A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN (K)

A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: K

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her very out-of-date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

ALICE KEBELL (1482-June 8, 1521)
Alice Kebell was the daughter of Henry Kebell, Kebel, or Keble (1452-April 1517), a grocer and merchant of the staple who was Lord Mayor of London in 1510-11 and gave Ł1000 toward the building of his parish church of St. Mary Aldermary, Budge Row. Her mother was Joan Brice (d.1499+). She married Sir William Browne of Flambard's Hall and St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street (1467-1514), a mercer who was Lord Mayor of London in 1513-14. Their children were Anne (1509-March 10, 1582), Elizabeth, Matthew, John of Horton Kirby, Kent (d. September 1570), and another daughter. (NOTE: Anne F. Sutton in The Mercery of London says Browne was survived by his son William by his first wife and three daughters by Alice.) On February 15, 1515, Alice remarried, becoming the third wife of William Blount, Lord Mountjoy (1479-November 8, 1534). Their children were Charles (June 28, 1516-October 14, 1544), Catherine (c.1518-February 25, 1558/9), and Edward. Alice was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 as part of Catherine of Aragon's household.

MARGARET KEBELL

see MARGARET BASSETT

ANNE KEILWAY or KELWAY (c.1554-May 25, 1620)
Anne Keilwey or Kelway was the daughter of Sir Robert Keilwey of Combe Abbey Lovel (d.1581), surveyor of wards and liveries to Queen Elizabeth, and Cecily Bulstrode. She inherited Combe Abbey upon her father’s death. She married John Harington (1539/40-August 23, 1613), who was created baron Harington of Exton on July 21, 1603. On October 19, 1603, he was given charge of the household of Princess Elizabeth and this was established at Combe Abbey. Harington and his wife remained the princess’s guardians until her marriage in 1613 to Frederick V, elector Palatine. By that time, they were deeply in debt. Although they had an annual income of between Ł5000 and Ł7000, they were at least Ł30,000 in debt. They spent four months abroad and on the way home, Haringdon died of a fever at Worms. Anne brought his body home for burial at Exton and then obtained permission to "end her days" in the Palatinate. She received a gift of Ł500 to cover her travel expenses. They had four children, Kelway (d.yng), Lucy (January 1581-May 26, 1627), Frances (1587-1615), and John (1592-1614). Portrait: the portrait at Gripsholm Castle, Sweden of Anne’s daughter, Lucy Harington, was once said to be Anne; effigy in Exton Parish Church, Exton, Leicestershire.

THOMASIN KEKEWICH
see THOMASIN BARDFIELD

ESTHER KELLO

see ESTHER INGLIS

ANNE KEMPE
see ANNE CONYERS

DOROTHY KEMPE (c.1561?-c.1616)
According to the author of Dorothy Kempe’s entry in the DNB, Dorothy was the daughter of William Kempe of Finchingfield, Essex. No one, however, seems to know anything about this particular William while other sources (genealogies) list Dorothy as the child of Robert Kempe of Spains Hall, Finchingfield (c.1515-1557+) and his wife Elizabeth Heigham. The DNB argues that this Dorothy, born c. 1561, would have been too old to still have young children in 1616, when her book, The Mother’s Blessing, was published posthumously. Since it was “left behind for her children,” the author argues, those children must still have been young in 1616. But were they? The youngest, William, was appointed rector of Groton, Suffolk only ten years later. Either he was a prodigy or the children were already adults when their mother died. The two older sons were George and John. Their father was Ralph Leigh or Lee of Cheshire, who served with Essex at Cadiz in 1596. A Ralph Leigh of the Leighs of Adlington Hall died in 1597 and may have been Dorothy’s husband. The DNB gives c.1616 for her husband’s date of death but does not identify him in any other way. I am inclined to think that Dorothy, who wrote a book of advice for mothers with religious overtones that went into twenty-three editions between 1616 and 1674, may have composed it well before she died and left instructions to publish it only after her death. This would have been more “respectable” than publishing it while she was still alive. I admit I’m speculating here, but so are others who have tried to identify this lady. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Leigh [née Kempe], Dorothy.”

ELEANOR KEMPE

see ELEANOR BROWNE

MARGARET KEMPE (d.1579)
Margaret Kempe was the daughter of Edmond Kempe of Ollantigh, Kent and Bridget Style. Her father was a wealthy London mercer. On May 12, 1542, she married William Dane (1517-September 5, 1573), ironmonger, who later became a London alderman and served as sheriff in 1569. They had no children. Margaret continued her husband's business after his death and when she died she left several charitable bequests in her will, as well as leaving a gold necklace worth Ł200 to Queen Elizabeth. She is best known for having founded a school in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, the town where her husband was born, but she also left Ł2000 to the Company of Ironmongers. The interest on this bequest was to be used for charity, but Ł100 was reserved to make loans to young men just starting out in business, with preference given to dealers in linen cloth. As matters turned out, the Ironmongers did not actually receive the legacy until 1602 and the school in Bishop's Stortford took even longer to be founded, but eventually Margaret's wishes were carried out. She was buried in the parish church of St. Margaret Moses, London. Portrait: one said to be from the sixteenth century is at Birchwood High School (formerly Margaret Dane School).

MARY KEMPE (d.1557)
Mary Kempe was the daughter of Christopher Kempe (1485-1512) and Mary Guildford (1486-1529). Her stepfather was Sir William Hawte (1490-June 1539) and she was raised with her two stepsisters. One of them, Jane, married Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger. Mary was in service with Mary Tudor as early as 1536. In 1542/3, she had charge of Mary's jewels. She became a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber from 1553. She died at court. She was married to Lawrence Finch or Fynch of "the Moat" and Eastwell, Kent (c.1508-c.1563). They do not seem to have had any children. In 1553, Mary obtained a license for her brother-in-law and his family to travel overseas but her half sister was pregnant and unable to travel. Thus was Sir Thomas Wyatt drawn into rebellion . . . or so goes the story, as told by George Wyatt, Jane's youngest son.

JOAN KEMPE
see JOAN FERMOR

URSULA KEMPE alias GRAY (x.1582)

Ursula Kempe was a major figure in the 1582 Chelmsford witch trials. She was one of the “cunning folk” who were usually accepted by the community because of their usefulness in finding lost property, “unwitching,” and nursing. Ursula was not married but she did have a son, Thomas Rabbet (b.1574). In 1580, Ursula was hired by the Thorlowe family. Grace Thorlowe suffered from arthritis and her son Davy also had some sort of ailment which Ursula healed with an incantation. The Thorlowes, however, refused to let Ursula nurse their newborn daughter, Joan, and when Joan fell out of her crib and broke her neck on October 6, 1580, they accused Ursula of bewitching her to death. It has been speculated that the charge was made because the Thorlowes hoped to save themselves paying the shilling they owed Ursula for healing Davy and giving Grace a remedy for her arthritis. Whatever their reason, when Ursula went before Brian Darcy, the quarter sessions judge, matters escalated. Darcy was an avid witch hunter. He convinced both Ursula and her son to “confess” and his promise of clemency persuaded Ursula to name four other women as witches: Elizabeth Bennett, Alice Hunt, Alice Newman, and Margery Sammon. Ursula also confessed to having four familiars, two cats (Titty and Jack), a toad (Pigin) and a lamb (Tyffin). In official documents, Ursula Kempe, also known as Ursula Gray, is accused of bewitching Joan Thorlowe on October 3, Edna Stratton (d.February 14, 1582) on November 30, 1581, and Elizabeth Letherdall (d.February 26) on February 12, 1582. Meanwhile, the four women Ursula implicated named nine more: Joan Pechey, Agnes Glascock, Cecily Celles or Sylles, Joan Turner, Elizabeth Ewstace, Anis Herd, Alice Manfield, Margaret Grevell, and Alice Hunt's sister, Anne Swallow. These thirteen women, collectively known as the St. Osyth Witches after Ursula's village, were tried at Chelmsford in Essex on charges of witchcraft. Two were not indicted. Two were discharged but held in prison on other charges. Four were acquitted. Four were found guilty but reprieved. Two, Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennett, were hanged. In 1921, two female skeletons were discovered in St. Osyth, both with iron rivets driven into their knees and elbows. This was done to prevent witches from rising from their graves. On this evidence, they have been identified as Ursula Kempe and Elizabeth Bennett.

ELIZABETH KENN (1593-1663)
Elizabeth Kenn, also known as Christian Kenn, was the daughter of Christopher Kenn. Elizabeth married first John Poulett, 1st baron Poulett (c.1585-1619), by whom she had Margaret, Elizabeth, and Florence, and second John Ashburnham (1603-1671). Portrait: by Robert Peake, 1616.

ELIZABETH KENNEDY

see ELIZABETH BRYDGES

DOROTHY KENT (d. October 26, 1587)
Dorothy Kent was the wife of Dr. Thomas Vavasour of York (d. May 12, 1585) and both were leaders in the recusant movement in the north of England. They established a refuge for Catholic women about to give birth so that the children could be christened in the faith. After her husband became a fugitive in 1568, Dorothy continued his work. In 1571, she was called before the High Commission but not imprisoned. When her husband was finally captured and sent to the prison in Hull in 1574, where he remained until his death, Dorothy had a breakdown. Her recovery was accounted miraculous. She was arrested in a raid in August 1578 and once again brought before the High Commission but she was released from the Kidcote prison on Ouse Bridge and held under house arrest instead. After a second raid in August 1581, she was convicted, fined 100 marks, and sentenced to a year in the Kidcote, together with her daughters Dorothy and Anne. She was still in prison six years later when she died there of a fever. She also had two sons, Thomas (d.1587) and James, who became priests.

ALICE KEYES (d.1617)
Alice Keyes married Nicholas Kirfoote (d.1625) at Little Wittenham in December 1586. They had moved to North Moreton, Berkshire by February 1593, when their daughter Mary was baptized there. They had at least three other children. In 1604, Alice played a key role in the fraudulent bewitchment of a North Moreton girl named Anne Gunter (see her entry), teaching her how to hide pins in her mouth and pretend to vomit them. Not enough is known about Alice or her husband to be sure what her motives were, but it is likely some village feud was at the root of the deception. After Anne Gunter began to have fits, Alice followed suit, making accusations of witchcraft against two local women, Elizabeth Gregory and Agnes Pepwell. She stopped short, however, of making those charges in court. This probably explains why she and her husband were not prosecuted along with Brian Gunter for fraud. Further details can be found in The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of England by James Sharpe.

THOMASINE KEYNELL
see THOMASIN FRY

MIRIAM KHAN (d.1617+)
Miriam Khan was the daughter of Mubarak Khan, an Armenian Christian merchant at the court of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir. After her father died, the emperor appears to have become her guardian. He offered her as a bride to William Hawkins (c.1560-1613), an English adventurer who had arrived in Agra on April 16, 1609. When Hawkins left India for England in November 1611, Miriam and some of her relatives went with him, in spite of the objections of her mother and brother. Hawkins died aboard ship en route to England around May 21, 1613, and was buried in Ireland. Miriam is said to have arrived in England with one diamond worth Ł2000 and smaller ones worth Ł4000, as well as other money and goods brought with her from India. In February 1614, she was given a purse of 200 gold sovereigns by the East India Company in return for signing a general release. Later that year, she married Gabriel Towerson (d. February 27, 1623) who, like Hawkins, was a trader, ship captain, and member of the East India Company. In 1617, they returned to Agra, where Miriam stayed with her family when Towerson left. He perished in the Massacre of Amboyna in the Moluccas. According to one account, she made several appeals to the East India Company for assistance but received nothing.

ANNE KILLIGREW (d.1632)
Anne Killigrew was the oldest daughter of Sir Henry Killigrew (c. 1528-1603) and Katherine Cooke (c.1530-December 27,1583). In 1584, she married Sir Henry Neville of Billingbear, Berkshire (c.1564-July 10,1615). Neville was ambassador to France in 1599 but asked to be recalled because of deafness. When he was suspected of involvement in Essex’s rebellion, he was confined to his father-in-law’s house in Lothbury, London. Killigrew forbade his daughter to see her husband until the Privy Council ordered him to let her visit. Neville was fined Ł5000 and imprisoned in the Tower until 1603. During that time, Anne worked actively for his release. They had ten children—Henry (c.1586-June 29, 1629), William, Charles (d.1626), Richard (d.1644), Edward (d.1632), Elizabeth (c.1588-c.1656), Catherine (c.1585-1650), Frances (d. May 27,1661), Dorothy (d. 1672), and Anne. One genealogy lists Margaret (c.1591-1618) instead of Anne. In about 1619, Lady Neville married George Carleton, Bishop of Chichester (1557/8-May 12,1628), by whom she had a son, Henry.

CATHERINE KILLIGREW (1579-1641)
Catherine Killigrew was the daughter of Sir William Killigrew of Lothbury, London (1545-November 23, 1622) and Margery or Margaret Saunders (1545-June 1625), although the Oxford DNB incorrectly states that she was the daughter of Henry Killigrew of Hanworth, Middlesex. Birthdates given for her vary from 1574-1582. On November 26, 1599, in St. Margaret Lothbury, London, she married Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke, Suffolk (1573-1644/5). Their children were Robert (1601-1623), Thomas (c.1602-1659), Henry (c.1604-1684), another son, and Elizabeth, who died in 1605 from accidentally ingesting rat poison. Portrait: by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1614.

DOROTHY KILLIGREW

see DOROTHY MONK

ELIZABETH KILLIGREW

see ELIZABETH TREWINARD

JAÉL KILLIGREW
see JAÉL DE PEIGNE

KATHERINE KILLIGREW

see KATHERINE COOKE

MARGERY KILLIGREW
see MARGERY SAUNDERS

MARY KILLIGREW

see MARY WOLVERSTON

ALICE KINGSMILL (d.1596)
Alice Kingsmill was the daughter of Sir John Kingsmill of Sigmanton or Sydmonton, Hampshire (d. August 11, 1556) and Constance Goring (c.1580/1). She came from a staunchly protestant family and one of her brothers had been in exile during the reign of Queen Mary. In about 1564, she secretly married James Pilkington, bishop of Durham (1520-1576). There was extreme prejudice against clerical wives in England at this time. They had four children, Deborah (b.1564), Isaac (1567/8-d.yng), Joshua (d.yng), and Ruth (b.1569). Negotiations for a dowry of Ł800 for Deborah before her father died indicated that the family was well-to-do, although not nearly so wealthy as some critics claimed. According to Mary Prior in "Reviled and Crucified Marriages: the position of Tudor bishop's wives," in Women in English Society 1500-1800, edited by Mary Prior, Alice may have moved to London to be near her family during her widowhood.

BRIDGET KINGSMILL (1574-1600+)
Bridget Kingsmill was the daughter of Sir William Kingsmill of Sydmonton, Hampshire (1526-November 10, 1593) and Bridget Raleigh (1534-1607). She married Thomas Norris (1556-August 20, 1599), by whom she had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth. In 1598, she visited Simon Forman the astrologer, who wrote of her in his notes: “She hath a truckling in her flesh, like the stinging of nettles, and a rising of blood into her lungs, periplomania, much gravel in the reins, catarrh, fearfulness and trembling . . . she is often in great pain.” Although both A. L. Rowse and Judith Cook identify Lady Norris as Bridget Vere, granddaughter of Lord Burghley and wife of Francis Norris, later earl of Berkshire, and agree from Forman’s other notes that her troubles were caused by a botched abortion, Bridget Vere was only fourteen in 1598 and not yet married to Norris. In addition, the Lady Norris who visited Forman gave her name as “Bridget Kingsmill.” Rowse and Cook explain this by saying it was an alias, the name of Bridget Vere’s maid, but when there is a real Bridget Kingsmill, Lady Norris in 1598, it seems much more logical to me that this was, indeed, she. Forman gives her age as twenty-four when she consulted him. In 1600, after her husband’s death in Ireland, Lady Norris was destitute. She wrote to Sir Walter Raleigh asking for assistance in a letter that is still extant. After that, however, I have so far found no further mention of her. If she was as ill as Forman implies, she probably died soon after.

CONSTANCE KINGSMILL (1551-1589)
Constance Kingsmill was the daughter of Sir William Kingsmill of Sidmanton, Hampshire (1526-November 10, 1593) and Bridget Ralegh (1534-1607). In about 1570, she married Sir Richard Fiennes (later 7th baron Saye and Sele) (c.1557-1613). Their children were William (May 28, 1582-April 14, 1662), Anne, and Ursula. According to All the Queen's Women: The Changing Place and Perception of Aristocratic Women in Elizabethan England 1558-1620 (1987) by Joan Barbara Greenbaum Goldsmith, they separated during the 1580s.

CONSTANCE KINGSMILL (d.1637)
Constance Kingsmill was the daughter of Richard Kingsmill of Highclere, Hampshire (c.1528-September 1600) and Alice Fauconer (d. before 1574) and was a wealthy heiress, her worth accounted at Ł40,000. She was brought up in the Walsingham household as a companion to Frances Walsingham. She became the second wife of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote (1551-1605). Their fourteen children included Thomas (1585-December 1640), Richard (1592-April 5, 1667), George (b.1593), William (1594-October 4, 1677), Robert (d.1615), Francis (1600-c.1682), Elizabeth, Bridget, Anne, and Susanna. Portrait: effigy on her father’s tomb in St. Michael Archangel, Highclere, Hampshire and on her husband's tomb at Charlecote, Warwickshire.

FRANCES KINGSMILL (c.1564-January 1, 1627)
Frances Kingsmill was the daughter of Sir William Kingsmill (1526-December 11, 1592) and Bridget Raleigh (1534-1607). In about 1582 she married John Croker (1565-1610). Portraits: miniature by Nicholas Hilliard c.1580-85; portrait by George Gower c.1585-1587.

MORPHITA KINGSMILL (d. 1569)

Morphita Kingsmill was the daughter of John Kingsmill of Freefolk, Hampshire and Barkham, Berkshire (d. May 13,1509), Judge of Common Pleas, and Joan Gifford. She became a nun and in September 1535 was elected abbess of Wherwell in Hampshire. The abbey was supposed to be sold to her brother, John Kingsmill of Sydmonton, Hampshire (d. August 11, 1556), but once it was surrendered, on November 21, 1539, it went to Lord De La Warr instead. Morphita received a pension of Ł40 per annum. Seven of her former nuns were still living with her when she made her will on March 31, 1569.

SARAH KINGSMILL
see SARAH HARINGTON

MARY KINGSTON

see MARY GAINSFORD; MARY SCROPE

MARY KINGSTON (d. March 24, 1539)
Mary Kingston was the daughter of John Kingston of Kingston Bagpuze, Berkshire and Eleanora Lisle. She was heir to her uncle, Sir John Lisle of Thruxton, Hampshire (d.1523), but since she was "fair but weak and silly" he arranged her marriage, by September 14, 1515, to a distant cousin, Sir Thomas Lisle (c.1481-February 1, 1542), son of Sir John Lisle of Kimpton, Hampshire. Mary thus became de jure baroness Lisle. With Sir Thomas she had a son, Anthony, who died young.

SUSAN KINGSTON
see SUSAN FETTIPLACE

ALICE KIRFOOTE
see ALICE KEYES

AGNES KIRK (d.1546+) (maiden name unknown)
By 1532, Agnes was the third wife of Gilbert Kirk (Kyrke/Kirkeby) of Exeter, Devon (d. March 16, 1546), who was mayor of Exeter in 1531-2 and 1539-40. They had a son, Thomas (b.1534) and two daughters. When Gilbert died, it was Thomas, not his son by his second wife, who was his heir, and the inheritance was divided between Agnes's two daughters when Thomas died. Agnes erected a tomb over the grave of her husband in the church of St. Mary Arches. Her second husband was John Southcote of Bovey Tracey, Devon (c.1481-September 14, 1556), a recent (April 11) widower with grown children. They were married July 10, 1546.

JOAN KNELL
see JOAN BOCHER

ELIZABETH KNIGHT
see ELIZABETH JACKMAN

FRIDESWIDE KNIGHT (d. 1565)

Frideswide Knight was a maid in Catherine of Aragon's household and a member of Mary Tudor’s household in 1533 and again from 1536-1558. She was a chamberer in 1533 and 1536 and a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber from 1553. She married a gentleman of Mary’s household, Robert Strelley, in 1548. She received several grants for her service, including the former chantry windmill at Great Bowden, Leicestershire in 1548, Ulverscroft Priory from Queen Mary, and a property called Oxehedd. Frideswide and her husband received the latter from Edward VI in return for surrendering a Ł10 annuity. She does not seem to have had any children as the heirs to various properties were her nephew, John Wilson, and her husband’s “nephew and heir” William Saville. Frideswide Strelley was the only one of Queen Mary’s ladies who would not pretend that the queen was pregnant after it became obvious that she was not.

ELIZABETH KNIGHTLEY
see ELIZABETH SEYMOUR

JANE KNIGHTLEY
see JANE SKENNARD; JANE SPENCER

SUSAN KNIGHTLEY (d.1549+)
Susan Knightley was the daughter of Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley, Northamptonshire (c.1500-December 8, 1534) and Jane Skennard (d.1550). She married Sir William Spencer of Althorp, Northamptonshire and Wormleighton, Warwickshire (d. June 22, 1532) and was the mother of Sir John (1524-1586), Isabel (d.1538), Jane (d.1593), Dorothy (d.1575), Anne, and Mary. Her brothers Richard and Edmund quarreled with her husband and, after an alleged assault on them by Sir William in 1529, as they were leaving the Horse’s Head in Cheapside, the case went to the Star Chamber. After Spencer died, however, they supported their sister's effort to withhold her son's wardship from the crown and defraud the trustees of the estate of certain movables. Susan claimed that her husband had been deeply in debt at his death, although the estate was valued at Ł454 a year when her son reached his majority, and that she and her children were destitute. Edmund Knightley was charged with fraud and was briefly imprisoned in the Fleet in September 1532. It was December 1539, however, before the wardship was granted to Sir Giles Alington.

URSULA KNIGHTLEY
see URSULA de VERE

WINIFRED KNIGHTLEY (1515-January 16, 1569)
Winifred Knightley was the daughter of William Knightley of Morgrave Knightley and Norwich (d. 1545+), a wealthy attorney, and Margaret Pawe, whose father was also a Norwich lawyer. On December 22, 1543, she married Robert Coke of Melcham, Norfolk (1513-1561) in St. Peter Parmentergate, Norwich. They had seven daughters and one son: Winifred, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Audrey (1551-November 16, 1630), Sir Edward (February 1, 1552-1624), Urusla, Anne, and Margaret. Winifred was the heiress of her uncle, William Pawe and upon her first husband’s death inherited Melcham and Tittleshall. In 1563, she married her second husband, Robert Bozoun of Whissonsett, Norfolk (d.1575+), by whom she had a son, John. Her legacy to her eldest son included two law books, which formed the basis for his library.

JANE KNIVETON
see JANE LECHE

ANNE KNOLLYS (1555-August 30, 1608)
Anne Knollys was the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys (1514-1596) and Catherine Carey (1523/4-January 15, 1569). She was a maid of honor before her marriage. During that time (1570), she received fifty-three pairs of shoes, thirty-one made of calves' leather. Aside from footwear for Tomasina the dwarf and Ippolyta the Tartarian, these are the only other records of shoes being supplied to a member of the queen's household. Most court women, according to Charlotte Merton’s The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, went to London shoemakers. On November 19, 1571, Anne married Thomas West, 2nd baron de la Warr (1556-March 24, 1602) at Wherwell, Hampshire. She was the mother of Walsingham (d. yng.), Robert (January 3, 1573/4-before 1602), Elizabeth (1573?-1633?), Margaret (b. 1576), Thomas (July 9, 1577-June 17, 1618), Lettice (b. November 24, 1579), Anne (b. May 21, 1581), Penelope (September 9, 1582-c.1619), Catherine (b. December 27, 1583), Francis (October 28, 1586-1634), Helena (b. December 15, 1587), John (December 14, 1590-1659), and Nathaniel (November 30, 1592-1673). Portrait: by Robert Peake, 1582.

CATHERINE KNOLLYS

see CATHERINE CAREY

DOROTHY KNOLLYS

see DOROTHY BRAY

ELIZABETH KNOLLYS (June 15,1549-c.1605)
Elizabeth Knollys was the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys (1514-1596) and Catherine Carey (1523/4-January 15, 1569). She is called Cecilia Knollys by Violet Wilson in her Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor and Ladies of the Privy Chamber. She was at court as a maid of honor early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1574, according to Janet Arnold's Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, she had a servant named Arthur Middleton who made doublets and did alterations. He worked unofficially for Queen Elizabeth until he was expelled from the Great Wardrobe in 1594. In 1578, Elizabeth Knollys married Thomas Leighton or Layton of Feckenham (1535-1609) but continued her career as a lady of the privy chamber. Her children with Leighton were a son, Thomas, and two daughters, Anne (d.1628) and Elizabeth (d. January 12, 1633). Elizabeth had died by June 10, 1605, when her annuity of Ł200 was granted to Elizabeth Howard, Lady Carrick. Joan Barbara Greenbaum Goldsmith, in her 1987 dissertation, All the Queen’s Women: The Changing Place and Perception of Aristocratic Women in Elizabethan England, 1558-1620, identifies the Elizabeth Knollys in the queen's household from 1559-1575 as a sister of Sir Francis Knollys, rather than his daughter, but records I've seen of Sir Robert Knollys and Lettice Penyston list only a Mary and a Jane and both would have been born by c. 1521, when Sir Robert died. Portrait: after George Gower, 1577.

LETTICE KNOLLYS

see LETTICE PENYSTON

LETTICE or LAETITIA KNOLLYS (November 8,1543-December 25,1634)

Lettice Knollys was the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys (1514-1596) and Catherine Carey (1523/1524-January 15,1569). She was a first cousin to Queen Elizabeth and resembled the queen a good deal. She was probably in exile with her parents during the reign of Mary Tudor but upon Elizabeth’s ascension she came to court as a maid of honor. In late 1560, she married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford (September 16,1539-September 22,1576) and by him had Penelope (1562-July 7,1607), Dorothy (1564-August 3,1619), Robert (November 19,1566-February 25, 1601), Walter (1569-1591) and Francis (d.yng.). Her husband was elevated in the peerage to earl of Essex in 1572. The family seat was at Chartley in Staffordshire, but Lettice was often at court. There a relationship developed with Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (June 24,1532-September 4, 1588), the queen’s favorite. With Essex in Ireland from 1572 until the winter of 1575/6, Lettice lived in Durham House on the Strand, quite near Leicester House. In the summer of 1575, when Lady Essex and the earl of Leicester were both on progress with the queen, Edward Arden, sheriff of Warwickshire, refused to wear Leicester’s livery for the festivities at Kenilworth Castle because the earl “had private access to the countess of Essex.” According to one account of the incident, Arden called Leicester a whoremaster. The anonymous 1584 pamphlet known as Leicester’s Commonwealth claimed that Lady Essex was pregnant by Leicester immediately before her husband’s return from Ireland and that she had an abortion. Another tale, this one reported by the Spaniard, de Guaras, in December of 1575, was that there was “a great enmity between the earl of Leicester and the earl of Essex in consequence . . . of the fact that while Essex was in Ireland his wife had two children by Leicester.” Acccording to de Guaras, this was openly talked of in London. When Essex returned to Ireland and shortly thereafter died there of dysentery, gossip insisted that Leicester had poisoned his rival. An autopsy proved otherwise but talk did not cease and rumor had the two lovers married soon after. They may have gone through an earlier ceremony, but there was a secret wedding at Wanstead on September 21, 1578 which was witnessed by Sir Francis Knollys, Lettice’s father. She appeared to be with child at the time. Robert Dudley, Lord Denbigh (d.July 19, 1584) was born in 1579. Lettice was at court in July of that year with a new wardrobe that rivaled the queen’s. When her marriage to Leicester became known, the queen is said to have boxed Lettice’s ears and banished her, saying that as but one sun lighted the sky, so she would have but one queen in England. Away from court, Lettice went out of her way to be mistaken for her royal cousin, riding through the streets of London in a carriage with her ladies in coaches behind her. Lettice also began scheming to marry her daughter, Dorothy, to the king of Scotland. When the queen heard of this, in 1583, she swore she would “sooner the Scots King lost his crown” than be married to the daughter of a “she-wolf” and further said that if she could find no other way to check Lady Leicester’s ambition she would proclaim her all over Christendom as the whore she was and prove Leicester a cuckold. These statements, of course, come from Spanish reports, and should be taken with a grain of salt. The Frenchman, Mauvissiere, writing at about the same time, reported that Leicester was greatly influenced by his wife. On December 8, 1585, Leicester was sent to the Low Countries and soon after made Governor General of the Netherlands. Lettice made plans to join him there and set up a court of her own, but the queen prevented her from leaving England. At about that time a rumor started that Leicester was jealous of his wife’s attentions to his Master of the Horse, one Christopher Blount (1565-March 18,1601). This tale gained credence after Leicester’s death. Lettice married Blount less than a year later, in July of 1589. An anonymous manuscript called “Leicester’s Ghost” claimed that Lettice and Blount had poisoned the earl of prevent him from killing Blount and imprisoning Lettice at Kenilworth Castle. Leicester’s will seems to disprove this. It was written on his deathbed in the form of a letter to Lettice. After her remarriage, which angered the queen, Lettice lived primarily at Drayton Bassett in Staffordshire, even though she deemed life there to be fit “only for the disgraced.” In 1597, Lettice’s son Robert, 2nd earl of Essex, made several attempts to reconcile the queen and his mother. He had taken his stepfather’s place as Elizabeth Tudor’s favorite and was eventually able to bring the two women face to face. Lettice presented the queen with a jewel, which was accepted but, a few days later, when Lettice requested permission to return to court, she was refused. Lettice was living in Essex House in 1599 when her son was under arrest. Aside from one visit was not allowed to see him. In February 1601 when Essex made his ill-advised attempt to take control of the government, Lettice was at Drayton Bassett, but Sir Christopher Blount played an active role in the conspiracy and was tried and executed for treason, as was Essex. Lettice remained at Drayton Bassett for the remainder of her life. Biography: Elizabeth Jenkins in Elizabeth and Leicester deals fairly extensively with Lettice’s life; Oxford DNB entry under "Dudley [née Knollys; other married name Devereux], Lettice." Portraits: portrait by George Gower at Longleat, c. 1585; at least five portraits of Lettice existed in her lifetime in her own households as well as a miniature belonging to a granddaughter;effigy on her tomb in St. Mary’s Church, Warwick.

LETTICE KNOLLYS (c.1583-1655)
Named for her famous aunt, Lettice Knollys was the daughter of Henry Knollys of Rotherfield Greys (1541-1582/3) and Margaret Cave (1549-1606). She married William Paulet, 4th baron Paulet (d. August 20, 1629) and was the mother of Anne, Margaret (c.1604-1652), William (September 13, 1609-October 19, 1678), Katherine (1615-1695), Mary, Dorothy, Henry, and Thomas. She is mentioned here primarily because she is the subject of a stunning portrait.

MARGARET KNOLLYS
see MARGARET CAVE

ELIZABETH KNOWLES
see ELIZABETH HYNDE

ELIZABETH KNOWLES or KNOLLES
see ELIZABETH CASTLYN or CASTELIN

MARGERY KNOX
see MARGERY BOWES

ANNE KNYVETT (c.1475-1558)
Anne Knyvett was the daughter of Edmund Knyvett of Buckenham Castle, Norfolk (c.1462-1504) and Eleanor Tyrrell (1466-1520+). She married Sir George St. Leger of Annery, Devon and they had three children, Sir John (c.1520-October 8, 1596), Catherine, and George (b.1530). Anne was a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and was probably the Lady Selenger of Kent who was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. Selenger and Selinger were common spellings of St. Leger. This makes me wonder if either Anne and Sir George, or Sir George's parents, Sir James St. Leger of Skipton (d. before 1515) and Ann Butler (d.1532/3) might have been the couple Neville Williams identifies as participating in a masque at court on Twelfth Night 1515. The name is given as Fellinger. Williams says Fellinger is an Imperial diplomat but offers no other information, not even a first name. Lady Selinger purchased cloth at court in 1514 and Anne Knyvett, Lady St. Leger, participated in the court revels of 1517-18. An online genealogy states that Anne St. Leger also owned a lead mine at Shebbear.

ANNE KNYVETT

see ANNE PICKERING; ANNE SHELTON

AVISE KNYVETT
see AVISE MORTELMAN

CATHERINE KNYVETT
see CATHERINE MARNEY

CATHERINE KNYVETT (1543-December 20, 1622)
Catherine Knyvett was the daughter of Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire (1510-March 1547) and Anne Pickering (1514-1582). She was a maid of honor in 1562, until she married Henry, 2^nd baron Paget (c.1537-December 28, 1568) by whom she was the mother of a daughter, Elizabeth (d. June 29, 1571). While she was at court, her chamber was robbed and Ł60 worth of plate was stolen. By her second marriage, c. 1568, to Sir Edward Cary of Aldenham, Hertfordshire (c.1540-July 18, 1618), she was the mother of Catherine (c.1570-September 24, 1635), Philip (c.1572-June 1631), Adolphus (c.1574-April 8, 1609), Jane (c.1574-January 2, 1632), Henry, Viscount Falkland (c. 1576-September 1633), Frances, Meriall (c.1579-May 15,1600), Anne (August 10, 1580-c.1624), and Elizabeth. As Lady Paget and as Lady Paget-Cary, Catherine was a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth. Her second husband was master of the jewel house. Portrait: c.1560-62.

CHRISTIAN KNYVETT (c.1446-1523)
Christian Knyvett was the daughter of John Knyvett of Homeston, Huntingdonshire and Buckenham, Norfolk (d.1489/90) and Alice Lynne. She married Sir Henry Colet (c.1430-October 1, 1505), a mercer who was twice Lord Mayor of London. They had twenty-two children, including John (1467-September 16, 1519), Richard (d. 1503+), and Thomas (d.1479). John Colet was the founder of St. Paul's School in London and through his letters we know that his mother was much admired by Erasmus and, in 1510, entertained the German theologian and physician Henricus Cornelius Agrippa. Christian spent her old age at Great Place, Stepney and was buried in St. Dunstan's and All Saints, Stepney. Her will is dated January 13, 1523 and was proved on November 2 of that year. Biography: Dame Christian Colet: Her Life and Family by Mary MacKenzie (1923).

ELEANOR KNYVETT
see ELEANOR TYRRELL

ELIZABETH KNYVETT (d.1518)
Elizabeth Knyvett was a lady-in-waiting to Eleanor Percy, duchess of Buckingham. She appears in the duke's accounts as early as 1508, on a list of the duke's servants to whom reward were given. She is still there at Easter 1518, when she was paid the Ł20 due to her on Lady Day. The very next entry in the summary in the Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII (vol. 3: 1519-1523), of the duke of Buckingham's papers, seized when he was arrested and executed on charges of treason in 1521, reads: "To M. Geddyng, toward the burying of my said cousin." This appears to have been in December 1518. If I am reading this correctly, the "said cousin" is Elizabeth Knyvett. She was certainly "deceased" by the time her possessions, "wrongfully withheld" by the duke, were inventoried after his execution. These included three satin and damask kirtles, a black velvet gown lined with yellow satin with gold buttons, a blue velvet gown lined with crimson tinsel, a russet damask gown lined with crimson velvet, a green silk camlet gown lined with crimson velvet, a black taffeta gown lined with crimson velvet, three gold chains, a silver basin and ewer, a pair of parcelgilt pots, three gilt goblets and a salt, with covers, six silver spoons, a sarcenet "trussing bede," red and yellow, with a counterpoint, two pallet beds, and six pieces of "verdewis," checked white and orange. These possessions indicate a woman of some wealth. Carole Rawcliffe, in The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham 1394-1521, states that Elizabeth had committed some unspecified misdemeanor, for which her possessions were unjustly seized, and that this seizure led her kinsman, Charles Knyvett, to testify against the duke at his trial in 1521, but gives no documentation and leaves the identity of Elizabeth Knyvett something of a mystery. If my reasoning is correct, the most logical "kinswoman" is the Elizabeth Knyvett who was the half sister of Charles Kynvett. One online genealogy states that she became a nun, but in light of the will of William Knyvett (1440-December 21, 1515), Charles's father, who was chamberlain of Buckingham's household, this seems unlikely. He left her a marriage portion of Ł333 6s. 8d. The will was written on September 8, 1514 and proved June 19, 1516. Charles's mother was a daughter of the first duke and therefore the great aunt of the third duke. Although there is considerable confusion over which of Sir William's wives was the mother of which Knyvett children, Elizabeth Knyvett was probably his daughter by his first wife, Alice Grey (d. April 4, 1474).

ELIZABETH KNYVETT (c.1574-c.1630)
Elizabeth Knyvett was the daughter of Sir Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire (1539-1598) and Elizabeth Stumpe (d.1585). She married Thomas, Lord Clinton (1567/8-1619), heir to the earl of Lincoln, although he did not inherit the title until 1616. They had eighteen children—Elizabeth (c.1591-July 20, 1624), Anne (1595/6-December 26, 1632), Theophilus (c.1600-May 21, 1667), Dorcas, Frances (c.1603-1626+), Sara, Susan, Arabella (1603-c.1630), Henry, Thomas, Catherine (d. January 7, 1618), Lucy, Edward (c.1604-by 1616), Charles, Robert, Knyvett, John, and James. Five daughters and four sons survived infancy. In 1622, as a widow and with a great deal of knowledge of her subject, Elizabeth published a tract on breastfeeding called “The Countesse of Lincolnes Nurserie.” She dedicated it to Theophilus’s wife. All was not well between them, however. In 1625, Theophilus brought suit against his mother in chancery, attempting to take away from her the guardianship of his three younger brothers. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Clinton [née Knevitt], Elizabeth.”

ELIZABETH KNYVETT
see ELIZABETH BACON

JOAN KNYVETT
see JOAN BOURCHIER

KATHERINE KNYVETT (1564-September 8,1638)

Katherine Knyvett was the daughter of Sir Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire (1539-1598) and Elizabeth Stumpe (d.1585). She married first, Richard Rich (d. before February 27,1581), younger brother of the 3rd baron Rich, and then, in 1583, Thomas Howard (August 24,1561-May 28,1626). He was created baron Howard of Walden in 1597 and earl of Suffolk by James I. Katherine was rumored to have been Robert Cecil’s mistress, but there seems little foundation for the story. She was reputed to be a great beauty until a bout of smallpox in 1619. She and Thomas Howard had twelve children, including Theophilus (1584-1640), Thomas (d.1660), Elizabeth (1586-1658), Frances (May 31,1593-August 23,1632), Henry, Catherine (d.1672), Charles (d.1622), Robert (1598-1653), William (1600-1672), and Edward (d.1675). When their daughter Frances was tried for the murder of Thomas Overbury, the earl and countess of Suffolk were also brought before the Star Chamber. They were fined Ł30,000 and imprisoned until the fine was paid. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Howard [née Knyvett; other married name Rich], Katherine." Portrait: by William Larkin.

KATHERINE KNYVETT (1578-March 10, 1629)
Katherine Knyvett was the daughter of Sir Thomas Knyvett (d. February 9, 1617) and Muriel Parry (d.1616). She married Edmund Paston of Paston Hall (1585-1623) on April 28, 1603. They had two sons, William (1610-1663) and Thomas (b.1614). Katherine was obliged to play an active role in family legal affairs because her husband was sickly and his father, Christopher Paston, was mentally ill. This also led to the preservation of forty-eight letters written by Katherine and thirty-seven addressed to her or to members of the Paston family. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Paston [née Knyvett], Katherine;” Ruth Hughey, editor, The Corresponsence of Lady Katherine Paston, 1603-1627. Portrait: effigy by N. Stone, St. Margaret’s Church, Paston.

KATHERINE KNYVETT
see KATHERINE NEVILLE

MURIEL KNYVETT
see MURIEL HOWARD

THOMASINE KNYVETT (d.1547+)
Thomasine Knyvett was the daughter of Thomas Knyvett of Great Stanway, Essex (d.1481) and Elizabeth Lunsford (d.1492). She married William Clopton of Kentwell Hall, Long Melford, Suffolk (1480-February 20, 1530/1) as his third wife. Their children were Francis (1498-1559), Richard (1500-1580), and John. Thomasine was the sister and coheir of her brother, Edward Knyvett (d.1501), together with her sister Margaret's two daughters by John Roydon. One of them, Elizabeth Roydon, married Thomasine's stepson. Thomasine was also the aunt and coheir of her brother's daughter, Elizabeth Rainsford (d.1507), from whom she inherited Castelyns Manor in Groton, Suffolk. Although her date of death is given in Suffolk Manorial Families as 1536, she was apparently still alive in 1547, when she paid Ł4 in taxes.

ANNE KYME

see ANNE ASKEW

CECILY KYME
see CECILY PLANTAGENET

DOROTHY KYTSON (1531-May 2, 1577)
Dorothy Kytson was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson of Hengrave, Suffolk (1485-September 11, 1540) and Margaret Donnington (1510-January 20, 1562). She married Sir Thomas Pakington of Hampton, Worcestershire (c.1530-June 2, 1571). Their children included Sir John (1549-1625), Mary, Catherine (b.1556), Margaret, and two more sons. After her husband’s death at Bath Place, Holborn, Dorothy was his sole executrix and on May 4, 1572 issued a writ in her own name as "lord and owner" of the town of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire to appoint the burgesses. This scandalized the local citizens. Her second husband was Thomas Tasburgh of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire (1554-January 1603). Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Tasburgh [née Kitson], Dorothy."

ELIZABETH KYTSON
see ELIZABETH CORNWALLIS

KATHERINE KYTSON (c.1521-before 1586)
Katherine Kytson was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson of Hengrave, Suffolk (1485-September 11, 1540) and Margaret Donnington (1510-January 20, 1562). She married Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton, Warwickshire (1517-November 8, 1586). They had at least eleven children. Various genealogies include Henry (March 31, 1544-April 15, 1573), George (c.1546-c.1568), Sir John (1546-January 9, 1599/1600), Thomas, Sir William (1555-December 18, 1609), Alice (1556-January 23, 1637), Sir Richard (1559-November 1624), Edward, Margaret, Elizabeth, Anne (d. September 22, 1618), Frances, Jane, Mary, and Katherine (d. 1639). She was buried in Great Brington, Northamptonshire, where she is shown on a tomb with her head resting on a flowered cushion. Portrait: tomb effigy.

MARGARET KYTSON
see MARGARET DONNINGTON

MARGARET KYTSON (1563-1582)
Margaret Kytson was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson (October 9,1541-January 28,1603) and Elizabeth Cornwallis (1547-August 2,1628). In 1582, she married Charles Cavendish (1553-June 1617) and died later the same year in childbirth. No children survived her. Portrait: by George Gower, 1580.

MARY KYTSON (1566-June 28, 1644)
Mary Kytson was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson (October 9,1541-January 28,1603) and Elizabeth Cornwallis (1547-August 2,1628). In 1583, she married Thomas Darcy (July 5, 1565-1640), later Lord Rivers. Six embroidered smocks were made for her on this occasion by Mrs. Crockston and Mrs. Barbor. When her mother died, Mary took over the patronage of John Wilbye, the madrigalist. She had six childen: Elizabeth (c.1584-March 9, 1650/1), Thomas (1586-c.1606), Mary (c.1588-1627), Edward (b.c.1590), Susan (c.1590-1612), and Penelope (1593-1660/1). According to the Oxford DNB's entry under "Kitson family," Lord Darcy suspected Mary of "unbecoming flirtations, if not outright adultery." Their formal separation in 1594 left Mary with Ł300 a year and, eventually, the Kytson estates. Portraits: by George Gower, 1583; c.1590; one (according to the DNB) full length portrait in which she holds her deed of separation in one hand.

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