A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN (P)

A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: P

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her very out-of-date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

JANE PACKINGTON (d.1589/90)
Jane Packington was the daughter of Humphrey Packington (1502-1556), a mercer, and Elizabeth Harding (d. September 27, 1563). On January 15, 1541 at St. Michael Bassishaw, London, Jane married Humphrey Baskerville or Baskerfield of Wolverley, Worcestershire (d. March 1564), a mercer and alderman. Their children, baptized between 1544 and 1561, were Elizabeth, Humphrey, Angelica, Sarah, Mary, Richard, Anne (March 10, 1559-May 14, 1622), and Martha. Another child was born posthumously. Baskerville left Jane a very wealthy widow. In his will, written September 1, 1563, he also appointed guardians from among his fellow mercers and relatives for his minor children. Anne and Martha were to go to Richard Hollyman, Humphrey to Thomas Heaton, Angell to William Leonard, Richard to John Jackson, and Sarah to Harry Hungate, who was married to Elizabeth and received Ł200 as her dowry. Jane was to bring up "the childe she nowe goeth withall." On June 29, 1564 at St. Peter West Cheap, Jane took as her second husband Lionel Duckett (1511-August 1587), another mercer, whose family came from Flintham, Nottinghamshire. They had a son, Thomas (1566-c.1608), who was his father's heir, the only child of a first marriage having died young. He was out of favor at the time his father died, however, for marrying against his wishes. Lionel Duckett was Lord Mayor of London in 1572-3. Jane died between September 8, 1589 and February 4, 1590.

KATHERINE PACKINGTON
see KATHERINE DALLAM

ELIZABETH PAGE
see ELIZABETH BOURCHIER

EULALIA PAGE
see EULALIA GLANFIELD

ANNE PAGET
see ANNE SMYTH

ANNE PAGET (c.1540-c.1590-4)
Anne Paget was the daughter of William, 1^st baron Paget of Beaudesert (1505-June 9,1563) and Anne Preston (c.1510-February 1587). She married Sir Henry Lee (c.1533-February 12,1611) in 1560. They had three children, John, Henry, and Mary, all of whom seem to have died young. There is a story that Anne fostered an illegitimate child borne by Lettice Knollys, countess of Essex, to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, before their marriage. Lettice was a kinswoman of the Lee family through her grandmother, who was married to both a Lee and a Knollys. Queen Elizabeth visited the Sir Henry Lee at Quarendon, Buckinghamshire in the Vale of Aylesbury for two days in August 1592. Most online sources give Anne’s date of death as 1590, but I have also seen 1594, which would mean she was still alive at that time. She was also doubtless aware that her husband had taken a mistress, the notorious Ann Vavasour. Anne was buried at Aylesbury.

ANNE PAGET (d.1607)
Anne Paget was the daughter of Robert Paget (d. January 1541/2), alderman of London and sheriff in 1536, and Grace Farringdon. In July 1542, her mother married Sir William Sharington of Lacock Abbey (c.1495-1553) as his third wife. In May 1548, Anne married Sir William's younger brother and heir, Sir Henry Sharington (d.1581). This leads to considerable confusion over which one of them is the Lady Sharington portrayed by Hans Holbein. Holbein also drew Sir William, and it would be logical that he’d have done matching portraits of husband and wife. See GRACE FARRINGDON. Anne and Sir Henry had four children, Ursula (d.1576), Grace (c.1552-1620), William (d.yng), and Olive. Portrait: Holbein sketch engraved by GS and JG Facius.

BRIDGET PAGET
see BRIDGET MILL

CATHERINE PAGET
see CATHERINE KNYVETT

GRACE PAGET
see GRACE FARRINGDON

GRISEL or GRISELDA PAGET (1542-July 21, 1600)
Grisel or Griselda Paget was the seventh daughter of William Paget, 1st baron Paget of Beaudesert (1505-June 9, 1563) and Anne Preston (c.1510-February 1587). She was christened on December 3, 1542 in St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermansbury, London. In about 1565 she married, as his second wife, Thomas Rivett or Revet of Chippenham, Cambrideshire (1519-October 1582), a wealthy London mercer. They had one child, Anne (1568-November 27, 1615). By his first marriage, to Alice Cotton (1537-1564), Rivett already had three daughters, Mirabel (1561-July 15, 1593), Isabel (1563-d.yng), and Alice (1564-1582+). On August 30, 1578, Queen Elizabeth visited the Rivetts at Chippenham, but Thomas was not knighted until 1580. As Grisel's husband lay dying, plans were being made for her daughter to marry one of Lord Burghley's grandsons. The account in Charlotte Merton's The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth indicates that young Anne's primary appeal was her expected income—Ł1000 a year. She was also a good age to marry, almost fourteen in that October of 1582. One of Sir Francis Knollys' younger sons was also interested in marrying Anne. Grisel seemed to support Knollys, at the queen's request, but Anne herself rejected the match. The queen then sent Thomas Wilkes to investigate. Wilkes, who thought Grisel had influenced her daughter to refuse, suggested that Anne come to court. Grisel refused to let her daughter go and, rather surprisingly, was allowed to keep Anne at home. Merton suggests Grisel's many influential relatives at court swayed the queen and goes on to say that young Knollys shifted his affections to Anne's half sister Alice. Alice wouldn’t marry him either. On November 11, 1583 in St. Dunstan, Stepney, Grisel remarried, taking as her second husband Sir William Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall, Bures St. Mary, Suffolk (1533-August 17, 1613). She was his second wife. Meanwhile, Lord North was the guardian of the two unmarried Rivett daughters, half sisters Alice and Anne. In 1586, Anne married Henry, 5th baron Windsor. Grisel died at Smallbridge. Portrait: effigy with Anne Cotton, Rivett's first wife, on Rivett monument in St. Margaret's Church, Chippenham.

LETTICE PAGET
see LETTICE KNOLLYS

NAZARET PAGET
see NAZARET NEWTON

ANNE PAKENHAM, PACKENHAM or PAGENHAM (d. October 22,1544)
Anne Pakenham was the daughter of Sir Hugh Pakenham and Anne Clement. Her first husband, Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam (c.1474-September 9, 1513), was killed at Flodden. Their children were Alice (d.1535/6), Margaret (d. February 7, 1557), William (c.1510-January 17, 1515+), and John (c.1512-August 28, 1513+). In 1517 she married Sir William Sidney (1482-1554), who later became Prince Edward’s chamberlain and steward. Anne was the prince’s governess. Her daughters Mabel and Elizabeth were in Princess Mary’s household. Her other children were Mary (d.1542), Anne or Agnes (1525-1602), Henry (July 20,1529-May 5,1586), Frances (c.1531-March 9,1589), Lucy (b. 1538), and a son and daughter who died young.

CONSTANCE PAKENHAM (c.1505-September 1570)
Constance Pakenham was the daughter of Sir Edmund Pakenham of Lordington, Sussex (1480-1528). Some sources give Sir John Pakenham as her father, but he was her grandfather. She married Sir Geoffrey Pole (1502-1558) before her father's death and they lived at Lordlington, which they inherited. By 1532, Pole was embroiled in treason and on August 29, 1538, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. The primary charge was that he wrote letters to his brother, Reginald Cardinal Pole, an acknowledged traitor by then living abroad. These had not been vetted by the Crown, raising suspicions of a plot against the king. Constance was also examined. When she realized how indiscreet her husband had been, she warned her brother-in-law, Lord Montagu, that he was in danger. The warning came too late. The entire Pole family was implicated in treason. Geoffrey Pole was condemned with his brother and others. After he'd twice tried to take his own life, he was pardoned on January 4, 1539. It was said that it was Constance's plea that her husband was so ill as to be as good as dead that won his release, but the more prevalent rumor was that he was pardoned because he'd provided evidence against the rest of his family. In September 1540, he was again in prison, this time in the Fleet. According to some accounts, after his mother, the countess of Salisbury, was executed on May 27, 1541, Pole fled the country, leaving his wife and children behind, and remained in exile, insane with guilt, for the rest of his life. The History of Parliament contradicts this, stating that he was pardoned at his wife's intercession (again!) and that they were granted Grandisons Manor in Kent in May 1543. He did leave England in 1548, under King Edward VI, but he returned during the reign of Mary Tudor. Constance and Geoffrey had eleven children, including Katherine (d. September 1598+), Arthur (1531-1570), Edmund (1541-August 12, 1570), Anne, Thomas (d.1570), Geoffrey (1546-March 9, 1591), Henry, Elizabeth, Mary (d.1571), and Margaret. Arthur and Edmund, who had inherited their father's royal blood, were sent to the Tower for treason in 1562 and died there. Catherine was buried beside her husband in Stoughton Church in Sussex.

CATHERINE PAKINGTON (1556-1611+)
Catherine Pakington was the daughter of Thomas Pakington (c.1520-June 2, 1571) and Dorothy Kytson (1531-May 2, 1577). She married first, in 1577, John Darcy of Turville, Buckinghamshire (1552-1589), then, in 1590, Sir Jasper More of Heytesbury, Wiltshire (1552-1609), and finally, in December 1610, as his third wife, Richard Mompesson of Teddington (1548-1627). Portrait: effigy on Mompesson tomb.

DOROTHY PAKINGTON
see DOROTHY KYTSON; DOROTHY SMITH

BLANCHE PALMER
see BLANCHE STANNEY

CATHERINE PALMER (c.1500-December 19,1576)

Catherine Palmer was the daughter of Sir Edward Palmer (c.1470-1516/17) of Angmering, Sussex, and Alice Clement. She was a Bridgettine nun at Syon at Isleworth in the 1530s. When the monastery was dissolved on November 25, 1539, she received a pension of six pounds. It is unclear where she spent the next twelve years, but in 1551 she led a group of Bridgettines to the Low Countries, where they lived for six years at Termonde in Flanders. Cardinal Reginald Pole visited them there in 1554. On March 1, 1557, twenty-one sisters and three brothers were officially reestablished back in England, at Syon. Catherine Palmer was elected abbess on July 31, 1557. Unfortunately, with the accession of Elizabeth Tudor, they were once more forced into exile. Syon was dissolved by Parliament in May, 1559 and Catherine Palmer and some of her sisters left England in the party of the departing ambassador from Spain, the count of Feria. They returned to Termonde until 1564, then moved first to Zurich Zee; then to Mishagen, near Antwerp (1568-1571); then to Mechelen, where a Calvinist mob sacked the convent on November 8, 1576. Pope Pius IV had issued a papal bull on July 7, 1563 to ask church leaders, particularly the Archbishop of Utrecht, to assist the nuns in exile from Syon Abbey, but after burying Catherine Palmer in Mechelen, the others moved on to France and then to Portugal, finally settling in Lisbon in 1594. They returned to England in two groups, one in 1809 and the other in 1861, and eventually established a permanent community, still extant, in Devon. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Palmer, Katherine."

ELEANOR PALMER
see ELEANOR BENLOWES

ELIZABETH PALMER
see ELIZABETH VERNEY

KATHERINE PALMER

see KATHERINE STRADLING

ISABEL PALMES
see ISABEL LINDLEY

FRANCES PALSGRAVE (c.1497-1532+?)
Frances Palsgrave (Palgrave/Pagrave) was the daughter of Henry Palsgrave of Little Pagrave, Norfolk (c.1470-October 1516) and Anne Glemham (d.1518+). Through her maternal grandmother, she was a cousin of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk and was a lady in waiting to Brandon’s wife, Mary Tudor, former queen of France. She married Sir William Pennington of Muncaster (1487-April 20, 1532) and had at least two children, Anne (c.1506-1544+) and William (1517-March 5, 1573). Frances's husband was a tenant of the duke of Suffolk, occupying the manor of Costessey, Norfolk. Sir Richard Southwell, a follower of the duke of Norfolk, together with twenty men, including two of his brothers, Robert and Anthony, killed Sir William Pennington in the sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. Details are frustratingly scarce, but Southwell and the others were pardoned. He was fined Ł1000. In lieu of payment, he ceded two manors, Coggeshall and Fillols Hall, Essex, to the king. He gained both wealth and prominence in the following years. Frances's fate is unknown.

ELIZABETH PARIS (d.1591)

Elizabeth Paris was the daughter of Sir Philip Paris of Little Linton, Cambridgeshire (1492-March 4,1558) and Margaret Bowes (d.1551). In 1547, she married Sir Thomas Lovell (1526-March 23, 1567) of Barton Bendish and East Harling, Norfolk. Their children were Sir Thomas, Philip, Francis, Henry, Thomas the Younger, Robert, Edmund, Anne, Audrey, Catherine, and Ellen or Eleanor. In his will, dated December 1, 1566, Lovell left his wife all his land at Attleborough, Buckingham, and West Dereham, Norfolk; Burwell, Upware and Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire; and in Rutland and Kent for life. Elizabeth was the Lady Lovell arrested in 1585. She was released by the queen’s command with immunity from further prosecution. In 1588, Lady Lovell sent a midwife to christen the child of Francis Lovell of West Derham and although the authorities made stringent efforts to discover the midwife’s name, they still had not managed to identify her three years later. Elizabeth's will in 1591 included a bequest to her daughter-in-law of household stuff delivered to her "before my going to prison."

ELIZABETH PARIS
see ELIZABETH JACKMAN

ELIZABETH PARKE (1544-September 15, 1567)
Although some genealogies say that Elizabeth Parke was the daughter of John Parke of Malmain, the inscription on her tomb identifies her as the daughter of Sir Richard Parke of Pluckley, Kent. She married John Roper (c.1534-1618) in 1560 and was the mother of Christopher (c.1561-April 16, 1622), Elizabeth (1564-c.1625), and Jane (c.1564-1628). Portrait: effigy with her husband in Lynsted Church, Kent.

ALICE PARKER
see ALICE LOVELL; ALICE ST. JOHN

ARABELLA PARKER (d.1520+) (maiden name unknown)
Arabella Parker is the name given by Hubert S. Burke in his Historical Portrait of the Tudor Dynasty, a four volume history published in 1879-83, to the royal mistress who allegedly replaced Elizabeth Blount in King Henry VIII's affections. Burke says Arabella was the wife of a London merchant but provides no other information and no source for his claim. Whether there ever was a real Arabella Parker or not remains conjectural. There was a Mistress Parker who participated in the revels of March 1522, but this is unlikely to have been a merchant's wife and was probably Jane Parker, later Lady Rochford, before her marriage to George Boleyn. A Margery Parker was one of Princess Mary's rockers in 1516 and later an Alice Parker was one of Mary's chamberers. For Margaret Parker, mistakenly identified as Madge Shelton by some, see her entry. Alison Weir, in Mary Boleyn also points out that Arabella/Arbella was a Scots name, not in common use in England.

ELIZABETH PARKER

see ELIZABETH CALTHORPE; ELIZABETH STANLEY

FRANCES PARKER

see FRANCES BARLOW

GRACE PARKER

see GRACE NEWPORT

JANE PARKER (c.1505-x. February 13, 1542)

Jane Parker was the daughter of Henry Parker, 8th baron Morley (1476-November 25,1556) and Alice St. John (1486-1552/3) but she is best known as Lady Rochford, wife and then widow of George Boleyn (1503-1536), Queen Anne’s brother. She gave damning evidence against her husband and sister-in-law and after their executions was able to return to court as a lady of the bedchamber. She also gave evidence to help King Henry VIII annul his marriage to Anne of Cleves, but during the tenure of Queen Catherine Howard, it was Jane who helped the young queen betray her husband. Just how involved Jane was, and whether she was the villainous creature history has painted her, are subject to much debate. Her own evidence in interrogations in 1541 is disjointed and contradictory and she is said to have run mad when she realized she would be executed along with the queen. It was a letter in Catherine Howard’s handwriting that condemned her. The queen wrote to Thomas Culpepper to “come when my Lady Rochford is here, for then I shall be at leisure to be your commandment.” The George Boleyn (d. 1603) who became dean of Litchfield is highly unlikely to have been either Jane’s son or her husband’s, since he is not mentioned in the will of Jane’s father-in-law, Thomas Boleyn. Biography: Julia Fox’s Jane Boleyn; Oxford DNB entry under "Boleyn [née Parker], Jane."

MARGARET PARKER

see MARGARET HARLESTONE

MARGARET PARKER (d.1558+)
Margaret Parker was the daughter of Henry Parker, Lord Morley (1476-November 27, 1556) and Alice St. John (1486-1552/3). Some sources say she was older than her sister Jane, Lady Rochford, but Jane's biographer, Julia Fox (Jane Boleyn) feels she was probably a year or two younger. She married Sir John Shelton (d. November 15, 1558) and was the mother of Sir Ralph (d.1580), Anne (c.1535-August 12, 1558), Alice (c.1540-October 4, 1605), Mary (c.1550-August 16, 1603), and Thomas (May 19, 1558-December 25, 1595). She is identified in some biographies of Anne Boleyn as the Madge Shelton who was briefly a royal mistress while Anne was queen, but I've seen nothing to indicate she was even at court at that time. See the entries for Margaret Shelton and Mary Shelton, Sir John's sisters, for more on Madge's identity. On Whit Sunday in June 1536, about three weeks after Anne was executed, Margaret Shelton was probably the daughter who went with her parents, Lord and Lady Morley, to visit Mary Tudor at Hunsdon. Margaret's mother-in-law, Lady Shelton, was in charge of the princess's household. Ms. Fox also cites records of gifts from Mary to Margaret of a frontlet worth eight shillings and Ł1 to the nurse and midwife at the christening of one of the Sheltons' children, but does not give a date.

MARY PARKER (d.1606+)
Mary Parker was the daughter of Edward, 10^th baron Morley (1555-April 11,1618) and Elizabeth Stanley (d.June 12, 1585). In 1593, Mary married Thomas Habington (August 23,1560-October 8,1647), who spent the years 1586-92 in the Tower of London for his part in the Babington Conspiracy. In 1606, he again committed treason by hiding the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in the eleven secret chambers in his house in Hindlip, near Worcester. It has been suggested that Mary wrote the letter warning Lord Mounteagle, her brother, of the plot. This idea is strengthened by the fact that Habington was not executed, or imprisoned in the Tower, but only restricted to Worcestershire for the remainder of his life. They had a son, William (b.November 5, 1605).

SUSANNA PARKER

see SUSANNA HORENBOULT

LUCY PARNELL
see LUCY WATTS

ANNE PARR (c.1515-February 20, 1552)

Anne Parr was the daughter of Sir Thomas Parr (1478-1517) and Maud Green (1492-December 1,1531). Her mother was a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and Anne became a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour. In early 1538, Anne married William Herbert (c.1506-March 17,1570). She should not be confused with Lady Herbert of Troy (Blanche Milborne) who carried Elizabeth Tudor's train at the christening of Prince Edward, or Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was chief chamberer to Queen Jane and rode in her funeral cortege in 1537. Anne Parr was also in the cortege, but she was not yet Mrs. Herbert. As Lady Herbert, she was keeper of the queen’s jewels to Catherine Howard, although she left court briefly to give birth to her first child, Henry (d.January 19,1601), in 1540. She was back at court in time to attend the disgraced queen at Syon House and in the Tower. When her sister Katherine became Henry VIII’s sixth queen in 1543, Anne returned to court. In 1551, William Herbert was created earl of Pembroke. They had two more children, Edward (June 1544-1594) and Anne (1545-1593) and used Baynard’s Castle as their London residence. For the birth of her second son, Anne's sister loaned her the manor of Hanworth in Middlesex for her lying in. After the birth, Anne visited Lady Hertford, who had also just given birth, at Syon House near Richmond. In August, the queen sent a barge to bring Anne by river from Syon to Westminster. After Henry VIII's death, when the queen dowager's household was at Chelsea, both Anne and her son Edward were part of the household there. At the time of her death, Anne Parr was one of Princess Mary’s ladies. She died quite unexpectedly at Baynard's Castle and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral next to the tomb of John of Gaunt. Her memorial there reads: "a most faithful wife, a woman of the greatest piety and discretion." Portrait: portrait bust on one face of the 1540s porch at Wilton (now in Wilton garden); it is the opinion of Susan E. James, Katherine Parr’s biographer, that Anne is the subject of the “unidentified” lady in the Holbein sketch shown below; a portrait of Anne was part of the Pembroke collection in 1561.

ANNE PARR

see ANNE BOURCHIER

ELIZABETH PARR

see ELIZABETH BROOKE

HELENA PARR

see HELENA VON SNAKENBORG

KATHERINE PARR (c.1512-September 5,1548)

Katherine Parr was the daughter of Thomas Parr (1478-1517) and Maud Greene (1492-December 1,1531). She married Edward Borough (c.1508-1533), then John, Lord Latimer (November 17,1493-March 2, 1543), and on July 12,1543 became the sixth wife of King Henry VIII (June 28,1491-January 28,1547). After the king’s death, she married Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (1507-x.March 10,1549) on April 4, 1547. She died giving birth to her only child, Mary (1548-1550). Biographies: Anthony Martienssen’s Queen Katherine Parr is highly speculative and poorly documented. Much better is Susan James’s Catherine Parr and its earlier incarnation Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen; two new biographies (2010) are Elizabeth Norton’s Catherine Parr and Linda Porter’s Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr; Oxford DNB entry under "Katherine [Kateryn, Catherine; née Katherine Parr]." Portraits: The portrait once thought to be Lady Jane Grey by Master John c.1545 is now believed to be Katherine Parr; painting by William Scrots, 1545; miniature; others.

MABEL PARR (c.1441-November 14, 1508)
Mabel Parr was the daughter of Thomas Parr of Kendal (c.1411-1464) and Alice Tunstall. She married Humphrey, 1st baron Dacre of the North (c.1420-1485) and was the mother of Thomas (November 25, 1467-October 24, 1525), Catherine, Christopher, Philip, Elizabeth, and Anne. During the reign of Henry VII, Mabel was accused of "ravishing" Richard Huddleston (1481-1502), a ward of the Crown. She had married him to her daughter Elizabeth without royal permission. She was confined for nine months in Lancaster Castle until she and her son, the 2nd baron Dacre, made four recognizances, on September 21, 1507, to pay a fine of 1000 marks. By that time Elizabeth Huddleston (née Dacre) had died, in Lancaster Castle, as a result, or so her brother claimed, of her distress at her mother's imprisonment.

MARY PARR
see MARY SALISBURY

MAUD PARR

see MAUD GREEN

MAUD PARR (c. 1507-1558/9)
Maud Parr was the daughter of William Parr, Baron Parr of Horton (c.1480-September 10, 1547) and Mary Salisbury (1484-July 10, 1555). She married Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingbury, Northamptonshire (1509-1540) in 1523, although they did not live together as man and wife until 1527, and was the mother of his three sons and seven daughters, including Laetitia, Robert (1527-c.1588), Ralph (1532-1603), Frances, Mary, Jane, Dorothy, Katherine, and William (d.1580+). In 1540, for a payment of Ł40, she acquired the wardship of her son Robert and an annuity of Ł10. In 1543, she entered the service of her cousin, Queen Katherine Parr. She shared evangelical religious views with several other of the queen’s ladies and was at one point in danger of arrest. In the past, several historians misread Lady Lane as Lady Jane and thought that Lady Jane Grey was part of Katherine Parr’s protestant circle when she was queen, but Lady Jane would have been too young at that time. Maud Lane survived Henry VIII’s reign and retired to Horton until her death in 1558 or 1559. She is not, therefore, the Lady Lane who gave Queen Elizabeth a New Year’s gift in 1561/2. That was probably Maud’s daughter-in-law, Katherine Copley (d. March 1563), wife of her son Robert. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Lane [née Parr], Maud [Matilda].”

ANNE PARRY

see ANNE REDE

BLANCHE PARRY (1508-February 12, 1590)

Blanche Parry was the daughter of Henry Myles of Bacton, Hertfordshire (d.c.1528) and Alice Milborne and acquired her surname through a variant of the Welsh manner of naming a son by his father’s first name—ap Harry means son of Harry. Blanche entered the service of the young Elizabeth Tudor by 1536, obtaining her position because her aunt, Blanche Milborne, Lady Troy, was in charge of the household. Blanche remained with Elizabeth throughout Elizabeth’s younger years and continued in her service after she became queen. She never married. When she died, she left bequests totaling Ł2,708 6s. 8d. in cash, in addition to legacies of land and jewels. Biographies: Ruth Elizabeth Richardson’s Mistress Blanche: Queen Elizabeth’s Confidante; Oxford DNB entry under “Parry, Blanche.” Portraits: several paintings, some of which are unlikely, based on the age of the sitter; two monuments, one in Bacton and the other in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, where she is buried.

BRIDGET PASTON (1565-1598)
Bridget Paston was the daughter and coheir of John Paston of Suffolk. On August 13, 1582, she married Sir Edward Coke of Mileham, Norfolk (February 1, 1552-1634). She was said to have a dowry valued in excess of Ł30,000 and to be beautiful. She lived at Huntingfield, Suffolk, where she bore Coke seven sons and three daughters. Her children were Edward (d.yng.), Anne (1585-1671/2), Elizabeth, Robert, Arthur, Sir John, Henry (b.1590), Clement (d.1630), Thomas (d.yng), and Bridget (b.1597). Portrait: effigy.

BRIDGET PASTON (d.1624)
Bridget Paston was the daughter of Christopher Paston and Anne Audley. On November 3, 1603, she married Sir John Heveningham of Ketteringham (d.1633) as his second wife. Portrait: date unknown.

ELEANOR PASTON (d.1551)
Eleanor Paston was the daughter of Sir William Paston (1479-1554) and Bridget Heydon. She married Thomas Manners, earl of Rutland (c.1492-September 20, 1543), as his second wife, before 1523. Their children were Anne (c.1523-1549) Elizabeth (d.1542+), Gertrude (d. January 1566), Henry (September 23, 1526-September 17, 1563), Sir John (d.1611), Frances (c.1530-September 1576), Roger (1535-1587), Sir Thomas (1537-1591), Oliver (d.1563), Isabel (d.yng.), and Catherine (July 1539-March 9, 1572), most of them born at Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire. In between giving birth, she participated in the ceremony creating Anne Boleyn marchioness of Pembroke and accompanied the new marchioness and the king to France in October 1532. She was on the summer progress of 1536 and was one of the chief mourners at the funeral of Jane Seymour. She may have been part of Anne Boleyn's household. She was definitely a lady of the privy chamber to Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard. On June 3, 1536, the Rutlands' London house at Holywell in Shoreditch was the scene of a triple wedding uniting Henry Manners, age ten, with Lady Margaret Neville, Anne Manners with Henry, Lord Neville, and Dorothy Neville with Lord Bulbeck, the earl of Oxford's heir. In July 1537, Lady Rutland was quarantined at her manor of Endfield in Middlesex after a member of her household came down with the dreaded "sweat," but she was back at court in August, in time to take Catherine Bassett, stepdaughter of Arthur Plantagenet, viscount Lisle, under her wing and look after her until Catherine was awarded a post in the household of Anne of Cleves in August 1540. Two of Eleanor's sisters lived with her at different times during her marriage and in 1530 it was her sister-in-law, Anne Manners. Eleanor paid for 8 oz. of pearls for a frontlet for her and Ł3 15s. for goldsmith's work. Eleanor's daughter Gertrude was married from Holywell in April 1539 when her mother was about six months pregnant with her last child, Catherine. After they were both widowed, Eleanor shared her home at Holywell with Catherine Stafford, countess of Westmorland. The earl of Rutland's will, made in 1542, made Eleanor one of his executors and left her all his jewels, plate, and household goods, plus land worth almost Ł700 a year for her jointure. There is a monument to Eleanor, Catherine Stafford, Catherine Neville, and Margaret Neville in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, erected in 1591. It says she was buried there in 1551. There is no death date for her on her husband's tomb at Bottesford, since that monument was erected during her lifetime. M. St. Clare Byrne gives her death date as October 12, 1559, but this seems to be a mistake for the death date of Margaret Neville, her daughter-in-law. The will of Catherine Neville, providing funds for the monument in St. Leonard's, states that she died "as I likewise remember, in anno iij Edward VI." That would make it 1550 or 1551, when Lady Catherine would have been nine or ten, old enough to remember the event. Portraits: her lifelike effigy is preserved in marble on her husband's tomb in St. Mary the Virgin Church, Bottesford, Leicestershire; effigy in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch (removed to the British Museum in 1735).

ELIZABETH PASTON (1482-August 22, 1539)
Elizabeth Paston was the daughter of Sir John Paston of Norfolk (d.1503) and Margery Brewes (d.1494). Her first husband as William Clere of Ormsby, Yorkshire (1478-March 17, 1501), to whom she was married in 1499. In 1502, she married Sir John Fineux or Fyneux of Swingfield, Kent (1441-November 17, 1525), a judge, as his second wife. By her second husband she had a son, William (1506-April 1557) and a daughter, Anne (1503-October 31, 1530). She paid for the brass on the Fineux tomb and had inscribed upon it the statement that she "had ever good fame." When she died, she left Ł5 to the church so that she might be buried in the chancel at the south side of the high altar.

KATHERINE PASTON (c.1552-1605)
Katherine Paston was the daughter of Thomas Paston of Norfolk and Agnes Leigh. She married Sir Henry Newton (c.1529-May 2, 1599). Their children were Theodore, Elizabeth, Frances, Margaret, and Ann. She appears to have begun service to Queen Elizabeth as a chamberer in 1576 but was a senior lady of the Privy Chamber by January 1598/9 when she lobbied for one of her daughters to be appointed to fill a vacancy among the maids of honor. Elizabeth Southwell was chosen for the post instead. Charlotte Merton, in The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, says that she was frequently ill and that in 1582 she was suffering from an ague.

KATHERINE PASTON
see KATHERINE KNYVETT

ISABEL PATE (1555-1597)
Isabel Pate was one of the daughters of Richard Pate (1516-1588), Recorder of Gloucester from 1561-1588, and Maud Rastell (d.1588+). Pate's biography at http://www.livinggloucester.co.uk says his daughters all predeceased him and the biography of Isabel Wetherstone at the same site says only that she was related to Pate and was possibly his stepdaughter. Her first husband's will refers to Mistress Pate as his mother-in-law and her second husband's will refers to gold plate Isabel had received from her mother, Mistress Pate. If the 1555 birth date is correct, however, then the dates of Maud Rastell's marriages make it impossible for Isabel to be anyone's daughter except Pate's. Maud's previous husbands died well before that, Henry Marmion on March 7, 1542 and Thomas Lane on December 2, 1544. Isabel's first husband was Henry Browne (d.1580), a gentleman, by whom she had a son, Henry (d.1597+), and two daughters. They lived in the parish of St. Mary le Grace. She was the executor of his will. In May 1581, she married Thomas Wetherstone (c.1560-1597) of Longdon, Worcestershire and moved away from Gloucester. They had no children. When she was widowed a second time, Isabel gave up her rights to Longdon in return for Ł470. It is not clear where she lived after that, but she left money to the poor people of Gloucester in her will. Portrait: unknown date; unknown artist.

ANNE or AGNES PAULET
see ANNE or AGNES HOWARD

ELIZABETH PAULET
see ELIZABETH CAPEL; ELIZABETH COWDRAY; ELIZABETH SEYMOUR

ELIZABETH PAULET (d.1598+)
Elizabeth Paulet was the daughter of Sir John Paulet, 2nd marquis of Winchester (1517-November 4, 1576) and Elizabeth Willoughby (c.1510-April 1551/2). She married Sir William Courtenay of Powderham, Devonshire (1529/30-September 29, 1557) by a marriage license dated November 28, 1545. They had two children, William (1553-June 24, 1630) and Jane. Courtenay is listed in various genealogies as a peer, but in fact was only de jure earl of Devon. In other words, Elizabeth was not a countess. Courtenay was involved in the Dudley Conspiracy in 1556 and confined in the Tower of London for a time. Elizabeth was allowed to visit him there. He was pardoned on March 8, 1557 and later joined the war against France. He was at the battle of St. Quentin on August 18, 1557 but died of the illness that spread through the army afterward. His will, dated September 29, 1557, was proved November 16, 1557. In it, he left Elizabeth a third of his property in Devon and to their daughter willed an annuity of Ł20/year until she was twenty-one, at which time she would receive Ł1000. Their son, who was only four years and fourteen weeks old, became a ward of the Crown. Elizabeth remarried, taking as her second husband Henry Ughtred (Oughtred) of Southampton and Ireland (d. October 1598+). Ughtred's mother had married Elizabeth's father as her third husband. Some genealogies give Elizabeth a son, George Ughtred. Others say the couple was childless. Most online genealogies give Elizabeth a death date of November 5, 1576, but that was the date her father died. The History of Parliament entry for Ughtred has her still alive in 1598, when husband and wife had to flee their Irish home. Several of their properties, including the castle of Maine, were burnt by rebels.

ELIZABETH PAULET (c.1586-October 1655)
Elizabeth Paulet was the daughter of William Paulet, of Ewalden, Somerset and Elizabeth Codingham. In April 1602, she married Oliver St. John, 4th baron St. John (1580-1646), who was later created earl of Bolingbroke. Their children were Oliver (d. October 23, 1642), Dorothy (d. June 28, 1628), Barbara, Elizabeth, Anthony, Francis, and Paulet (July 24, 1608-1638) Portrait: date and artist unknown; possible portrait of her children by Anthony Van Dyck (L-R: Barbara, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Anthony, Francis, Paulet, Oliver).

FRANCES PAULET
see FRANCES NEVILLE

LUCY PAULET
see LUCY CECIL

MARY PAULET (d. October 10, 1592)
Mary Paulet was the daughter of John Paulet, 2nd marquess of Winchester (1517-November 4, 1576) and Elizabeth Willoughby (d. before April 4, 1551). Mary wed her stepbrother, Henry, 2nd baron Cromwell (d. November 20, 1592) and after his death married Richard Wingfield, 1st viscount Powderscourt (d.1634). She was the mother of Edward, 3rd baron Cromwell (1559-April 27, 1607).

WINIFRED PAULET
see WINIFRED BRYDGES

URSULA PAYNE (d.1500+) (maiden name unknown)
Ursula Payne was the wife of Thomas Payne (d. October 30, 1500). Her husband was a wool merchant who built Payne's Place in Bushley, Worcestershire in the 15th century. After the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, the Paynes gave Queen Margaret of Anjou shelter there. They had seven sons and four daughters. Payne left his house and goods to his widow. Portrait: brass in the Church of St. Peter, Bushley, Worcestershire.

ELIZABETH PECHE or PECHEY
see ELIZABETH SCROPE

ELIZABETH PECHE (1452-July 15, 1544)
Elizabeth Peche was the daughter of Sir William Peche of Lullingstone Castle, Kent (c.1425-April 9, 1488) and either Jane Clifford or Beatrix Chichele. Genealogists can't seem to agree. Elizabeth was born before 1480. Around 1495, she married John Hart of Westmill, Hertfordshire (c.1450-1507), by whom she had at least four children, Percival (1495-May 21, 1580), Elizabeth (d. March 31, 1552+), Cecily (d.1521+), and Ann (d.1566). Elizabeth's son Percival inherited Lullingstone from her brother, Sir John Peche (c.1473-1521). Elizabeth made a second marriage at an unknown date to George Brooke, a younger son of the 7th Baron Cobham. Her daughter, Elizabeth Hart, became the third wife of George's brother, Thomas, 8th Baron Cobham, in around 1518. She is not the same Elizabeth Peche who married Sir John Skeffington or Skevington of London (d. July 10, 1525) and Sir John Dauncey. She was born between 1470 and 1485 and died in 1549. Portrait: by a follower of Hans Holbein the Younger; effigy at Lullingstone.

LUCY PECKHAM (1504-1552)
Lucy Peckham was the daughter of Thomas Peckham of Wrotham, Kent (d.1512) and Dorothy Horne. In November 1524, she married George Harper, later of Sutton Valence, Kent (March 11, 1503-December 8, 1558). She was the great niece of his stepfather, Alexander Culpeper and inherited property in Kent from her brother. She complained to Lord Cromwell that her husband refused to support her because she refused to give him half of her inheritance, but he, as her husband, was entitled to all the income from her estates and in 1540 successfully won the right to hold Horne Place in Kent in the right of his wife. By that time, they were living apart and Lucy was the mistress of Sir Richard Morison (d. March 20, 1556), by whom she had two sons and three daughters, including Marcellus and Mary. Her mother-in-law, writing her will in 1542, left Lucy nothing, but she did leave "a bay colt, the dam I bought of Luce Harpur" to one of her daughters, indicating that there was some contact between the two women. In September 1546, Morison had a license to alienate Snitterfield Manor to John Hales for a regrant in trust for Lucy Harper and her children. This was a few weeks before Morison's marriage to Bridget Hussey. Lucy's daughter, Mary, married Bartholomew Hales (d.1599), John's brother, and held Snitterfield from 1570-1599. Although Lucy died in 1552, it was February 1, 1560 before letters of administration for her estate were granted to Mary Hales.

HESTER DE PEIGNE (d.1648)
Hester de Peigne or de Peigni was a French Huguenot woman in exile in England. She married Alberico Gentilli (January 14, 1552-June 19, 1608) in about 1589. He had been regius professor of civil law at Oxford since 1580. In 1590 they were residing in London. Their son Robert Gentilis (1590-1654) was the earl of Essex's godchild and an infant prodigy, graduating from Oxford University at the age of twelve. Hester’s other children were Anna, Matthew, and possibly Hester. At the time of her death, she was living with her daughter, Anna Colt (wife of Sir John), at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

JAÉL DE PEIGNE (d. March 1632)
Jaél de Peigne was the sister of Hester de Peigne and married Sir Henry Killigrew (d. March 2, 1603) as his second wife in London on November 7, 1590. She was naturalized in June 1601. Their children were Joseph (c.1593-1616), Henry (c.1596-1645), Jaél or Jane, and Robert. When Sir Henry died, his widow inherited a house in Lothbury, an income of Ł140/year, and over Ł1700 outright. During the reign of James I, the Genevan scholar Isaac Casaubon was her houseguest. On April 22, 1617, she married George Downham, Bishop of Derry (1560-April 17,1634) in St. Margaret Lothbury. Her name is spelled Jaell de Pergne in his Oxford DNB entry.

ANNE PELHAM
see ANNE SACKVILLE

DOROTHY PELHAM

see DOROTHY CATESBY

JUDITH PELHAM
see JUDITH ST. JOHN

MARGARET PEMBERTON
see MARGARET THROCKMORTON

ELLEN PENDLETON
see ELLEN FLODDER

MRS. PENN or PENNE

see JULIANA ARTHUR; SYBIL HAMPDEN

ELIZABETH PENNINGTON (d. October 12, 1545)
Elizabeth Pennington was the daughter of Sir John Pennington of Muncaster, Cambridgeshire (c.1436-May 3, 1512) and his second wife, Isabel Broughton (d.1468). She married first John Dalkeld or Salkeld, then, by July 14, 1481, wed Sir Walter Strickland of Sizergh, Westmorland (1464-September 16, 1506). Their children were Sir Walter (1497-January 9, 1527/8), Thomas, Mary, Doulce, and Agnes (d.c.1585). Her third husband, married in 1508, was Sir Richard Cholmley of Thornton-on-the-Hill, Yorkshire (1460-1521). He had no will and his only child was an illegitimate son, so Elizabeth inherited property in Cumberland, Kent, and Yorkshire with the rest of the estate going to her husband's brother. At some point between 1523 and 1529, she married a fourth time, taking as her husband Sir William Gascoigne of Cardington, Bedfordshire (d.1540). She was his second wife. They had no children. In 1537, they were sued in Chancery for failing to carry out certain provisions of the marriage agreement between her daughter, Mary Strickland, and Lewis Dyve.

FRANCES PENNINGTON
see FRANCES PALSGAVE

MARGARET PENNINGTON (d.1552)
Margaret Pennington was probably the daughter of John Pennington of Muncaster, Cumberland (c.1436-May 3, 1512) and Isabel Boughton (d.1468). She was definitely related to that family and sold land in Essex to William Pennington in 1526. Margaret was a chamberer in Queen Catherine of Aragon's household by 1511. She remained there after she married John Cooke or Coke of Gidea Hall, Essex (1473-October 10, 1516) in 1512. She was his second wife and, following John's death, it fell to Margaret to raise his son, Anthony (1505-1576) and daughter, Beatrice (1507-1561). She continued to be listed as one of the queen’s gentlewomen until 1523. Margaret Pennington is confused in some online genealogies with her goddaughter, Margaret Cooke (d.1558), who was Anthony's daughter and a maid of honor to Queen Mary, possibly because the senior Margaret also served in Mary Tudor’s household before Mary became queen. Records of Margaret Pennington remain in a dispute over the lease for the manor of Risebridge (1527-1537) and with her 1551 will, in which she made numerous bequests, including an angel to each of thirteen women with whom she served in Princess Mary’s household. Before her death, she purchased a stone for her grave with "my picture and my late husband's, and our several arms graven thereupon." Biography: Marjorie K. McIntosh, "Some New Gentry in Early Tudor Essex: The Cookes of Gidea Hall, 1480-1550,” Essex Archaeology and History, Vol. 9 (1977), pp. 129-138.

MME. or MRS. PENOBSCOT or PENOBOSCOT
There is no Madame Penobscot, in spite of the fact that reputable histories continue to claim it is her portrait displayed at The Vyne, a National Trust property. The story goes that she was a Penobscot woman (or an Abenaki) who was captured and brought from Maine to England in 1605 by George Waymouth, or by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. There she was taught to speak English, and had her portrait painted, c.1620, wearing English dress. In fact, only male Indians were brought back to England by either man and the portrait is of an unknown Englishwoman. In early records, she is called Mrs. Pennicott or Mrs. Penniscot, but this may not be her name, either, as the portrait appears to have been owned in the 18th century by Rev. William Pennicott, a collector.

ANNE PENRUDDOCKE
see ANNE GOODIER or GOODYERE

KATHERINE PENYSON (1440-1509+)

Katherine Penyson was born in Provence. Her father, Gregory Penyson or Peniston, was from the Piedmont region of Italy. Father and daughter came to England as political refugees. Katherine was a lady in waiting to Margaret of Anjou by 1452-3 and by December 22, 1456, when she was granted letters of denization, had married Sir William Vaux, who was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471. Katherine apparently shared Margaret of Anjou's imprisonment in England and returned with her to France in 1476. She witnessed Margaret's will in 1482, then returned to England. Her children, Sir Nicholas (c.1460-1523), 1st Baron Vaux, and Joan (c.1463-1538), were educated in the household of Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort, where Katherine may also have had a place. She was still living at the time of Margaret Beaufort's death on June 29, 1509. On June 28, Henry VIII granted her an annuity of twenty marks. Previously, she'd had an annuity in the same amount from Richard III. She was buried in Blackfriars, London.

LETTICE PENYSTON (c. 1485-1558)

Lettice or Laetitia Penyston was the daughter of Sir Thomas Penyston (Peniston, Pennyston, Penystone) of Hawridge and Marshall, Buckinghamshire (c.1446-before1506) and Alice Bulstrode (d.c.1520). She was raised by Margaret Bourchier, Lady Bryan and may have lived for a time at court as that lady was in the household of Catherine of Aragon. In 1510, Lettice married Sir Robert Knollys (1451-1521) with whom she had Francis (1514-1596), Henry (d.1583), Mary, and Jane. Lettice Knollys, her son Francis’s infamous daughter, was named for her. Her second husband was Sir Robert Lee of Burston, Buckinghamshire (d.1537), by whom she also had children, probably Roger, John, Elizabeth, and Mary, although some of those may have been born to his first wife. In February 1540, she wrote to Lord Cromwell from Quarendon that she was "subject to all trouble, care, and heaviness . . . a sorrowful widow, as I do intend to live during my life, God willing." She asked leave to send to him for aid should she need it and sent him Ł10 "to buy you an ambling nag to hunt withal in summer." In another letter to Cromwell, she complains of her father-in-law, Anthony, who had claimed her late husband's money, jewels, and plate. She later married Sir Thomas Tresham (d.1559) of Rushton, Northamptonshire. Her will was dated June 28, 1557 and proved June 11, 1558.

MARY PENYSTON
see MARY SOMER

ELIZABETH PEPPARD (d. 1587+)
Elizabeth Peppard’s parentage is unknown but she was probably an Irishwoman. She married first John Eustace of Castlemartin, Kildare. Her second husband was Thomas Lee or Lea (x.February 14,1601), constable of Carrickfergus. They married in 1576. In 1581, he suppressed a rebellion of the Eustaces, but he does not seem to have been altogether certain of his loyalties. Both Thomas and Elizabeth were included in the general pardon of 1582. Lee was briefly in England in 1585, then returned to Ireland, where he was soon at odds with the earls of Ormond and Kildare. In October 1587, his plot against Walter Reagh was supposedly thwarted by Elizabeth’s treachery, after which Lee separated from her. Shortly afterward, however, when he was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, she went to plead for him at the English court. She succeeded in obtaining his release, but he was imprisoned twice more, in 1595 and 1598. When the earl of Essex left Ireland in September 1599, Lee followed him to England. On February 12, 1601, after Essex’s failed rebellion, Lee attempted to rescue him. For this failed attempt, he was arrested, tried, and executed at Tyburn. The Lees had one son.

ANNE PERCY (1443-July 5, 1522)
Anne Percy was the daughter of Henry Percy, 3rd earl of Northumberland (1421-1461) and Eleanor Poynings. She married first Sir Thomas Hungerford (x. January 17, 1468/9), and then Sir Laurence Raynesford of Bradfield Hall, Essex (c.1419-September 18, 1490). Her third husband, to whom she was married by December 1493, was Hugh Vaughan of Littleton, Middlesex (d.1536), gentleman usher of the king's chamber. In 1492, he was at the center of a controversy because more nobly born competitors did not want to joust against someone of his humble origin. Henry VII insisted that he be permitted to enter the tournament, even though he was not knighted until several years later. Under Henry VIII, he was Lieutenant of the Tower and a privy councilor. Upon his marriage to Anne, he was assured of an income of Ł168/year from her estates while she lived and Ł40/year after her death. Anne had one daughter by her first husband, the Hungerford heiress, Mary (c.1468-before July 10, 1533). Anne was buried in St. Michael Chapel, Westminster Abbey with her third husband.

ANNE PERCY (July 27, 1485-1552)
Anne Percy was the daughter of Henry Percy, 4th earl of Northumberland (1446-April 28, 1489) and Maud Herbert (d.1485). She was in the household of Elizabeth of York before 1503, then in the household of Princess Mary in 1509, and may have been the "Lady Percy" who attended Queen Catherine. In September 1509, she was paid 100 marks (Ł26 13s. 4d.) "upon a warrant delivered by Edmund Dudley." On February 15, 1511, she married, as his second wife, William Fitzalan, Lord Maltravers (1483-January 23, 1544). The king made an offering of 6s. 8d. for the occasion. In 1524, Maltravers succeeded his father as earl of Arundel. Their children were Henry (April 23, 1512-February 25, 1579/80), Catherine (d.1552+), Margaret, and Elizabeth.

ANNE PERCY

see ANNE SOMERSET

CATHERINE PERCY
see CATHERINE NEVILLE

DOROTHY PERCY

see DOROTHY DEVEREUX

ELEANOR PERCY (1470-February 13, 1530)
Eleanor or Alianor Percy was the daughter of Henry Percy, 4th earl of Northumberland (1446-1489) and Maud Herbert (d.1485). An alternate birth date is given as 1474 in Leaconsfield, Yorkshire. She may have been brought up in the household of Margaret Beaufort, along with her future husband, Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478-x. May 17, 1521). They married on December 14, 1490. Their children were Elizabeth (1499-1558), Henry (1501-1563), Catherine (d.1555), and Mary. She was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 as the ranking peeress but the very next year her husband was attainted for treason and his titles and lands were forfeit to the Crown. Eleanor was left with her jointure lands in Northamptonshire and Wiltshire, worth 2000 marks/year. Eleanor's second husband was John Audley of Hodnill, Warwickshire (1478-August 19, 1538). Her will, written on June 24, 1528, requested that her heart be buried in the Church of the Grey Friars in London and her body in the Church of the White Friars in Bristol, "if I shall happen to decease in those parts." The will was proved May 15, 1531.

JOYCE PERCY
see JOYCE WASHBOURNE

KATHERINE PERCY
see KATHERINE SPENCER

MARGERY PERCY (d.1590+) (maiden name unknown)
Margery had seven children by her first husband, a man named Gore, when she married Christopher Percy. Gore had left her an inheritance of 100 marks, but only so long as she did not wed again. Percy claimed an income of Ł100 a year and promised to give Ł100 to each of Margery’s daughters and Ł100 to Margery herself if she married him. After the wedding, however, he refused to do so. Further, he treated her cruelly, restricting her friendships and humiliating her in public. He left her "in very bare estate for provision" and threatened to take her children away from her to tame her. The case came to court in 1590 when Christopher sued Margery for restitution. She answered by bringing witnesses to his cruelty. Later, she accused him of adultery. Further details are given in Laura Gowing's Domestic Dangers: Women, Words, and Sex in Early Modern London, but not the outcome of the case. The only one of Margery's children who is named is Walter Gore.

MARY PERCY
see MARY TALBOT

MARY PERCY (1563-1643)

Mary Percy was the daughter of Thomas Percy, 7^th earl of Northumberland (1528-x.August 22,1572) and Anne Somerset (1538-October 17,1596). Both parents were involved in the Northern Rebellion of 1569 and when it failed, six-year old Mary was left behind in England with her three sisters, Elizabeth, Lucy, and Jane, in the care of a Mrs. Naseby. They were taken in by Henry Percy, their father’s brother, who was granted the Northumberland title after Thomas Percy’s execution for treason. The girls were raised at Petworth with their cousins and apparently given an excellent education, as Mary later assisted in translations from the French and received at least one dedication. Some sources have Mary wed to Sir Thomas Grey of Wark. Whether or not she was married earlier in life, Mary eventually joined the English exiles in the Netherlands, perhaps after traveling there to claim her mother’s possessions after the countess’s death. According to her epitaph, Mary “suffered imprisonment in England for a long time” for her faith before she was able to leave. Once she reached Brussels, Mary founded, along with fellow English exiles Dorothy and Gertrude Arundell, an English Benedictine convent, which was dedicated on November 21, 1599 with Joanna Berkeley as abbess. In 1600, Mary took her vows and became a nun in that convent. In 1616 she was elected abbess. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Percy, Lady Mary.” Portraits: marble effigy.

THOMASINE PERCYVALE

see THOMASINE BONAVENTURE

ANNE PERKINS (d.1534+) (maiden name unknown)
Anne Perkins was the wife of Francis Perkins or Parkyns (c.1504-before 1560). Their children were Henry (c.1530-1590), William, Francis, and Arthur. On June 10, 1534, they were living at Pam Hall, the manor house of a manor called Hussey's in Padworth, Berkshire. The estate was managed by Francis's older brother, Richard Perkins. A neighbor, Sir Humphrey Forster, apparently had a quarrel with the Perkins brothers, although no hint of what it was has survived. With a band of armed men, he invaded the house early that morning, found Francis sitting on a stool in the hall, buckling up his shoes, and assaulted him. Francis was bleeding from the head and in serious danger of being murdered when Anne intervened. According to the documents from the case later brought before the Star Chamber, she "piteously & lamentably kneling upon hur knes in her Smok by a long season intreated Sir Humfrey to w'draw his malicious purpose." Unfortunately, although Sir Humphrey then left the house, he took Francis Perkins with him, going on to Ufton Robert to attack Richard Perkins (see ELIZABETH MOMPESSON). Francis was later taken to Sir Humphrey’s house, Aldermaston, and locked up overnight. One must suppose he was seriously injured because when Richard Perkins took legal action at the next quarter sessions, it was Anne, not Francis, who brought charges of riot against Sir Humphrey and his men. The case went to to the Star Chamber, but the records are incomplete and the resolution is missing. We do not know what happened to either Francis or Anne after that, although Francis clearly predeceased his brother.

ELIZABETH PERKINS
see ELIZABETH MOMPESSON

MARY PERKINS (x.1609) (maiden name unknown)
Mary Perkins was convicted of poisoning her husband, Thomas Perkins, in Worcester in 1609, and sentenced to be burnt to death, since to kill one’s husband was petty treason, a more serious crime than plain old murder. To add insult to injury, Mary was required to buy the faggots, pitch, gunpowder, and straw used to make the fire, and the iron links used to fasten her to the stake, and to pay six men to tend the fire.

ANNE PERROTT
see ANNE CHENEY

DOROTHY PERROTT

see DOROTHY DEVEREUX

MARY PERROTT

see MARY BERKELEY

ELIZABETH PERTE
see ELIZABETH D’OYLEY

KATHERINE PESHALL (1483-February 1, 1540/1)
Katherine Peshall was the daughter and heir of Sir Hugh Peshall of Knightley, Staffordshire (c.1459-July 27, 1490) and Isabel Stanley (d.1490+). British History Online on the parish of Church Eaton, Staffordshire, says she was aged upwards of twenty in 1498, when her grandfather died. She inherited a considerable estate and the manors of Knightley and Little Onn reverted to her when her step-grandmother died. On August 1, 1492, at Bewdley, Worcestershire, she married Sir John Blount of Kinlet, Shropshire (1484-February 27, 1531) and was the mother of five sons and six daughters, pictured on their tomb, including Elizabeth (c.1500-1540), the second daughter, Sir George (1512/13-July 20, 1581), William (c.1514-1544+), Henry (c.1515-1545+), Isabel, Rose, Anne, and Albora. In 1502, she was briefly a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon at Ludlow Castle. As a widow, Katherine approached Thomas Cromwell, asking him to bestow confiscated monastic lands on her younger sons, but her request was not granted. Portrait: effigy on Blount tomb in St. John the Baptist, Kinlet.

ANNE PETRE
see ANNE BROWNE

DOROTHY PETRE (1534-May 16,1618)

Dorothy Petre was the daughter of Sir William Petre (1505-1572) and Gertrude Tyrrell (d. May 28, 1541). She married Sir Nicholas Wadham of Merefield, Somerset (1532-October 20,1609) on September 3, 1555. Dorothy’s only claim to fame lies in the fact that she had enough money (Ł19,200 from her husband and an additional Ł7270 of her own) to found Wadham College after her husband’s death. In fact, almost nothing of known of her life between her marriage and his death. The Letters of Dorothy Wadham is a slim volume, published in 1904, and has mostly to do with the college, which received its royal letter patent on December 20, 1610. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Wadham [née Petre], Dorothy.” Portraits: 1595; c. 1594 by a follower of Custodis; carved statue at Wadham College, Oxford; funerary brass, St. Mary’s Church, Ilminster, Somerset.

KATHERINE PETRE
see KATHERINE SOMERSET

THOMASINE PETRE (April 7, 1543-1611+)
Thomasine Petre was the daughter of Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall (1505-January 13, 1572) and Anne Browne (1509-March 10, 1582). At the age of twelve, after Mary Tudor became queen, Thomasine joined the household of Gertrude Blount, Marchioness of Exeter, to complete her education. An article by Anne Buck in the Costume Society Journal, vol. 24 (1990) gives an account of "The Clothes of Thomasine Petre 1555-1559." On February 10, 1559/1560, at sixteen, Thomasine married Ludovic Greville of Milcote, Warwickshire (c.1545-November 14, 1589). Her trousseau cost Ł108 11s. 5d. At her wedding, according to Maria Hayward in Rich Apparel, she most likely wore "a pair of white satin sleeves with a trained kirtle welted with white velvet and lined with white bridges satin." Other fabrics included in the ensemble would have been of russet wrought velvet, crimson satin, and black damask. They had numerous children—Edward, William, John, Valentine, Anne, Margaret, Charles, and Peter—but it is unlikely to have been a harmonious marriage. Ludovic was a violent man. In 1578, he attacked Sir John Conway with a cudgel and would have gone on to cut off his legs with a sword if a servant had not intervened. He was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for this crime but eventually released. In 1588, he was summoned before the Privy Council on charges of fraud and in 1589, he was arraigned at the Warwickshire Assizes as an accomplice in two murder cases. To keep the state for seizing everything he owned, he refused to plead. Those who chose that option could save their estates for their families but their sentence was a terrible one, to be pressed to death by heavy weights. Thomasine's son Edward, although reputed to be charming, was as immoral as his father. He was accused of fatally shooting an elder brother in order to succeed to the family estates and when he married a wealthy heiress in 1583, he went through her fortune and left her penniless. In her long widowhood, Thomasine apparently kept musicians, as there is a reference to her "fiddlers" at Gloucester in 1599.

ABIGAIL PETT (d.1599)
Abigail Pett was the daughter of Peter Pett of Deptford (d. September 1589), master shipbuilder, and Elizabeth Thornton (d.1597). Abigail was left 100 marks in her father’s will, to be paid upon her marriage or when she reached the age of twenty-four. She did not survive that long. Her mother remarried, taking as her second husband a minister named Thomas Nunn. He accepted a living at Weston Suffolk and moved there with Abigail’s mother and the youngest Pett children—Peter, Abigail, Elizabeth, and Mary. Nunn was apparently a brutal man. Shortly after he took a new wife (Anne Nuce), he beat Abigail with tongs and a firebrand. She died three days later. Nunn was tried at the Bury assizes and convicted but he was allowed to sue out a pardon, which was granted on May 28, 1599. He did not long survive, however. He made his will on July 21, 1599 and it was proved on September 7, 1599.

LUCY PETYT
see LUCY WATTS

ANNE PEYTO
see ANNE FEILDING or FIELDING

JANE PEYTON (d. December 1551)
Jane Peyton was the daughter of Thomas Peyton of Knowlton, Kent. Her first husband was John Langley of Knowlton (c.1471-November 3, 1518). In January 1519, she married Sir Edward Ryngeley/Ringley (d.1543), marshall of Calais from 1530-35 and comptroller in 1539. Lady Ryngeley wrote five letters to Lady Lisle in 1535, when she was in England, the first from London on April 27 to thank Lord Lisle for seeing her off from Calais. That she asks Lady Lisle to make sure that Lady Banyster, widow of Sir Humphrey and a mutual friend, "take not away all the love between my husband and me till I come home again," a remark repeated in other letters, is clearly meant as a joke. Another letter was written from her house at Knowlton on May 18, after a brief visit from Sir Edward. On July 13 and August 10, she is in Sandwich. She had hoped to be back in Calais before this. Since there are no further letters in the Lisle correspondence, she probably returned there soon after. The usually accurate M. St. Clare Byrne, editor of The Lisle Letters, creates considerable confusion by incorrectly stating that Ryngeley was married twice and that his first wife was Elizabeth Peyton, widow of Edmund Langley. She then assumes that there is a second wife, identified as Jane Boyes of Nonington, Kent. While it is true that the will of William Boyes (1500-1549) refers to Edward Ryngeley as his sons' uncle, there is no Jane among William's sisters. Since I do not find a name for William's wife, it seems likely that Mrs. Peyton was Ryngeley's sister. In any case, the will made by Jane, Lady Ryngeley, on December 14, 1551 makes it quite clear that she was the only Lady Ryngeley. In it she states that she was married first to John Langley and then to Edward Ryngeley and that her brothers were Sir Robert Peyton and Edward Peyton.

MARY PEYTON
see MARY SEYMOUR

MARGARET PHESANT (d.1618)
Margaret Phesant (Pheasant/Fesant) was the daughter of Jasper Phesant of Tottenham, Middlesex and Alice Heveningham. She married Sir Stephen Slaney (1524-December 27, 1608), a skinner and Lord Mayor of London in 1595. She was the mother of Jasper (d. before 1597), Stephen (d. before 1598), Mary (c.1560-1623), Elizabeth (d.1632), and Anne (d.1602). After the death of her youngest daughter following childbirth, Margaret brought up her granddaughter, Elizabeth Colepeper (1602-1683). In her will, dated October 20, 1612 and proved May 24, 1619, she left Ł1200 to the Grocer’s Company to set up endowments for ministers. She requested that this bequest be confirmed by act of Parliament, but even though the Grocers made inquiries to this end in 1621, it was never done.

MARY PHESANT
see MARY BRUGES

ELIZABETH PHILIP (d.1536+) (maiden name unknown)
Elizabeth Philip was an embroiderer and silkwoman. Nothing is known of her parentage or whether or not she was married, although most London silkwomen were the wives of merchants. She made silk trimmings and incorporated silk into garments and accessories and also made costumes for revels and pageants at court over a period of at least twenty-six years. She probably employed others to help with the work. In November 1510, "Mistress Ellsebethe Philypp" supplied ribbons and Venice gold to make seventy-two tassels. She was paid Ł6 2s. 2d. in March 1513 for materials used in the disguisings the previous Twelfth Night. In December 1514, she supplied Venice ribbon, ribbon points, German-style mantles, gowns, and bonnets to the court. In 1516 she provided gold damask to be used in a coat for the king. In 1517/18, "Mistress Philipps," an "embroideress," was awarded an annuity of ten marks by the duke of Buckingham, sharing it with John Haslewood. She appears frequently in the duke's accounts for 1519. In March Mrs. Phylypes was paid 40s. and her maids 20s. In August there is an entry for an overcharge for plate "had of Mrs. Phillips, not entered in the wardrobe accounts," of Ł16 2s, 7d. By 1519, the duke owed her several hundred pounds and she wrote numerous dunning letters in 1519 and 1520. At the same time, however, she continued to extend credit to the duke's servants. In her work for the royal court in 1519, Elizabeth, together with Christiana Warren, provided costumes for a masque on March 7 and a joust on March 8, both at Greenwich—everything from ostrich feathers to wire for skirt hoops. They were paid Ł60 7s. 3d. Later that year, Elizabeth supplied green material, thirteen yards of ribbon, and 482 ounces of flat gold and flat silver woven into fringes, at 3d./ounce, for a revel at New Hall in Essex held on September 3. The next summer, she provided goods for the Field of Cloth of Gold, including Paris ribbon, material to make hose for the royal footmen and ready-made hose for the armourers. In 1522, she provided ninety-one ounces of red silk cords at 14d./ounce for borders for Italian mantles for a revel, as well as Venice Gold woven into knots, headdresses of damask gold, twelve yards of white sarcenet, and three gross of points at 4s./gross, to fasten sleeves, cloaks, bonnets, and buskins. In June 1522, she provided materials for a masque and a tournament. Elizabeth Salter, in Six Renaissance Men and Women, speculates that the "Mrs. Phelipes" listed as one of the queen's maids in 1526 may be Elizabeth Philip, silkwoman and that, if so, she was provided with lodgings at court. The actual list, in the Eltham Ordinances, separates “the queen’s maids” from other ladies listed by name. Another version assigns lodgings to “Fras. Philip and his wife,” indicating that it is Francis Philip who belongs to the queen’s household, not his wife. Our Elizabeth Philip, based in London, was still in business at the time of Anne Boleyn's death in 1536. Queen Anne died owing her 10s. 4d.

EMMA PHILIPS (d.1603+)
Emma Philips married William Baxter (d.1602+), a member of the Barber-Surgeon's Company of London. Emma's brother, Edward Philips (d.1602+), was "an up and coming apothecary." The College of Physicians, which regulated midwives and other medical practitioners, charged Emma with practicing medicine without a license and imprisoned her for four days. According to Deborah E. Harkness in The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution, they described her as "an ignorant and bold woman." She was released when her husband promised to prevent her from repeating her offenses. Harkness dates Emma's activities from as early as 1571.

ANNE PHILLIPS (d.1618) (maiden name unknown)
Anne Phillips married Augustine Phillips (d. May 1605), actor and shareholder in the Globe, in about 1593. They lived near the playhouse, in Horseshoe Court. Their children were Magdalen (September 1594-1605+), Rebecca (1596-1605+), Anne, Elizabeth, and Augustine (1601-1604). In 1604, Phillips bought a house in the country near Mortlake. Anne inherited this, along with his share in the Globe, but she made an unwise second marriage, to John Witter/Wittles (d.1620+). Records of a lawsuit in 1619-20 over Anne’s share in the Globe (a sixth part of the galleries, ground, and playhouse) contain the information that Witter "suffered Anne to make shift for herself to live." She was assisted over the years by John Heminges, one of her first husband’s fellow actors. He even paid for her funeral. Anne died at the house of William Smith, surgeon, of Houndsditch and was buried in St. Botolph’s Without Aldgate on January 26, 1617/18. On November 29, 1620, the Court of Requests dismissed Witter’s case and ordered him to pay Heminges’s court costs of 20s.

ELIZABETH PHILLIPS (June 18, 1565-October 15, 1632)
Elizabeth Phillips was the daughter of Thomas Phillips (January 2, 1538-1597) and Elizabeth Ivy (b. October 30, 1540). The Phillips family was Welsh in origin, Elizabeth’s parents were married in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire and Elizabeth was reportedly born in London, but some sources also identify her father as the Thomas Phillips a mercer who was master of the Guild of the Holy Cross in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire in 1563. On January 24, 1580/1, Elizabeth, called Bess, married Richard Quiney (c.1559-May 1602), another mercer from Stratford. When Bess’s husband was in London on Corporation business in October and November of 1598, she sent him goods to sell, including cheeses and tobacco. She was also busy managing her rental property and borrowing and lending money. Excerpts from letters written to Richard by his father and by a colleague are reprinted in Germaine Greer’s fascinating if highly speculative biography, Shakespeare’s Wife. On May 3, 1602, Bess’s husband, who was serving as bailiff, came upon a brawl. When he attempted to intervene, he was struck on the head. Although he lingered for three weeks, he never regained consciousness. He was buried on May 31, leaving Bess with nine children to care for: Elizabeth (c.1582-May 1615), Adrian (1599-October 1617), Richard (1589-1655), Thomas (b. 1591), Anne (1591-May 1616), William (b.1594), Mary (b.1595), John (1597-August 1603), and George (b.1600). She had lost two children before that, an earlier William (September 1590-October 1592) and another infant son . She took over the mercery business. She signed documents with her mark, an E entwined with a Q. And according to Greer’s book, she took an active role in Stratford politics, even leading a gang of women to tear down enclosures built by a greedy landholder.

ANNE PICKERING (1514-1582)
Anne Pickering was the daughter of Sir Christopher Pickering of Killington, Westmorland (d. September 7, 1516) and Jane Lewknor (d.1547). After her father’s death, she was the ward of Sir Richard Weston, who married her to his son, Francis (1511-May 17, 1536). Sir Francis Weston was one of the men accused with Anne Boleyn and executed. Together with his mother, Anne pleaded with the king to spare his life, even though he may have been unfaithful to her, if not with the queen, then with Margaret Shelton, one of Anne Boleyn's ladies in waiting, with whom he was said to be in love. Weston sent a letter to his family, asking for forgiveness, "especial to my wife." The theory has also been advanced that Francis Weston admitted to "abominations" on the scaffold because he was a homosexual. Anne married twice more, first to Sir Henry Knyvett of Charlton, Wiltshire (1510-March 1547) and then to John Vaughan of Sutton-on-Derwent (d.1566+). Her children were Sir Henry Weston (1535-1592), Sir Henry (1539-1598), Elizabeth, Anne, Alice, Catherine (1543-December 20, 1622), Thomas (1545-1622), and Margaret Knyvett, and Francis and Frances Vaughan (c.1562-1647). During her marriage to Knyvett, she was involved in two disputes concerning her mother, one over inheritance, and one in which she was charged with, essentially, home invasion. The latter case was heard in the Star Chamber. Anne claimed that her mother (known as Jane Pole or Poole from her second marriage) was afraid of her third husband, Sir William Barentyne, and that she had sent a message to Anne saying she was "very evill kepte" and surrounded by servants who kept "very Dishonest Rule." According to the summary found in the unpublished PhD dissertation Image and Reality: the Lives of Aristocratic Women in Early Tudor England by Jennifer Ann Rowley-Williams, Anne traveled to Bramley, near Shalford in Surrey, to visit her mother. She was accompanied by her son-in-law, Francis Kelway, and a friend, Lady Rogers. Finding the outer door locked, Anne ordered her servant to force it open. Then, according to Anne's account, she went in, saw her mother, asked for her blessing, and then asked her to send for one of her waiting women, Philippa Turke, so that Anne might rebuke her for the "many obprobriouse words" Philippa had used against her (Anne). Kelway found Philippa in hiding and brought her to the other women, whereupon Anne slapped Philippa. Jane's account of the incident, however, differs considerably from her daughter's. Jane claimed that Anne neglected her and, concerning the visit to Bramley, said that Anne and her party broke down seven doors in succession to get in and then chased Jane and her servants from room to room, terrorizing them. Rather than just slapping Philippa, Anne beat her severely while two servants held her down. Afterward, Jane claimed, Jane and her servants were in fear for their lives. No decision in the case is given. Portrait: carved head from marriage chest c.1530 (Saffron Walden Museum).

ELIZABETH PICKERING (d. October 1562)

Elizabeth Pickering’s parents are unknown. She was the first woman to print books in England, according to an article by Barbara Kreps in the Winter 2003 Renaissance Quarterly. Her first husband was named Jackson and she had two daughters by him, Luce and Elizabeth, when she married Robert Redman of London (d. October 1540) sometime after the burial of Redman’s first wife on September 29, 1536. When Redman died, his widow took over his shop at the sign of the George in Fleet Street, next to the church of St. Dunstans in the West, and published in her own right for about ten months, producing about a dozen books. Redman left behind three minor daughters, Mildred (b. September 1532), Katherine (d. between 1541 and 1544), and Alice (c.1539-1586+), who was Elizabeth’s child. By October 1541, Elizabeth had sold the press to William Middleton and remarried, taking as her third husband William Cholmeley (c. 1510-1546), a lawyer. After his death, she married his kinsman, Randolph (the History of Parliament calls him Ralph) Cholmeley (d.April 25,1563), another lawyer, who became Recorder of London in 1554. Elizabeth was buried in the Church of St. Dunstan in the West. She had no children by her last husband.

HESTER PICKERING (d. May 8, 1592)
Hester Pickering was the illegitimate daughter of Sir William Pickering of Oswald Kirk (1516/17-January 4, 1575), a diplomat and ambassador who never married. In his will, Pickering directed that Hester live and be educated in the house of his executor, Thomas Unton. She was his residual heir and he specified that his library be kept intact to pass to her future husband. On September 1, 1575 at Boughton Malherbe, Kent, Hester was married to Edward Wotton, 1st baron Wotton of Marley (1548-1626). Their children were Thomas, 2nd baron (1587-1630) and Philippa. Portrait: unknown artist, c.1580.

JANE PICKERING
see JANE LEWKNOR

ELIZABETH PIERREPOINT or PIERREPONT (1568-1604+)

Elizabeth Pierrepoint was the daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepoint (1545-1615) of Holme Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, and Frances Cavendish (June 18, 1548-1632), the granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick, and the godchild of Mary, queen of Scots. As a child of four she joined the household of the captive Mary, who was in the keeping of Bess of Hardwick and her fourth husband, the earl of Shrewsbury. Queen Mary called the child Mignonne and was very fond of her. So was her grandmother, who called her Bessie. Bessie remained in the queen of Scots's household even after Mary was removed from Shrewsbury's keeping. When Bessie was seventeen (c.1585), her grandmother was promoting a marriage for her with one of the earl of Northumberland's sons, but nothing came of it. Beginning in January 1586, letters were being smuggled in and out of Chartley, where the queen of Scots was at that time imprisoned, in watertight containers inside beer barrels. Mary's secretary, Claude Nau, also used this method to send messages to Bessie after she had left Queen Mary's service, possibly to wait upon Queen Elizabeth. According to one account, Bessie's father approved of the match with Nau, but Bessie refused him. Rosalind K. Marshall, in Queen Mary's Women, however, says the Pierreponts were horrified when they heard of Nau's interest and, in July 1586, asked that their daughter be sent home, and that Mary then claimed she had been trying to persuade Queen Elizabeth to take Bessie into her household. It is not clear if Bessie went to court or not. In writing about young Bessie, Mary implied that she looked upon the girl like a daughter, but that she also saw "too much of her grandmother's nature in her behavior every way, notwithstanding all my pains for the contrary, and therefore now would be sorry to have her bestowed upon any man I wish good unto." A recent biography of Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell states that Bessie did not marry until 1604, when she was thirty-five, and identifies her husband as Thomas Erskine (1566-1639), who was created viscount Fenton in 1606 and earl of Kellie in 1619. Erskine records agree that his second wife was Elizabeth Pierrepoint, daughter of Sir Henry of Holme Pierrepoint, and further that she died on April 27, 1621, after which Erskine married a third time. However, earlier biographers give Bessie a different husband, Richard Stapleton of Templehurst (d.c.1614), six children (Gilbert, Epiphanius, Sir Robert, Jane, Elizabeth, and Grace), and a death date of November 27, 1648. This is supported by Stapleton genealogies. It is possible Bessie married Stapleton and then Erskine, if c.1614 is a mistake for 1604, but that does not account for the difference in death dates.

ELIZABETH PIERREPONT
see ELIZABETH BABINGTON

GRACE PIERREPONT (d.1651)
Grace Pierrepont was the daughter of Henry Pierrepont (1545-1615) and Frances Cavendish (June 18, 1548-June 1632). On August 1, 1593 (or April 2, 1594) she married Sir George Manners of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire (1573-April 23, 1623). Their children were John, 8th earl of Rutland (June 10, 1604-September 29, 1679), Henry, Roger, Elizabeth (d.1637), Eleanor (d. October 23, 1679), Frances (d.1652), Dorothy, and Mary. Lady Manners founded a free grammar school for the poor children of Bakewell and Great Rowsley in 1636 and endowed it by a deed dated May 12, 1637. She is said to have lived to the age of 90, but as this would place her birth in 1561, the year before her parents married, that is probably an exaggeration. Portrait: possible portrait has also been identified (by Janet Arnold in Patterns of Fashion) as her daughter, Lady Dorothy Manners, attributed to William Larkin c.1615-1620; miniature at Belvoir Castle; death mask kept under glass at Haddon Hall; effigy on her husband's tomb in Vernon Chapel, Bakewell Church.

ANNE PIERS (d.1581+) (maiden name unknown)

Anne Piers is known only through one record, that of her interrogation by Sir Richard Grenville in 1581 on charges of receiving stolen goods and witchcraft. She was found innocent of the latter charge, but guilty of selling plate at Bodmin. Anne was the wife of William Piers and the mother of Captain John Piers of Padstow, Cornwall (c.1560-1582), a notorious pirate captured in 1581 at Studland, Dorset. Anne’s abilities as a witch had been given credit for his success up to that point. Piers himself was imprisoned but escaped from Dorchester gaol. When he was recaptured, he was executed. His mother’s fate does not seem to have been recorded.

JANE PIGOT
see JANE or JOAN ROMONDBYE

ALICE PILKINGTON
see ALICE KINGSMILL

JANE PILKINGTON
see JANE DYLLYCOTES

CATHERINE PINCKNEY or PINKNEY (d. 1602+)
Catherine Pinckney was the mistress of Sir Edward Hoby (1560-March 1, 1617) and the mother of his only child, Peregrine (September 1602-May 6, 1679), who became Hoby’s heir.

MARGARET PLANKNEY
see MARGARET BYSLEY

ANNE PLANTAGENT (November 2, 1474-November 12, 1511)
Anne Plantagenet was the third daughter of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492). In a treaty signed on August 5, 1480, she was promised to Philip, son of Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, but the death of her father ended that alliance. In 1484, during the reign of her uncle, Richard III, she was betrothed to Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey (1473-August 25, 1554). Early in the reign of Henry VII, Anne was at court as an attendant to her sister, Elizabeth of York, and on February 4, 1495 she finally married Surrey at Greenwich. The queen settled an annuity of Ł120 pounds on her sister. According to Robert Hutchinson's House of Treason: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty, this included an allowance of 20s/week for food and drink and the wages of two women, a maid, a gentleman, a yeoman, and three grooms. Anne also received Ł15 11s. 8d./year to maintain seven horses. In November 1510, Henry VIII granted Anne a number of properties seized from Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk. With Surrey, Anne had at least four children, probably named Muriel, Catherine, Henry, and Thomas (1497-August 1508), but all of them died young and were buried in the Howard chapel of St. Mary's Church, Lambeth. Anne herself suffered from and died of tuberculosis. She was buried in the Cluniac abbey at Thetford, Norfolk. Portraits: Stained glass windows with her sisters in Canterbury and the church of St. Giles at Little Malvern Priory, Worcestershire. Shown here, from Canterbury, L-R: Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne, Katherine, and Mary (d.1482), daughters of Edward IV.

BRIDGET PLANTAGENET (November 10, 1480-1517)
Bridget Plantagenet was the tenth child of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492). She was always intended for the church and sent to Dartford Priory at the age of seven. She became a nun there and was still there when she died. There is an unsubstantiated story that Bridget gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Agnes, at Dartford in 1498, when she was eighteen. Until the death of Bridget's sister, Elizabeth of York, in 1503, the Crown did pay expenses for both Bridget and Agnes, who was known as Agnes of Eltham. See her entry for more details.

CECILY PLANTAGENET (March 20, 1469-August 24, 1507)
Cecily Plantagenet was the daughter of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492). While her father was king, plans were made for her to marry Prince James of Scotland but the alliance was broken off before Edward’s death. Under Richard III, Cecily spent from April 1483 until March 1, 1484 in sanctuary at Westminster. King Richard provided her with a dowry of 200 marks per annum in land and arranged her marriage to Ralph Scrope of Upsall (c.1465-1515), but in 1486, the marriage was dissolved by order of the new king, Cecily’s brother-in-law, Henry VII, in 1486. That same year she carried Prince Arthur to the font at his christening and she carried her sister’s train at her coronation on November 25, 1487. In 1488, Cecily was married to Henry VII’s half-uncle, John, viscount Welles (d. February 9,1499). By Welles she had two daughters, Elizabeth (d.1598) and Anne (d.yng.). Cecily was at her sister’s court during her widowhood but gave up her social position to marry Thomas Kyme of Friskney, Lincolnshire in 1502. She did not have the king’s permission and he seized the Welles lands, in which she had a life interest, by way of punishment. The king’s mother, however, sheltered the newlyweds and negotiated a compromise the following year. They had a son, Richard, and a daughter, Margery (d.1537+), who is mentioned in the will of her "cousin," Lady Catherine Gordon. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Cecily.” Portraits: Burrell Collection, Glasgow; stained glass windows with her sisters in Canterbury and the church of St. Giles at Little Malvern Priory, Worcestershire. Shown here, from Little Malvern, L-R: Elizabeth Woodville, Cecily, Anne and Katherine.

ELIZABETH PLANTAGENET
see ELIZABETH GREY

ELIZABETH PLANTAGENET (1444-1503/4)
Elizabeth Plantagenet was the daughter of Richard, duke of York (1411-x. December 30, 1460) and Cecily Neville (May 3,1415-June 1495). She married John de la Pole, 2nd duke of Suffolk (d.1491) by the beginning of 1458. She had a marriage portion of Ł1533, low for her station and the times, and part of it was still unpaid in 1472. She was the mother of John, earl of Lincoln (c.1460-1487), Edmund, earl of Suffolk (1472-x.1513), William (d.1539), Humphrey, Edward, Richard, who styled himself duke of Suffolk and was called "the White Rose" (d.1525), and four daughters. Because of her family connections, she was a victim of the Wars of the Roses and the de la Pole line continued to trouble the Tudor dynasty well into the reign of Henry VIII. Portrait: alabaster effigy at Wingfield, Suffolk.

ELIZABETH PLANTAGENET (c.1521-1569)
Elizabeth Plantagenet was the second of three daughters of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle (c.1464-March 3, 1542), an illegitimate son of King Edward IV, and Elizabeth Grey (c.1482-c.1525), widow of Sir Edmund Dudley. Thus she was half sister to John Dudley, later Duke of Northumberland, and spent part of her childhood (from 1533) in the Dudley household in England, rather than with her father and his second wife, Honor Grenville, in Calais. Negotiations for a marriage to Thomas Lovell (d.1567) were ongoing in 1534 but came to naught. In 1536, she married Sir Francis Jobson of Monkwite or Monkwick, Essex (1514-1573). Jobson recorded that "I was married to my wife at the request of the duke, he promising that he would help me to a manor that my Lord Windsor had in Staffordshire. Being disappointed in the said manor, he borrowed a good part of my money." Their children were Edward (d. before 1573), John, Thomas (d. November 21, 1606), Henry, Mary, and Matthew. An account of Elizabeth's death, written down by one John Nettleton in 1591 and later copied by Clement Draper into his notebook, records that, in 1569, Lady Jobson was living in the Tower of London, where her husband was Lord Lieutenant. She was so ill that physicians sent by her nephew, Robert Dudley, and by Queen Elizabeth herself, concluded that she could not last above four days. Then the queen sent another physician, Burchard Kranich, to examine her. Kranich did not offer a cure, but he treated her by anointing her with civet oil as she sat by a warm fire and, according to Draper, kept her alive "nine or ten days beyond the physicians' resolution, and she was in as good reason and memory to read or write or speak her mind in anything as ever she could do in her life" and "died, her book in her hands, and was reading." One of her sons, an eye witness, passed this account to Nettleton who provided it to Draper.

FRANCES PLANTAGENET (1516-1550+)
Frances Plantagenet was the daughter of Arthur Plantagenet, viscount Lisle (c.1464-March 3, 1542) and Elizabeth Grey (c.1482-c.1525). In February 1538, she married her stepbrother, John Bassett (1518-1541). They had a daughter, Honor (b.1539), and a son, Arthur (1541-1586). After Bassett’s death, she married Thomas Monk or Monke of Potheridge, Devon (c.1515-before August 20, 1583). They had three sons and three daughters: Anthony, John, Francis, Margaret, Mary (b.1548), and Katherine.

HONOR PLANTAGENET

see HONOR GRENVILLE

KATHERINE PLANTATGENET (August 14, 1479-November 15, 1527)
Katherine Plantagenet was the daughter of King Edward IV (1442-1483) and Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492). Early matches were proposed for her with a Spanish prince and with James, marquess of Ormond. After her father’s death she went into sanctuary in Westminster with her mother and sisters but afterward was at court, both under Richard III and Henry VII. She married Sir William Courtenay (c.1475-June 9,1511) in 1495. Her children were Edward (d.1502), Margaret, and Henry (1496-1538). Shortly before the death of Katherine’s sister the queen in 1503, Courtenay was imprisoned in the Tower of London and attainted for treason for conspiring with Edmund de la Pole. Katherine remained at court and was chief mourner at her sister’s funeral. Courtenay was released and restored as earl of Devon when Henry VIII became king in 1509. After Devon's death from pleurisy, Katherine took a vow of chastity. On February 3, 1512, she was granted all the estates of the earldom of Devon for her lifetime. Her son was raised at court, and remained high in the new king’s favor for the remainder of Katherine’s lifetime, although he was later executed for treason. Katherine herself resided at Tiverton Castle, Devon, maintaining a large household there. She had an annual income of around Ł2750 and lived in style, including minstrels and no fewer than three fools among her retainers. She was buried in St. Peter’s. Tiverton. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Katherine.” Portraits: stained glass windows with her sisters in Canterbury and the church of St. Giles at Little Malvern Priory, Worcestershire (see above under Anne and Cecily Plantagenet).

MARGARET PLANTAGENET (May 3, 1445-November 23, 1503)
Margaret Plantagenet was the daughter of Richard, duke of York (1411-x. December 30, 1460) and Cecily Neville (May 3,1415-June 1495). When her brother Edward was crowned as Edward IV of England, the choice of Margaret's husband became a political issue. In 1462, there were rumors that she would marry James III of Scotland. Later a marriage was proposed with Don Pedro of Portugal. On June 18, 1468, she left London, sailing from Margate on June 24 and arriving at Sluys the next day. She married Charles, duke of Burgundy (d. January 5, 1477) at Damme on July 3. She was described as tall, elegant, and fair haired, but she had brains as well as beauty. She was a patron of Caxton and encouraged education. She did not spend much time with her husband during their marriage and after his death made Mechelen her primary residence. In 1480, she visited England to help broker an alliance between her brother and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, who was married to her stepdaughter. Margaret was responsible for the education of their son, Philip the Fair and after Henry Tudor became king of England, her court was a gathering place for Yorkist exiles. She encouraged the conspiracies of two pretenders to the English throne, Lambert Simnel in 1486 and Perkin Warbeck from February 1492 and possibly earlier. It was not until September 1498 that she finally accepted the monarchy of Henry VII. She died at Mechelen and was buried there in the house of the Observant Franciscans. Her tomb was destroyed late in the sixteenth century. Portraits: by school of S. Marmion; by H. van der Goes; portrait in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Margaret, duchess of Burgundy;" Christine Weightman, Margaret of York, the Diabolical Duchess.

MARGARET PLANTAGENET (August 14,1473-May 27, 1541)

Margaret Plantagenet was the daughter of George, duke of Clarence (d.1478), brother of Edward IV and Richard III, and Isabella Neville (d.1476). Her father died in the Tower of London, supposedly drowned in a butt of Malmsey. In 1490, she married Sir Richard Pole (d.1505) and by him had Henry (1492-x.December 9,1538), Arthur (d.1535), Reginald (1500-November 17,1558), Sir Geoffrey (1502-1558) and Ursula (c.1504-August 12,1570). Although her brother, Edward, Earl of Warwick, was also executed (on November 28, 1499), simply because he had a claim to the throne, Margaret was held in high esteem under the Tudors. In 1513, she was created countess of Salisbury in her own right. Henry VIII thought of her as a second mother and she was governess of his daughter, Mary, until December 1533. At various times, Margaret's household was ome to some of her granddaughters, Margaret Stafford and three Pole girls, daughers of the countess's sons Arthur and Geoffrey. After the Reformation, however, Margaret’s religious beliefs made her suspect and her royal blood, passed on to her children, eventually turned the king against the entire family. That her son Reginald became a Cardinal and, although in exile, actively worked to overthrow King Henry, was enough to cause the downfall of the Poles. In 1538, Margaret, her sons Sir Geoffrey and Henry (Baron Montagu), her daughter-in-law, and her grandson were all arrested. Her son was executed. Margaret was attainted for treason. She was held first at Cowdray Park and later in the Tower of London and in 1541, following a minor uprising in the north of England, to which she had no connection, was beheaded. She was beatified in 1886. Biography: Hazel Pierce, Margaret Pole; Oxford DNB entry under "Pole, Margaret." Portrait: in the NPG.

MARGARET PLUMBE
see MARGARET NEVILLE

AGNES PLUMPTON
see AGNES GASCOIGNE

ELIZABETH PLUMPTON (c.1454-September 21, 1506)
Elizabeth Plumpton was one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of William Plumpton of Plumpton, Yorkshire (1435-March 29, 1461) and Elizabeth Clifford (c.1432-1466+). She married John Sotehill/Soothill/Suttell of Dewesbery (d.1493) and was the mother of Henry of Stoke Faston, Leicestershire (1470-1505), John, Robert, Thomas, Arthur, Gerard, Elizabeth, and Anne. She mentions all of these in her will, proved February 16, 1506/7, but her heirs for the Plumpton inheritance were the twin daughters of her late son, Henry, Elizabeth and Joan Sotehill (b. May 21, 1505). Elizabeth Plumpton and this inheritance are at the heart of the Plumpton Correspondence because the claims of Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret (wife of Sir John Rockliffe), eventually led to the imprisonment of Sir Robert Plumpton for debt. The legal wrangling continued long after Elizabeth’s death.

ISABEL PLUMPTON
see ISABEL BABTHORPE; ISABEL NEVILLE

MADELEINE or MAUD PLUNKETT
see MADELEINE or MAUD BABINGTON

POCAHONTAS (c.1596-1617)
Pocahontas, whose real name was Matoaka (Pocahontas was a nickname) was the daughter of Wahunsonacock (d.1618), chieftain of the Powhatan tribe in what is now Virginia. There are many legends surrounding Pocahontas, but the basic facts are that she met Captain John Smith when he was taken prisoner by her father in December 1607 and later spent time at Jamestown. Around 1610, she is said to have married another Indian, Kocoum, and may have had as many as two children by him. In April 1613, she was taken prisoner by Captain Samuel Argall in order to force her father to accept a peace treaty. Just a year later, she was baptised and renamed Rebecca and soon after married English gentleman John Rolfe (1585-1622). They had one son, Thomas (January 30, 1614/15-c.1675). In June 1616, the Rolfes arrived in England. By then, Pocahontas was said to speak fluent English. She was received by the queen at Whitehall and met the king at a masque. Unfortunately, the English climate did not agree with her. She was suffering from either tuberculosis or pneumonia by the time she and her husband were ready to leave England. She died at Gravesend, Kent and was buried on March 21, 1617 in St. George's Church. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Pocahontas"; Frances Mossiker, Pocahontas: The Life and Legend. Portrait: line engraving by Simon de Passe,1616; oil painting after that engraving.

CATHERINE POLE

see CATHERINE BRYDGES

CONSTANCE POLE
see CONSTANCE PAKENHAM

ELEANOR POLE (c.1463-1520+)

Eleanor Pole was the daughter of Geoffrey Pole (1431-1474) and Edith St. John. She married Sir Ralph Verney (c. 1452-1528) in 1477 and, as Lady Verney, was a waiting gentlewoman to both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon. She was one of Elizabeth of York’s favorite ladies. She was also, as the daughter of one of Margaret Beaufort’s half sisters, a cousin to Henry VII and his children. She and her husband accompanied Mary Tudor to Scotland in 1503. She had a son, John (1488-1540) by Verney. She was granted an annuity of Ł20 by Henry VIII and was still receiving it in 1520.

ELIZABETH POLE
see ELIZABETH MOTON

JANE POLE
see JANE LEWKNOR

JANE POLE (c.1570-1625+)
Jane Pole (Paule/Pool/Poul/Powle/Powell) was the daughter of Thomas Pole of Bishop Hall, Middlesex. She married three times, first to John Fuller, second to John Bussey, and third to Thomas Mansell or Mansell of Margam Abbey, Glamorganshire (1556-1631), as his second wife. They had one child, Mary (b.c.1600). Portrait: c.1625 with Thomas Mansell; another shows the couple with their daughter.

KATHERINE POLE (d.September 23,1576)

Katherine Pole was the daughter of Henry Pole, baron Montagu (1492-1538) and Jane Neville (d.1538) and married Francis Hastings (1514-June 20,1561), son and heir of the earl of Huntingdon, in 1532, at the same time her sister, Winifred, married his brother Thomas. In 1538, Katherine’s father was executed for treason. Her grandmother, Lord Montagu’s mother, Margaret Plantagenet, countess of Salisbury, was executed on the same charge in 1541. Their only crime was having a claim to the throne. The countess of Salisbury was the daughter of George, duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III. Although Katherine’s husband was under suspicion for a time, he was careful to stay out of politics. He succeeded his father, becoming 2nd earl of Huntingdon in 1544. Their children were Henry, 3rd earl (1535-December 14,1594), William, George, 4th earl (c.1540-December 30,1604), Edward (d.1603), Francis (d.1610), Walter (b.c.1554), Catherine, Frances, Elizabeth (d.1621), Anne, and Mary (c.1552-1584+). The oldest boy, Henry, was a schoolmate of Henry VIII’s son, the future Edward VI and the family fortunes improved during Edward’s short reign. When Mary Tudor became queen, Katherine promptly contacted her uncle, Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had been in exile since 1538, and upon his return to England asked him to be the godfather of her youngest son, Walter. When Katherine’s husband died, he left her with five sons and five daughters, all but the oldest boy and girl under age. It was her oldest son, the new earl, however, who had the responsibility for supporting them and arranging their marriages. Katherine assisted in this financially. In 1562, she leased him all her lands except the manor of Lubbesthorpe, where she lived until her death, for an annuity of Ł960 and his promise to double his sisters’ dowries. This lease was cancelled in 1564. In exchange Katherine granted him the lease of the manor of Stokenham in Devon and gave him permission to sell some of her lands in Cornwall. In 1574, she assigned the park of Ware, Hertfordshire to him (he needed to pledge property for his debts to the crown) and received in return an annuity of Ł33. 6s. 8d. Most of her estates, however, remained in her possession. She remained a Catholic sympathizer, if not actively a recusant, even though her oldest son was a staunch protestant. Her youngest son, Walter, shared her beliefs. Portrait: Katherine Pole appears in effigy on her tomb, lying next to her husband.

MARGARET POLE

see MARGARET PLANTAGENET

URSULA POLE (c.1504-August 12, 1570)
Ursula Pole was the daughter of Sir Richard Pole (d.1505) and Lady Margaret Plantagenet (August 14, 1473-x.May 27,1541). In 1515, she was considered as a bride for the duke of Milan but instead she married Henry Stafford (September 18,1501-April 30,1563), son of the duke of Buckingham, on October 20, 1518 (other sources say February 16,1518/19). She had a dowry of 3000 marks to be paid in installments over six years with another 1000 marks to be added if her mother, by then countess of Salisbury in her own right, recovered certain properties from the Crown. The young couple were also supposed to acquire an estate worth 700 marks/year from her mother, and a further Ł500/year from his father but, by 1521, Buckingham had not yet made the arrangements. She was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, the same year she gave birth to her first child at Thornbury Castle, but after her father-in-law’s execution for treason the following year, she was not at court and was frequently in financial difficulties. In 1522 and 1523, she and her husband received joint grants of some of Buckingham's lands, but poverty was still a problem as late as 1537. She had at least thirteen children, twelve of them born before 1537, and each inherited a double claim to the throne. One, Thomas (1531-May 4,1557), tried to declare himself king in 1557, but his conspiracy failed for lack of support. Ursula was also the mother of Henry (d. January 1,1565), Dorothy (October 1, 1526-September 22,1604), Edward (January 17,1535-October 18,1613), Richard, Walter (c.1539-1571+), William, Elizabeth, Anne, Margaret, and Susan. Biography: included in Oxford DNB entry for her mother under "Pole, Margaret."

WINIFRED POLE (1525-February 22, 1602)
Winifred Pole was the daughter and coheir of Henry Pole, Lord Montagu (1492-x.1538) and Jane Neville (d.1538). In 1532, at the same time her sister Katherine married Francis Hastings, later earl of Huntingdon, Winifred married his younger brother Thomas of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire (c.1515-1558). Winifred had a claim to the throne through her grandmother, Margaret Plantagenet, countess of Salisbury (x.1541), but that only led to the downfall of the entire family. Under Queen Mary, Winifred was restored in blood and regranted the manor of Clavering. Hastings wrote his will on March 28, 1558 and it was proved May 11, 1558. Winifred was executor. Later she was overseer for her uncle, Cardinal Reginald Pole. In around 1559, Winifred married Sir Thomas Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex (1530-1581), by whom she had two sons, Francis (c.1565-July 3, 1628) and Henry (d.c.1590) and a daughter, Katherine (d. before 1602). She brought lands in Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and the Isle of Wight and the manor of Clavering, Essex to the marriage. The Barringtons entertained Queen Elizabeth at Hatfield Broad Oak in 1576 and again in 1578, and she granted them the manor of Bushey, Hertfordshire, which had previously belonged to Winifred's grandmother. Thomas Barrington wrote his will on February 6, 1581 and it was proved on May 2, 1581. Winifred was one of the executors, but Henry Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, Winifred’s nephew, later known as "the Puritan earl," was made trustee of her two younger children, Henry and Katherine. It was probably the earl who later arranged for Katherine to marry William Bourchier of Benningborough, Yorkshire. In 1582, he urged his aunt, who held the parsonage of Rowley, Yorkshire, to turn over the appointment of a minister to someone with Protestant leanings and she appears to have complied with his wishes. She was for many years a recusant, but eventually her son Francis persuaded her to conform to the Church of England. She is said to have removed the golden crucifix she wore and given it to him, whereupon he had it made into rings on which were engraved the lines "Blessed be that light/That gave me sight/Of false Devotion/And doth direct/Me to affect/The true Religion." In about 1584, she gave her son the leases of the parsonages of Hatfield and of some lands in Stansfield Park. Winifred is referred to in the documents relating to this transaction as "the lady Winifred Hastings, widow, lately wife of Sir Thomas Barrington, Knight" and signed her name "Winifriyd Hastyngs."

MARY POLEWHELE
see MARY FITTON

JANE POLEY
see JANE GROVE

ELIZABETH POLLARD

see ELIZABETH LECHE

JANE POLLARD (c.1500-1559+)
Jane Pollard was the second daughter of Sir Lewis Pollard of King’s Nympton, Devon (d.1526), Judge of the Common Pleas, and Anne or Agnes Hext (1468-1561). In 1520, she married Sir Hugh Stukeley or Stucley of Affeton Castle, Devon (1496-January 6, 1559), a knight of the body to Henry VIII. Her son Thomas (c.1520-August 4, 1578) is sometimes said to have been one of Henry VIII’s bastards, but there is no foundation for this story. Philippa Jones’s The Other Tudors: Henry VIII’s Mistresses and Bastards states that Thomas was the third of Jane’s five sons and six daughters and suggests one or two opportunities the king may have had to sleep with her. She further argues that the fact that Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth did not prosecute Thomas as they might have as proof that they knew he was their half brother. Like most stories of Henry VIII’s mistresses and bastards, this one has no solid evidence to support it. Jane’s other children were Elizabeth, Anne (d.c.1567), Mary, Agnes, Audrey, Katherine, Lewis (1529-December 1, 1581), George, Hugh, Amias, and Nicholas.

ELIZABETH POLSTEAD
see ELIZABETH MORE

MARIA PONET
see MARIA HEYMAN

ELINOR POOLE (c.1570-c.1647)

Elinor Poole was the daughter of Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton, Gloucestershire (1541-1616) and Anne Wroughton. In 1589, she married Sir Richard Fettiplace of Besselsleigh and Appleton, Berkshire (1564-July 11, 1615). Their children were John (1590-1619), Anne, Henry, Elizabeth and two other daughters. In 1604, Lady Fettiplace compiled of a book on household management that included many recipes collected from friends and a great many cures for ailments as varied as insomnia and the plague. Late in life, Lady Fettiplace remarried, taking as her second husband a Gloucester man named Edward Rogers (d.1623). Biography: included in Hilary Spurling, ed., Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book (1986); Oxford DNB entry under "Fettiplace [née Poole; other married name Rogers], Elinor." Portrait: effigy in Sapperton Church.

ANNE POPE

see ANNE HOPTON

JANE POPYNCOURT (d.1528+)

Records first place Jane Popyncourt in England in 1498 as a French-speaking damsel assigned to teach that language to Henry VII’s two daughters, Margaret and Mary, through “daily conversation.” Nothing is known of her background. Some records identify her as French, others as Flemish. By 1502 she was one of Mary Tudor's maids of honor and in 1512 was earning 200s per annum as a member of Queen Catherine of Aragon's household. She became notorious during the stay of the duc de Longueville at the English court as a prisoner of war. Louis d’Orléans, 2nd duc de Longueville, marquis of Rothelin, count of Dunois, and lord of Beaugency (1480-August 1,1516) gained his title upon the death of his older brother, the first duke, in 1515. At that time he was the captain of one hundred gentlemen of the king’s horse. He had been married for ten years to Johanna of Baden-Hochberg (1480-1543) and had four children by her, the youngest born in 1513. Longueville was captured at the Battle of the Spurs and sent to England as a prisoner of war to wait for his ransom (100,000 crowns) to be paid. While there he took a mistress—Jane Popyncourt. After the death of Queen Anne of France, Longueville took an active role in negotiating the marriage of Louis XII of France and Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, and served as proxy bridegroom at the wedding at Greenwich Palace. The next day, his ransom having been paid, he left for France. Jane expected to journey to France as one of Mary's attendants and to be reunited with her lover there, but her name was struck off the list at the last moment by King Louis XII. It was the only name he crossed out, and he reportedly commented that she should be “burnt.” There is no adequate explanation for his antipathy. Some have suggested that Jane was unwelcome because she was Longueville’s mistress and his wife was already at the French court, but in France in those days it was not unusual for noblemen to have mistresses. Besides, those who committed adultery were not burnt. Burning was reserved for heresy, for those who murdered their husbands or their masters (petty treason), and for witches (in France—in England witches were hanged). Whatever caused King Louis to ban her from France, Jane was forced to remain at the English court. There she is recorded as participating in masques and apparently remained in the queen's household. In May 1516, some time after the death of King Louis and the return of Mary Tudor to England, Jane received a gift of Ł100 from King Henry and left England for France. Some accounts claim Jane was the king’s mistress, and the gift her reward, but she had long served the royal family and there is no need to look further for a reason. As for Jane’s lover, the duc de Longueville had been high in favor with Louis XII and continued to be so under his successor, Francis I. Both were his distant kinsmen. Longueville fought in the Battle of Marigano in 1515 and reportedly lost a brother there. He died of unknown causes at Beaugency on August 1, 1516, having made his will the previous day. Although Jane Popyncourt left England for France in late May of 1516, it is not known whether she was ever reunited with her lover. The story that he set her up at the Louvre and lived with her there for many years obviously has no basis in fact, since he died only a few months after she arrived. In addition, in 1516, the Louvre was a ruin. The court, when in Paris, resided at Les Tournelles. In any case, Jane settled in France and corresponded with Mary Tudor (by then duchess of Suffolk) for some years afterward, on occasion sending gifts to Mary’s children. Jane Popyncourt was still alive in 1528, when Mary asked her to use her influence at the French court on Mary’s behalf.

DOROTHY PORT
see DOROTHY FITZHERBERT

ELIZABETH PORT
see ELIZABETH GIFFARD

MARGARET PORT (d.1613)
Margaret Port was the daughter of Sir John Port of Etwall (d. July 6, 1557) and Elizabeth Giffard (d. before 1557). She married Sir Thomas Stanhope of Shelford (d.1596). Their children were Sir John (d.1611), Edward, Thomas, and Anne (1576-1651). According to the theory put forth in the Edward De Vere Newsletter (#40-44), she may have been the Lady Stanhope, who was one of the fourteen ladies in attendance at an entertainment put on by Alice Spencer, countess of Derby, sometime between 1600 and 1604. If so, she is the subject of the verses that begin in "O Philomela, favyre and wise." Margaret made her will on March 27, 1613, at which time she was living in Thurland House in Nottingham. The entire will can be found at Oxford-Shakespeare.com.

JOAN PORTMAN (c.1565-September 13, 1633)
Joan Portman was the daughter of Sir Henry Portman (d.1590) and Jane Michell. In about 1593, she married John Wyndham (c.1558-April 1, 1645). They were the parents of John (d.c.1649), Thomas, Francis, George, Humphrey, Joan, Rachel, Anne, Florence, Margery, Henry (1583-1613), Hugh (1603-July 27, 1684), and Wadham (b.1609). Portrait: by Hieronimo Custodis, 1610; brass at Watchet, Somerset.

JOAN PORTMAN (d. 1623+)
Joan Portman was the daughter of Sir John Portman (d.1612) and Anne Gifford (d.1652). She married Sir George Speke of Whitelackington and Ollington, Somerset. They had at least three children, Elizabeth, Philippa (b.1600), and George (b.1623). Portrait: 1592.

MARY PORTMAN (d.1604+)
Mary Portman was the daughter of Sir William Portman (d.1557) and Elizabeth Gilbert. In 1556, she married Sir John Stawell of Cothelstone, Somerset (d.1603), a wealthy landowner and local justice of the peace. Within a short time after the marriage, Mary took up with Sir John's servant, John Stalling, and for the next several years apparently carried on an affair right under her husband's nose, "visiting his couch early and late, and walking and sitting alone with him in places and at times . . . fit and suitable for . . . lawless loves." The servants knew she had "soiled her marriage bed with marks of shame and had carnal knowledge with him, and often . . . and slept with the same John on one and the same bed often." Stalling bribed some of the other servants, including Elizabeth Goore (with clothing including ruffs, gloves, a pair of black satin sleeves, and a cloak) and Arthur Guntrey (with clothing and cash). Reports indicate that on occasion Mary would leave her nuptial bed and go to her lover, who either had a chamber in the same house and a house of his own at Cothelstone, or both, suggesting to Dr. A. L. Rowse, who discusses the case in his The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society, that he was an upper servant, perhaps the steward. Mary became pregnant by her lover in 1561 and used drugs to cause an abortion. It was only after she went on to sleep with other menservants, and after Stawell met another woman, Frances Dyer, and wished to marry her, that he attempted to obtain a divorce. This was difficult in Protestant England. The suit was first brought in the consistory court at Wells. There Mary and her friends opposed it. Then the case went to the Court of Delegates, where a judicial separation was granted in 1565, but not a divorce. At some point, Mary gave birth to a daughter, but Stawell doubted the girl was his. The local bishop, of Bath and Wells, wrote to Archbishop Parker in support of allowing Stawell to divorce Mary and remarry, even though Mary was still living, but matters dragged on until April of 1572, when the archbishop finally granted Stawell license to remarry. In November 1572, Mary sued Stawell in the Court of Arches for restitution. At the same time, the Court of Audience charged Stawell with cohabiting with a gentlewoman as his wife when his former wife was still living. Stawell then offered Archbishop Parker a bribe of Ł100 and someone else in the Parker household Ł200 for their support, but when he refused to say whether he had remarried or not, the archbishop had him jailed. At this point, Sir Edward Dyer, the second Lady Stawell's brother, intervened, coming to an agreement with Mary's brother, Sir Henry Portman, and with Stawell. This involved paying Mary a Ł600 bribe not to contest the marriage further. Sir John and his second wife were then able to live together without censure for the rest of their lives. Mary, however, outlived her former husband, and his son by his second wife. His heir was a child of three. In 1604, Mary petitioned for recognition of her marriage to Stawell and the restoration of her dower rights. She succeeded in winning both.

ELIZABETH POULETT
see ELIZABETH KENN

KATHERINE POULETT
see KATHERINE NORRIS

JANE POWYS
see JANE ORWELL

CATHERINE POYNINGS
see CATHERINE MARNEY

JANE POYNINGS (c.1482-November 7, 1539+)
Jane (or Mary or Joan) Poynings was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Poynings (1459-October 1521). She married Thomas Fiennes de Clinton, 8th baron Clinton of Marstoke (1490-August 7, 1517) and was the mother of Edward (1512-January 16, 1585), who later became earl of Lincoln, and Barbara and Isabel, who appear to have died young. Her second husband, to whom she was married on July 4, 1519, was Sir Robert Wingfield (1464-March 18, 1539). As Wingfield's wife, and as his widow, Lady Clinton lived in Calais. In his will, made March 15, 1538 and proved November 12, 1539, he left her a scarlet cloak, Ł100 in silver plate and, for life, everything in his house near the Boulogne gate in Calais, except what he possessed when he married her. He also had a house in London, on Lombard's Hill. She had no children by her second husband.

ANNE POYNTZ (c.1528-November 19, 1593)
Anne Poyntz was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Poyntz of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire (1510-1557) and Joan Berkeley (d.1563). In about 1555, she married Sir Thomas Heneage of Copt Hall, Essex (1533-October 17, 1595) and was the mother of Elizabeth Heneage (July 9, 1556-1633/4). She died at Modsey, Surrey. Portraits: one extant in 1890; effigy on her husband’s tomb in the chapel of the Virgin behind the choir in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

ELIZABETH POYNTZ
see ELIZABETH HUDDESFIELD

JOAN POYNTZ

see JOAN VAUX

MARGARET POYNTZ
see MARGARET WOODVILLE

MARGARET POYNTZ (c.1505-1541+)
Margaret Poyntz was the daughter of Sir Anthony Poyntz of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire (c.1480-1535) and Elizabeth Huddesfield (d.1510+). There were two maids of honor named Margaret Poyntz at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 and undoubtedly this Margaret was one of them. She married Sir John Newton of Hawtrey (c.1505-1568) and had by him nineteen children, including Henry (1529-May 2, 1599), John, Theodora (d.1569), Francis (d.1572), Jane (b.c.1537), Bridget, Grace, Frances (1539-October 17, 1592), Nazaret (c.1541-April 16, 1583), Joanna, and Theophila (d.1589+), Theodosia, Catherine, Eleanor, Thomas, Sampson, and Anthony.

SUSANNA POYNTZ (d.1613)
Susanna Poyntz was the daughter of Thomas Poyntz of North Ockenden, Essex (d. May 5, 1562) and Anne Calva. She married Sir Richard Saltonstall (d. March 17, 1601) and was the mother of seven sons and nine daughters, including Elizabeth, Judith, and Martha. Portrait: effigy on Saltonstall tomb in St. Nicholas’s Church, South Ockendon, Essex.

FRANCES PRANNELL

see FRANCES HOWARD

MARGARET PRATT (c.1554-1602)
Margaret Pratt was the daughter of Charles Pratt of London, a leatherseller. She made four very profitable marriages, the first to John Middleton of London, a merchant tailor, by whom she had three sons and three daughters. She married secondly Edmund Chapman, squire joiner to the queen and yeoman of the royal armories at Greenwich. They had a son. Her third husband, married on September 15, 1588 in St. Dionis Backchurch, was sir Edward Osborne (c.1530-February 4, 1592), who had been Lord Mayor of London in 1583. They had no children. She was executor of their wills by her first three husbands and all three left her considerable property. From Osborne, she inherited a life interest in a house in Philpot Lane and other London and Essex properties, plus an annuity of Ł93, resulting in an income of about Ł200/year. She later negotiated with her five stepchildren to keep the Philpot Lane property for 1900 years. On April 10, 1592 she married, as his third of four wives, Robert Clarke of Pleshy, Essex (1545-January 1, 1607), a baron of the exchequer, by whom she had two daughters. She was buried in St. Dionis, Backchurch on May 20, 1602.

AGNES PREST (x. August 15, 1557) (maiden name unknown)
The 1583 edition of the Book of Martyrs gives the story of Agnes Prest, but the details are, as is usual with Foxe’s anecdotes, elaborated upon to make a point. She was an uneducated village woman and was burned as a heretic just outside the walls of Exeter, but her birthplace seems to have been in Cornwall and she may have been considerably younger than Foxe believed. She worked as a servant in Exeter and there embraced the new religion. Then she returned to Cornwall to marry a farmer named Prest and bear him several children, but since he was an ardent Catholic, she eventually left her family and supported herself by spinning. The story goes that she missed her children so much that she returned to her husband and that he promptly turned her in to the authorities as a heretic. She was imprisoned in Launceston for three months and then taken to Exeter for trial. She refused to recant and was executed. Foxe’s story has it that she felt compelled to speak out against the mass to anyone who would listen and that she was arrested and tried as an Anabaptist. Another tale connected to her is that on the night before she was burned at Southernhay, she was visited by Catherine Raleigh, who prayed with her. This may or may not be true, but the fact that the same source then says that Agnes’s execution took place only a few days before Queen Mary Tudor’s death (in actual fact Agnes died more than a year before the queen) makes many of the other details suspect. A detailed but not necessarily accurate account of Agnes Prest and her activities can be found in A. L. Rowse’s Tudor Cornwall.

ANNE PRESTON (c.1510-February 1587)
Anne Preston was the daughter of Henry Preston of Preston, Lancashire, although some genealogies list him as "of Westmorland." In the early 1530s she married William Paget (1505-June 9, 1563). They leased a house in Aldersgate in 1534. Anne was reported to have died in 1545, but she recovered. Her husband was created baron Paget of Beaudesert on December 3, 1549. Under Mary Tudor, Lady Paget was at court. Although she did not have much influence herself, she was acquainted with those who did. Jane Guildford, duchess of Northumberland, wrote to Anne at some point between Northumberland's imprisonment in the Tower on July 25, 1553 and his execution on August 22, 1553, asking her to approach Gertrude, marchioness of Exeter and the queen's good friend "Mestres Clarencyous" (Susan White) on Northumberland's behalf. Anne was chosen to escort the queen in the coronation procession on September 29, 1553. Although the effort to save Northumberland's life was not successful, Lady Northumberland's will, made in late 1554 or early 1555, remembered Anne Paget and left her a "high backed gowne of wrought velvet." In March 1555, the Pagets were said to have nine children living. They were Ethelreda (b.c.1535), Henry (c.1537-December 28, 1571), Joan, Anne (c.1540-c.1590-4), Eleanor, Thomas (c.1544-1590), Dorothy, Charles (d.1612), and Grisel (d. July 21, 1600).

HELEN or ELLEN PRESTON (d. 1567+)

Helen Preston was the daughter of Sir Thomas Preston of Preston Patrick, Westmorland (d.1523) and Anne Thornborough. She married first Sir James Leyburne of Cunswick, Westmorland (d. August 20, 1548) as his second wife. From him she inherited an eighteen year lease on the manors of Ashton, Carnforth, and Scotforth, Lancashire. Her daughters were left 200 marks apiece. Her second husband, married c.1549, was Thomas Stanley, 2nd baron Mounteagle (May 25, 1507-August 25, 1560). She had three daughters by her first husband, including Elizabeth (1536-September 4, 1567) and Anne, and two by her second husband, Margaret and another Anne. She married the first Anne to her second husband’s son, William Stanley, 3rd baron Mounteagle. After the Council of Trent declared (in 1562) that no Catholic could be present at a heretic service and remain a good Catholic, Lady Mounteagle refused to attend services. She does not seem to have been persecuted as a recusant, at least in part because of her family connections. Her widowed daughter, Elizabeth Leyburne, Lady Dacre, married as her second husband, Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk. The wedding took place in Lady Mounteagle’s London house on January 29, 1567. After Elizabeth's death in childbirth some nine months later, Lady Mounteagle took charge of her grandchildren and provided a Catholic priest to instruct them.

JOAN PRICE
see JOAN COLTE

MARY PRICE
see MARY DIXWELL

MAGDALEN PRIDEAUX (d. 1619)
Magdalen Prideaux was the daughter of Thomas Prideaux of Devonshire and Helen Clement and the granddaughter of Sir Thomas More's pupil, Margaret Gigs. Her mother taught her Latin and she was later sent, as a student boarder, to St. Ursula's in Louvain, where her aunt, Margaret Clement, was prioress. Her father was a printer in the Low Countries. In 1574, he sent his wife and daughter to his brother Richard for a visit but remained in exile himself. The family was in Madrid, Spain when Magdalen met and married William Copley (1565-1643) in 1589. They had three children, Helen (1592-1666), Mary (1593-1669), and Thomas (1595-1652). Both daughters became nuns at St. Ursula's.

ANNE PROUSE or PROWSE

see ANNE VAUGHAN

ANNE PUDSEY
see ANNE WISEMAN

ANNE PURY (d.1530/1)
Anne Pury was the daughter of John Pury of Chamberhouse Manor at Crookham, Berkshire (1408-1474) and Isabel Wawne. She married Sir William Danvers of Calthorpe, Oxfordshire (d.1505), a judge. They had eight children, including Alice, William, John, Anne, and Isabel. After his death, she erected a chapel in the church at Thatcham, Berkshire. She and her husband have a monument there but their brass effigies have been lost. Anne owned one of the first English translations of the Bible, which she eventually donated to Syon Abbey.

ANNE PUTTENHAM (d.1592+)
Anne Puttenham was the daughter of Sir George Puttenham of Sherfield on Lodon, Hampshire (c.1460-January 26, 1535) and Alice Windsor (d. before 1524). By 1531, she had married John Norton of East Tisted, Hampshire (d.c.1561). They had at least one child, his son and heir, Richard Norton of Rotherfield (d.1592). In 1565, after her husband’s death, Anne claimed that Richard and his uncle had tricked her into signing away her dower rights, the manor of Rotherfield. She apparently learned of this when she sent men to the woods at the west side of the park to lop trees to sell and they were not only prevented by Richard but brought before the King's Bench by him on charges of stealing the wood. No record of how the case turned out seems to have survived.

ANNE PUTTENHAM (d.1567+)
Anne Puttenham was the daughter of Richard Puttenham of Sherfield upon Lodon, Hampshire (1520-c.1597) and Mary Warham (d.1587+), grand-niece of Archbishop Warham. Anne's father fled to the Continent in 1560 to avoid arrest and was convicted of rape in 1561. In spite of this, he returned to England several times thereafter, including a visit in 1567 during which he conveyed ownership of Sherfield to Anne and her husband, Francis Morris of Great Coxwell, Berkshire (c.1522-1584). Morris seized the property from Anne's uncle, George Puttenham, who had been in residence there since at least 1562. In April 1571, at which time George was living in Sherfield in the house of Margaret Marriner, George's men seized a mill at Sherfield. Morris took it back by force and then evicted Margaret Marriner and pulled down her house. Margaret and George rebuilt it. Morris and his men tore it down a second time. In 1581, Francis Morris was arrested for harboring Edmund Campion, the Jesuit priest. He died in prison, but George Puttenham, who was in prison himself on other charges, did not gain control of Sherfield. Meanwhile, Anne's father had returned to England toward the end of 1578. By sometime in 1583, he was also in prison, in his case in the King's Bench for debt. In 1587 he petitioned the masters of requests to reduce the annual payment he’d made to Anne's mother for the last twenty years from Ł30 to Ł20. He called Mary a "clamorous strumpet" and claimed she had brought nothing to their marriage. He mentioned neither Anne nor her mother in his will, made on April 22, 1597, instead naming his illegitimate daughter, Katherine Puttenham, as his executor. Anne and Francis's children were Warham, Anne, Martha, Thomas, Alice, Katherine, Jane, and Mary.

ELIZABETH PUTTENHAM
see ELIZABETH COWDRAY

MARGERY or MARGARET PUTTENHAM (d.1591)
Margery or Margaret Puttenham was the daughter of Robert Puttenham of Sherfield on Lodon, Hampshire (1495-1546) and Margery Elyot. She married Sir John Throckmorton of Feckenham, Worcestershire (d.1580). They had three sons, Francis (1554-x. June 10, 1584), Thomas (d.1595), and George, who were raised as Catholics. Francis was executed for attempting to free Mary Queen of Scots and Thomas died in exile. Portrait: tomb effigy, Coughton, Warwickshire.

AGNES PYKERELL
see AGNES DUFFORD

A B-Bl Bo-Brom Brooke-Bu C-Ch Cl-Cy D E F G H-He Hi-Hu I-J K L M N O P Q-R Sa-Sn So-Sy T U-V W-Wh Wi-Z

To return to the WHO'S WHO index, click here: