but even the slightest suspicion that he’d murdered her meant he would never become the royal consort. The few details that are certain are that Amye sent all of her servants and the other residents of the house to the fair at Abingdon that day. Mrs. Odingsells refused to go, apparently because it was a Sunday, and Mrs. Owen also remained behind. Only Mrs. Owen dined with Amye and, one assumes, returned to her own quarters afterward. Amye's body was discovered by returning servants. She was given a grand funeral which, as was the custom, her husband did not attend. The chief mourner was Mrs. Forster's first cousin, Lady Norris (Marjorie Williams). Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Dudley [née Robsart], Amy." Portraits: the first one below is said to be Amye Robsart but the hairstyle and clothing are much later than 1560. The second, also identified as Lady Jane Grey and as Queen Elizabeth, and probably painted by Lavina Teerlinck (see "Lavina or Levina Bening") has been very tentatively suggested as Amye Robsart (see Eric Ives's Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery).
ELEANOR ROGERS
see ELEANOR POOLE
MARY ROGERS (c.1565-1634)
Mary Rogers was the daughter of Sir George Rogers of Carrington, Somersetshire (1540-1587) and Joan or Jane Winter (c.1545-1602). She married Sir John Harington of Kelston (1561-November 20, 1612) and had at least nine children by him: Frances (b.c.1584), Henry (b.1589), George (b.1591), Helena (b.1591), James (b.1592), Edward (b.1593), Mary (b.1600), Hannah (b.c.1601), and Robert (b.1602). When Mary’s mother died, Mary and her husband attempted to disinherit her brother, Edward. Harrington was called before the Star Chamber over the matter but by December he was back in favor at court. Portraits: portrait by an unknown artist, c.1585-90; double portrait with her husband, c.1590-95 by Hieronimo Custodis; portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1592.
MARIA de ROJAS (c.1488-1531+)
The daughter of Francesco de Rojas, count de Salinas, Maria was a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon, accompanying her to England from Spain. She was courted by the earl of Derby’s son but their marriage plans were thwarted by Catherine’s duenna, Doña Elvira Manuel, who wanted Maria to marry her own son, Inigo Manrique. Maria returned to Spain in about 1503 and there married Don Alvaro de Mendoza-y-Guzman. She had at least one child, a son named Luis.
REBECCA ROMNEY
ANNE ROOS (d.1618+)
ELIZABETH ROPER (c.1564-c.1625)
MARGARET ROPER
see THE DAUGHTERS OF SIR THOMAS MORE
MARY ROPER (d. March 20, 1572)
Mary Roper was the daughter of William Roper (1495-1578) and Margaret More (15015-1544) and the granddaughter of Sir Thomas More. As such, she was given a fine education, did many translations, and was an ardent Catholic. She married twice, first to Stephen Clarke (d.1554) and second, around June 1556, to James Bassett (1527-November 21,1558). She bore Bassett two sons, Philip (b.1557) and Charles (b.1559). Mary was at court under Queen Mary as a gentlewoman of the privy chamber. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Bassett [née Roper], Mary”
MARY ROPER (c.1564-November 12,1628)
Mary Roper was the daughter of John Roper of Linsted, Kent (c.1534-August 30,1618) and Elizabeth Parke (1544-September 15,1567). Although she seems to have been christened Jane, she was known as Mary. She married sir Robert Lovell of Martin Abbey, Surrey (d. by 1606), by whom she had at least two children, Christina (1597-1639) and another born in 1601. Lady Lovell was a well-known recusant. She was present at a raid in London on July 21, 1599. In 1606 she traveled to Spa in the Spanish Netherlands, a notorious haunt of English Catholics in exile. In 1608-9 she was living in the English Benedictine convent in Brussels but left there with the intention of founding a Benedictine convent in Louvain. This apparently did not happen. In late 1611, when her sister was arrested in England, she was living in Brussels and went to Archduke Albert to beg him to intercede with King James. He did, but it had no effect. In 1616, Mary was attempting to found a Carmelite convent in Liège. In 1619, her donation of £1600 finally led to the foundation of a Carmelite convent in Antwerp. For the next few years she was involved in frequent disputes over the way the convent was being run, but she also provided further funding and even went to England to solicit more donations. By 1625 she was seeking to found a Bernardine cloister at Bruges, but her plans were still incomplete when she died. Her daughter, Christina, was a Benedictine nun at Brussels. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Lovel, Mary [née Jane Roper].”
MARGARET ROWLETT
see MARGARET COOKE
ELIZABETH ROYDON (1523-August 19, 1595)
Elizabeth Roydon was the daughter of Thomas Roydon (c.1482-1557) and Margaret Whettenhall (1484-1576+). She was married three times. Her first husband was William Twysden (d. November 9, 1549), by whom she had at least four children, Bennet (b. 1539 d.yng), Catherine (b. 1541 d. yng), Roger (1542-1603) and Margaret (1545-1608). After Twysden’s death she married Cuthbert Vaughan (1519-July 23, 1563) and may have been the mother of Jane Vaughan (d.1610). In 1558, Vaughan was involved in a land dispute with Elizabeth’s stepson, Thomas Twysden. Vaughan died of the plague while serving in the English garrison at Newhaven. Elizabeth was, according to the Oxford DNB entry for “Vaughan, Cuthbert,” a “noted puritan patron.” Her third husband, married sometime before October 1565, was Thomas Goulding or Golding. (d.1571) of Belchamp St. Paul, Essex. Elizabeth was buried in East Peckham church in Kent on November 15, 1595. Portrait: 1563 by Hans Eworth.
ANN RUSSELL (December 1548-February 9, 1603/4)
The eldest daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford (1527-July 28,1585) and Margaret St. John (c.1524-August 27, 1562), Ann went to court as a maid of honor after her mother’s death. Poet Pietro Bozzari wrote of her that she had "a form like Helen's, by delight attended." On November 11, 1565 she married Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick (1531-February 21, 1590) but remained at court as a lady of the privy chamber. She became extremely influential and was once said to have refused a bribe of £100 to advance a suit in chancery because the sum was too small. In addition to her lodgings at court, Ann kept a house in what had once been the garden of the priory of the Austin Friars in Broad Street, London. She was also lady of the manor of Rowington, Warwickshire and it was to her that William Shakespeare had to apply for the copyhold on his cottage and grounds in Stratford-upon-Avon. Ann was a patron of the arts. She had no children of her own, but she was guardian to her nephew, the 3rd earl of Bedford, and took an interest in the upbringing of three of her nieces, Anne and Elizabeth Russell and Ann Clifford. Ann Russell was with Queen Elizabeth when the queen died. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Dudley [née Russell], Anne." Portraits: There are several portaits of Ann Russell, countess of Warwick, including the one (c.1565) below.
ANNE RUSSELL
ANNE RUSSELL (c.1578-April 1, 1639)
Anne Russell was the younger daughter of Lord John Russell (d.1584) and Elizabeth Cooke (c.1528-May 1609). She went to court as a maid of honor in 1594. On June 16, 1600, she married Henry Somerset, Lord Herbert (later earl of Worcester) (1577-December 18,1646). Her nine sons and four daughters included Edward, 2nd marquis of Worcester (1601-April 3,1667), John (d.1630), Thomas (d.1676+), and Elizabeth (d.c.1684). Biography: Roy Strong’s The Cult of Elizabeth gives a detailed account of Anne’s wedding and the painting attributed to Robert Peake called “Queen Elizabeth going in Procession to Blackfriars in 1600.” Portraits: There were at least two portraits done of Anne Russell, one as a child and one c.1600, plus her likeness in the wedding portrait. She also appears in effigy on her mother’s tomb in Bisham Church.
BRIDGET RUSSELL
see BRIDGET HUSSEY
ELIZABETH RUSSELL
see ELIZABETH COOKE
ELIZABETH RUSSELL (October 1575-July 1600)
Elizabeth Russell was the elder daughter of Lord John Russell (d.1584) and Elizabeth Cooke (c.1528-May 1609). She is said to have been born within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, where the Dean had given her mother permission to take refuge from an outbreak of the plague. Queen Elizabeth was her godmother. At nineteen, she went to court as a maid of honor. She and her sister Anne (above) sold their inheritance, Russell House in St. Martin-in-the-fields, provoking a quarrel with their mother. Elizabeth further irritated Lady Russell by being thrown out of the Coffer Chamber in April 1597, in company with Elizabeth Brydges, for going unchaperoned to watch the earl of Essex and other gentlemen play at ballon. One rumor makes Elizabeth Russell the earl’s mistress. She certainly had admirers, Lord Cobham and Lord Admiral Charles Howard (later earl of Nottingham) among them. Although the Lord Admiral was already married, Lady Russell urged her daughter to use her influence with him. Lady Russell wanted him to grant her the lease to Donnington. At one point in the 1590s, negotiations were ongoing for Elizabeth Russell’s marriage to the earl of Worcester’s heir, but that young man died and the next brother in line was betrothed to Elizabeth’s younger sister, Anne. Elizabeth danced at their wedding. Then, within a fortnight, she fell ill and died. There are various stories about her death. One says she died of consumption. Another blames her death on a prick from a needle and asserts that it was her punishment for working on a Sunday. However she died, she was buried in Westminster Abbey, where she is the subject of a most unusual sculpture. She is shown asleep sitting up, one foot resting on a skull.
LUCY RUSSELL
see LUCY HARINGTON
MARGARET RUSSELL (before 1505-1568)
Margaret Russell was abbess of Tarrant in Dorset and related to the earl of Bedford, although I have not been able to sort out the exact relationship. She became a Cistercian nun and was elected abbess after the death of the previous abbess, Edith Coker, in 1535. The abbey was surrendered on March 13, 1539. Margaret received a pension of only £40 but seems to have had the means to live well. In her will, proved in July 1568, her bequests include “my best gown of silk chamlet, my kirtle of satin, my scarlet petticoat, my best bonnet of velvet,” and money, jewels, and plate. She was buried in Bere Regis Church.
MARGARET RUSSELL (July 7, 1560-May 24, 1616)
Margaret Russell was the daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford (1527-July 28, 1562) and Margaret St. John (d. August 27, 1562). Following her mother’s death, she was placed in the household of an aunt, Alice Elmers or Elmes, at Lilford, Northamptonshire. It was not until she was seven that she joined her father and his second wife, Bridget Hussey (d. January 12, 1602). On June 24, 1577, more “on the ground of common good than any particular liking,” she married George Clifford, earl of Cumberland (1558-October 30, 1605). In 1591, she left him, taking with her their daughter, Anne (1590-1676), and went to live with her sister, Ann, the recently widowed countess of Warwick, in Austin Friars. She had borne two sons, Francis (1584-1589) and Robert (1585-1591), but both had died. When her daughter was old enough, Margaret hired Samuel Daniel as her tutor. She was a patron of the arts, receiving a number of dedications, and was a subscriber to the Virginia Company. After Cumberland’s death, Margaret had difficulty with his brothers over her inheritance. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under Clifford [née Russell], Margaret." NOTE: the DNB lists biographies of Margaret's daughter and husband. Portraits: Portraits of Margaret Russell are in the Bodleian Library, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. She is also shown in the Clifford family portrait commissioned by her daughter many years after Margaret’s death and in an effigy on her monument in Appleby Church, Cumberland. The portrait below was painted c. 1585. The artist is unknown.
ANNE SACKVILLE
see ANNE SPENCER
ANNE SACKVILLE (d. May 14,1595)
Anne Sackville was the daughter of Richard Sackville (d.1566) and Winifred Brydges (d.1586). She married Gregory Fiennes (1539-September 25, 1594), restored as Lord Dacre of the South in 1558. Fiennes was a weak character, dominated first by his mother and then by his wife. The historian William Camden refers to him as “a little crack-brained.” Anne was godmother to Douglas Howard’s illegitimate son, Robert Dudley, in 1574, but had no children of her own. In her will, she left money for the founding of Emmanuel College, Westminster. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Fiennes [née Sackville], Anne.” Portrait: life size effigy on her tomb in Chelsea Old Church.
JUDITH SADLER
MARGARET SADLER
ANNE SADLIER
MARY ST. BARBE
see MARY BLAKENEY
URSULA ST. BARBE (c.1550-June 18, 1602)
Ursula St. Barbe was the daughter of Henry St. Barbe of Ashington, Somerset (1489-1567) and Eleanor Lewknor. She married first Sir Richard Worsley of Appuldurcome, Isle of Wight (d. 1566) and by him had two sons, John and George. Probably in August, 1566, she took as her second husband, Sir Francis Walsingham (1530-April 6, 1590). Walsingham’s secretary, Robert Beale, was married to Ursula’s sister Edith. In 1567, Ursula’s two sons by Worsley were both killed in an accidental gunpowder explosion. There followed a lengthy legal battle with her brother-in-law over inheritance rights which was finally settled, in Ursula’s favor, in 1571. When Sir Francis was appointed English Ambassador to France, Ursula went with him to his new post. She apparently did some traveling on her own, since had been in the Auverge region of France before meeting her husband in Cleremont for the journey to Paris, where she arrived on March 19, 1572. On April 21, she paid a visit to the French court, where she was entertained by Queen Dowager Catherine de Medici and others. In August 1572, Ursula, her husband, and their daughter Frances (c.October 1567-February 17,1633) were in their house on the quai des Bernardins in Faubourg St. Germain, when the religious purge called the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre took place. Sir Philip Sidney was already there as a houseguest and other Englishmen in Paris sought shelter there as the killing continued. King Charles IX sent a guard under the command of the Duc de Nevers to protect the English embassy, but three Englishmen who did not reach there were killed and a Huguenot general who had sought asylum there was dragged out by royal troops and later hanged. Some 3000 Huguenots were slaughtered in Paris in less than a week and some 70,000 died elsewhere in France. Sir Francis arranged for his wife and daughter to be smuggled out of the embassy and taken back to England but was obliged to stay on himself. A second daughter, Mary, was born in early January 1573, but she died young in 1580. In England, the Walsinghams lived in Seething Lane in London, and at Barn Elms in Surrey. Sir Francis was Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster and in her confidence but the queen does not seem to have cared for Lady Walsingham. Sir Francis died in the house in Seething Lane and was buried in St. Paul’s. Ursula was the sole executor of his will. After a marriage that had lasted twenty-four years, Ursula lived on her own for a further twenty-two, during which time she saw her daughter, Frances, twice become a widow. France’s first husband was Sir Philip Sidney, her second Robert Devereux, the earl of Essex executed for treason in 1601. Ursula died at Barn Elms and was buried beside her husband in St. Paul’s. In addition to other bequests, she left £50 to her waiting woman, Alice Poole. Portrait: 1583
CATHERINE ST. JOHN (c.1490-December 1553)
MARY ST. LEGER (after 1540-1623)
URSULA ST. LEGER
ELIZABETH ST. LOE
see ELIZABETH HARDWICK
MARGARET ST. LOE
MARY ST. LOE (b.1539)
Mary St.Loe was the daughter of Sir William St.Loe (1518-1565/6) of Tormarton by his first wife, Jane Baynton (1523-1549). She entered the service of Elizabeth Tudor in 1553, when she was fourteen, at a time when her father was also part of that household. She is one of six gentlewomen about whom John Harington wrote a sonnet entitled "The prayse of six gentle Women attending of the Ladye Elizabeth her grace at Hatfield then." Her stanza calls her "stable . . . as rock within the sea." Mary continued in Elizabeth’s service after she became queen.
MARIA de SALINAS (c.1490-October 19,1539)
Maria de Salinas’s parentage is the subject of some debate. One possibility is that she was the daughter of Don Martin de Salinas and Doña Josepha Gonzales de Salas. Another is that she was the daughter of Juan Sauch de Salinas (d.c.July, 1495) and Inez Albernos. Maria came to England in about 1503 to replace her cousin, Maria de Rojas, as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. In 1511, she was godmother to Charles Brandon's daughter, Mary. By 1514 was considered to be Queen Catherine’s closest friend. She was naturalized in 1516, shortly before her June 5th marriage to William, 10th Baron Willoughby d’Eresby (d.1526), master of the royal hart hounds. They were given the loan of Greenwich Palace for their honeymoon and the manor of Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire as a wedding present as well as a dowry of 1,100 marks. Maria continued to be a part of the queen's household after her marriage and an indication of the favor in which she was held by both the king and the queen can be seen in the name of one of King Henry VIII’s new ships—the Mary Willoughby. Maria had three children, Henry and Francis, who died young, and Catherine (March 22,1520-September 19,1580), who became the ward of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk upon Willoughby’s death. Court battles ensued at this point over the Willoughby lands and title and continued in Chancery and the Star Chamber after Suffolk married Catherine in 1534. Maria had been forced to leave Queen Catherine’s service in 1532, but she continued to correspond with the cast-off queen and sent her news of her daughter, Mary Tudor. In 1535, when the former queen was ill, Maria was denied permission to visit her but she traveled to Kimbolton Castle anyway. As Garrett Mattingly, Catherine’s biographer, puts it: “It was a foul, black night, the roads were filthy, she had fallen from her horse, she did not care what his orders were, she was not going another mile.” Faced with such determination, Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Catherine’s jailer, let Maria in. She was with Catherine when she died on January 7, 1536. Maria had two dower houses, Parham Old Hall in Suffolk and the Barbican in London, and she also resided at Eresby and Grimsthorpe, where she died. She is said to have been buried near Queen Catherine. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Willoughby [née de Salinas], Maria." Portrait: one was extant until 1910 at Uffington.
KATHERINE SALISBURY
see KATHERINE TUDOR
URSULA SALISBURY
ALICE SAMUEL (1513-1593)
Alice Samuel’s maiden name is unknown. She was the wife of John Samuel of Warboys, Huntingdonshire and had a daughter named Agnes. In November 1589, ten-year-old Jane Throckmorton, daughter of Robert Throckmorton of Warboys, who may have been an epileptic, accused Alice Samuel of being a witch. Within two months, Jane’s four sisters, ranging in age from nine to fifteen, and seven of the family’s servants, began to imitate Jane’s symptoms in order to share the attention she was getting. They forced Alice to move in with the family as a servant. In 1590, Lady Cromwell (Susan Weeks) visited the Throckmortons and had an exchange of words with Alice in which Alice uttered the fatal words “I never did you any harm as yet.” Soon after, Lady Cromwell fell ill. She died in July of 1592. At Christmas that year, when Alice, at last fed up, ordered the Thockmorton girls to stop their erratic behavior, they surprised her by obeying. All this led the local pastor, Dr. Dorrington, to convince Alice that she should confess to witchcraft. She did so, but retracted her confession the next day. The retraction did her no good. She was taken before the William Wickham, Bishop of Lincoln where, once again, she was coerced into confessing. This time she admitted to having three familiars—chickens named Pluck, Catch, and White. With her husband and daughter, now also accused by the Throckmorton girls, Alice was tried on April 5, 1593 for the murder by witchcraft of Lady Cromwell. They were found guilty and hanged. Their property was confiscated by Lady Cromwell’s husband, Sir Henry, who used the proceeds to pay for an annual sermon against witchcraft to be preached in Huntingdon in perpetuity. A pamphlet (The Most Strange and Admirable Discovery of the Three Witches of Warboys) published in 1593 memorialized the trial.
ELIZABETH SANDES, SONDES, SANDS, or SANDYS (1532-June 16, 1585)
Elizabeth Sandes was the daughter of Sir Anthony Sandes of Throwley, Kent (d.1575) and Joan Fyneux. By 1554, she was in the household of Elizabeth Tudor, accompanying her to the Tower of London (as one of the princess’s three gentlewomen) and going with her to Woodstock in May of that year. John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs, and others after him, wrongly state that Elizabeth Sandes was dismissed from the princess's service while Elizabeth Tudor was still in the Tower and give as the reason that she refused to attend mass. In fact, she was not sent away until June 5, 1554. On May 26, Queen Mary had written that Elizabeth Sandes was “a person of evil opinion, and not fit to remain about our . . . sister’s person” because of her religious beliefs. Elizabeth Sandes was replaced in the princess’s household by Elizabeth Marberye (Marbery), but “not without great mourning both of my lady’s grace and Sandes,” according to Sir Henry Bedingfield, who had charge of Elizabeth Tudor at that time. He characterized Elizabeth Sandes as having an "obstinate disposition." Elizabeth Sandes may have been sent first to an uncle in Clerkenwell (London) but soon was returned to her father in Kent. From there, in March 1555, she left England with her cousins Dorothy and William Stafford and settled in Geneva. In 1557, Elizabeth and Dorothy, now a widow, moved to Basel, where they remained until early in 1559. They returned to England by way of France and joined Queen Elizabeth's privy chamber. In about 1562, Elizabeth Sandes married Sir Maurice Berkeley (1508-August 11,1581) of Bruton, Somerset. He served as standard bearer for Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Sir Maurice had three children, Robert (d. before 1624), John, and Frances (sometimes called Margaret). Portrait: an effigy at Bruton, with that of her husband and his first wife (Catherine Blount, d. February 25, 1559), although Elizabeth is, in fact, buried at St. John’s Clerkenwell.
JANE SANDES or SONDES (June 1574-1609+)
KATHERINE SANDYS
MARGARET SANDYS
see MARGARET BOURCHIER
ANNE SAPCOTE (d. March 1558/9)
SABINE SAUNDERS (d. 1590+)
ANNE SAVAGE (1506-October 1564)
Anne Savage was the daughter of Sir John Savage of Clifton and Rocksavage, Cheshire (1478-March 2, 1527) and Anne Bostock (b.1479). Anne’s descripton at TudorPlace.com.ar is a woman “of middling stature, with a comely brown complexion, and much tender-hearted with her children.” She was at court and apparently in the household of Anne Boleyn before Anne Boleyn was queen. She was one of only four or five people to witness Anne Boleyn’s marriage to Henry VIII on January 25, 1533 and was Anne Boleyn’s trainbearer. Others known to have been present were Thomas Heneage, Henry Norris, and William Brereton. Brereton was the second husband of Anne Savage’s widowed sister-in-law, Elizabeth Somerset. Both Brereton and Norris were later executed as Anne Boleyn’s lovers. Anne Savage did not remain long at the new queen’s court. In April 1533, she married Thomas, 6th Baron Berkeley (1505-September 22, 1534), known as “the Hopeful.” They had a daughter, Elizabeth (1534-September 1, 1582) and nine weeks after her husband’s death, Anne gave birth to his son and heir, Thomas, 7th Baron Berkeley (November 26, 1534-November 26, 1613). Lady Berkeley was an avid letter writer, and was written about as well. A number of these missives are still extant, including one to Lord Cromwell on May 1, 1535 to complain about the Court of Wards, which opposed the release of her jointure. A letter from John Barlow, dean of Westbury College, to Lord Cromwell, also in 1535, complains about Lady Berkeley’s interference in his attempt to prosecute a number of men who were caught playing tennis “in service time” (in other words, when they should have been in church). The incident occurred near where she was living in Yate, Gloucestershire and she actively rallied opposition to Barlow’s charges. Barlow had earlier had a run in with Lady Berkeley over some religious books found in her house, but since both Catholic and radical Protestant texts were equally frowned upon at this time, it is difficult to say what Lady Berkeley’s beliefs might have been. She was also at odds with her brother-in-law, Maurice Berkeley, who might have inherited all had she not given birth to a posthumous son. At one point during the late 1530s, she served on a commission to look into disturbances in one of her parks. According to Barbara J. Harris’s “Women and Politics in Early Tudor England,” she “sat with the panel when it selected a jury, heard evidence, and found the accused, including two of her brothers-in-law, Sir Nicholas Poyntz and Maurice Berkeley, guilty of riot and other misdemeanors.” (Poyntz was married to her late husband’s sister). Early in Lady Berkeley’s widowhood, Edward Sutton wished to marry her. Cecily, Lady Dudley, Dorothy, Lady Mountjoy, and Thomas Wriothesley all petitioned the king and Lord Cromwell on Sutton’s behalf but a widow could refuse to remarry and Anne did, writing that “my stomach cannot lean there, neither as yet to any marriage.” She never did take a second husband. Lady Berkeley is said to have served as a Justice of the Peace, but there is no hard evidence of this other than the memoir of a judge, writing in 1632 and recalling a story his mother told him about a "Lady Bartlet," who was a J.P. under Queen Mary. Lady Berkeley died at Callowdon, Gloucestershire. Portraits: Anne Savage is NOT the subject of the Holbein sketch at Windsor labeled “The Lady Barkley.”
DOROTHY SAVAGE
ELIZABETH SAVAGE
DOROTHY SAVILE
see DOROTHY WENTWORTH
JOCOSA SAXEY
ELIZABETH SCOTT
see ELIZABETH STAFFORD
MARGARET SCOTT
see MARGARETE HETZEL
MARGARET SCROPE (d.1517)
MARGARET SCROPE
see MARGARET HOWARD
MARY SCROPE (d. August 15, 1548)
Mary Scrope was one of the nine daughters of Sir Richard Scrope of Upsall, Yorkshire (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). Two of her older sisters were married to earls, Elizabeth, countess of Oxford and Margaret, countess of Suffolk. Mary married first, c.1509, Sir Edward Jerningham of Somerleyton, Suffolk (d.1515), by whom she had four sons and one daughter, Sir Henry (1509-1571), Ferdinand, Edward, Edmund, and Elizabeth. Her will mentions a daughter named Margaret and does not mention an Elizabeth, presenting me with a small mystery yet to be solved. In between lying-ins, she had an active career at court from 1509-1527 as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. Her husband was the queen’s cupbearer and her son Henry was a carver to Princess Mary. Edmund became a gentleman of the bedchamber to Henry VIII and Elizabeth was one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor. See the entry for Anne Jerningham for an incident involving the newly widowed Lady Jerningham in 1517. Mary Scrope’s second husband, to whom she was married by the beginning of 1532, was Sir William Kingston (by 1476-September 4, 1540), constable of the Tower from 1524 until his death. Although Mary Kingston was implicated in the affair of the Nun of Kent in 1533, she took part in Anne Boleyn’s coronation. She was ill at Wanstead in June 1534. During the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Lady Kingston was called upon to hear Anne’s apology to Mary Tudor and deliver it to the king’s daughter after Anne’s execution. Lady Kingston carried Mary Tudor’s train at the christening of Prince Edward, rode in the funeral cortege of Queen Jane, and was listed as one of the thirty ladies appointed as “ordinary waiters” upon Anne of Cleves in 1539. According to some accounts, she served the first four of Henry VIII's wives and also spent some time in the household of Princess Mary. David Loades, in his biography of Mary Tudor, says she was in charge of a joint household for Mary and Elizabeth from March 1538 until April 1539. She was buried at Leyton on September 4, 1548. Portrait: a possible portrait has been located in a private collection. More information to come.
PHILADELPHIA SCROPE
see PHILADELPHIA CAREY
MARY SCUDAMORE
see MARY SHELTON
MARGARET SCUTT or SKUTT (July 1537?-1593)
DOROTHY SELBY
see DOROTHY BONHAM
ANNE SEYMOUR
see ANNE STANHOPE
ANNE SEYMOUR (1538-February 1587/88)
Anne Seymour was the oldest daughter of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset (1502-x January 22,1552) and Ann Stanhope (1497-April 15,1587). Together with her sisters, Margaret and Jane, she was educated in a manner similar to the way Sir Thomas More’s daughters were taught. Thomas Cranmer was their tutor for three years, followed by Nicholas Denisot, who encouraged them to write a poem in honor of his former mistress, the queen of Navarre. When he returned to France, he took the result wit him and it was published in 1550 as “Annae, Margaritae, Janae, Sonorum Virginum, heroidum Anglasum in mortem Margaritae Valesiae Navarrouim Reginae Hedadistichon.” The work inspired French poets to like efforts. Anne was also known for her religious studies and corresponded with John Calvin. On June 3,1550 she was married to John Dudley, earl of Warwick (by 1528-October 21,1554), son of the duke of Northumberland, in an effort to reconcile their fathers, but Anne’s father was executed by Northumberland in 1552 and Northumberland himself was executed in 1553. Anne’s husband was in the Tower and condemned to death at the same time and died ten days after his release the following year. On April 28, 1555, Anne married Sir Edward Unton or Umpton of Wadley, near Faringdon, Berkshire (d. September 16, 1583) and by him had seven children, Edward (d.1589), Sir Henry (1557-1596), Cecily, Frances, Anne, and two others who died young. In July, 1574, Queen Elizabeth visited the Untons at Wadley. Throughout the period from 1566 to 1588, Anne was said to suffer periodic bouts of insanity. In October, 1582, she was declared of unsound mind but the sermon preached at her funeral mourned her as a “noble lady, a faithful wife, a virtuous woman, and a godly widow.” Biography: Anne is included in the Oxford DNB entry for her sister, under "Seymour, Lady Jane." Portraits: The memorial portrait of the life of Sir Henry Unton shows Anne in the scene depicting his birth in 1557.
ELIZABETH SEYMOUR (1511-June 1563)
Elizabeth Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour (c.1474-December 21,1536) and Margery Wentworth (c.1478-October 18, 1550) and the younger sister of Queen Jane Seymour. By 1530, she was married to Sir Anthony Ughtred of Kexby (1498-1534). Some sources say that Lady Ughtred was at court when Anne Boleyn was queen, but Jane Seymour’s biographer, Elizabeth Norton, contradicts this, saying that Elizabeth lived primarily in the north, away from both court and family. In March of 1537, after her sister was married to Henry VIII, the widowed Elizabeth, living in poverty in York, wrote to Lord Cromwell to ask for the grant of some of the goods from one of the dissolved monasteries. Instead, Cromwell proposed that she marry his son, Gregory (c.1514-July 4,1551). They wed on August 3, 1537 and had five children: Henry (c.1538-November 20, 1593), Frances (c.1544-February 7, 1561/2), Catherine, Edward, and Thomas (b.1552). Lord Cromwell’s fall from power in 1540 was a setback for the family, but Gregory was not implicated and he was restored as Lord Cromwell of Oakham later that same year. In 1551, when Elizabeth’s brother, Edward Seymour, then Lord Protector, was arrested, Elizabeth was given charge of his daughters. Later that year, Gregory Cromwell died of the sweat and Elizabeth was also ill, at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, but recovered. She gave birth to her last child after her husband’s death. In 1557, she took a third husband, John Paulet, Lord St. John (1517-1576), son and heir of the marquis of Winchester. Her son Henry married her new husband’s daughter Mary. Portrait: c.1538 by Hans Holbein (previously identified as “Catherine Howard” and then called “A Lady of the Cromwell Family.”)
FRANCES SEYMOUR
see FRANCES HOWARD (two entries)
JANE SEYMOUR (c.1508-October 24,1537)
Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour (c.1474-December 21,1536) and Margery Wentworth (c.1478-October 18,1550). She came to court as a maid of honor under Catherine of Aragon and also held this post after Anne Boleyn became queen. King Henry VIII married Jane following Queen Anne’s execution and she gave him the one thing he wanted most, a male heir, the future Edward VI (1537-1553). She died of complications from the birth. Biographies: Pamela M. Gross’s Jane, the Quene, Third Consort of Henry VIII; Elizabeth Norton's Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love (2009); William Seymour’s Ordeal by Ambition (a group biography of Jane and her two brothers). Portraits: The original Hans Holbein the Younger painting is in the Hague, with his preliminary drawing in the collection at Windsor Castle, but there are many copies. She is also in the “family portrait” at Hampton Court.
JANE SEYMOUR (1541-March 20,1561)
Jane Seymour was the daughter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1502-xJanuary 22, 1552) and Ann Stanhope (1497-April 16,1587). Like her sisters, Anne (see above) and Margaret, she was a scholar. She wrote poetry and a number of her letters are extant. At one time, there was talk of marrying her to her cousin, King Edward VI, but her father was removed from power and executed before he could carry out this plan. Jane was at court as a maid of honor during the reign of Mary Tudor and remained there in the same post under Queen Elizabeth, although she had to retire to the country to recover from an illness in the summer of 1558. She was taken to Hanworth, her mother's estate, in a horse-drawn litter and her close friend Lady Catherine Grey was allowed to go with her. Later she assisted Lady Catherine to seecretly married Jane’s brother, Edward Seymour, in December 1560. When Jane fell ill again, early in 1561, she was excused from her duties and remained in her rooms at Whitehall, where she died. She was buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster, where her brother raised a monument to her memory. The inscription, now missing, "On the Death of Lady Jane Somerset," praised her "genius fam'd," her beauty, and her voice that "harmonious notes improv'd." Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Seymour, Lady Jane.”
KATHERINE SEYMOUR
see KATHERINE FILLOL; KATHERINE PARR
MARGERY SEYMOUR
see MARGERY WENTWORTH
MARY SEYMOUR
MARY SEYMOUR (August 30,1548-1550?)
Mary Seymour was the daughter of Kathryn Parr (d. September 5,1548), widow of King Henry VIII, and Thomas Seymour, baron Seymour of Sudeley (x.March 20,1549). Elizabeth Aglionby, formerly one of Kathryn Parr’s ladies, was her governess and looked after her, first at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where she was born, then at her uncle’s residence, Syon House, and finally, after her father’s execution, at Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, where Catherine Willoughby, duchess of Suffolk, was her guardian. There she had, in addition to her governess, two maids and several other servants. Money for her care, however, was lacking. She had an income from the Court of Wards of just under F500 a year, but this income was not transferred to the duchess. According to the duchess, Mary’s mother’s family, the Parrs, refused to take her. Mary Seymour was restored in blood on January 22, 1550, but after that disappears from the records. Stories persist that she lived longer than that. John Strype (1643-1737) seems to be the source later writers, including Edmund Lodge (1756-1839), used for the information that Mary died as a child. Lodge says she died at thirteen. This would be consistent with Mrs. Aglionby’s reappearance at court in 1562 as mother of maids under Queen Elizabeth, but that is hardly proof of anything. Agnes Strickland, however, writing in the late nineteenth century, states that Mary not only grew up, but married a man named Sir Edward Bushel and had a daughter by him. Unfortunately, she offers no documentation for this claim.
ANNE SHAKESPEARE
JUDITH SHAKESPEARE (January 1585-February 1662)
MARY SHAKESPEARE
see MARY ARDEN
SUSANNA SHAKESPEARE (May 1583-July 11, 1649)
GRACE SHARINGTON
see GRACE SHERRINGTON
ANNE SHEFFIELD
see ANNE BARLEE
DOUGLAS SHEFFIELD
see DOUGLAS HOWARD
ELEANOR SHEFFIELD (c.1538-1568+)
ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1475-1547)
Elizabeth Shelley of Michaelgrove, Sussex, was the daughter of John Shelley (d. January 3, 1526) and Elizabeth Michaelgrove (1450-July 3, 1514 OR 1450-July 3,1514). She became a Benedictine nun and in 1527 was elected abbess of Nunnaminster (Abbey of St. Mary, Winchester). She was a correspondent of Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle and one of Lady Lisle’s stepdaughters, Bridget Plantagenet, was for a time in the school for girls at St. Mary’s. This was, however, the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and although the abbess was able to save her house in the first round of closings, in part by a bribe of £333 6s. 8d., and the nunnery was given a good report by the commissioners who visited it on May 15, 1536, in September 1538 an order was issued to close St. Mary’s and disperse the 102 people who lived there, including twenty-six nuns and thirteen lay sisters. Elizabeth surrendered the premises on November 15, 1539 and accepted a pension of £26 13s. 4d. This was on the low side for an abbess. The prioress received £5, two nuns received £4 each, two £2 16.s. 8d. each, and seventeen others each received £2 13s. 4d. Elizabeth Shelley continued to live in Winchester until her death, together with several nuns who had been under her jurisdiction as abbess. One was her niece, Margaret Shelley. They were mentioned in her will, as was her brother, Richard. Elizabeth was buried in the Winchester College chapel.
ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1510-December 24, 1560)
Elizabeth Shelley was the daughter of Sir William Shelley of Michaelgrove (c.1480-before May 10, 1549) and Alice Belknap (d.1536). She married Roger Copley of Roughway and Gatton, Surrey (c.1473-1549) and had two children, Thomas (1534-1585) and Bridget (1543-1571). In 1554, as a widow, she was elected M.P. for Gatton, although it was actually her son who went to London and took the seat in Parliament.
ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1533-1575+)
JANE SHELLEY (c. 1485-1533+)
Jane Shelley was the daughter of John Shelley of Michelgrove, Sussex (c.1455-January 3, 1526) and Elizabeth Michelgrove (c.1458-June 30, 1518; alt. dates 1450-July 3,1514) and married Edward Bellingham of Errington (1477-March 12, 1532). She is probably the Lady Bellingham who was implicated in the affair of Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent, in 1533. Jane and Edward Bellingham had three children, Katherine (b.1500), Sir Edward (c.1520-March 10, 1559/50) and John (d. November 1, 1540). The only other Lady Bellingham named Jane who might have been living at that same time was Jane Eure or Evers (c.1491-1538+), who was probably the sister of Robert Eure or Evers of Belton, Lincolnshire (1488-March 1, 1526), and had married, c. 1513, Richard (or Thomas) Bellingham of Manton (c.1484-October 5, 1558). Their children, born between 1514 and 1538, included Robert, Richard, Katherine, Joane or Jane, Thomas, Troth or Tristram, Christopher, Henry, Edward, and John.
ANNE SHELTON
see ANNE BOLEYN
MARGARET SHELTON (1500+-before September 11,1583)
Known as “Madge,” Margaret Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (1477-December 21,1539) and Anne Boleyn (November 18,1476-c.1557), the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn’s father. Madge came to court as a maid of honor to her cousin by 1535 and is said to have been Henry VIII’s mistress for about six months. At the time of Anne’s arrest, Madge was engaged to Henry Norris, a widower, and being courted by Francis Weston, who was already married. Both men were arrested and executed in connection with Anne Boleyn’s alleged adultery. Kimberley Schutte, in her biography of Lady Margaret Douglas, describes Madge Shelton as a "pretty girl with dimples . . . very gentle in countenance" and "soft of speech," but she also seems to think Margaret and her sister Mary were the same person and identifies Madge as the "handsome young lady at court" who may have been the king's mistress in 1534. In The Mistresses of Henry VIII, Kelly Hart identifies "Madge" as Mary Shelton (see next entry) but it makes more sense to me that Margaret was Henry's mistress during Anne Boleyn's tenure as queen. She was older, for one thing. Some accounts say Madge was with Queen Anne on the scaffold. This is unlikely. The name "Mistress Shelton" next crops up in connection with the king in 1538, when Henry was searching for a foreign bride for his fourth wife. Christina of Milan was described as resembling Mistress Shelton. The king was much taken with Christina's portrait, painted by Hans Holbein the younger and shown below. By 1538, Margaret herself was married to Thomas Wodehouse or Woodhouse of Kimberley, Norfolk (1510-September 10,1547). Prior to Wodehouse's death in the battle of Musselborough, they had six children: Roger or Richard (d.April 4,1588), John (b.c.1543), Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, and Henry (b. January 3, 1546).
MARY SHELTON (1512?-January 1571)
Mary Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (1477-December 21,1539) and Anne Boleyn (November 18,1476-December 1556), the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn’s father. Suggestions for the date of her birth range from 1512 to 1520. A number of scholars, including Kelly Hart in The Mistresses of Henry VIII, argue that Mary Shelton was the king's mistress in 1535 and also a condidate to become Henry's fourth wife. I find the logic of this unconvincing. The single mention of Mary Shelton as one of two ladies in whom the king was interested in 1538 comes in a letter that says nothing about marriage. The comment could as easily refer to the king's choice of one of the two as his next mistress. What we do know to be true about Mary is that she was friends with Lady Margaret Douglas, Lady Mary Howard, countess of Richmond, and Lady Mary’s brother, Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. She contributed to and edited the “Devonshire Manuscript,” a collection of poems, some of them original, that was passed around among members of their circle. Two of the poems suggest that Sir Thomas Wyatt pursued Mary and was rejected by her. Of course, Wyatt was married at the time. Following Sir John Shelton's death, Kelly Hart says that Mary entered the convent of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, but that is impossible. The priory had been dissolved more than a year earlier (November 25,1538). There was a Mary Shelton there at that time, but she was a nun. She was granted an annuity of £4 and would have been required by law to remain single. Our Mary may have been in attendance upon Queen Catherine Howard. After Catherine's arrest, Mary spent most of the next year with her friends Mary Howard and Margaret Douglas at Kenninghall in Norfolk, Mary Howard's home. Mary fell in love with Thomas Clere, one of the earl of Surrey’s close friends. They intended to marry, but were prevented by Clere's death on April 14, 1545. Soon after, Mary wed Sir Anthony Heveningham (c.1507-November 22,1557) and after his death married Philip Appleyard (b.c.1528). Her children by Heveningham were Mary, Anne, Jane, Bridget, Sir Arthur (d.October 8, 1630), Abigail, Henry, John, and Dorothy. Biography: Paul G. Remley, “Mary Shelton and her Tudor Literary Milieu” in Rethinking the Tudor Era; Oxford DNB entry under "Shelton, Mary." NOTE: The DNB gives the date of death for Mary's mother as 1555 and says Mary had only five children but names only Arthur and Abigail. Portrait: the Holbein sketch labeled “The Lady Henegham” in the Royal Library at Windsor.
MARY SHELTON (c.1550-November 15,1603)
Mary Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton (1503-1558) and Margaret Parker. She was at court as a chamberer to Queen Elizabeth from January 1, 1571, but angered the queen when she secretly married Sir James Scudamore of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire (1542-April 15,1623), a gentleman usher, at some point before January 1574. Queen Elizabeth is said to have been soangry that she attacked Mary and broke her finger. In spite of this incident, Mary continued as a chamberer and became quite influential at court as well as being a favorite with the queen. Royal gifts included £400 in 1591 and £300 in 1594. She had two sons by Scudamore, one of them named James. Many letters by and about her are extant. She was buried at Holme Lacy on August 15, 1603. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Scudamore [née Shelton], Mary.”
FRANCIS SHERLEY
GRACE SHERRINGTON or SHARINGTON (1552-July 27, 1620)
Grace Sherrington was the daughter of Sir Henry Sherrington (d.1581) of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire and Anne Paget (d.1607). She was educated by a Mrs. Hamblyn, her father’s niece and in 1567 married Sir Anthony Mildmay (c.1549-1617) of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire. They had one daughter, Mary (1582-1640). Grace kept a journal from 1570 until 1617 in which she recorded the events of her early life as well as the day-to-day activities of a Puritan wife and mother and included extensive notes on home remedies. Biography: Linda Pollack’s With Faith and Physic: The Life of a Tudor Gentlewoman, Lady Grace Mildmay 1552-1620; Oxford DNB entry under "Mildmay [née Sharington], Grace." Portrait: painted in 1613; effigy on tomb at St. Leonard's Church, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire.
DOROTHY SHIRLEY
ELIZABETH SHIRLEY (1564/5-September 1,1641) Elizabeth Shirley was the daughter of Sir John Shirley of Shirley, Leicestershire (1535-September 12,1570) and Jane Lovett. She was raised in the Church of England but at about the age of twenty went to live with her brother, George Shirley (1559-April 27,1622), a recusant, as his housekeeper. There she was converted to Catholicism. Following George’s marriage to Frances Berkeley (c.1560-December 9, 1595) in 1586/7 she decided to become a nun. She joined the cloister of St. Ursula in Louvain in Flanders, where she was professed as a nun on September 10, 1596. This was a Flemish house, but since 1569 had been ruled by an English prioress, Margaret Clement (d.1612). In 1606, Clement retired and the English nuns began to make plans for a separate convent. They established the English Augustinian cloister of St. Monica’s at Louvain on February 10, 1609, thanks in large part to Elizabeth Shirley’s handling of the finances, and from that November until 1637, she served as sub-prioress. Jane (Sister Mary) Wiseman was elected as the first prioress. In 1626, Elizabeth wrote a biography of Margaret Clement that included a history of the English Augustinians in Louvain. This was probably the earliest biography of a woman written in English by someone who had known the subject during her lifetime. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Shirley, Elizabeth.”
JANE SHORE
see ELIZABETH LAMBERT
FRANCES SHUTE
ANNE SIBTHORPE
AGNES or ANNE SIDNEY (c.1525-June 11,1602)
ANNE SIDNEY
BARBARA SIDNEY
see BARBARA GAMAGE
ELIZABETH SIDNEY (November 1585-1614)
Elizabeth Sidney was the daughter of Sir Philip Sidney (November 30,1554-October 17,1586) and Frances Walsingham (October 1567-February 17,1633). In March 1599 she married Roger Manners, 5th earl of Rutland (October 6,1576-June 26,1612). Elizabeth figures in two controversial situations. One concerns her portrait or portraits. The argument has been made that she is the subject of the portrait by William Segar c.1590 usually identified as her mother, Frances, and that by comparing the face in that portrait to the unknown lady c.1595 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, shown below, this, too, can be identified as Elizabeth Sidney. There are several problems with this. For one thing, in 1595, Elizabeth was only eleven years old. For another, the lady is shown as being obviously pregnant and Elizabeth Sidney never had any children. However, it is an interesting portrait, and I include it here for what it is worth. The second controversy is over the death of Elizabeth’s husband and her own death. Several sources online claim she poisoned him to free herself from an unhappy marriage and that a short time later she was herself killed in revenge for his death. One problem with this is that very reliable sources, including biographies of her father and grandfather, give the date 1614 for Elizabeth’s death. The Oxford DNB (under "Manners, Roger"), however, says that she died "within a fortnight of her husband's funeral, occasioning wild rumours that she had been poisoned by medicine supplied by Sir Walter Raleigh." The entry also reports gossip that Sir Thomas Overbury was in love with her. Playwright Ben Jonson said of Elizabeth Sidney that she was "nothing inferior to her father in poetry," although examples of her writing do not seem to have survived. Elizabeth was buried near her father in at St. Paul's, although she shares a memorial at Bottesford with her husband.
see ELIZABETH PHILLIPS
see JUDITH SHAKESPEARE
Ann Radcliffe was the daughter of Anthony Radcliffe of London (d.1603) and Elizabeth Bright. She married Thomas Moulson (c.1568-1638) on December 15, 1600. They owned and operated an inn in London. They had two children but both died young. After her husband’s death, Ann Moulson managed her own business for the next twenty-three years. In addition to the inn, she loaned money and invested in import ventures. She was also active in the puritan cause, contributing toward hiring a puritan lecturer in her parish and giving generously to other charities, including a gift of £100 to the fledgling Harvard College in New England. Because of that, it was Ann Radcliffe who was honored by the name Radcliffe College in 1894. She bequeathed nearly £12,000 in her will. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Moulson [née Radcliffe], Ann.”
see BRIDGET MORRISON
Frances Radcliffe was the daughter of Henry Radcliffe, 2nd earl of Sussex (c.1506-February 17, 1557) and his second wife, Anne Calthorpe (1509-between August 22, 1579 and March 28, 1582). When Frances was two years old, her father attempted to have her declared illegitimate, having thrown her mother out of his house some years earlier, but he was not successful. However, Francis’s father may have been Sir Edmund Knyvett (1509-1551), with whom her mother was accused of having a bigamous marriage. Under Queen Elizabeth, Frances came to court as a maid of honor. She was there in January 1562 when Shane O'Neill (c.1530-June 2, 1561), son of the first Earl of Tyrone, came to England to negotiate with the queen for his father's title. O'Neill was a violent man who had killed members of his own family in his quest for power. He had also been married twice (one wife he divorced and the other was dead) and kept his former father-in-law's current wife as his mistress. Still, during his time in England, he reportedly asked Queen Elizabeth for a "proper English wife." According to Violet Wilson's Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor and Ladies of the Privy Chamber, he specifically wanted to marry Frances but his suit was refused. Wilson goes on to say that at a later date, when Frances visited her half brother in Ireland, O'Neill renewed his courtship and was again turned down. It seems unlikely matters progressed very far, if at all. In 1561, Frances's brother, Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd earl of Sussex, had tried to assassinate O'Neill using poison. They were not on friendly terms. In any case, in 1563, O'Neill married his mistress. In July 1566, Frances married Thomas Mildmay of Moulsham (d.1608) and was the mother of Thomas Mildmay, Baron Fitzwalter (d. 1625) and Henry (c.1585-1654)..jpg)
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see KATHERINE CHAMPERNOWNE
see MARGARET HARLESTONE
see MARY DALE
see JEANNE LULLIER
Agnes Rhys was the daughter of Sir Rhys ap Griffith of Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire (1500-x.1531) and Katherine Howard (c.1499-May 1544). She was the mistress of William Stourton, 7th baron Stourton (1484-September 16, 1548) and although some sources say they married, Stourton’s wife survived him, making this impossible. Agnes had a daughter, Mary, by Stourton, and he left her an interest in his lands. Around 1553, Agnes married Sir Edward Baynton (c.1520-1593), by whom she had thirteen children, including William (d.1564), Henry (1571-1616), Anne (d.1587), Margaret (d. yng), Catherine (d.1582), and Elizabeth (d.1593+). In 1564, Agnes’s only son to that point, William Baynton, while still an infant, was allegedly murdered by witchcraft. There were charges and counter charges made but the gist of the story is that Dorothy Mantill or Mantell, wife of Sir Edward’s brother Henry (b.c.1520), enticed one Agnes Mills or Mylles to bewitch the child, thinking that by his death her husband would inherit. Agnes Mills was hanged for the crime, but in spite of proceedings in Chancery the following year, Dorothy does not seem to have been prosecuted. Dorothy and Henry Baynton already had three sons—Henry (b.1553), Edward (b.1555), and Roger (b.1557)—and two daughters. Confusing the issue was the testimony of one Jane Marshe, who first supported the accusation against Dorothy and then, fearing she would never be let out of prison if she did not change her story, accused Edward and Agnes of bribing her to accuse Dorothy. Jane’s fate, too, is unknown. One further bit of confusion is caused by the fact that Sir Edward Baynton had two brothers named Henry. The younger, actually his half brother, was born c. 1536 and married Anne Cavendish. He was not implicated in the murder of young William.
Isabella Richardson’s parentage is unknown. She married Gerard Corby or Corbie of Durham (1558-September 18,1637) in about 1585. In 1598, they left England for Ireland, where they were in the service of the countess of Kildare. Their son Ralph (March 25,1598-1644) was born in Maynooth, Kildare. Their other children were Ambrose (December 25,1604-1649), Robert, Richard, Mary and Catherine. The family returned to England in 1603, but the situation of Catholics there was no better and they soon left again, this time for Belgium. This family’s devotion to their faith cannot be questioned. All four sons studied for the priesthood and three became Jesuit priests (the other died), as did Gerard, in 1628, and both daughters became Benedictine nuns, as did Isabella, as Sister Benedicta Corby, in 1633. She died in Ghent.
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see REBECCA TAYLOR
Anne Roos was the daughter of Peter Roos of Laxton, Nottinghamshire (d. November 15, 1605) and Agnes Harvey. Her stepmother was Bridget Roos (d.1621?), daughter of Robert Roos of Ingmanthorpe (d.1583), who remarried after Anne’s father’s death, taking as her second husband Stephen Clarke. Her father also had a mistress. Anne had two half brothers, Gilbert (1592-1610) and Peter. On May 29, 1592, Anne married Griffin Markham (c.1564-c.1644). Anne’s husband was apparently banished from court around 1593 but in 1594 he was knighted by the earl of Essex after the siege of Rouen. He was involved in both the Bye Plot and the Main Plot and was sentenced to death in 1603. In 1605 he was given a stay of execution and exiled instead. The Markhams were recusants and friends with Father Gerard, but Anne was desperate to obtain a pardon for her husband that she entered into communication with Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, intending to betray Father Gerard’s whereabouts to him, as well as the location of other recusants, such as Anne Vaux. Several of the letters they exchanged are reprinted in Godfrey Anstruther’s Vaux of Harrowden. Anne failed in her efforts and her husband remained in exile until his death. According to some accounts he was acting all that while as a spy for Salisbury. According to others, he was only suspected of being a spy because of his wife’s activities. Anne, meanwhile, remained in England. All of her husband’s properties had been forfeited at the time of his attainder. She lived for a time at Laxton in the Rectory House. In 1618 she resurfaces in the records, charged with committing bigamy with one of her servants. She was obliged to do penance in a white sheet at Paul’s Cross in London. She was also fined £1000. It is unclear how she was expected to lay hands on that kind of money and there is no further record of her that I have been able to find.
Elizabeth Roper was the daughter of John Roper of Linsted, Kent (c.1534-August 30,1618) and Elizabeth Parke (1544-September 15,1567). She married George Vaux of Harrowden (c.1564-July 13, 1595) at Harrowden on July 25, 1585. It was a love match, and led to George being disinherited. The new heir was George’s younger brother, Ambrose, and Elizabeth, according to Godfrey Anstruther’s Vaux of Harrowden “completely bewitched Ambrose, who would do anything she demanded.” Early in 1590, a reconciliation was achieved between George and his father and Ambrose surrendered his right to the forfeiture. Elizabeth and George had six children: Mary (c.1587-before 1624), Edward (1591-1661), Henry (d. September 29, 1662), William, Joyce (c.1667), and Catherine (d. July 10,1649). The Vauxs were noted recusants, as was Elizabeth’s sister, Lady Lovell. After her husband’s death, Elizabeth founded what was essentially a Jesuit college at Harrowden—a place to educate Catholic boys before they were old enough to be smuggled out of England to attend Douai. In 1605, Elizabeth was questioned over a letter she had written that made it seem as if she had ties to the Gunpowder Plot. Godfrey Anstruther’s Vaux of Harrowden devotes several chapters to Elizabeth’s activities in the early 1600s. She was never tried, either for treason or for harboring priests, and was eventually allowed to return to Harrowden, where the next few years were quiet. In 1611, however, there was a raid on Harrowden Hall and Elizabeth was taken to London to the Gatehouse Prision in Westminster. In November she was in the Fleet. She was tried on February 19, 1612 and sentenced to imprisonment and forfeiture of all lands, tenements, goods, and chattels. This time she was held in Newgate. In July 1613 she was paroled for eight months to recover her health. There is no record that she went back to prison. In 1616, she left Harrowden for good, moving to Boughton, near Northampton. Then, in 1618 she was ordered to appear before the Privy Council but she was still living at Boughton in 1625. 
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see ANNE SAPCOTE.jpg)
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see JUDITH STAUNTON
see MARGARET MITCHELL
see ANNE COKE
Catherine St. John was the daughter of Sir John St. John (1450-1525) and Sybil Morgan (b.1462) and married first, in 1507, Sir Griffith ap Rhys (d. 1521). In 1532 she married Sir Piers Edgecumbe of Cothele (1468/9-August 14, 1539). She may have been the Lady Edgecumbe at court or that may have been Winifred Essex, her stepson’s wife. Catherine had no children by either husband.
Mary St. Leger was the daughter of Sir John St. Leger of Annerly Devon (c.1520-October 8,1596) and Catherine Neville. She brought the island of Lundy to her marriage c. 1565 to Richard Grenville of Stow (June 5,1541-September 2,1591). They were the parents of Roger (d. December 1565), Bernard or Barnard (1568-1636), John (d.1595), Katherine, Mary, Ursula (d.1643), Bridget (d.1578), Rebecca, and another son who died young. The Grenvilles were in Cork in Ireland from 1568-1579 and at one point in June 1569, Mary and Lady St. Leger (Ursula Neville, wife of Sir Warham St. Leger, Mary’s cousin) were besieged by rebels and had to seek refuge with the earl of Ormond at Kilkenny. Their husbands were at that time in England, seeking further support against the rebels. Sir Richard, captain of the Revenge, was killed in the Battle of Flores. As a widow, Mary lived at Bideford.
see URSULA NEVILLE
see MARGARET SCUTT
see URSULA STANLEY
Jane Sandes or Sondes was the daughter of Sir Michael Sandes or Sondes of Throwley Park, Kent (d.1617) and Mary Fynch (d.1603). On January 5, 1593/4, she married Edward Fludd of Bearsted, Kent (c.1563-1600). According to A. L. Rowse’s Sex and Society in Shakespeare’s Age, Jane had quite the active sex life. In 1600, probably accompanied by her maid, Susan Rigden, she visited the astrologer Simon Forman to ask if Sir Calisthenes Brooke and Sir Thomas Gates and others still loved her. In the course of the consultation she gave Forman names and details, which he recorded. Sir Calisthenes Brooke, son of Lord Cobham, was a soldier for whom she wore a bramble. Their affair had begun around 1596 and she kept his letters under her pillow. After him came both Henry Wotton and Sir Thomas Gates, another soldier, for whom she wore thyme. Her current lover was Sir Thomas Walsingham of Chislehurst. Forman recorded that she’d also loved Copell (the rector of her parish church at Throwley from 1597-1605), Sir Robert Rivington, Robin Jones (her father’s man, a clerk), Wilmar (her father-in-law, Sir Thomas Fludd’s man, deceased by 1600, for whom she wore a willow), “Lady Vane’s son of Kent,” who “took her garter from her leg to wear for her sake”—this could be either Sir Thomas Vane or Henry Vane of Hadlow. In May 1600, she returned, now a widow, to ask if Vincent Randall, son and heir of Edward Randall of Gayseham Hall, Essex, with whom she had fallen in love, would marry her. He did not, and Forman’s horoscope predicted that she would not wed for some time and that when she did, it would be to “a miserable, ungodly, untoward old fellow.” Of Jane, he wrote: “She is not to be trusted, though she has a fair tongue, but will backbite and speak evil of her best friends. She professes virtue, loyalty, chastity—yet is full of vice, apt to be in love with many; hath loved men of worth and base fearing creatures, and some of the clergy. She spends much in pride and is in debt, poor in respect. She is wavering-minded, light of conditions and will overthrow her own estate.” Jane’s family, however, does not appear to have had any idea of her extracurricular activities, for when her father-in-law, who died on May 30, 1607, wrote his will, he left her a house in Bearsted called Otterash, with barns, an orchard, yards, and arable land attached. By that time, she had remarried, taking as her second husband the well-to-do Sir Thomas May of Mayfield, Sussex (d. July 1616). His first wife, Barbara Rich, had died in early 1602, leaving him with a son, also named Thomas (1595-1650). Jane had one daughter, Mary, by Fludd and four daughters with her second husband. Toward the end of 1609, however, Jane paid another visit to Simon Forman, this time to learn the fate of her one-time lover, Sir Thomas Gates, who was on the missing ship Sea Venture, which had become separated from the fleet on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia, where he was to be governor. It was the following year before those in England learned that although a hurricane had wrecked the ship in Bermuda, all aboard had survived. This is the event that probably inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Although Forman’s predictions about the sort of man Jane would marry do not seem to have been accurate, he did appear to be correct that she would “overthrow her own estate.” By the time Thomas May died, there was very little money left, forcing Jane’s stepson to turn to writing to earn his living. What happened to Jane’s daughters after 1616 remains a mystery and Jane’s date of death is unknown.
see KATHERINE BRYDGES
Anne Sapcote was the daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote of Chenies, Buckinghamshire and Thornhaugh, Bedfordshire and Margaert Wolston. She married three times, first to John Broughton of Toddington, Bedfordshire (d.1519), by whom she had three children: John (d.1528), Anne (d.1561), and Catherine (d. April 23, 1535). Her second husband was Sir Richard Jerningham (d.1524), by whom she had Edward and John. In 1525 or 1526, she married Sir John Russell (c.1485-March 14, 1555/6), who was created earl of Bedford in 1550. They had one son, Francis, 2nd earl of Bedford (c.1527-July 28,1585). On November 20, 1529, she lost the wardship of her younger daughter by John Broughton to Agnes, duchess of Norfolk, who purchased it from the Crown. Agnes married Catherine to one of her sons, William Howard, later Lord Howard of Effingham, in about 1531. In the 1530s and 1540s, Anne was one of Princess Mary’s attendants. After her third husband’s death, she took over the upbringing of Magdalen Dacre, whose mother had died in 1552. Anne had owned Thornhaugh in her own right when she married John Russell. Chenies was the inheritance of her son John Broughton, but after his death, it became the Russells’ main residence.
Sabine Saunders was the daughter of Thomas Saunders of Sibbertoft, Leicestershire (d. March 1,1528) and Margaret Cave (d.1528+). In 1541, she married John Johnson (c.1514-1590), who had been apprenticed to her uncle, Anthony Cave. Johnson was a draper and a stapler whose business was centered in Calais. Sabine’s letters from 1542-1552 have been preserved. She had six children: Charity (b.1542), Rachel (b.1544), Faith (b.1548), Evangelist (b.1550), Edward, and one son who died young. She lived primarily at Glapthorne Manor in Northamptonshire after 1544, but when her husband fell ill of an ague in Calais in November 1546, she traveled there to nurse him and bring him home to recover more fully. The Johnsons’ business went into bankruptcy in 1553 and in 1555 John Johnson was committed to the Fleet for debt. He was not released until 1557. Sabine was allowed to remain at Glapthorne with their children but after his release there was no money to support the family. With the help of William Cecil, Johnson obtained a post as a secretary to Lord Paget. This lasted until 1561 and during that time the family shared a house in Lombard Street with John’s widowed sister-in-law, Maria (née Warner, married first to Otwell Johnson, who died in 1551, and then to Matthew Colclough.) In 1562, John and Sabine moved into the parsonage at West Wickham, Kent, renting it and the accompanying farm for £8 a year. Later they moved back to London. Sabine seems to have survived her husband, although the exact date of her death is not known. Biography: Barbara Winchester’s Tudor Family Portrait (1955)
see DOROTHY FOUNTAIN
see ELIZABETH DARCY
see JOCOSA TRAPPES
Margaret Scrope was the daughter of Sir Richard Scrope (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). She married Edward de la Pole, earl of Suffolk (1472-1513). Suffolk fled the realm in 1499, returned and was pardoned, and left again in 1501, hoping to gain the throne for himself with foreign support. He was outlawed on December 26, 1502. In March 1506/7 he was returned to England as a prisoner. He was exempted from the general pardon of 1509 and eventually executed, but his wife was at court early in Henry VIII’s reign as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. She had one daughter, Anne, who became a nun at the Minories without Aldgate.
Margaret Scutt was the daughter of John Scutt (before 1498-1557), a gentleman who had been one of the royal tailors from 1519-1547, making clothing for all six of Henry VIII’s wives and also for private clients like Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle. He was master of the Merchant Taylors Company in 1536. Scutt's first wife, whose name is unknown, died in July 1537. Some sources give Margaret's age as eighteen in 1557. I think it likely that she was a little older, and is is possible that her mother died giving birth to her. If she was, in fact, born in 1539, then Scutt married three times because his wife by 1545 was Bridget Malte (d. November 30,1557), younger daughter of the king's tailor, John Malte, and she was not Margaret's mother. Bridget has been described as “a verye lustye yonge woman.” She and Scutt had a son, Anthony (1545-January 7,1588) and, according to John Malte's 1546 will, Anthony had a brother, Edward Scutt, but he is not identified as Bridget's child. Malte left Anthony the parsonage at Woolstone, Berkshire and Bridget the manor of Offington, Berkshire. John Scutt was granted arms on November 12, 1546. After the death of Henry VIII he retired to the manor of Stanton Drew, Somerset, where he was the tenant of Sir John St. Loe. The next part of the story comes primarily from Mary S. Lovell's Bess of Hardwick. Scutt had a reputation for mistreating his wife and when he suddenly died, there were whispers of poison. The whispers grew louder when Bridget remarried a fortnight after her husband’s death, taking as her second husband Edward St. Loe (c.1520-1578), one of Sir John’s sons. Before Edward married her, he had arranged for his brother, Sir William St. Loe, to purchase the wardship of Anthony Scutt. He’d also asked William not to agree to their father’s suggestion that he (William) marry Margaret Scutt. Later it came out that Bridget was three months pregnant with St. Loe’s child at the time of the marriage. Two months after the marriage, she was dead. Six months after that, Edward St. Loe married his stepdaughter by marriage, Margaret Scutt. The marriage was long and apparently happy, but early on there were difficulties that grew out of St. Loe’s jealousy of his older brother Sir William. In 1560, Edward and Margaret moved into Sutton Court at Chew, Somerset, one of Sir William’s properties, where Edward filled the post of steward. Edward, however, thought the property should have been his outright. In early 1561, his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hardwick St.Loe, fell ill shortly after a visit from Edward and his mother, Lady Margaret (FitzNicholas) St. Loe. A letter from Lady St. Loe indicates that even she suspected her younger son of poisoning Bess and attempting to poison Sir William. Although others, including a cousin, also named Elizabeth St. Loe, were arrested and charged, Edward was not. NOTE: Elizabeth St. Loe, the cousin, was put in the Tower at that time, which has caused considerable confusion with Elizabeth (Bess of Hardwick) St. Loe, who was not. Bess was questioned at about this time as to what she knew about Lady Catherine Grey's elopement and when she knew it but she was not imprisoned. Returning to Edward and Margaret St. Loe, they next appear in a case in civil court. Edward claimed that his father, who had died in December 1558, had meant Sutton Court to be left to Edward's wife and he accused Bess of Hardwick of bewitching William into marriage. Countercharges from William concerned the condition of Sutton Court. In the end, Edward and Margaret remained in residence, playing rent to William and Bess, but a portion of the rents from the estate were to be returned to Edward by William as income. Shortly thereafter, Sir William took the precaution of making a will that left everything he owned to Bess, so that Edward would not inherit even if William and Bess remained childless. This turned out to be a wise precaution. William fell ill and died unexpectedly early in 1565. Edward was with him at the time. After William's death, Edward produced a document that ceded Sutton Court to Edward and Margaret. Again there was a suspicion of poison but no proof and therefore no charges were brought. The matter of who owned Sutton Court, however, went before a judge. The ruling, in 1567, granted Margaret a lifetime interest in Sutton Court, with the property to revert to Bess on Margaret’s death. As for Edward, he had been posted to Ireland while the matter was being settled and remained there until 1568 when he abandoned his post after an accidental explosion in Londonderry which caused a great fire. Shortly after Bess of Hardwick's fourth marriage in early 1568 (to the earl of Shrewsbury), she purchased Margaret’s life interest in Sutton Court for £500. Margaret and Edward then moved to the manor of Knighton in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire where they seem to have led a respectable existence. They had a daughter, Margaret (d.1591). Through this Margaret, who married Richard Stephens (d.1599), Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Margaret Scutt and Edward St. Loe. .jpg)
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see MARY WOODHULL
see ANNE HATHAWAY
Judith Shakespeare was the daughter of William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23, 1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-August 8, 1623). There is little known about her early life, other than that her twin brother, Hamnet, died young. Germaine Greer, in Shakespeare’s Wife suggests that Judith was either apprenticed to Bess Quiney in 1602 or went to work for her as a nursemaid. In 1611, Judith witnessed a deed for Bess Quiney and her son Adrian. She signed with a squiggle that indicates she could not sign her own name. At thirty-one, on February 10, 1615, she married Thomas Quiney, who was twenty-seven. In March they had to answer to charges that they had wed without the proper license. Greer suggests that a marriage between the two might have been considered years earlier and that it did not take place sooner because the marriage settlement Shakespeare made for his older daughter, Susanna, had the effect of disinheriting Judith. The couple. Shakespeare’s will also deals oddly with Judith. Thomas Quiney ran a tavern next door to his mother’s house. Their children were Shakespeare (November 1616-May 1617), Richard (February 1618-February 1639), and Thomas (January 1620-January 1639).
Susanna Shakespeare was the daughter of William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23, 1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-August 8, 1623). We know that she could read and write, but not much else about her. In 1607 she married John Hall (d. 1636), a doctor. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (1608-February 17, 1670). In June 1613, for unknown reasons, a man named John Lane accused Susanna of adultery with Ralph Smith, a thirty-five year old haberdasher, and claimed she’d caught a venereal disease from Smith. Five weeks later, the Halls brought suit against Lane in the Consistory Court at Worcester. Lane was found guilty of libel and excommunicated.
Eleanor Sheffield was the daughter of Edmund, 1st baron Sheffield (November 22,1521-July 3,1549) and Anne de Vere (c.1522-February 1571/2). She married Denzil Holles of Irby upon Humber, Lincolnshire (1536-April 12, 1590) and was the mother of William, John, 1st earl of Clare (May, 1564-October 4,1637), Frances, and Jane. According to Holles family tradition, Eleanor found a love letter from the earl of Leicester to her sister-in-law, Douglas Howard, Lady Sheffield, and revealed their affair to her brother. He, it was said, was on his way to London to divorce Douglas when he fell ill and died, poisoned, it was said, by Leicester.
Elizabeth Shelley was the daughter of Sir John Shelley of Michelgrove (1506-December 16, 1550) and Mary Fitzwilliam (b.c.1510). She is better known as Lady Guildford, a recusant arrested along with her son and daughter, a priest, and several others on Palm Sunday 1574 for allowing mass to be said in her home in Trinity Lane, Queenshithe, London. Elizabeth’s husband, to whom she was married by 1560, was Sir Thomas Guildford (c.1535-June 1575), who was not a Catholic. They had four children—Elizabeth (b.c.1560), Mary (b.c. 1562), Barbara (1563-June 20, 1641), and Henry (b.1566). According to some accounts, Elizabeth married a Gage as her second husband. According to others, her mother’s second husband was named John Gage.
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see FRANCES VAVASOUR.jpg)
see DOROTHY WROUGHTON
see FRANCES MEAUTAS
see ANNE HARRIS
Agnes Sidney, sometimes called Anne, was the daughter of Sir William Sidney (1482-1554) and Anne Pagenham (d. October 22, 1544). She married William Fitzwilliam of Gaynes Park, Essex (1526-September 16, 1599). Her wedding settlement, dated January 4, 1543, gave her the use of all of his Essex lands for life should he die before her. They had five children: William (c.1550-1618), John (1554-1612), Mary, Margaret, and Philippa. Anne raised them on her own for the most part, since her husband was so often in Ireland during their marriage. She was there with him part of the time, however, and in 1571, when he was suffering from an ague, she wrote to the queen to ask that he be recalled. Instead, he was appointed Lord Deputy. His enemies claimed Anne made all his decisions for him. Certainly he trusted her. In 1575, he sent her to England to make a personal appeal to the queen for his recall. This time she succeeded, and he remained in England for most of the period from 1575 to 1588. The queen visited his house at Gaynes Park in 1578, but Anne was not there at the time. She had gone to Bath for her health. Fitzwilliam was again sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy in 1588. Portraits: possible portrait c. 1545; by George Gower c. 1577; monument in Theydon Garnon Church, Essex.
see ANNE PAKENHAM