A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: Sa-Sn

compiled by

Kathy Lynn Emerson

to update and correct

her very out-of-date

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (1984)

NOTE: this document exists only in electronic format

and is ©2008-11 Kathy Lynn Emerson (all rights reserved)

 

MARY SACHEVERELL
see MARY HUNGERFORD

ANNE SACKVILLE

see ANNE SPENCER

ANNE SACKVILLE (1514-1554+)
Anne Sackville was the daughter of John Sackville of Chiddingley, Kent (1484-September 27, 1557) and Margaret Boleyn (b.c.1487). By 1537, she married Sir Nicholas Pelham of Laughton, Sussex (1517-September 15, 1560). They had ten children, including Sir John (1537-October 13, 1580), Mary, Anthony, Sir Thomas (c.1540-December 2, 1624), Robert, Anne, Elizabeth, Edward, and Nicholas (b.1554). Portrait: effigy in St. Michael’s Church, Lewes, Sussex

ANNE SACKVILLE (d. May 14,1595)

Anne Sackville was the daughter of Richard Sackville (d. April 21, 1566) and Winifred Brydges (1510-June 16, 1586). At an early age, she married Gregory Fiennes (1539-September 25, 1594), restored as Lord Dacre of the South in 1558. Fiennes was a weak character, dominated first by his mother and then by his wife. The historian William Camden refers to him as "a little crack-brained." Anne was godmother to Douglas Howard's illegitimate son, Robert Dudley, in 1574. She had one daughter, Elizabeth, who died young, but no children who survived her. In her will, she left money for the founding of an almshouse in Tothill Field, adjacent to her house in Westminster. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Fiennes [née Sackville], Anne." Portrait: life size effigy on her tomb in Chelsea Old Church.

ISABEL SACKVILLE (c.1498-October 21, 1570)
Isabel Sackville was the daughter of Richard Sackville of Withyham, Sussex (1460-July 18, 1524) and Isabel Diggs. She became a nun and by 1526 was prioress of St. Mary Clerkenwell. This Augustinian priory was dissolved in 1539. Isabel received a pension of £50 a year. She also received a bequest from her brother-in-law, John Baker, added in a codicil to his will dated December 5, 1558. Her sister Catherine (d.1524) had been his first wife.

MARY SACKVILLE
see MARY CURZON

WINIFRED SACKVILLE
see WINIFRED BRYDGES

DOROTHY SADLER (d.1578+)
Dorothy Sadler was the youngest daughter of Ralph Sadler of Standon, Hertfordshire (1507-March 30, 1587) and Margaret Mitchell (d.1545+). She married Edward Erlington/Elrington of Birch Hall, Theydon Bois (c.1527-1578). They had five children. In July 1572 and again on September 19, 1578 (when she was newly widowed), Dorothy entertained Queen Elizabeth at Birch Hall. She inherited it from her husband, along with his London house and garden.

GERTRUDE SADLER
see GERTRUDE MARKHAM

JUDITH SADLER
see JUDITH STAUNTON

MARGARET SADLER
see MARGARET MITCHELL

ANNE SADLIER
see ANNE COKE

MARY ST. BARBE

see MARY BLAKENEY

URSULA ST. BARBE (c.1550-June 18, 1602)

Ursula St. Barbe was the daughter of Henry St. Barbe of Ashington, Somerset (1489-1567) and Eleanor Lewknor. She married first Sir Richard Worsley of Appuldurcome, Isle of Wight (d. 1566) and by him had two sons, John and George. Probably in August 1566, she took as her second husband, Sir Francis Walsingham (c.1532-April 6, 1590). Walsingham’s secretary, Robert Beale, was married to Ursula’s sister Edith. In 1567, Ursula’s two sons by Worsley were both killed in an accidental gunpowder explosion. There followed a lengthy legal battle with her brother-in-law over inheritance rights which was finally settled, in Ursula’s favor, in 1571. When Sir Francis was appointed English Ambassador to France, Ursula went with him to his new post. She apparently did some traveling on her own, since had been in the Auverge region of France before meeting her husband in Cleremont for the journey to Paris, where she arrived on March 19, 1572. On April 21, she paid a visit to the French court, where she was entertained by Queen Dowager Catherine de Medici and others. In August 1572, Ursula, her husband, and their daughter Frances (c.October 1567-February 17,1633) were in their house on the quai des Bernardins in Faubourg St. Germain, when the religious purge called the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre took place. Sir Philip Sidney was already there as a houseguest and other Englishmen in Paris sought shelter there as the killing continued. King Charles IX sent a guard under the command of the Duc de Nevers to protect the English embassy, but three Englishmen who did not reach there were killed and a Huguenot general who had sought asylum there was dragged out by royal troops and later hanged. Some 3000 Huguenots were slaughtered in Paris in less than a week and some 70,000 died elsewhere in France. Sir Francis arranged for his wife and daughter to be smuggled out of the embassy and taken back to England but was obliged to stay on himself. A second daughter, Mary, was born in early January 1573, but she died in 1580. In England, the Walsinghams lived in Seething Lane in London, and at Barn Elms in Surrey. Sir Francis was Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster and in her confidence but the queen does not seem to have cared for Lady Walsingham. Sir Francis died in the house in Seething Lane and was buried in St. Paul’s. Ursula was the sole executor of his will. After a marriage that had lasted twenty-four years, Ursula lived on her own for a further twenty-two, during which time she saw her daughter, Frances, twice become a widow. Frances’s first husband was Sir Philip Sidney, her second Robert Devereux, the earl of Essex executed for treason in 1601. Ursula died at Barn Elms and was buried beside her husband in St. Paul’s. In addition to other bequests, she left £50 to her waiting woman, Alice Poole. Portrait: 1583

ALICE ST. JOHN (1486-1552/3)
Alice St. John was the daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsoe, Bedfordshire (1450-1525) and Sybil Morgan. She was a kinswoman of Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and Derby (her great niece) and it was due to the countess that Alice married Henry Parker of Hallingbury Place and Mark Hall, Essex (1480/1-November 27, 1556), who had been brought up in Margaret Beaufort's household. They were married before 1505. He was created Lord Morley in 1518, so she was not the Alice Parker who was a chamberer in Princess Mary's household in Wales in 1525-7. Lord Morley did have a sister named Alice. If that Alice Parker wasn’t the one with Mary in 1525, she or their sister Jane may have been the Mrs. Parker who was part of the household of the countess of Richmond in 1509. Alice St. John Parker, Lady Morley, attended the Field of Cloth of Gold and was part of the processions at Anne Boleyn’s coronation and Jane Seymour's funeral. Alice's children were Jane (c.1505-February 13, 1542), Margaret, Henry (c.1513-January 9, 1552 or December 3, 1553), Elizabeth, and Francis. In June 1536, with her husband and a daughter, probably Margaret, Lady Shelton, Alice visited Princess Mary at Hunsdon, which was situated only six miles from Great Hallingbury. This was shortly after the execution of Anne Boleyn and her brother George, Lord Rochford. Rochford had been Alice's son-in-law, the husband of her eldest daughter, Jane. In 1542, the year in which Jane Rochford was executed, Lady Morley paid part of the cost of a new bell for the church in Great Hallingbury. Julia Fox, in her Jane Boleyn, suggests (although she admits it is a bit fanciful) that this may have been a memorial to Alice's daughter.

ALICE ST. JOHN (c.1521-1567+)
Alice St. John was the daughter of Sir John St. John of Bledsoe (1483-December 19, 1558) and Margaret Waldegrave (1491-1526). She married Edmund Elmes of Lilford (Lillford/Lylford), Northamptonshire. As the aunt of Margaret Russell, daughter of her sister, Margaret, who died in 1562, she took charge of the girl from age two to age seven. Alice's own children were John (b.1542), Anne (b.1544), Margaret (b.1546), Elizabeth (b.1548), and Sir Thomas (1551-September 1612).

ANNE ST. JOHN (d.1602+)
Anne St. John was the daughter of John, 2nd baron St. John (January 1549-October 23, 1596) and Catherine Dormer (c.1549-March 23, 1615). On February 7, 1596/7, she married William Howard, 3rd baron Howard of Effingham (December 27, 1577-November 28, 1615). According to contemporary accounts she did not know she was with child before she surprised herself and the entire court by giving birth to a daughter, Elizabeth (January 19, 1602/3-November 1671) during the Christmas festivities of 1602.

CATHERINE ST. JOHN (c.1490-December 1553)
Catherine St. John was the daughter of Sir John St. John (1450-1525) and Sybil Morgan married first, in 1507, Sir Griffith ap Rhys of Carmarthen, Wales (d. 1521). Her second husband was Sir Piers Edgecumbe of West Stonehouse and Cothele, Cornwall (1468/9-August 14, 1539). She was his second wife. He had three sons and four daughters by his first wife, Jane. In 1524-5, Sir Peter and his wife Catherine were sent three gallons of wine "at their first homecoming." There was an outbreak of measles in the household in March 1534. Catherine was executor of her husband's will. M. St. Clare Byrne identifies Catherine as the Lady Edgecumbe who was a lady of the Privy Chamber to Anne of Cleves in 1540. Although other sources say that was Winifred Essex, her stepson's wife, Winifred may not yet have been married and in any case would not have been Lady Edgecumbe because her husband was not knighted until 1542. The "Lady Edgecumbe" who served Catherine Howard in the Privy Chamber was probably also Catherine Edgecumbe, for the same reasons. Catherine made her will on December 4, 1553, at Cothele, Cornwall and it was proved on December 12, 1553. In it she names a daughter Mary Luttrell, by her first husband, to whom she left the household goods at Dunster, Somerset. This was Mary Griffith (1519-March 31, 1588), wife of Sir John Luttrell.

ELIZABETH ST. JOHN
see ELIZABETH PAULET

JUDITH ST. JOHN (c.1545-c.1607)
Judith St. John was the daughter of Oliver St. John, 1st baron St. John of Bletsoe (1516-April 21, 1582) and Agnes Fisher (1522-August 28, 1572). She married Sir John Pelham of Laughton (1537-October 13, 1580) c. 1570 and had a son, Oliver (d. January 19, 1584/5). Portrait: effigy made of red marble painted white in Stanmer Church, Brighton, Sussex.

MARGARET ST. JOHN (c.1524-August 27, 1562)
Margaret St. John was the daughter of Sir John St. John of Bletsoe (1483-December 19, 1558) and Margaret Waldegrave (1491-1526). Her first husband, to whom she was married in 1543, was John Gostwick of Willington, Bedfordshire (1520-December 1545). In 1546, she married Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford (1527-July 28, 1585), by whom she was the mother of Edward (1551-1572), John (c.1553-1584), Francis (1553-July 27, 1585), William (c.1558-August 9, 1613), Anne (d. February 9, 1604), Elizabeth (d. March 24, 1605), and Margaret (1560-1616). Charlotte Merton, in The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, suggests that it was Margaret who infected the queen with smallpox in 1562, as Margaret died right after a visit to court. A few weeks later, the queen fell ill.

ANNE ST. LEGER (c.1466-April 21, 1526)
Anne St. Leger was the daughter of Sir Thomas St. Leger (d. November 8, 1483) and Anne Plantagenet, Duchess of Exeter (August 10, 1439-January 1475/6). She married George Manners, 12th baron Ros or Roos (d. October 1513) and was the mother of Thomas, 1st earl of Rutland (d. September 20, 1543), Margaret (c.1486-1558+), Richard (1490-c.1550), Eleanor (1505-September 16, 1547), Catherine (c.1511-1547+), Oliver, John, Anne, Elizabeth, Anthony, Cecily, and another unnamed son. Portrait: effigy in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

ANNE ST. LEGER
see ANNE KNYVETT

MARY ST. LEGER
see MARY SOUTHWELL

MARY ST. LEGER (after 1540-1623)
Mary St. Leger was the daughter of Sir John St. Leger of Annerly, Devon (c.1520-October 8,1596) and Catherine Neville. She brought the island of Lundy to her marriage c. 1565 to Richard Grenville of Stow (June 5,1541-September 2,1591). They were the parents of Roger (d. December 1565), Bernard or Barnard (1568-1636), John (d.1595), Katherine, Mary, Ursula (d.1643), Bridget (d.1578), Rebecca, and another son who died young. The Grenvilles were in Cork in Ireland from 1568-1579 and at one point in June 1569, Mary and Lady St. Leger (Ursula Neville, wife of Sir Warham St. Leger, Mary’s cousin) were besieged by rebels and had to seek refuge with the earl of Ormond at Kilkenny. Their husbands were at that time in England, seeking further support against the rebels. Sir Richard, captain of the Revenge, was killed in the Battle of Flores. As a widow, Mary lived at Bideford.

URSULA ST. LEGER
see URSULA NEVILLE

ELIZABETH ST. LOE (d.1559+)
Elizabeth St. Loe was the daughter of Sir John St. Loe of Sutton Court, Chew Magna, Somerset (c.1479-December 1558) and the sister of William St. Loe of Tormarton, Goucestershire (d.1565). Sources disagree on her mother's identity. Sir John St. Loe married a woman named Margaret who was still living in 1559. The History of Parliament (which gives Sir John's life dates as 1500/1-1559) says she was Margaret Kingston, daughter of Sir William Kingston, whose ward St. Loe had been. Other sources give her surname as Poyntz or FitzNicholas (the latter from Charles Herbert Mayo in Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset, citing the Chew Magna Register). Elizabeth St. Loe was placed in household of Elizabeth Stafford, duchess of Norfolk during the reign of Mary Tudor. The duchess, who died on November 30, 1558, left her a new French hood and a silver cup with a cover in her will (proved January 19, 1558/9). Charlotte Merton, in The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, identifies Elizabeth St. Loe as one of the first six maids of honor of the new reign at one point in her unpublished PhD dissertation and as a maid of the Privy Chamber in another. In Appendix 1, the dates listed for Elizabeth St. Loe run from January 1558/9 to 1569. According to Mary S. Lovell, Bess of Hardwick Empire Builder, a biography of Sir William St. Loe's second wife, at the time Elizabeth's father drew up his first will in 1550, she was to have married James, 6th Lord Mountjoy (c.1533-October 28, 1582/3) by an arrangement made with his late father, Charles, 5th baron, who had died in 1544. Elizabeth was to have a dowry of 500 marks. Mountjoy was to have £200 if the marriage went ahead. It did not. On May 17, 1558, Mountjoy married someone else. Under the terms of the will, the £200 was then to go to Elizabeth, along with the 500 marks. In late September 1559, from London, Lovell reports that Elizabeth's new sister-in-law, Bess of Hardwick, sent her two chains of gold worth £21. Soon after, Bess was appointed a lady of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth. This reference is a bit confusing, since Elizabeth must already have been at court. To add to the confusion, there was a third Elizabeth St. Loe, a cousin who conspired against Sir William and Bess (see MARGARET SCUTT). It appears, therefore, that there may have been two women named Elizabeth St. Loe at court (Elizabeth and Bess) and a third (the cousin), in the Tower of London, all at the same time in early 1560.

ELIZABETH ST. LOE

see ELIZABETH HARDWICK

MARGARET ST. LOE
see MARGARET SCUTT

MARY ST. LOE (1539-1558+)

Mary St.Loe was the daughter of Sir William St.Loe of Tormarton (1518-1565/6) by his first wife, Jane Baynton (1523-1549). She entered the service of Elizabeth Tudor in 1553, when she was fourteen, at a time when her father was also part of that household. She is one of six gentlewomen about whom John Harington wrote a sonnet entitled "The prayse of six gentle Women attending of the Ladye Elizabeth her grace at Hatfield." Her stanza calls her "stable . . . as rock within the sea." Mary continued in Elizabeth’s service after she became queen.

MARIA de SALINAS (c.1490-October 19,1539)

Maria de Salinas was the daughter of Juan Sancriz de Salinas (d.c.July, 1495) and Inez Albernos. She came to England in about 1503 to replace her cousin, Maria de Rojas, as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. In 1511, she was godmother to Charles Brandon's daughter, Mary. By 1514, she was considered to be Queen Catherine’s closest friend. She received letters of denization on May 29, 1516, shortly before her June 5th marriage to William, 10th Baron Willoughby d’Eresby (d.1526), master of the royal hart hounds. They were given the loan of Greenwich Palace for their honeymoon and the manor of Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire as a wedding present, as well as a dowry of 1,100 marks. Maria continued to be a part of the queen's household after her marriage and an indication of the favor in which she was held by both the king and the queen can be seen in the name of one of King Henry VIII’s new ships—the Mary Willoughby. Maria had three children, Henry and Francis, who died young, and Catherine (March 22,1520-September 19,1580), who became the ward of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, upon Willoughby’s death. Court battles ensued at this point over the Willoughby lands and title and continued in Chancery and the Star Chamber after Suffolk married Catherine in 1534. Maria had been forced to leave Queen Catherine’s service in 1532, but she continued to correspond with the cast-off queen and sent her news of her daughter, Mary Tudor. In 1535, when the former queen was ill, Maria was denied permission to visit her but she traveled to Kimbolton Castle anyway. As Garrett Mattingly, Catherine’s biographer, puts it: “It was a foul, black night, the roads were filthy, she had fallen from her horse, she did not care what his orders were, she was not going another mile.” Faced with such determination, Sir Edmund Bedingfield, Catherine’s jailer, let Maria in. She was with Catherine when she died on January 7, 1536. Maria had two dower houses, Parham Old Hall in Suffolk and the Barbican in London, and she also resided at Eresby and Grimsthorpe, where she died. She is said to have been buried near Queen Catherine. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Willoughby [née de Salinas], Maria." Portrait: one was extant in 1910 at Uffington. NOTE: the entry in the Oxford DNB identifies Maria's parents as Martin de Salinas and Josepha Gonzales de Sales and speculates that she came to England with Catherine of Aragon.

KATHERINE SALISBURY

see KATHERINE TUDOR

MARY SALISBURY (1484-July 10, 1555)
Mary Salisbury was the daughter of Sir William Salisbury of Horton, Northamptonshire and Elizabeth Wylde. She married William Parr, later baron Parr of Horton (c.1480-September 10, 1547), by whom she had four daughters, Maud (c.1507-1558/9), Anne, Elizabeth, and Mary. Portrait: effigy at Horton Church.

URSULA SALISBURY
see URSULA STANLEY

SUSANNA SALTONSTALL
see SUSANNA POYNTZ

HESTER SALUSBURY
see HESTER MIDDLETON

TERESA SAMPSONIA (c.1590-1668)
Teresa (Theresia/Teresia) Sampsonia was, according to her tombstone, the daughter of Samphuflux, Prince of Circassia, actually a Circassian chieftain, who was also known as Isna'il Khan. She is sometimes described as a lady of the Persian court and her aunt may have been a member of Shah Abbas's harem. Her name at that time was Sampsonia. In 1608, she married Sir Robert Sherley of Wiston, Sussex (1581-July 13, 1528), explorer and diplomat, who was a hostage in Persia, although a well-treated one. Subsequently, she became a Roman Catholic (as he had since leaving England) and was given the name Teresa. On February 12, 1608, they left Persia, sent on a mission by the shah to recruit European support for his war against the Turk. They traveled by way of the Caspian Sea and the Volga to Moscow, then overland to Poland, arriving in Cracow in the fall to spend the winter there. In the spring, Teresa took up residence in a convent in Poland while Sherley traveled to Emperor Rudolph II's court in Prague, where he was granted the title Count Palatine. Teresa remained in Poland while he continued on to Milan, Florence, and Rome, where he was created a count of the Lateran, and then went to Spain. He had intended to go from Spain to England, but was persuaded by the Spanish to remain in Spain and return to Persia with their ambassador. At that point, Sherley sent for his wife to join him in Madrid. She arrived in Lisbon early in 1611 and joined him in Madrid in March. In June they traveled to Bayonne, where they took passage to Rotterdam. In the summer of 1611, they took ship from Flushing for England, arriving there in August. They went immediately to his family estate at Wiston, where their only child, Henry, was born on November 5, 1611. They left him behind when they sailed from Gravesend on January 7, 1613. With them were "Sir Thomas Powell; Tomasin, his lady" and "Leylye, a Persian woman." They returned to Persia two and a half years later, six and a half years after they’d left, delayed by plots and conspiracies as well as travel conditions. They left Persia for the second time in November 1615, once again on a mission for the shah, and arrived in Spain in September 1617. They remained there until 1622, when they traveled to Rome. It was there that they had their portraits painted by Sir Anthony Van Dyck. In December 1623, the Sherleys were again in England. This time they stayed three years and three months before leaving in March 1627. They returned to Persia early in 1628, and were in Qazvin when Sherley fell ill and died. He was buried under the threshold of his house there. After his death, Lady Teresa was pressured to reconvert. Instead, she left Persia, traveling to Constantinople, where she remained for three years. She left there for Rome, arriving in December 1634. She lived there, in a house near the church of Santa Maria della Scala in Travestera until her death. She gave the church several flambeaux to be lit on the anniversary of the festival of Saint Bacchus. In 1658, she had Sir Robert’s bones brought to Rome and buried in Santa Maria della Scalia, where she was later interred. Portrait: 1622 by Anthony Van Dyck.

ALICE SAMUEL (1513-1593)

Alice Samuel’s maiden name is unknown. She was the wife of John Samuel of Warboys, Huntingdonshire and had a daughter named Agnes. In November 1589, ten-year-old Jane Throckmorton, daughter of Robert Throckmorton of Warboys, who may have been an epileptic, accused Alice Samuel of being a witch. Within two months, Jane’s four sisters, ranging in age from nine to fifteen, and seven of the family’s servants, began to imitate Jane’s symptoms in order to share the attention she was getting. They forced Alice to move in with the family as a servant. In 1590, Lady Cromwell (Susan Weeks) visited the Throckmortons and had an exchange of words with Alice in which Alice uttered the fatal words “I never did you any harm as yet.” Soon after, Lady Cromwell fell ill. She died in July of 1592. At Christmas that year, when Alice, at last fed up, ordered the Thockmorton girls to stop their erratic behavior, they surprised her by obeying. All this led the local pastor, Dr. Dorrington, to convince Alice that she should confess to witchcraft. She did so, but retracted her confession the next day. The retraction did her no good. She was taken before the William Wickham, Bishop of Lincoln where, once again, she was coerced into confessing. This time she admitted to having three familiars—chickens named Pluck, Catch, and White. With her husband and daughter, now also accused by the Throckmorton girls, Alice was tried on April 5, 1593 for the murder by witchcraft of Lady Cromwell. They were found guilty and hanged. Their property was confiscated by Lady Cromwell’s husband, Sir Henry, who used the proceeds to pay for an annual sermon against witchcraft to be preached in Huntingdon in perpetuity. A pamphlet (The Most Strange and Admirable Discovery of the Three Witches of Warboys) published in 1593 memorialized the trial.

PETRONELLA SAMYNE (d.c.1606) (maiden name unknown)
Petronella Samyne was a London widow who acted as the English representative for her two sons, who were importers of silk and spent most of their time in Verona. In 1602-3 they sent her eleven bales of silk, valued at £2,500.

ELIZABETH SANDES, SONDES, SANDS, or SANDYS (1532-June 16, 1585)

Elizabeth Sandes was the daughter of Sir Anthony Sandes of Throwley, Kent (d.1575) and Joan Fyneux. By 1554, she was in the household of Elizabeth Tudor, accompanying her to the Tower of London (as one of the princess’s three gentlewomen) and going with her to Woodstock in May of that year. John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs, and others after him, wrongly state that Elizabeth Sandes was dismissed from the princess's service while Elizabeth Tudor was still in the Tower and give as the reason that she refused to attend mass. In fact, she was not sent away until June 5, 1554. On May 26, Queen Mary had written that Elizabeth Sandes was “a person of evil opinion, and not fit to remain about our . . . sister’s person” because of her religious beliefs. Elizabeth Sandes was replaced in the princess’s household by Elizabeth Marberye (Marbery), but “not without great mourning both of my lady’s grace and Sandes,” according to Sir Henry Bedingfield, who had charge of Elizabeth Tudor at that time. He characterized Elizabeth Sandes as having an "obstinate disposition." Elizabeth Sandes may have been sent first to an uncle in Clerkenwell (London) but soon was returned to her father in Kent. From there, in March 1555, she left England with her cousins Dorothy and William Stafford and settled in Geneva. In 1557, Elizabeth and Dorothy, now a widow, moved to Basel, where they remained until early in 1559. They returned to England by way of France and joined Queen Elizabeth's court, Elizabeth as a chamberer in August 1559. By 1562, Elizabeth Sandes was reportedly to marry Sir Maurice/Morris Berkeley of Bruton, Somerset (1508-August 11,1581). He served as standard bearer for Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth. It is unclear when they wed. She is listed as unmarried among the queen's attendants until 1565. She remained at court until her death. Elizabeth and Sir Maurice had three children, Robert (d. before 1624), John, and Frances (sometimes called Margaret). Portrait: an effigy at Bruton, with that of her husband and his first wife (Catherine Blount, d. February 25, 1559), although Elizabeth is, in fact, buried at St. John’s Clerkenwell.

JANE SANDES or SONDES (June 1574-1609+)
Jane Sandes or Sondes was the daughter of Sir Michael Sandes or Sondes of Throwley Park, Kent (d.1617) and Mary Fynch (d.1603). On January 5, 1593/4, she married Edward Fludd of Bearsted, Kent (c.1563-1600). According to A. L. Rowse’s Sex and Society in Shakespeare’s Age, Jane had quite the active sex life. In 1600, probably accompanied by her maid, Susan Rigden, she visited the astrologer Simon Forman to ask if Sir Calisthenes Brooke and Sir Thomas Gates and others still loved her. In the course of the consultation she gave Forman names and details, which he recorded. Sir Calisthenes Brooke, son of Lord Cobham, was a soldier for whom she wore a bramble. Their affair had begun around 1596 and she kept his letters under her pillow. After him came both Henry Wotton and Sir Thomas Gates, another soldier, for whom she wore thyme. Her current lover was Sir Thomas Walsingham of Chislehurst. Forman recorded that she’d also loved Copell (the rector of her parish church at Throwley from 1597-1605), Sir Robert Rivington, Robin Jones (her father’s man, a clerk), Wilmar (her father-in-law, Sir Thomas Fludd’s man, deceased by 1600, for whom she wore a willow), “Lady Vane’s son of Kent,” who “took her garter from her leg to wear for her sake”—this could be either Sir Thomas Vane or Henry Vane of Hadlow. In May 1600, she returned, now a widow, to ask if Vincent Randall, son and heir of Edward Randall of Gayseham Hall, Essex, with whom she had fallen in love, would marry her. He did not, and Forman’s horoscope predicted that she would not wed for some time and that when she did, it would be to “a miserable, ungodly, untoward old fellow.” Of Jane, he wrote: “She is not to be trusted, though she has a fair tongue, but will backbite and speak evil of her best friends. She professes virtue, loyalty, chastity—yet is full of vice, apt to be in love with many; hath loved men of worth and base fearing creatures, and some of the clergy. She spends much in pride and is in debt, poor in respect. She is wavering-minded, light of conditions and will overthrow her own estate.” Jane’s family, however, does not appear to have had any idea of her extracurricular activities, for when her father-in-law, who died on May 30, 1607, wrote his will, he left her a house in Bearsted called Otterash, with barns, an orchard, yards, and arable land attached. By that time, she had remarried, taking as her second husband the well-to-do Sir Thomas May of Mayfield, Sussex (d. July 1616). His first wife, Barbara Rich, had died in early 1602, leaving him with a son, also named Thomas (1595-1650). Jane had one daughter, Mary, by Fludd and four daughters with her second husband. Toward the end of 1609, however, Jane paid another visit to Simon Forman, this time to learn the fate of her one-time lover, Sir Thomas Gates, who was on the missing ship Sea Venture, which had become separated from the fleet on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia, where he was to be governor. It was the following year before those in England learned that although a hurricane had wrecked the ship in Bermuda, all aboard had survived. This is the event that probably inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Although Forman’s predictions about the sort of man Jane would marry do not seem to have been accurate, he did appear to be correct that she would “overthrow her own estate.” By the time Thomas May died, there was very little money left, forcing Jane’s stepson to turn to writing to earn his living. What happened to Jane’s daughters after 1616 remains a mystery and Jane’s date of death is unknown.

ANNE SANDYS or SANDS (d.1544+)
Anne Sandys or Sands was the daughter of Oliver Sandys of Shere, Surrey (d. November 7, 1515). She was in the household Elizabeth of York and also served Catherine of Aragon. Before 1502, she married Richard Weston (c.1466-August 7, 1541), who was governor of Guernsey from 1509 and was knighted in 1514. She is sometimes confused with his sister, Anne Weston, who was in the household of Elizabeth of York and later (1511) married Sir Ralph Verney (d.1525), leading to the statement that Weston married an Anne Verney rather than an Anne Sandys. Their children were Francis (1511-x. May 17, 1536), who was a royal page in 1515, Katherine (1514-1470), and Margaret. Lady Weston was a correspondent of Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle and her letter, written from Sutton Place in November or December 1532 and sent to Soberton, some thirty miles away, recommends that Lady Lisle hire her former maidservant, a daughter of Sir Christopher More of Loseley (d. August 16, 1549), brought up in Lady Bourchier’s household, who was turned out by Sir Richard because she fell in love with one of Weston’s menservants, who had no prospects. The young man was also turned out. It is unclear whether Lady Lisle hired the young gentlewoman, who was staying with her uncle at the time of Lady Weston’s letter.

CECILY SANDYS
see CECILY WILFORD

DENISE SANDYS
see DENISE CHAMPION

EDITH SANDYS (1475-August 22, 1529)
Edith Sandys, sometimes called Elizabeth, was the daughter of Sir William Sandys of the Vyne (c.1439-October 26, 1496) and his wife, Margaret. Some genealogies give Edith's mother's name as Margaret Cheney and others as Margaret Rawson. Edith was married twice. Her first husband, wed after 1489, was Ralph, Lord Neville (d. February 6, 1498), by whom she had a son who died, young, Cecily (b.c.1493), Isabel (d.1529+), and Ralph (February 21, 1497-April 24, 1550). The latter eventually succeeded his grandfather as earl of Westmorland. In 1499 or 1500, Edith married, as his second wife, Sir Thomas Darcy of Templehurst (c.1467-x. June 30, 1538), by whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth (d. before 1539). Edith was probably the Lady Neville who accompanied Margaret Tudor to Scotland in 1503, although there is some confusion because "Lady Darcy" met the princess at Berwick, where Darcy was captain, according to a note in the Plumpton Correspondence. Barbara J. Harris, in English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550, tells us that Henry VII withheld Edith's jointure lands for over a year, only releasing them after Darcy supplied him with 200 men to help defend Berwick-upon-Tweed. Edith's daughter, Isabel Neville, became the second wife of Sir Robert Plumpton in 1505. A short time later, when Plumpton was desperate for money because of a feud over his inheritance, Edith arranged to forgive a debt Plumpton owed her husband. While a younger sister was with her in 1518, Edith negotiated a marriage for her and even put 100 marks toward the girl's dowry. Edith died at Stepney, Middlesex and was buried in the friary of the Observant Friars at Greenwich three days later.

KATHERINE SANDYS
see KATHERINE BRYDGES

MARGARET SANDYS

see MARGARET BOURCHIER

MARGERY SANDYS
see MARGERY BRAY

ALICE SAPCOTE
see ALICE VAUX

ANNE SAPCOTE (d. March 1558/9)
Anne Sapcote was the daughter of Sir Guy Sapcote of Chenies, Buckinghamshire and Thornhaugh, Bedfordshire and Margaert Wolston. She married three times, first to John Broughton of Toddington, Bedfordshire (d.1519), by whom she had three children: John (d.1528), Anne (d.1561), and Katherine (d. April 23, 1535). Her second husband was Sir Richard Jerningham (d.1524), by whom she had Edward and John. In 1525 or 1526, she married Sir John Russell (c.1485-March 14, 1555/6), who was created earl of Bedford in 1550. They had one son, Francis, 2nd earl of Bedford (c.1527-July 28, 1585). When Anne's son, John Broughton, who was in the service of Cardinal Wolsey, died of the sweating sickness, his two sisters inherited £700 in chattels and lands in Bedfordshire. The wardship of the younger, Katherine, had been granted to Wolsey. To please his wife, Russell attempted to buy it from him. At the same time, however, two other courtiers, Sir Thomas Cheney and Sir John Wallop, were attempting to win control of the Broughton fortune and were successful in getting the king to promise Anne Broughton to Sir Thomas and Katherine Broughton to Sir John. Tempers became heated over the matter and after a particularly virulent quarrel between Russell and Cheney, King Henry banished Cheney. In the end, however, with Queen Anne's backing, Anne Broughton passed into Cheney's control and eventually became his wife. Wolsey kept Katherine Broughton's wardship and the king paid Wallop £400 in compensation. On November 20, 1529, Agnes, dowager duchess of Norfolk, purchased it. Katherine's mother was devastated. Russell wrote to Lord Cromwell that Katherine was "all her joy in this world," and a family friend, Thomas Heneage, reported that Anne would be utterly undone if her suit to have Katherine failed. Nothing helped and Agnes married Katherine to one of her sons, William Howard, later Lord Howard of Effingham, in 1531. In the 1530s and 1540s, Anne was one of Princess Mary's attendants, but she was at Chenies on July 29, 1538 when she wrote to Lord Cromwell to ask the king to send Dr. Butts or "the Spanish physician" to her husband, who was sick with "a burning ague." She also asked for a few grains of a "powder" the king had given to the Lord Admiral. Whether he sent it or not, Russell was only just recovering the following October 2nd, at which time Anne, who was pregnant, was ill. There is no further mention of a child born in 1538/9. After her third husband's death, she took over the upbringing of Magdalen Dacre, whose mother had died in 1552. Anne had owned Thornhaugh in her own right when she married John Russell. Chenies, Buckinghamshire, which had passed from Agnes, Lady Cheyne to her niece, Anne Semark, and then to Anne Semark's granddaughter, Anne Sapcote, was the inheritance of Anne Sapcote's son, John Broughton but, after his death, it became the Russells' main residence. In 1556, Anne founded the chapel attached to the parish church of Chenies to commemorate herself and her third husband. For some unknown reason, the inscription gives her name as Elizabeth. Portrait: effigy at Chenies.

ELIZABETH SAPCOTE
see ELIZABETH DYNHAM

ANN SAUNDERS (x. May 13,1573) (maiden name unknown)
It has been suggested that Ann Saunders was a member of the Newdigate family of Surrey and Middlesex, but she is only known by his surname in the accounts of her husband's murder. On March 25, 1573, George Saunders, a wealthy London merchant-tailor, was murdered near Shooter's Hill as he made his way from a friend's house in Woowich to St. Mary Cray. At the time of the murder, Ann was pregnant and gave birth a few days later to her fourth child. The murderer, George Browne, was in love with her and hoped to marry her and had killed her husband to clear the way. He claimed that Ann knew nothing of the plot to murder Saunders, and she maintained her innocence throughout her trial, but at the end, just before she was hanged as an accessory, she admitted her guilt. The most complete account of what is known about the case can be found in Chapter 6 of Strange, Inhuman Deaths: Murder in Tudor England by John Bellamy. Lena Cowen Orlin, in Locating Privacy in Tudor England, reveals that the four Saunders children—Walter, Thomas, Elizabeth, and George—became "orphans of the city" after their mother was executed, supported by the Court of Orphans. The share of the estate that should have gone to their mother as the widow of George Saunders—£600—was claimed by the sheriff, but Francis Saunders, George's brother, contested this. He appears to have been awarded the widow's third, which he then turned over to the children's estate. In his will, made in 1584, he left £54 to each of George and Ann's three children still living.

MARGARET SAUNDERS
see MARGARET BOSTOCK

MARGERY or MARGARET SAUNDERS (1545-June 1625)
Margery or Margaret Saunders was the daughter of Thomas Saunders of Uxbridge, Middlesex. She was married three times, first on June 25, 1563 to Robert Wolman or Woolman (1538-1571). In 1572, she married John Leigh of Coldrey in Froyle, Hampshire (1534-January 19, 1576). They had a son, John Leigh (April 1575-January 6, 1612). In 1577, she married Sir William Killigrew (1545-November 23, 1622), gentleman pensioner and later vice chamberlain to Elizabeth Tudor. Their children were Sir Robert (1578/9-May 1633), Catherine (1579-1641), and Elizabeth (1580-May 1626). The Killigrews were always in debt but they kept a large house in Lothbury.

SABINE SAUNDERS (c.1521-1576+)
Sabine Saunders was the daughter of Thomas Saunders of Sibbertoft (d. March 1,1528) and Margaret Cave (d.1528+). In c.1541, she married John Johnson (c.1514-1590), who had been apprenticed to her uncle, Anthony Cave. Johnson was a draper and a stapler whose business was centered in Calais. Sabine’s letters from 1542-1552 have been preserved. She had at least six children: Charity (b.c.1542), Rachel (b. November 1544), Faith (b.1548), Evangelist (b.1550), Edward, and one son (b.1546) who died young. She lived primarily at Glapthorne Manor in Northamptonshire after 1544, but when her husband fell ill of an ague in Calais in November 1546, she traveled there to nurse him and bring him home to recover more fully. The Johnsons’ business went into bankruptcy in 1553 and in 1555 John Johnson was committed to the Fleet for debt. He owed £8000. He was not released until 1557. Sabine was allowed to remain at Glapthorne with their children but after his release there was no money to support the family. With the help of William Cecil, Johnson obtained a post as a secretary to Lord Paget. This lasted until 1561 and during that time the family shared a house in Lombard Street with John’s widowed sister-in-law, Maria (née Warner, married first to Otwell Johnson, who died in 1551, and then to Matthew Colclough.) In 1562, John and Sabine moved into the parsonage at West Wickham, Kent, renting it and the accompanying farm for £8 a year. Later they moved back to London. Sabine seems to have survived her husband, although the exact date of her death is not known. Biography: Barbara Winchester’s Tudor Family Portrait (1955); Jennifer Ann Rowley-Williams, chapter eight of her unpublished PhD dissertation, Image and Reality: the Lives of Aristocratic Women in Early Tudor England (1998).

ANNE SAVAGE
see ANNE DASTON

ANNE SAVAGE (1506-October 1564)

Anne Savage was the daughter of Sir John Savage of Clifton and Rocksavage, Cheshire (1478-March 2, 1527) and Anne Bostock (b.1479). Anne's descripton at TudorPlace.com.ar is a woman "of middling stature, with a comely brown complexion, and much tender-hearted with her children." She was at court and apparently in the household of Anne Boleyn before Anne Boleyn was queen. She was one of only four or five people to witness Anne Boleyn's marriage to Henry VIII on January 25, 1533 and was Anne Boleyn's trainbearer. Others known to have been present were Thomas Heneage, Henry Norris, and William Brereton. Brereton was the second husband of Anne Savage's widowed sister-in-law, Elizabeth Somerset. Both Brereton and Norris were later executed as Anne Boleyn's lovers. Anne Savage did not remain long at the new queen's court. In April 1533, she married Thomas, 6th Baron Berkeley (1505-September 22, 1534), known as "the Hopeful." They had a daughter, Elizabeth (1534-September 1, 1582) and nine weeks after her husband's death, Anne gave birth to his son and heir, Thomas, 7th Baron Berkeley (November 26, 1534-November 26, 1613). Lady Berkeley was an avid letter writer, and was written about as well. A number of these missives are still extant, including one to Lord Cromwell on May 1, 1535 to complain about the Court of Wards, which opposed the release of her jointure. A letter from John Barlow, dean of Westbury College, to Lord Cromwell, also in 1535, complains about Lady Berkeley's interference in his attempt to prosecute a number of men who were caught playing tennis "in service time" (in other words, when they should have been in church). The incident occurred near where she was living in Yate, Gloucestershire and she actively rallied opposition to Barlow's charges. Barlow had earlier had a run in with Lady Berkeley over some religious books found in her house, but since both Catholic and radical Protestant texts were equally frowned upon at this time, it is difficult to say what Lady Berkeley's beliefs might have been. She was also at odds with her brother-in-law, Maurice Berkeley, who might have inherited all had she not given birth to a posthumous son. At one point during the late 1530s, she served on a commission to look into disturbances in one of her parks. According to Barbara J. Harris's "Women and Politics in Early Tudor England," she "sat with the panel when it selected a jury, heard evidence, and found the accused, including two of her brothers-in-law, Sir Nicholas Poyntz and Maurice Berkeley, guilty of riot and other misdemeanors." (Poyntz was married to her late husband's sister). In 1536, Edward Sutton wished to marry her. Cecily, Lady Dudley, Dorothy, Lady Mountjoy, and Thomas Wriothesley all petitioned the king and Lord Cromwell on Sutton's behalf but a widow could refuse to remarry and Anne did, writing on January 6 from Yate that "my stomach cannot lean there, neither as yet to any marriage." Writing to Wriothesley from the house of Lady Montague, his aunt, in Dorset, Sutton told his side of the story. "She entertained me after the most loving sort at my first coming to her . . . when she was in her chamber sewing, she would suffer me to lie in her lap, with many other familiar fashions as I could desire . . . but at my coming with the king's letters, I was nothing so well welcomed." The Suttons were poverty-stricken, but as Lady Berkeley never did take a second husband, that may not have been the reason she rejected him. She is said to have served as a Justice of the Peace, but there is no hard evidence of this other than the memoir of a judge, writing in 1632 and recalling a story his mother told him about a "Lady Bartlet," who was a J.P. under Queen Mary. Lady Berkeley did manage the family estates until her death at Callowdon (or Calloughdown), Gloucestershire. Portraits: Anne Savage is NOT the subject of the Holbein sketch at Windsor labeled "The Lady Barkley."

CATHERINE SAVAGE
see CATHERINE DASTON

DOROTHY SAVAGE
see DOROTHY FOUNTAIN

ELIZABETH SAVAGE
see ELIZABETH DARCY

DOROTHY SAVILE

see DOROTHY WENTWORTH

ELIZABETH SAXBY (d.1514+) (maiden name unknown)
Elizabeth Saxby was in the household of Elizabeth of York as "Mrs. Saxilby" and later was one of her daughter Mary's ladies. She received a salary of £5 in 1509 and on September 8, 1515, received an annuity of £20. By that time she was a widow. She was probably married to a member of the Saxby family of Northamptonshire. Sir Thomas Saxby was the father of William (d.1517), Margaret (1475-March 1531/2) and John (d.1544). His wife’s name does not seem to be known.

JOCOSA SAXEY
see JOCOSA TRAPPES

MARY SAY (1485-June 5, 1535+)
Mary Say was the daughter of Sir William Say of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire (1450- December 4, 1529) and Elizabeth Fray and the sister of Elizabeth Say, first wife of William Blount, 4th baron Mountjoy. Because of this connection, she is often called Mary Blount, William’s sister, by mistake. She married Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex (1471-March 30, 1540). The marriage settlement was dated March 12, 1497. Elizabeth married Mountjoy in 1499. By mid-1505, Essex and Mountjoy were engaged in litigation over the sisters’ dowries. The matter was not settled until 1515. Meanwhile, in 1501, Mary was in attendance on Catherine of Aragon after her marriage to Prince Arthur. In 1529, she was one of those to give testimony about whether or not Catherine’s marriage had been consummated. In 1506, the Essex household included both Charles Brandon, who was Essex’s master of horse, and Anne Browne, former maid of honor to Elizabeth of York and Brandon’s on again, off again wife. The household, in Knightriders Street, London and Stanstead Hall in Halstead, became a center for young courtiers including Brandon, Walter, Lord Ferrers, Richard, earl of Kent, Sir John Hussey, and Hussey’s eldest son, William. Mary was one of Catherine of Aragon's ladies in waiting in 1509. She had only one child, a daughter, Anne (1517-January 28, 1571).

KATHERINE SCALES (d.1505)
According to the monument in St. Swithin, Grinstead, Katherine was the daughter of Lord Scales and was a lady in waiting to both Elizabeth Woodville and her daughter, Elizabeth of York. Her first husband was Sir Thomas Grey and she was therefore known as Dame Katherine Grey. She may have been the Lady Grey in whose chamber at court a man was slain. Her second husband was Sir Richard Lewkenor of Brambletye. She was buried with both husbands. She was not, however, the daughter of Thomas Scales, 7th baron Scales. He had only one daughter, who married Anthony Woodville. Nor is she a daughter of Anthony Woodville, who later became Lord Scales and then Earl Rivers. She does not turn up in either Grey or Lewkenor genealogies, either. For another mysterious death in a lady's chamber at court see JANE BUSSY.

MARGARET SCARGILL (d. October 17, 1575)
Margaret Scargill was the daughter and coheir of Sir Robert Scargill of Thorpe Hall, Richmond, Yorkshire and Jane Coyers (d. January 5, 1546). She married Sir John Gascoigne of Cardington, Bedfordshire (c.1510-April 4, 1568) by 1531. They had two sons, George (1534/5-October 7, 1577) and John, and one daughter. In July 1543, she complained to the Privy Council about her husband's behavior and in 1556, Cardinal Pole ordered Gascoigne to end his adultery with a servant. He eventually had to settle an annuity on his ex-mistress. His will was probated June 1, 1568. Margaret's will was probated on March 10, 1576.

ELIZABETH SCOPEHAM (d.1554)
Elizabeth Scopeham was the daughter of John (or Thomas) Scopeham of London. By 1509, she had married William Holles of Stoke, Warwickshire (1471-October 20, 1542), merchant of the staple and Lord Mayor of London in 1539/40. Their children were John (d.yng), Thomas, Sir William (1509/10-January 26, 1591), Francis, Anne, and Joan. Elizabeth wrote her will on February 17, 1544. In it she endowed six almshouses in St. Helen's parish, London. Although the Oxford DNB and other sources say that she died on March 13, 1544, Barbara J. Harris's research has shown that she actually lived another ten years. One of the executors of her will, Sir Andrew Judde, was for a long time incorrectly credited with founding the almshouses.

ALICE SCOTT
see ALICE FOGGE

ELIZABETH SCOTT (1504-June 1557)
Elizabeth Scott was the daughter of John Scott of Camberwell, Surrey and Elizabeth Skinner. Her first husband was Roger Appleyard of Bracon Ash and Margate Hall, Stanfield, Norfolk (1506-July 8, 1528). Most genealogies list John as their eldest child, followed by a younger son, Philip, and two daughters, Frances and Anne or Anna. Philip married Mary Shelton, who was probably born around 1512, making her considerably his senior. The History of Parliament entry for John, however, gives his life dates as January 26, 1529-after 1574 and says that he was born nearly seven months after his father's death. It mentions the will left by Roger Appleyard, in which he provided for his as yet unborn child. Young John, as would be usual for the heir, became a ward of the crown and his wardship was sold first to Sir Thomas Wyatt (for £200), then to Sir Edward Boleyn, and finally to Robert Hogan of East Bradenham, Norfolk, who married the boy to his daughter, Elizabeth. Given these facts, either John was not the as yet unborn child in question and was born closer to 1526, or Philip has been placed in the wrong generation and was, perhaps, Roger's brother. Appleyard left his widowed the manor of Stanfield, Norfolk for life. In about 1530, Elizabeth married Sir John Robsart of Syderstone, Norfolk (d. June 8, 1554), by whom she had a daughter, Amye (June 7, 1532-September 8, 1560). The assumption is made in many older accounts that Elizabeth died by 1549, when her son John Appleyard was listed as holding Stanfield, but it now appears she lived much longer than that. Perhaps she settled the property on him early. John Robsart's will, proved at Norwich on July 5, 1554, was written October 6, 1537, and as such is no help with determining when she died, but it does leave Elizabeth three manors—Syderstone and Newton in Norfolk and Bostentim in Suffolk—for life, with reversion to their daughter Amye and her heirs, and names Elizabeth as his executor, and it seems unlikely that he would not make a new will if his wife died five years before he did. In addition, Syderstone was not granted to Amye and her husband until 1557. How much Elizabeth was involved in the lives of any of her children is unclear, but the marriage of Amye Robsart to Robert Dudley must certainly have affected her. During the latter part of the reign of Edward VI, Amye's father-in-law, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, was the most powerful man in the kingdom. When Edward died and Mary Tudor became queen, Northumberland was executed and Lord Robert was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Elizabeth did not live to see the resurrection of his fortunes under Queen Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH SCOTT

see ELIZABETH BELKNAP; ELIZABETH STAFFORD

MARGARET SCOTT

see MARGARETE HETZEL

MARGARET SCOTT (c.1453-January 29, 1513/14)
Margaret Scott was the daughter of Sir John Scott, Marshall of Calais (1423-October 17, 1485) and Agnes Beaufitz (d. March 25, 1487). She married Sir Edmund Bedingfield (1443-1496) in about 1478 as his second wife. Their children were Sir Thomas (c.1479-1558), Alice, Robert, Sir Edmund (c.1483-1553), Agnes, Peter, Sir John, Elizabeth, and Margaret. Sir Edmund moved the family seat to Oxborough, Norfolk, where Margaret built a chapel to his memory in the parish church.

ANNE SCROPE
see ANNE HARLING

CATHERINE SCROPE
see CATHERINE CLIFFORD

ELEANOR SCROPE
see ELEANOR WASHBOURNE; ELEANOR WINDSOR

ELIZABETH SCROPE
see ELIZABETH NEVILLE

ELIZABETH SCROPE (d. June 26, 1537)
Elizabeth Scrope was the daughter of Sir Richard Scrope (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). She married first, on April 24, 1486 at Westminster, William, 2nd viscount Beaumont (d. December 19, 1507). He lost his reason in 1487 and was placed in the care of John de Vere, 13th earl of Oxford at Wivenhoe, Essex until his death. In 1508, Elizabeth married Oxford (September 8, 1442-March 10, 1513). She was at court as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies in 1509. In his will, Oxford left Elizabeth "all manner of apparel to her person," silk cloth, and "chains, rings, girdles, devices, beads, brooches, ouches and precious stones." In 1520, she attended the Field of Cloth of Gold. In 1531, she bought the wardship of her nephew, John Audley (her sister Katherine's son by Richard Audley of Swaffham, Norfolk). She wrote her will on May 30, 1537 and it was proved on November 6, 1537. She was buried at Wivenhoe with her first husband. Portrait: brass at Wivenhoe.

ELIZABETH SCROPE (d.1544)
Elizabeth Scrope was one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Robert Scrope of Hambledon, Buckinghamshire (1446-August 25, 1500) and Katherine Zouche. Her sisters were Agnes (m. Thomas Redmayn/Redman), Margaret (a nun at Barking), and Anne. Elizabeth married c.1500 Sir John Peche/Pechey/Pechie/Peach/Peachey/Percehay of Lullingstone Castle, Kent (1473-1522), who was the first lieutenant of the Gentlemen Pensioners in 1509 and a champion in the lists, bearing a standard of tawny with the crest of a lion’s head crowned with ermine and the words “in everything.” Elizabeth was in the households of both Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon and received a pension from Henry VIII. She provided a refuge at Lullingstone Castle for her cousin, Margaret Scrope, Countess of Suffolk (d.1515), during Margaret’s final years. After her husband died, leaving her life interest in most of his properties, she settled an annuity on Percival Hart, his nephew, who was to inherit after her death. She later revoked this annuity, after which (c.1535) Hart accused her of wasting his inheritance by selling items he was supposed to inherit. The matter went to arbitration by Lord Cromwell and Elizabeth was obliged to sign a bond to Hart. Childless, in a will made August 1, 1541 with a codicil May 27, 1544, she left her sister Agnes Redman plate, pewter, a bed, and other goods and made her co-executor. It was proved July 22, 1544. She also left bequests to her other two sisters. There are numerous bequests to friends and servants, as well. The will can be found at Oxford-Shakespeare.com.

JANE SCROPE (c.1478-1521+)
Jane Scrope was the daughter of Sir Richard Scrope (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). Her mother’s second husband was Sir John Wyndham of Felbrigg, Norfolk (x.1502). It is said that the poem "Philip Sparrow" by John Skelton (1505) was inspired by the story of Jane Scrope and the pet bird she trained while living with her widowed mother, Lady Wyndham, in the convent of St. Mary at Carrow, near Norwich. The poem is a mock dirge, Jane’s lament for her bird, killed by a cat. Jane went on to marry Thomas Brewes of Little Wenham, Suffolk (d.1514), by whom she had three children, Ursula (d.1598), a nun at Denny before the Dissolution, Sir John (December 15, 1512-February 13, 1585), and Giles of Denton, Norfolk (d.1558/9).

MABEL SCROPE
see MABEL DACRE

MARGARET SCROPE (d.1515)
Margaret Scrope was the daughter of Sir Richard Scrope (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). She married Edward de la Pole, earl of Suffolk (1472-1513). Suffolk fled the realm in 1499, returned and was pardoned, and left again in 1501, hoping to gain the throne for himself with foreign support. He was outlawed on December 26, 1502. In March 1506/7 he was returned to England as a prisoner. He was exempted from the general pardon of 1509 and eventually executed, but his wife was at court early in Henry VIII’s reign as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon. She had one daughter, variously called Anne and Elizabeth, who became a nun at the Minories without Aldgate in London. King Henry paid 40 marks (£13 6s. 8d.) in April 1511 for "the profession of Edmund de la Pole's daughter." Margaret lived with her cousin, Elizabeth Scrope, Lady Peche, at Lullingstone Castle, Kent during the last years of her life. Margaret's will was proved May 15, 1515. She left several items, including a trussing bed and sheets, £4, and a kirtle of russet satin to her servant, Margery.

MARGARET SCROPE

see MARGARET HOWARD

MARIA or MARY SCROPE (1534-January 12, 1607)
Maria or Mary Scrope was the daughter of Sir John Scrope of Spennithorne, Yorkshire and Hambleden, Buckinghamshire (c.1496-November 1547) and his second wife, Phillis Rokeby (d. May 1576). She married Thomas More (August 8, 1531-August 19, 1606), grandson of the martyr, in 1553. Their first two children, Mary (1553-1630) and Anne (1555-1630), were born at Hambleden. They had six more daughters and five sons, including Margaret (b.1556), John (1557-1599), Jane (b.1562), Magdalen (1563-1566), Katherine (1564-1638), Thomas (1565-1625), Henry (1567-1597), Grace (b.1568), and Christopher Cresacre (July 3, 1572-March 26, 1649). Portraits: in versions of the More family portrait.

MARY SCROPE (d. August 15, 1548)

Mary Scrope was one of the nine daughters of Sir Richard Scrope of Upsall, Yorkshire (d.1485) and Eleanor Washbourne (d.1505/6). Two of her older sisters were married to earls, Elizabeth, countess of Oxford and Margaret, countess of Suffolk. She was left a third part of £1000 for her dowry by her stepfather, Sir John Wyndham (d.1502). Mary married first, c.1509, Sir Edward Jerningham of Somerleyton, Suffolk (d.1515), by whom she had four sons and one daughter, Sir Henry (1509-1571), Ferdinand, Edward, Edmund, and Elizabeth. Her will mentions a daughter named Margaret and does not mention an Elizabeth, presenting me with a small mystery yet to be solved. In between lying-ins, she had an active career at court from 1509-1527 as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. Her husband was the queen’s cupbearer and her son Henry was a carver to Princess Mary. Edmund became a gentleman of the bedchamber to Henry VIII and Elizabeth was one of Queen Jane’s maids of honor. See the entry for Anne Jerningham for an incident involving the newly widowed Lady Jerningham in 1517. Mary Scrope’s second husband, to whom she was married by the beginning of 1532, was Sir William Kingston (by 1476-September 4, 1540), constable of the Tower from 1524 until his death. Although Mary Kingston was implicated in the affair of the Nun of Kent in 1533, she took part in Anne Boleyn’s coronation. She was ill at Wanstead in June 1534. During the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, Lady Kingston was called upon to hear Anne’s apology to Mary Tudor and deliver it to the king’s daughter after Anne’s execution. Lady Kingston carried Mary Tudor’s train at the christening of Prince Edward, rode in the funeral cortege of Queen Jane, and was listed as one of the thirty ladies appointed as “ordinary waiters” upon Anne of Cleves in 1539. According to some accounts, she served the first four of Henry VIII's wives and also spent some time in the household of Princess Mary. David Loades, in his biography of Mary Tudor, says she was in charge of a joint household for Mary and Elizabeth from March 1538 until April 1539. In her will she left her daughter Lady Anne Grey a goblet of silver and gilt with a cover and a ring with a ruby. She was particularly generous to her servant, Margaret Harris, leaving her gowns and other clothing, bedding, and even a tenement in Leyton, Essex. She added a codicil to revoke to revoke the bed of crimson velvet and cloth of gold panes she’d given to Sir Anthony Kingson (her stepson) and left it instead to Mary Jerningham, daughter of her son Henry. She asked to be buried at Painswick, Gloucestershire with her second husband, but her memorial brass, dated 1557, is at Low Leyton, Essex, where she was apparently buried on September 4, 1548. Portrait: a possible portrait has been located in a private collection. More information to come.

PHILADELPHIA SCROPE

see PHILADELPHIA CAREY

MARY SCUDAMORE

see MARY SHELTON; MARY THROCKMORTON

SYBIL SCUDAMORE
see SYBIL VAUGHAN

MARGARET SCUTT or SKUTT (July 1537?-1593)
Margaret Scutt was the daughter of John Scutt (before 1498-1557), a gentleman who had been one of the royal tailors from 1519-1547, making clothing for all six of Henry VIII’s wives and also for private clients like Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle. He was master of the Merchant Taylors Company in 1536. Scutt's first wife, whose name is unknown, died in July 1537. Some sources give Margaret's age as eighteen in 1557. I think it likely that she was a little older, and it is possible that her mother died giving birth to her. If she was, in fact, born in 1539, then Scutt married three times because his wife by 1545 was Bridget Malte (d. November 30,1557), younger daughter of the king's tailor, John Malte, and she was not Margaret's mother. Bridget has been described as “a verye lustye yonge woman.” She and Scutt had a son, Anthony (1545-January 7,1588) and, according to John Malte's 1546 will, Anthony had a brother, Edward Scutt, but he is not identified as Bridget's child. Malte left Anthony the parsonage at Woolstone, Berkshire and Bridget the manor of Uffington, Berkshire. John Scutt was granted arms on November 12, 1546. After the death of Henry VIII he retired to the manor of Stanton Drew, Somerset, where he was the tenant of Sir John St. Loe. The next part of the story comes primarily from Mary S. Lovell's Bess of Hardwick. Scutt had a reputation for mistreating his wife and when he suddenly died, there were whispers of poison. The whispers grew louder when Bridget remarried a fortnight after her husband’s death, taking as her second husband Edward St. Loe (c.1520-1578), one of Sir John’s sons. Before Edward married her, he had arranged for his brother, Sir William St. Loe, to purchase the wardship of Anthony Scutt. He’d also asked William not to agree to their father’s suggestion that he (William) marry Margaret Scutt. Later it came out that Bridget was three months pregnant with St. Loe’s child at the time of the marriage. Two months after the marriage, she was dead. Six months after that, Edward St. Loe married his stepdaughter by marriage, Margaret Scutt. The marriage was long and apparently happy, but early on there were difficulties that grew out of St. Loe’s jealousy of his older brother Sir William. In 1560, Edward and Margaret moved into Sutton Court at Chew, Somerset, one of Sir William’s properties, where Edward filled the post of steward. Edward, however, thought the property should have been his outright. In early 1561, his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hardwick St.Loe, fell ill shortly after a visit from Edward and his mother. A letter from Lady St. Loe indicates that even she suspected her younger son of poisoning Bess and attempting to poison Sir William. Although others, including a cousin, also named Elizabeth St. Loe, were arrested and charged, Edward was not. NOTE: Elizabeth St. Loe, the cousin, was put in the Tower at that time, which has caused considerable confusion with Elizabeth (Bess of Hardwick) St. Loe, who was not. Bess was questioned at about this time as to what she knew about Lady Catherine Grey's elopement and when she knew it but she was not imprisoned. Returning to Edward and Margaret St. Loe, they next appear in a case in civil court. Edward claimed that his father, who had died in December 1558, had meant Sutton Court to be left to Edward's wife and he accused Bess of Hardwick of bewitching William into marriage. Countercharges from William concerned the condition of Sutton Court. In the end, Edward and Margaret remained in residence, playing rent to William and Bess, but a portion of the rents from the estate were to be returned to Edward by William as income. Shortly thereafter, Sir William took the precaution of making a will that left everything he owned to Bess, so that Edward would not inherit even if William and Bess remained childless. This turned out to be a wise precaution. William fell ill and died unexpectedly early in 1565. Edward was with him at the time. After William's death, Edward produced a document that ceded Sutton Court to Edward and Margaret. Again there was a suspicion of poison but no proof and therefore no charges were brought. The matter of who owned Sutton Court, however, went before a judge. The ruling, in 1567, granted Margaret a lifetime interest in Sutton Court, with the property to revert to Bess on Margaret’s death. As for Edward, he had been posted to Ireland while the matter was being settled and remained there until 1568, when he abandoned his post after an accidental explosion in Londonderry which caused a great fire. Shortly after Bess of Hardwick's fourth marriage in early 1568 (to the earl of Shrewsbury), she purchased Margaret’s life interest in Sutton Court for £500. Margaret and Edward then moved to the manor of Knighton in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, where they seem to have led a respectable existence. Margaret may have been the Margaret Sketuse or Sketts listed as a hoodmaker in royal accounts from 1583, although Janet Arnold in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'dsuggests that Sketuze was the married name of a Margaret Barney, listed as a hoodmaker in 1580. Margaert and Edward appear to have had a son, John, and two daughters, Ann and Margaret (d.1591). Through this Margaret, who married Richard Stephens (d.1599), Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Margaret Scutt and Edward St. Loe.

CATHERINE SEBORNE (d. October 2, 1625)
Catherine Seborne was the daughter of John Seborne of Sutton St. Michael, Hereford and Sibil Monington. She married Christopher Roper, 2nd baron Teynham (c.1561-April 16, 1622) and was the mother of John, 3rd baron (c.1591-February 27, 1627/8), Margaret, and Mary. Portrait: sculpture beside the effigy of her husband, Lynsted Church, Kent.

DOROTHY SELBY

see DOROTHY BONHAM

SELENGER
see ST. LEGER

JOAN SEWELL (d. July 2, 1532)
Joan or Johanna Sewell became a Bridgettine nun at Syon, Isleworth in 1500. She was given a copy of Hilton's Scale of Perfection by a Carthusian monk, James Grenehalgh, who was at Sheen, just across the river. On a blank page at the end, he drew a diagram, perhaps meant to represent a plan of Syon. Her name is inscribed at the center, surrounded by the names of the four saints associated with the house—St. Bridget, the Virgin Mary, St. Augustine, and St. Saviour. This book and others annotated by Grenehalgh for Joan, supposedly to enhance her spiritual training, were looked upon with disfavor by his superiors. In 1507 or 1508, he was removed to the Charterhouse in Coventry. Joan may also have been disciplined.

ANNE SEYMOUR

see ANNE STANHOPE

ANNE SEYMOUR (1538-February 1587/88)

Anne Seymour was the oldest daughter of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset (1502-x January 22,1552) and Anne Stanhope (c.1510-April 15,1587). Together with her sisters, Margaret and Jane, she was educated in a manner similar to the way Sir Thomas More’s daughters were taught. Thomas Cranmer was their tutor for three years, followed by Nicholas Denisot, who encouraged them to write a poem in honor of his former mistress, the queen of Navarre. When he returned to France, he took the result wit him and it was published in 1550 as “Annae, Margaritae, Janae, Sonorum Virginum, heroidum Anglasum in mortem Margaritae Valesiae Navarrouim Reginae Hedadistichon.” The work inspired French poets to like efforts. Anne was also known for her religious studies and corresponded with John Calvin. On June 3,1550 she was married to John Dudley, earl of Warwick (by 1528-October 21,1554), son of the duke of Northumberland, in an effort to reconcile their fathers, but Anne’s father was executed by Northumberland in 1552. She suffered a physical collapse after the execution. Northumberland himself was executed in 1553. Anne’s husband was in the Tower and condemned to death at the same time and died ten days after his release the following year. On April 29, 1555, Anne married Sir Edward Unton or Umpton of Wadley, near Faringdon, Berkshire (d. September 16, 1582) and by him had seven children, Edward (d.1589), Sir Henry (1557-1596), Cecily (d. June 16, 1618), Francis, Anne, and two others who died young. Queen Elizabeth visited the Unton manor of Langley in Oxfordshire on her summer progresses in 1572, 1574, and 1575, but Anne may not have been there to welcome her. She lived mostly at Wadley and throughout the period from 1566 to 1588 was said to suffer periodic bouts of insanity. In October 1582, she was officially declared of unsound mind, "a lunatic enjoying lucid intervals," and her custody was granted to her son Edward. On the other hand, the sermon preached at her funeral mourned her as a “noble lady, a faithful wife, a virtuous woman, and a godly widow.” Biography: Anne is included in the Oxford DNB entry for her sister, under "Seymour, Lady Jane." Portraits: The memorial portrait of the life of Sir Henry Unton shows Anne in the scene depicting his birth in 1557.

ELIZABETH SEYMOUR (1511-June 1563)
Elizabeth Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour (c.1474-December 21, 1536) and Margery Wentworth (c.1478-October 18, 1550) and the younger sister of Queen Jane Seymour. By 1530, she was married to Sir Anthony Ughtred of Kexby (1498-1534). Some sources say that Lady Ughtred was at court when Anne Boleyn was queen, but Jane Seymour's biographer, Elizabeth Norton, contradicts this, saying that Elizabeth lived primarily in the north, away from both court and family. The January 1534 list of New Years' gifts to the king includes one from Lady Oughtrede. She was courted, but not assiduously, by Sir Arthur Darcy in 1536. In a letter to her in that year, he predicted that some southern lord would make her forget the north. In March of 1537, after her sister was married to Henry VIII, the widowed Elizabeth, living in poverty in York, wrote to Lord Cromwell to ask for the grant of some of the goods from one of the dissolved monasteries. Instead, Cromwell proposed that she marry his son, Gregory (c.1514-July 4,1551). Elizabeth traveled south, residing at Leeds Castle, Kent, at Cromwell’s expense until they wed on August 3, 1537. They had five children: Henry (c.1538-November 20, 1593), Frances (c.1544-February 7, 1561/2), Catherine, Edward, and Thomas (b.1552). In the spring of 1538, Elizabeth and her husband were living at Lewes in Sussex, but soon returned to Leeds Castle, where their first two sons were born. In late 1539, Gregory was in Calais, awaiting the arrival of Anne of Cleves, when he wrote a letter to his wife in which he signs himself "your loving bedfellow." Lord Cromwell's fall from power in 1540 was a setback for the family, but Gregory was not implicated and he was restored as Lord Cromwell of Oakham later that same year. In 1551, when Elizabeth's brother, Edward Seymour, then Lord Protector, was arrested, Elizabeth was given charge of his four younger daughters. Later that year, Gregory Cromwell died of the sweat and Elizabeth was also ill, at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, but recovered. She gave birth to her last child after her husband's death. On October 25, 1552, she wrote to William Cecil in the hope that she could be relieved of her responsibility for the girls, who did not take her advice "in such good part as my good meaning was, nor according to my expectation in them." In 1557, she took a third husband, John Paulet, Lord St. John (1517-1576), son and heir of the marquis of Winchester. Her son Henry married her new husband's daughter Mary. Portrait: c.1538 by Hans Holbein (previously identified as "Catherine Howard" and then called "A Lady of the Cromwell Family").

ELIZABETH SEYMOUR (1550-June 3, 1602)
Elizabeth Seymour was the youngest child of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset (1502-x. January 22, 1552) and Anne Stanhope (1510-April 16, 1587). She was raised by her mother and stepfather in the country and had little to do with the court. In 1577, she married Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley, Northamptonshire (1534-September 1, 1615), as his second wife. Some accounts say they had no children, but the Oxford DNB gives them seven sons and two daughters. They included Seymour Knightley (b. May 15, 1580). Portrait: tomb effigy in All Saints, Norton, Northamptonshire.

FRANCES SEYMOUR

see FRANCES HOWARD (two entries)

HONORA SEYMOUR
see HONORA ROGERS

JANE SEYMOUR (c.1508-October 24,1537)

Jane Seymour was the daughter of Sir John Seymour (c.1474-December 21,1536) and Margery Wentworth (c.1478-October 18,1550). She came to court as a maid of honor under Catherine of Aragon and also held this post after Anne Boleyn became queen. King Henry VIII married Jane following Queen Anne’s execution and she gave him the one thing he wanted most, a male heir, the future Edward VI (1537-1553). She died of complications from the birth. Biographies: Pamela M. Gross’s Jane, the Quene, Third Consort of Henry VIII; Elizabeth Norton's Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love (2009); William Seymour’s Ordeal by Ambition (a group biography of Jane and her two brothers). Portraits: The original Hans Holbein the Younger painting is in the Hague, with his preliminary drawing in the collection at Windsor Castle, but there are many copies. She is also in the “family portrait” at Hampton Court.

JANE SEYMOUR (1541-March 20,1561)

Jane Seymour was the daughter of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1502-xJanuary 22, 1552) and Anne Stanhope (c.1510-April 16,1587). Like her sisters, Anne (see above) and Margaret, she was a scholar. She wrote poetry and a number of her letters are extant. At one time, there was talk of marrying her to her cousin, King Edward VI, but her father was removed from power and executed before he could carry out this plan. In 1551, there was also talk of a marriage for Jane to the earl of Derby's son, Lord Strange. In May 1552, she and her younger sisters were sent to Leicester under the care of their aunt, Lady Cromwell. Jane was at court as a maid of honor during the reign of Mary Tudor. She had to retire to the country to recover from an illness in the summer of 1558. She was taken to Hanworth, her mother's estate, in a horse-drawn litter and her close friend Lady Catherine Grey was allowed to go with her. In December 1560, when both were maids of honor to Queen Elizabeth, she assisted Lady Catherine to seecretly married Jane’s brother, Edward Seymour. When Jane fell ill again, early in 1561, she was excused from her duties and remained in her rooms at Whitehall, where she died. She was buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, Westminster. Her brother placed a memorial tablet over her grave, probably in 1587. The inscription, now missing, "On the Death of Lady Jane Somerset," praised her "genius fam'd," her beauty, and her voice that "harmonious notes improv'd." Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Seymour, Lady Jane.”

KATHERINE SEYMOUR

see KATHERINE FILLOL; KATHERINE PARR

MARGARET SEYMOUR (c.1478-before June 1517)
Margaret Seymour was the daughter of John Seymour of Wolfhall, Wiltshire (c.1450-1491) and Elizabeth Darrell (c.1451-c.1478) and the aunt of Queen Jane Seymour. She was the second of the four wives of Sir Nicholas Wadham of Merrifield, Somerset (by 1472-March 5,1542) and the mother of Nicholas (d.1551) and Jane (c.1517-1551+). Sir Nicholas was Captain of the Isle of Wight from 1509-1520. While she and her husband lived there, Margaret founded a hospital for the infirm. Six of them are depicted with her on her monument. Portrait: effigy in St. Mary the Virgin, Carisbrook, Isle of Wight.

MARGERY SEYMOUR

see MARGERY WENTWORTH

MARY SEYMOUR
see MARY WOODHULL

MARY SEYMOUR (c.1547-1619/20)
Mary Seymour was the daughter of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset (1502-x. January 22, 1552) and Anne Stanhope (1510-April 16, 1587). The story that her first husband was Francis Cosby of Ireland (1510-September 8, 1580) is not true. Cosby had married a woman named Elizabeth Palmer by November 23, 1563 and she survived him. Mary, meanwhile, in about 1575, married Sir Andrew Rogers of Bryanston, Dorset (d.c.1599). On September 4, 1582, Mary appealed to Lord Burghley, writing from Paul's Wharf, to intercede with her mother, who was not speaking to her. This may have been in connection with the furor over the entanglement of young Lord Beauchamp with Honora Rogers in the summer of 1581. They were claiming to be married and were being kept apart by the earl of Hertford, who was Beauchamp's father and Mary's brother (see HONORA ROGERS). In 1600, Mary sued for her jointure. In 1607, she married Sir Henry Peyton or Payton (d.1622) a soldier who was appointed a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Prince Henry in 1610. In his will, written on April 11, 1618, he made specific provision so that Mary would not be burdened with his debts after his death. He did this "for the singular love of which I beare unto the Ladie Marie my wife." They do not appear to have had any children.

MARY SEYMOUR (August 30,1548-1550?)

Mary Seymour was the daughter of Kathryn Parr (d. September 5,1548), widow of King Henry VIII, and Thomas Seymour, baron Seymour of Sudeley (x.March 20,1549). Elizabeth Aglionby, formerly one of Kathryn Parr’s ladies, was her governess and looked after her, first at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, where she was born, then at her uncle’s residence, Syon House, and finally, after her father’s execution, at Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire, where Catherine Willoughby, duchess of Suffolk, was her guardian. There Mary had, in addition to her governess, two maids and several other servants. Money for her care, however, was lacking. She had an income from the Court of Wards of just under £500 a year, but this income was not transferred from the duke of Somerset to the duchess of Suffolk. According to the duchess, Mary’s mother’s family, the Parrs, refused to take her. Mary Seymour was restored in blood on January 22, 1550, but after that disappears from the records. Stories persist that she lived longer than that. John Strype (1643-1737) seems to be the source later writers, including Edmund Lodge (1756-1839), used for the information that Mary died as a child. Lodge says she died at thirteen. This would be consistent with Mrs. Aglionby’s reappearance at court in 1562 as mother of maids under Queen Elizabeth, but that is hardly proof of anything. Agnes Strickland, however, writing in the late nineteenth century, states that Mary not only grew up, but married a man named Sir Edward Bushel and had a daughter by him. Unfortunately, she offers no documentation for this claim.

PHILIPPA SHAA
see PHILIPPA TRAPPES

MARTHA SHACKLETON (1561-1604)
Martha Shackleton was married at fifteen to William Webb (1551-1604). According to the records left by Simon Forman, she had affairs with Sir Thomas Walsingham, Forman himself, and others. She had eight children by 1599, including one named Thomas. According to Forman, she was "very fair, of good stature, plump face, little mouth, kind and loving."

ANNE SHAKERLEY
see ANNE WINWOOD

GRACE SHAKERLEY (d. August 1558)
Grace Shakerley was the daughter of Robert Shakerley of Little Longstone, Derbyshire (d. June 17, 1507+) and his second wife, Alice Bagshaw. She married first Francis Careless or Carless and second, c.1553 in a secret ceremony, Francis Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury (1500-September 24, 1560). It was a love match and he was apparently devastated by her death. In September 1553, she was at court while he was in the north. By June 15, 1554, she was in York when she was visited by her stepson, George Talbot, and his wife, Gertrude Manners. She writes to her husband to tell him that "the building at Sheffield Lodge goeth well forward."

ANNE SHAKESPEARE
see ANNE HATHAWAY

JUDITH SHAKESPEARE (January 1585-February 1662)
Judith Shakespeare was the daughter of William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23, 1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-August 8, 1623). There is little known about her early life, other than that her twin brother, Hamnet, died young. Germaine Greer, in Shakespeare’s Wife suggests that Judith was either apprenticed to Bess Quiney in 1602 or went to work for her as a nursemaid. In 1611, Judith witnessed a deed for Bess Quiney and her son Adrian. She signed with a squiggle that indicates she could not sign her own name. At thirty-one, on February 10, 1615, she married Thomas Quiney, who was twenty-seven. In March they had to answer to charges that they had wed without the proper license. Greer suggests that a marriage between the two might have been considered years earlier and that it did not take place sooner because the marriage settlement Shakespeare made for his older daughter, Susanna, had the effect of disinheriting Judith. Shakespeare’s will also deals oddly with Judith. Thomas Quiney ran a tavern next door to his mother’s house. Their children were Shakespeare (November 1616-May 1617), Richard (February 1618-February 1639), and Thomas (January 1620-January 1639).

MARY SHAKESPEARE

see MARY ARDEN

SUSANNA SHAKESPEARE (May 1583-July 11, 1649)
Susanna Shakespeare was the daughter of William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23, 1616) and Anne Hathaway (1556-August 8, 1623). We know that she could read and write, but not much else about her. In 1607 she married John Hall (d. November 25, 1636), a doctor. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (1608-February 17, 1670). In June 1613, for unknown reasons, a man named John Lane accused Susanna of adultery with Ralph Smith, a thirty-five year old haberdasher, and claimed she’d caught a venereal disease from Smith. Five weeks later, the Halls brought suit against Lane in the Consistory Court at Worcester. Lane was found guilty of libel and excommunicated. She inherited New Place in Stratford from her father and a house in London from her husband.

ANNE SHARINGTON
see ANNE PAGET

GRACE SHARINGTON
see GRACE FARRINGDON

GRACE SHARINGTON (1552-July 27, 1620)

Grace Sharington was the daughter of Sir Henry Sharington of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire (d.1581) and Anne Paget (d.1607). She was educated by a Mrs. Hamblyn, her father’s niece and in 1567 married Sir Anthony Mildmay of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire (c.1549-September 11, 1617). They had one daughter, Mary (1582-1640). Grace kept a journal from 1570 until 1617, in which she recorded the events of her early life as well as the day-to-day activities of a puritan wife and mother and included extensive notes on home remedies. She is described as follows by Rachel Weigall in "An Elizabethan Gentlewoman," Quarterly Review, 215 (1911), pp. 119-138: small face, delicate features, grave brown eyes, thin lips, sad smile. Grace's motto was "The mind always employed in good things avoideth evil, pleaseth God, and promiseth a happy end." Biography: Linda Pollack’s With Faith and Physic: The Life of a Tudor Gentlewoman, Lady Grace Mildmay 1552-1620; Oxford DNB entry under "Mildmay [née Sharington], Grace." Portrait: painted in 1613 and believed to come alive at night and go out to give sixpence to those in need; effigy on tomb at St. Leonard's Church, Apethorpe, Northamptonshire.

OLIVE SHARINGTON (d.1646)
Olive (sometimes called Anne) Sherrington was the fourth daughter of Sir Henry Sharington of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire (d.1581) and Anne Paget (d.1607). She married first, on September 13, 1574, John Talbot of Solway or Salwarp/Salwarpe, Worcestershire (1545-December 9, 1581). They had four children, John (c.1575-1581), Sherrington (d.c.1642), Thomas, and Dorothy. In 1583, she received a letter from Queen Elizabeth concerning the suitability of a second marriage to Sir Robert Stapleton of Wighill, Yorkshire (b.1547), a widower with four children of his own. Olive married him soon after and together they were the parents of Bryan, Edward, Olive, Ursula, and Grace.

URSULA SHARINGTON (d.1569)
Ursula Sharington was the daughter of Thomas Sharington (d.1527) and Catherine Pirton or Pyrton. Between 1524 and 1527, she married Francis Hall of Grantham, Lincolnshire (d.June 10, 1552), who was not yet twenty years old. They either had a child right away or Ursula had a daughter from a previous marriage, because Hall refers to a married daughter in a letter of January 1539. Their other children were Mary (before 1532-1557+), Elizabeth (b.c.1534), Jane (November 1536-May 11, 1598), Arthur (November 1539-December 29, 1605), Henry, and Robert. According to the speculations of M. St. Clare Byrne in The Lisle Letters, the Halls lived with Francis's uncle, Sir Robert Wingfield, in Calais in 1533-4, and probably earlier. Wingfield left a considerable inheritance to Francis in 1538 and, in a smaller bequest, willed a milch cow to Ursula. The Halls remained in Calais, where Francis eventually became controller. Several of his letters are preserved, in which he frequently makes reference to his wife. In 1540, Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle, was put under house arrest in the custody of Francis Hall. At that time (June 5, 1540), a letter from the Earl of Sussex and Sir John Gage to Lord Cromwell characterizes Ursula as "a sober honest woman." In his will, dated July 20, 1551 and proved November 25, 1560, Francis asked that Ursula be given the wardship of their surviving son, Arthur, but it went instead to Sir William Cecil. He refers to "my three daughters," calling into question the earlier married daughter. He also left 100 marks to Dorothy Leighton, "whom I do use to call daughter," on her marriage. Ursula married second John Banaster of Calais and Beningbrough in Newton-upon-Ouse, Yorkshire.

ANNE SHEFFIELD

see ANNE BARLEE

DOUGLAS SHEFFIELD

see DOUGLAS HOWARD

ELEANOR SHEFFIELD (c.1538-1568+)
Eleanor Sheffield was the daughter of Edmund, 1^st baron Sheffield (November 22,1521-July 3,1549) and Anne de Vere (c.1522-February 1571/2). She married Denzil Holles of Irby upon Humber, Lincolnshire (1536-April 12, 1590) and was the mother of William, John, 1^st earl of Clare (May, 1564-October 4,1637), Frances, and Jane. According to Holles family tradition, Eleanor found a love letter from the earl of Leicester to her sister-in-law, Douglas Howard, Lady Sheffield, and revealed their affair to her brother. He, so the story goes, was on his way to London to divorce Douglas when he fell ill and died, poisoned, it was said, by Leicester.

ELIZABETH SHEFFIELD (d. November 1600)
Elizabeth Sheffield was the daughter of John, 2nd baron Sheffield (c.1538-December 10, 1568) and Douglas Howard (1542/3-December 1608). Her widowed mother was somewhat notorious at the English court as the paramour/wife of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. Elizabeth appears to have been at court, as well, since her wedding to Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormond and 3rd earl of Ossory (1532-November 22, 1614) took palce there on November 2, 1582, only two months after the death of his estranged first wife (see ELIZABETH BERKELEY). The "Countess of Ormond’s Galliard" was supposedly composed for her. It appeared in A banquet of daintie conceits (1588) by Anthony Munday. She had three children by Ormond, James (1583-1590), Elizabeth (c.1585-October 10, 1628), and Thomas (d. January 17, 1605/6). Although she died in November 1600, she was not buried, in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, until April 21, 1601.

ANNE SHELDON
see ANNE THROCKMORTON

ELIZABETH SHELDON (c.1553-October 23, 1622)
Elizabeth Sheldon was the daughter of Sir Ralph Sheldon of Beoley, Worcestershire (1537-1613), a manufacturer of tapestry maps, and Anne Throckmorton (c.1540-1603). She married a particularly quarrelsome man, John Russell of Strensham, Worcestershire (1552-1593). He’d already carried on one feud with his stepmother and her second husband, over her dower lands, and he found it easy to find fault with Elizabeth and her father in the matter of religion. They were recusants. He was not. Although they had three children together, Thomas (1577-1632), John, and Frances, by 1578 he was attempting to disinherit them. In spite of this, the couple still occasionally lived together during the next few years, but a final split came c. 1583. After arbitration, he complained that the income established for Elizabeth was too high and made a counteroffer in March 1584. There were continual clashes. Russell attacked Ralph Sheldon's house, trying to take away his daughter. Elizabeth's brother attacked Russell's house in London. Russell brought suit in Star Chamber, accusing the Sheldons of papistry. In July 1585, however, the children were restored as Russell's heirs and in the will he wrote in April 1587, before leaving for the Low Countries, he left his daughter 2000 marks for a dowry. Ralph Sheldon left his daughter Elizabeth a silver basin and "my little watch made by Samuel" in his will, dated November 20, 1612.

JANE SHELDON
see JANE WEST

ALICE SHELLEY
see ALICE BELKNAP

ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1475-1547)

Elizabeth Shelley of Michaelgrove, Sussex, was the daughter of John Shelley (c.1455-January 3, 1526) and Elizabeth Michaelgrove (c.1458-June 30, 1518; alt. dates 1450-July 3, 1514). She became a Benedictine nun and in 1527 was elected abbess of Nunnaminster (Abbey of St. Mary, Winchester). She was a correspondent of Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle and one of Lady Lisle’s stepdaughters, Bridget Plantagenet, was for a time in the school for girls at St. Mary’s. This was, however, the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and although the abbess was able to save her house in the first round of closings, in part by a bribe of £333 6s. 8d., and the nunnery was given a good report by the commissioners who visited it on May 15, 1536, in September 1538 an order was issued to close St. Mary’s and disperse the 102 people who lived there, including twenty-six nuns and thirteen lay sisters. Elizabeth surrendered the premises on November 15, 1539 and accepted a pension of £26 13s. 4d. This was on the low side for an abbess. The prioress received £5, two nuns received £4 each, two £2 16.s. 8d. each, and seventeen others each received £2 13s. 4d. Elizabeth Shelley continued to live in Winchester until her death, together with several nuns who had been under her jurisdiction as abbess. One was her niece, Margaret Shelley. They were mentioned in her will, dated March 2, 1547, as was her brother, Richard. Elizabeth was buried in the Winchester College chapel.

ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1510-December 24, 1560)

Elizabeth Shelley was the daughter of Sir William Shelley of Michaelgrove (c.1480-January 4, 1549) and Alice Belknap (d.1536). She married, as his second wife, Roger Copley of Roughey, Sussex and Gatton, Surrey (c.1473-September 10, 1549) and had two children, Thomas (1532-September 25, 1584), whose godfather was Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire, and Bridget (c.1534-1583+). Some sources say that, in 1554, as a widow, Elizabeth was elected M.P. for Gatton, although it was actually her son who went to London and took the seat in Parliament. More accurately, from 1549-1559, she was sole elector for Grafton and returned her son to three Marian parliaments.

ELIZABETH SHELLEY (c.1533-1575+)
Elizabeth Shelley was the daughter of Sir John Shelley of Michelgrove (1506-December 16, 1550) and Mary Fitzwilliam (b.c.1510). She is better known as Lady Guildford, a recusant arrested along with her son and daughter, a priest, and several others on Palm Sunday 1574 for allowing mass to be said in her home in Trinity Lane, Queenshithe, London. Elizabeth’s husband, to whom she was married by 1560, was Sir Thomas Guildford of Hemsted, Kent (c.1535-June 1575), who was not a Catholic. They had four children—Mary, Barbara (d. June 20, 1641), Elizabeth, and Henry (b.1566). Guildford's will, made on November 1, 1574, granted Elizabeth a life interest in his lease of a farm at Clapham. He appealed to her "not to train up any of my children in papistry." She ignored his request. Elizabeth married John Gage, a fellow Catholic, as her second husband.

JANE SHELLEY (c. 1485-1533+)

Jane Shelley was the daughter of John Shelley of Michelgrove, Sussex (c.1455-January 3, 1526/7) and Elizabeth Michelgrove (c.1458-June 30, 1518; alt. dates 1450-July 3,1514) and married Sir Edward Bellingham of Erringham, Sussex (d. c.1514). Jane and Edward Bellingham had three children, Katherine (b.1500), John (d. November 1, 1540), and Sir Edward (d. April 10, 1550). In December 1514, she bought her younger son Edward's wardship from the 2nd duke of Norfolk with the help of her new husband, William Everard (d.1524), and her brothers, John and William Shelley. Her sons were still minors when her second husband died. Jane is probably the Lady Jane Bellingham who was implicated in the affair of Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent, in 1533. There was, however another Jane Bellingham living at the time. She was Jane Eure or Evers (c.1491-1538+), who was probably the sister of Robert Eure or Evers of Belton, Lincolnshire (1488-March 1, 1526). She was the wife of Richard (or Thomas) Bellingham of Manton (c.1484-October 5, 1558), but he does not appear to have been knighted, so she would not have been Lady Bellingham. Their children, born between 1514 and 1538, included Robert, Richard, Katherine, Joane or Jane, Thomas, Troth or Tristram, Christopher, Henry, Edward, and John.

ANNE SHELTON

see ANNE BOLEYN

ANNE SHELTON (d. September 17, 1563)
Anne Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (c.1472-December 21, 1539) and Anne Boleyn (c.1475-December 1556), the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn's father. Anne married Sir Edmund Knyvett of Buckenham Castle, Norfolk (d. May 1, 1551). Their children still living when Elizabeth died in 1563 were Thomas (d. September 22, 1569), Edmund, Henry, and Anthony. Her second husband was Christopher Coote of Blonorton, by whom may have had another son, Richard (d.1563+).

ELIZABETH SHELTON (1505+-1561+)
Elizabeth Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (c.1472-December 21, 1539) and Anne Boleyn (c.1475-December 1556). Her uncle, James Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk (c.1480-1561) left her 200 marks in his will, written August 20, 1561 and proved November 21, 1561. He asked the queen to provide the money out of the arrears of an annuity. The following December, Elizabeth Shelton was granted an annuity of £30. This is all I have been able to learn about her, but she appears to have still been unmarried at a fairly advanced age. So was her sister Amy (or Amica), who also received an annuity of £30 from Queen Elizabeth on January 24, 1566 for "services" to the queen. The same online source gives Amy a will dated April 20, 1566, but another website says she didn't die until November 1579. Considering how often Elizabeth and Amy's sisters, Margaret and Mary, are confused, I draw no conclusions.

ETHELRED or AUDREY SHELTON (June 10, 1568-1631)
Ethelred or Audrey Shelton was the daughter of Sir Ralph Shelton (d.1580) and Mary Wodehouse or Woodhouse. She married Sir Thomas Walsingham of Scadbury, Chislehurst, Kent (1568-August 11, 1630), by whom she had a son, also named Thomas (d.1669), and a daughter, Mary. She was a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth and, in 1597, the queen visited Lady Walsingham at Scadbury. In 1598, George Chapman dedicated his continuation of Christopher Marlowe’s Hero and Leander to Lady Walsingham. Ingram Frizer, who figures in the death of Marlowe, was later Lady Walsingham’s servant. In 1603, she went to Scotland to attend Queen Anne. She was appointed keeper of the queen's robes in 1603. From 1608, she held that post jointly with her husband. In 1604, she received a pension of £200 for life. In 1608, Lady Walsingham’s lodging by the Tilt Yard was the setting for the marriage between Sir Robert Cecil’s son, William, and Katherine Howard, daughter of the earl of Suffolk. Audrey was a close friend of Cecil's and one of several women rumored to have been his mistress. She was buried in Chislehurst Church on August 24, 1631.

MARGARET SHELTON
see MARGARET PARKER

MARGARET SHELTON (1500+-before September 11,1583)

Known as “Madge,” Margaret Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (c.1472-December 21, 1539) and Anne Boleyn (c.1475-December 1556), the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn’s father. Madge came to court as a maid of honor to her cousin by 1535 and is said to have been Henry VIII’s mistress for about six months, from February of that year. Francis Weston, who was married, flirted with Margaret later in 1535 and she was courted by Henry Norris, a widower. Both Norris and Weston were arrested and executed in 1536 in connection with Anne Boleyn's alleged adultery. Kimberley Schutte, in her biography of Lady Margaret Douglas, describes Madge Shelton as a "pretty girl with dimples . . . very gentle in countenance" and "soft of speech," but she also seems to think Margaret and her sister Mary were the same person and further identifies Madge as the "handsome young lady at court" who may have been the king's mistress in 1534. In The Mistresses of Henry VIII, Kelly Hart also identifies "Madge" as Mary Shelton (see next entry) but it makes more sense to me that Margaret was Henry's mistress during Anne Boleyn's tenure as queen. Some accounts also say Madge was with Anne Boleyn in Calais in 1532 and with Queen Anne on the scaffold. The name "Mistress Shelton" next crops up in connection with the king in 1538, when Henry was searching for a foreign bride for his fourth wife. Christina of Milan was described as resembling Mistress Shelton. The king was much taken with Christina's portrait, painted by Hans Holbein the younger. By 1538, Margaret herself was married to Thomas Wodehouse or Woodhouse of Kimberley, Norfolk (1510-September 10, 1547). Prior to Wodehouse's death in the battle of Musselborough, they had six children: Roger (c.1541-April 4, 1588), John (b.c.1543), Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, and Henry (b. January 3, 1546).

MARY SHELTON (1512?-January 1571)

Mary Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton of Shelton, Norfolk (c.1472-December 21, 1539) and Anne Boleyn (c.1475-December 1556), the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn’s father. Suggestions for the date of her birth range from 1512 to 1520. A number of scholars, including Kelly Hart in The Mistresses of Henry VIII, argue that Mary Shelton was the king's mistress in 1535 and also a candidate to become Henry's fourth wife. I find the logic of this unconvincing. The single mention of Mary Shelton as one of two ladies in whom the king was interested in 1538 comes in a letter that says nothing about marriage. The comment could as easily refer to the king's choice of one of the two as his next mistress. What we do know to be true about Mary is that she was friends with Lady Margaret Douglas, Lady Mary Howard, countess of Richmond, and Lady Mary’s brother, Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. She contributed to and edited the “Devonshire Manuscript,” a collection of poems, some of them original, that was passed around among members of their circle. Two of the poems suggest that Sir Thomas Wyatt pursued Mary and was rejected by her. Of course, Wyatt was married at the time. Following Sir John Shelton's death, Kelly Hart says that Mary entered the convent of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, but that is impossible. The priory had been dissolved more than a year earlier (November 25,1538). There was a Mary Shelton there at that time, but she was a nun. She was granted an annuity of £4 and would have been required by law to remain single. Our Mary may have been in attendance upon Queen Catherine Howard. After Catherine's arrest, Mary spent most of the next year with her friends Mary Howard and Margaret Douglas at Kenninghall in Norfolk, Mary Howard's home. Mary fell in love with Thomas Clere, one of the earl of Surrey’s close friends. They intended to marry, but were prevented by Clere's death on April 14, 1545. Soon after, Mary wed Sir Anthony Heveningham (c.1507-November 22,1557) and after his death married Philip Appleyard (b.c.1528). Her children by Heveningham were Mary, Anne, Jane, Bridget, Sir Arthur (d.October 8, 1630), Abigail (d.1611+), Henry, John, and Dorothy. She may have been the Lady Heveningham at court in 1558/9. Biography: Paul G. Remley, “Mary Shelton and her Tudor Literary Milieu” in Rethinking the Tudor Era; Oxford DNB entry under "Shelton, Mary." NOTE: The DNB gives the date of death for Mary's mother as 1555 and says Mary had only five children but names only Arthur and Abigail. Portrait: the Holbein sketch labeled “The Lady Henegham” in the Royal Library at Windsor.

MARY SHELTON (c.1550-November 15,1603)

Mary Shelton was the daughter of Sir John Shelton (1503-1558) and Margaret Parker. She was at court as a chamberer to Queen Elizabeth from January 1, 1571, but angered the queen when she secretly married Sir James Scudamore of Holme Lacy, Herefordshire (1542-April 15,1623), a gentleman usher, in January 1573/4. Queen Elizabeth is said to have been so angry that she attacked Mary and broke her finger. In spite of this incident, Mary continued as a chamberer and became quite influential at court as well as being a favorite with the queen. As early as October 26, 1574, she received a forepart of cloth of silver with a fringe from the queen. She was never banished from court. Other royal gifts included £400 in 1591 and £300 in 1594.In 1587, she was given the job of helping Mary Radcliffe, keeper of jewels, with the bundles of furs sent to the queen by Ivan the Terrible. She had two sons by Scudamore, one of them named James. Many letters by and about her are extant. She was buried at Holme Lacy on August 15, 1603. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Scudamore [née Shelton], Mary.” Portrait: The portrait of Lady Scudamore attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger c.1601 is probably Mary Shelton. It is often misidentified as Eleanor Croft, first wife of Sir James Scudamore, even though Eleanor died in 1569.

JANE SHEPPARD (1568-1622)
Jane Sheppard was the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Sheppard. Her father held a minor post at court. She was baptized at St. Margaret's, Westminster on November 1, 1568. She was known in the family as "Jennet." In about 1593, she married John Davenant (1565-1622), a vintner. They lived in St. James Garlickhythe. Jane consulted Simon Forman in January 1598, thinking she was with child, but she was not. By that time she had already lost several children. She'd lost six by 1600, when the Davenants moved to Oxford. There they ran a wine tavern, the Crown, with about twenty rooms. William Shakespeare often stayed there on his way from London to Stratford. Over the next twenty years they had quite a number of children, seven of whom, including Jane (b.1601), Nicholas, William (1606-1668), and Robert, lived to grow up. It has been suggested that one of them, William, was William Shakespeare's illegitimate son, but this is unlikely. It is possible, however, that Shakespeare was his godfather when he was baptized at St. Martin's, Carfax on March 3, 1606. William Davenant grew up to be Sir William, the poet laureate. According to John Aubrey, Jane was "a very beautiful woman & of a very good witt and of conversation extremely agreable." She died two weeks before her husband in the year he was Lord Mayor of Oxford. After Davenant's death, his apprentice, Thomas Hallom, was granted his freedom early, married the eldest daughter, Jane, and continued the business. After Hallom's death in 1636, Jane took over and during her widowhood took on five apprentices of her own.

CECILY or CECILIA SHERLEY or SHIRLEY (1570-July 31, 1662)
Cecily or Cecilia Sherley or Shirley was the youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Sherley of Wiston, Sussex (May 9, 1542-October 16, 1612) and Anne Kempe (c.1544-1623). She married her father’s godson, Thomas West, 3rd baron de la Warr (July 9, 1577-June 7, 1618) in November 1596. He served in the Low Countries and was imprisoned in 1601 for supporting the earl of Essex. In 1609/10 he was appointed first Governor of Virginia. He sailed there in 1610, returned to England in 1611, sailed there again in 1617, and died at sea. Their children were Joan (c.1601-c.1650), Henry, 4th baron (October 3, 1603-June 1, 1628), Anne (c.1605-c.1660), Elizabeth (c.1606-c.1660), Cecily (c.1609-1638), Lucy (c.1611-c.1660), John (1615-October 6, 1683), Twyford (b.1616), and Catherine (c.1618-c.1660). Several of Cecily’s daughters acted with their mother in a court masque at Twelfth Night 1616/17. On September 19, 1619, Cecily was granted a pension for thirty-one years. It was renewed in 1634, stopped by the Civil War, and restored in 1662.

FRANCIS SHERLEY
see FRANCES VAVASOUR

TERESA SHERLEY
see TERESA SAMPSONIA

SHERRINGTON

see SHARINGTON

DOROTHY SHIRLEY
see DOROTHY WROUGHTON

ELIZABETH SHIRLEY (1564/5-September 1,1641)

Elizabeth Shirley was the daughter of Sir John Shirley of Shirley, Leicestershire (1535-September 12,1570) and Jane Lovett. She was raised in the Church of England but at about the age of twenty went to live with her brother, George Shirley (1559-April 27,1622), a recusant, as his housekeeper. There she was converted to Catholicism. Following George’s marriage to Frances Berkeley (c.1560-December 9, 1595) in 1586/7 she decided to become a nun. She joined the cloister of St. Ursula in Louvain in Flanders, where she was professed as a nun on September 10, 1596. This was a Flemish house, but since 1569 had been ruled by an English prioress, Margaret Clement (d.1612). In 1606, Clement retired and the English nuns began to make plans for a separate convent. They established the English Augustinian cloister of St. Monica’s at Louvain on February 10, 1609, thanks in large part to Elizabeth Shirley’s handling of the finances, and from that November until 1637, she served as sub-prioress. Jane (Sister Mary) Wiseman was elected as the first prioress. In 1626, Elizabeth wrote a biography of Margaret Clement that included a history of the English Augustinians in Louvain. This was probably the earliest biography of a woman written in English by someone who had known the subject during her lifetime. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Shirley, Elizabeth.”

FRANCES SHIRLEY
see FRANCES BERKELEY

ISABEL SHIRLEY (d. July 1533+)
Isabel Shirley was one of the daughters of Sir Ralph Shirley of Wiston/Westmeston, Sussex (1433-1510) and Jane Bellingham. She married first, on January 17, 1508, Sir John Dawtrey of Southampton (c.1433-November 24, 1518) and had a son, Francis (1510-July 1533+). A record of July 1533 identifies Francis as the son of Sir John Dawtry and Isabella, "now wife of Sir Richard Lyster." Sir Richard's wife is often misidentified as Jane Shirley, largely because Isabel's sister also married a man named Sir John Dawtrey. This second Sir John was of Petworth and Moor House, Sussex and did not die until September 21, 1542. Isabel's second husband, Sir Richard Lister or Lyster (c.1480-March 16, 1553/4), was a chief justice of the king's bench. The Oxford DNB says their children were Richard and Charles and possibly Elizabeth (1520-1572), but calls Lyster's son Michael (d.1551) the child of a later wife, Elizabeth Stoke (d.1567+). Not only is this not possible, since Michael was already married to his first wife in 1529, but Richard and Charles were Michael's sons, not Richard's. His will, proved April 16, 1554, makes Richard, "son and heir of my late son Michael," his principal heir and identifies Charles, who was not yet twenty-one, as the younger son of Michael and his second wife, Margery. Richard also mentions his daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Richard Blount, in his will. Elizabeth is probably Isabel's daughter. Michael seems to belong to an earlier, unknown wife. Isabel's first husband, John Dawtrey, and his first wife, Joan Scardeville, had what is now known as "The Tudor House" in Southampton built for them in 1495. After Dawtrey's death and during her second marriage, Isabel continued to trade as a merchant of Southampton dealing in millstones. Portrait: Isabel is the most likely possibility to be the subject of the Holbein sketch labeled "Lady Lister" and dated c.1532-1543. Alternatives are Michael Lyster's second wife, Margery Horsman, and Elizabeth Stoke.

JANE SHORE

see ELIZABETH LAMBERT

FRANCES SHUTE
see FRANCES MEAUTAS

ANNE SIBTHORPE
see ANNE HARRIS

AGNES or ANNE SIDNEY (c.1525-June 11,1602)
Agnes Sidney, sometimes called Anne, was the daughter of Sir William Sidney (1482-1554) and Anne Pagenham (d. October 22, 1544). She married William Fitzwilliam of Gaynes Park, Essex (1526-September 16, 1599). Her wedding settlement, dated January 4, 1543, gave her the use of all of his Essex lands for life should he die before her. They had five children: William (c.1550-1618), John (1554-1612), Mary, Margaret, and Philippa. Agnes raised them on her own for the most part, since her husband was so often in Ireland during their marriage. She was there with him part of the time, however, and in 1571, when he was suffering from an ague, she wrote to the queen to ask that he be recalled. Instead, he was appointed Lord Deputy. His enemies claimed Agnes made all his decisions for him. Certainly he trusted her. In 1575, he sent her to England to make a personal appeal to the queen for his recall. This time she succeeded, and he remained in England for most of the period from 1575 to 1588. The queen visited his house at Gaynes Park in 1578, but Agnes was not there at the time. She had gone to Bath for her health. Fitzwilliam was again sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy in 1588. Portraits: possible portrait c. 1545; by George Gower c.1577; "Lady Fitzwilliam" by George Gower 1577; monument in Theydon Garnon Church, Essex.

ANNE SIDNEY
see ANNE PAKENHAM

BARBARA SIDNEY

see BARBARA GAMAGE

ELIZABETH SIDNEY (November 1585-1614)

Elizabeth Sidney was the daughter of Sir Philip Sidney (November 30, 1554-October 17, 1586) and Frances Walsingham (c. October 1567-February 17, 1633). In March 1599, she married Roger Manners, 5th earl of Rutland (October 6, 1576-June 26, 1612). On January 5, 1606, Elizabeth participated in the climax of the court masque, Hymenaei, created by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. She represented one of the Powers and in order to participate paid £80 to Mr. Bethall, the gentleman usher, £10 for cutwork lace, £4 8s. for silk, and £12 3s. for a coronet, a pair of silk hose, a ruff, and a pair of shoes, all part of her costume. Because of his marriage to Elizabeth, her husband had become involved in the treasonous schemes of her stepfather, the earl of Essex, in 1601. Elizabeth herself figures in two controversies. One concerns her portrait or portraits. The argument has been made that she is the subject of the portrait by William Segar c.1590 usually identified as her mother, Frances, and that by comparing the face in that portrait to the unknown lady c.1595 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, this, too, can be identified as Elizabeth Sidney. There are several problems with this. For one thing, in 1595, Elizabeth was only eleven years old. For another, the lady is shown as being obviously pregnant and Elizabeth Sidney never had any children. However, it is an interesting portrait, and I include it here for what it is worth. It is also possible that Elizabeth, not her mother, is the subject of the portrait of a lady in Persian dress (c.1600 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger), obviously another masque costume. The second controversy is over the death of Elizabeth's husband and her own death. Several sources online claim she poisoned him to free herself from an unhappy marriage and that a short time later she was herself killed in revenge for his death. One problem with this is that very reliable sources, including biographies of her father and grandfather, give the date 1614 for Elizabeth's death, and one source says September 1, 1615. The Oxford DNB (under "Manners, Roger"), however, says that Frances died "within a fortnight of her husband's funeral (in 1612), occasioning wild rumours that she had been poisoned by medicine supplied by Sir Walter Raleigh." The entry also reports gossip that Sir Thomas Overbury was in love with her. Playwright Ben Jonson said of Elizabeth Sidney that she was "nothing inferior to her father in poetry," although examples of her writing do not seem to have survived. Elizabeth was buried near her father in at St. Paul's, although she shares a memorial at Bottesford with her husband.

FRANCES SIDNEY (c.1531-March 9,1588/9)

Frances Sidney was the daughter of Sir William Sidney (1482-1554) and Anne Pagenham (d.October 22, 1544). In April 1555, she married Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, later earl of Sussex (1526-June 9, 1583) at Hampton Court. King Philip attended the ceremony and participated in the tournament held afterward. The Oxford DNB places Frances in Ireland with her husband from 1556-1564 but although Fitzwalter (earl of Sussex after February 1557) was based in Dublin (as was Frances's brother, Sir Henry Sidney), and Frances was sometimes with him, he spent thirty-five months of his eight year term in England. At Christmas 1557, both Frances and her husband were at court and in high favor with Queen Mary. Frances also seems to have gotten along well with Queen Elizabeth. In September 1565, she was delegated to escort Cecilia of Sweden to court. Frances was in Berwick during her husband's tenure as Lord President of the North. She caught smallpox there in the summer of 1571. Also in 1571, she twice entertained the queen at Bermondsey House. Charlotte Merton, in The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, describes her as "bedevilled with ill health," citing illnesses in spring 1571, winter 1575, and 1582 at court. Frances was a patron of the arts, receiving a number of dedications. After her husband’s death, she continued to sponsor his company of players, now called the Countess of Sussex’s Men. The Oxford DNB entry reports that Frances had enemies who turned her husband and the queen against her during the last months of his life (early 1583), although before that she had been "a loved and loyal wife." After his death, she enjoyed an income of £2062 from his estates and had possession of the house in Bermondsdy for life. The DNB entry also recounts Frances's courtship by Arthur Hall (1539-December 29, 1605) c. 1586. Rejected, he wrote a book purported to be the story of their relationship. Hungaryous Hystory offended the queen and was suppressed. Hall was later confined in the Marshalsea, and then the Fleet (1588-9) when he continued his harrassment. Frances had puritan leanings and a deep interest in education. In her will she left £5000 to found the Lady Frances Sidney-Sussex College at Cambridge. Construction there was begun in 1596. She had no children. She was buried in the chapel of St. Paul in Westminster Abbey, where an inscription describes her as "adorned with many and most rare gifts of both mynde and bodye; towards God trulie and zelousle religious; to her friends and kinefoulke most liberall; to the poore, to prisoners and to the ministers of the worde of God, allwaies most charitable." Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Radcliffe [née Sidney] Frances." Portraits: by Steven van der Meulen c.1565; by George Gower, c.1575; effigy in Westminster Abbey; statue at Sidney-Sussex College.

FRANCES SIDNEY

see FRANCES WALSINGHAM

MARGARET SIDNEY

see MARGARET DAKINS

MARY SIDNEY

see MARY DUDLEY

MARY SIDNEY (October 27, 1561-September 25, 1621)

Mary Sidney was the daughter of Sir Henry Sidney (June 20,1529-May 5,1586) and Mary Dudley (1532-August 1586) and the sister of Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). She was probably the daughter placed with Mildred Cooke, Lady Burghley, while the Sidneys were in Ireland in 1569. She was one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies before she married. On April 21, 1577 she married Henry Herbert, 2nd earl of Pembroke (1540-January 19, 1601), by whom she had William (April 8, 1580-April 10, 1630), Katherine (1581-1584), Anne (b.1583), and Philip (1584-1650). She was one of the foremost patrons of the arts as well as a poet and translator in her own right. Biographies: by Frances Young; by Margaret P. Hannay (Philip's Phoenix); Oxford DNB entry under "Herbert [née Sidney], Mary." Portraits: a painting by Marcus Gheeraerts once identified as Mary Sidney is actually Mary Throckmorton, Lady Scudamore; miniature in the Victoria & Albert Museum; engraving by Simon van de Passe, c.1618.

MARY SIDNEY (October 18,1587-c.1652)

Mary Sidney was the daughter of Robert Sidney (1563-1626) and Barbara Gamage (1562-1621). On September 24, 1604, she married Sir Robert Wroth (c.1576-March 1614), by whom she had one son, James (February 1614-July 5,1616). When she was widowed, her husband’s estate was deeply in debt, so she wrote to earn money. The Countesse of Mountgomeries’s Urania was published in 1621. Although it contained poems, it was the first prose fiction written in English by a woman. She also the first woman known to have written a sonnet sequence. She received many dedications from other writers, as well as being mentioned in some of their works. She had two children, William and Katherine, during her widowhood, fathered by her cousin, William Herbert, 3^rd earl of Pembroke (1580-1630). Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Wroth [née Sidney], Mary.” Portraits: group portrait by Marcus Gheerearts the younger, 1596; portrait by Marcus Gheerearts the younger, c. 1620; portrait attributed to John de Critz, c.1620.

SARAH SIDNEY
see SARAH BLOUNT

MARGARET SINGLETON
see MARGARET STARKEY

ANNE SKEFFINGTON
see ANNE DIGBY

ELIZABETH SKEFFINGTON (d. November 19, 1584)
Elizabeth Skeffington was the daughter of Sir John Skeffington of London (c.1485-July 10, 1525) and Elizabeth Peche (d.1549). Her father was a merchant tailor of Fisherwick in Lichfield St. Michael. After she was widowed, Elizabeth Peche married Sir John Dauncey, but the marriage apparently ended in divorce. Elizabeth Skeffington married Sir George Griffith of Wichnor in Tatenhill, Staffordshire (1511-1559), by whom she had a son, Walter (1535-1574) and three daughters. By the spring of 1540, Griffith had abandoned his wife for his mistress. Both Lord Cromwell and Bishop Rowland Lee took him to task for this action and Cromwell ordered him to either take Elizabeth back or pay her jointure. Since he was unable to afford the second choice, he opted for the first.

MARGARET SKEFFINGTON
see MARGARET STANHOPE

JANE SKENNARD (d.1550)
Jane Skennard was the daughter of Henry Skennard, Skineardon, Skenard, or Skynnerton of Aldington and Margaret Harwedon. She married Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley, Northamptonshire (c.1500-December 8, 1534). Their twelve children included Richard (d. March 30, 1537/8), Thomas (d. October 18, 1516), Sir Edmond (d. September 12, 1542 or 1543), John, Sir Valentine (d.1566), and Susan (d.1549+). Jane was sole executor of her husband's will and responsible for their tomb and a window containing a dedication. As a widow, she offered Thomas Cromwell the mastership of the game in her park and sent him a horse in an effort to gain favor. Portrait: alabaster effigy in St. Mary the Virgin Church, Fawsley with her family badge of the hawk's lure but no life dates. In 2008, the tomb was vandalized and the effigy of Sir Richard was damaged. The cost of repairs was estimated at £1000.

KATHERINE SKERN
see KATHERINE STYLES

BRIDGET SKIPWITH (d. January 26, 1587/8)

Bridget Skipwith was the daughter of Sir William Skipwith of South Ormesby, Lincolnshire (d.1586) and Elizabeth Page (1516-August 1573). Her mother had been one of Kathryn Parr’s chamberers. Bridget was one of Elizabeth Tudor's attendants when John Harington wrote his sonnet in praise of her six gentlewomen. Bridget's stanza is as follows: "If Skypwith should escape/Without her gift most rare/Dyana wold me hate/and fill my Life with care/syns in her Temple chaste/full highe uppon the wall/Her bowe thear hangith fast/unbroke and ever shall." Bridget continued in Elizabeth's service as a maid of the Privy Chamber after she became queen. She married Brian Cave of Ingarsby, Leicestershire (d. September 12, 1592) but all his children seem to have been with his first wife, Margaret Throckmorton. Bridget did not leave the queen’s service until after 1584 and may have remained in the Privy Chamber until her death.

CATHERINE SKIPWITH (c.1484-c.1575)
Catherine Skipwith was the daughter of John Skipwith/Skipworth of South Ormesby, Lincolnshire (c.1460-January 5, 1517/18) and Catherine Fitzwilliam (d.1502+). In 1515, she married Sir Thomas Heneage of Hainton, Lincolnshire (c.1480-August 21, 1553), a gentleman pensioner. They had only one child, Elizabeth (1518-1556/7). Catherine rode in the funeral procession of Queen Jane Seymour and was a gentlewoman in attendance on Queen Anne of Cleves in January 1540 and later served in the household of Catherine Howard. In his will in September 1542, her cousin, William Fitzwilliam, earl of Southampton, discharged her debt to him of £20. Catherine's will was proved September 2, 1576. She was buried in the chancel of Hainton parish church.

MARGARET SKIPWITH
see MARGARET CAVE

MARGARET SKIPWITH or SKIPWORTH (1520+-May 6,1583)

Margaret Skipwith was the daughter of Sir William Skipwith of Kettleby and South Ormsby, Lincolnshire (1488-July 7, 1547) and Alice Dymoke (d.June 28,1549). In 1538, when Henry VIII was a widower looking for a foreign bride, Margaret Skipwith was rumored to be his mistress. In April 1539, she married George, Lord Talboys (1523-September 1540), son of King Henry's former mistress, Elizabeth Blount. She was at court regularly in 1538, 1540, and 1541, when her name appears in royal household expenses and after she was widowed she was granted the wardship of a son of Anthony Tottoft. In 1546, Sir Peter Carew (1514-November 27, 1575) asked King Henry's help in persuading Margaret to marry him. At first the king was unwilling to help, but later changed his mind and wrote to Margaret on Sir Peter's behalf. They were married on February 20, 1547, the same day Edward VI was crowned king. Sir Peter participated in the tournaments celebrating the coronation. Margaret, who continued to be called Lady Talboys, spent most of the next few years in Lincolnshire, where she owned eight manors. Carew, who was sheriff of Devon, divided his time between the two counties. In December 1552, he owed the Crown £2100. When Mary Tudor became queen, Carew was one of the leaders in Wyatt's Rebellion and went into exile when the uprising failed. The story goes that Margaret dreamed her husband slipped while boarding the ship on which he was to escape and drowned. In fact, although he did slip, he was rescued. Carew's lands were forfeit to the Crown but his moveable property was sold back to Margaret in June 1554. She was a tireless campaigner on her husband's behalf. She petitioned Queen Mary and King Philip, asking permission to write to her husband and sent him "material relief." On September 17, 1554, she sent "an ambling grey gelding" worth 10s. to Sir William Petre, a member of the Privy Council. Five days later, she was called before the Privy Council and told she could correspond with Sir Peter and, one time only, send him money. She wisely demanded a written copy of the royal answer to her petition. It is at about this time that Queen Mary is said to have called her "a good and loving wife." Margaret continued to be her husband's advocate, seeking a pardon for him from the queen. Meanwhile, Sir Peter, who had gone as far as Venice, returned to England in secret in April of 1555. That autumn, Margaret journeyed to Brussels to plead with King Philip for permission for Sir Peter to return to England permanently. She carried a letter from her husband, who was then in Strasbourg. On November 24, 1555, Queen Mary agreed to pardon Carew. Carew, then in Antwerp, reached Brussels by mid-December. The pardon was officially issued on December 9, 1555 but copies did not reach Brussels until March 15, 1556. Margaret, who was still there, with her husband, then needed a pardon of her own before she could return to England, since she had remained out of the country longer than her license to travel allowed. She returned home ahead of her husband, who was still on the Continent in May. On May 15, 1556, he was arrested, in spite of the pardon, and for two weeks his whereabouts were unknown. On June 1, he was in the Tower of London. It is possible this was a ruse to cover up the fact that he betrayed some of his friends in return for the pardon, but if so, Margaret was not told. She once again worked diligently on her husband's behalf and on July 7 he was given better accomodations and allowed conjugal visits. Margaret spent that summer campaigning for his release. Finally, in return for the settlement of old debts, Carew was released on October 19, 1556. He received a regrant of some of the lands that had been forfeit to the Crown and others were granted in reversion, but he still owed the Crown £820. The eight manors Carew and his wife held in Lincolnshire plus two in Somersetshire yielded a yearly rent of £133 6s. 8d. Under Elizabeth Tudor, Carew spent much of his time in Ireland. He sent for Margaret to join him there in March 1569, but she lived primarily in Lincolnshire and at Mohuns Ottery in Devon and was not with Sir Peter when he died. In 1579, she married her third husband, Sir John Clifton of Barrington, Somerset (c.1541-c.1593). She had no children by any of her husbands. When she died, most of Sir Peter's debts were still outstanding.

LADY SLANE
see ALICE FITZGERALD; ELIZABETH STUCLEY

MARGARET SLANEY
see MARGARET PHESANT

MARY SLANEY (1560-April 26, 1623)
Mary Slaney was the daughter of Sir Stephen Slaney (1524-December 27, 1608) and Margaret Phesant (Fesant; Pheasant) (d.1618). Slaney was Lord Mayor of London in 1595 and a member of the Skinner’s Company. Mary married another skinner, Richard Bradgate (d.1589), from whom she inherited an annuity of £60. Her second husband was Sir Humphrey Weld (1547-November 29,1610), a member of the Grocer’s Company who had a house in Allhallows Lane by the Standard in Cheapside. In 1608, they moved into a mansion in St. Olave Jewry. Mary inherited, on condition that she not remarry, the bulk of his considerable estate and the responsibility for raising her stepchildren, Joane (1579-1618), John (1582-1623), and Anne (b.1584). She had no children of her own. Her contributions to charity were generous, both in life and in her will, which also made provision for a funeral that cost £1200, a tenth of the amount of her cash bequests. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Weld [née Slaney], Mary."

ELIZABETH SLIGHFIELD (d. 1546+)
Elizabeth Slighfield was the sister of Henry and Walter Slighfield, probably of Peckham, Kent. She married Robert Huicke (Huike/Hewyke/Hewicke) (d. September 6, 1580), royal physician to Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth. He also attended Queen Katherine Parr. "A relative of Dr. Huicke" was a maid of honor to Queen Katherine. Elizabeth may also have been part of the royal household. In early 1546, Huicke tried to divorce Elizabeth on the grounds that she was an "ill woman," which may mean he doubted he was the father of the daughter, Anne (c.1546-1580+), born to her around that time. When the judge, John Croke, found in her favor, Huicke appealed to the Privy Council. Both parties testified at Greenwich on May 11 and 12, 1546, after which the consensus was that Huicke had exhibited "crueltie and circumvencion" for "little cause" on the part of his wife. The divorce was denied. This should have surprised no one. Divorce at this time was all but impossible to obtain, and even when a divorce was granted, remarriage was not permitted while the first spouse still lived. In that same year, 1546, Dr. William Huicke, "a kinsman of Dr. Robert Huicke," was arrested as a heretic, but this does not seem to have affected Robert's position at court. Shortly after King Henry VIII died, a commission under Archbishop Cranmer reconsidered Huicke's request for a divorce. According to the entry in The History of Parliament, The House of Commons 1509-1558, the results are unknown but it is possible that Elizabeth and Huicke were reconciled. His daughter Atalanta was born in 1562. It is also possible that Elizabeth had died by 1562 and he had remarried, but if so there is no record of this second marriage. He did marry again in 1575, by a license dated November 2, this time to Mary Woodcocke of London. In his will, dated August 21, 1580, Huicke divided his movable goods between his wife and a third daughter, Elizabeth, who was evidently old enough by that time to be named an executrix and therefore also, probably, the daughter of Elizabeth Slighfield. Huicke left his lands to Atalanta, who was married to William Chetwynd. Anne Huicke was still alive, but was not mentioned in the will.

ALICE SMALLWOOD
see ALICE HYDE

AGNES SMITH
see AGNES CRANE

DOROTHY SMITH (1564-1639)
Dorothy Smith was the daughter of Humphrey (Ambrose) Smith or Smythe of Cheapside (d.1584), a silk merchant, and Johanna Cole (d.1601). One source says that Dorothy’s father was Queen Elizabeth’s silkman. He did deliver silk on one occasion. Royal silkwoman Alice Mountague was Alice Smythe, widow, before her 1562 marriage. It seems likely she was married to a relative of Humphrey’s, perhaps a brother. Dorothy Smith married four times and three of her daughters married peers. Her first husband was Benedict Barnham (1559-1598), a merchant and the benefactor of St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford. They had eight children, four of whom lived to adulthood: Alice (1588-June 29,1640; viscountess Verulam), Elizabeth (1591-c.1623; countess of Castlehaven), Dorothy (b.1595), and Bridget (b.1596). In November 1598, Dorothy married Sir John Pakington of Westwood, Worcestershire (1549-January 1625), nicknamed “Lusty Pakington” by Queen Elizabeth for his height (over 6’) and strength, by whom Dorothy had John (1600-October 1624), Anne (1598-1667; countess of Chesterfield), and Mary. In February 1607, John Chamberlain wrote in a letter that “Sir John Pakington and his little violent lady are parted on foul terms.” He does not give details. Shortly thereafter, Dorothy was at odds with her son-in-law, Francis Bacon (later viscount Verulam). She charged that he had forced her twelve-year-old daughter, Dorothy Barnham, into marriage with Sir John Constable. On June 21,1617, the Pakingtons were again mentioned in one of John Chamberlain’s letters, when he wrote of “great warres between Sir John and his lady.” She apparently made some kind of accusation against her husband that resulted in him being jailed for a time, but again details are lacking. The matter went to arbitration by the Lord Keeper. Unfortunately for Dorothy, the Lord Keeper was her estranged son-in-law, Francis Bacon. The decision went against her. After Pakington’s death, Dorothy quarreled with her daughter Anne’s husband, Sir Humphrey Ferrers (Anne’s second husband was Philip Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield), and with her daughter Mary’s husband, Sir Richard Brooke, over the administration of Pakington’s estate. It was transferred to the two men by February 1629. Soon after, Dorothy married Robert Needham, 1^st viscount Kilmorey (d. November 1631), as his third wife, and after his death wed Thomas Erskine, 1^st earl of Killie (d. June 12, 1639).

ELEANOR SMITH (c.1547-1596+)
Eleanor Smith was the daughter and heir of Bernard Smith of Totnes, Devonshire (d. July 16, 1591), who was mayor of Totnes in 1549/50. She was a heiress much sought after in marriage. Her first husband was John Charles of Tavistock (d. August 17, 1568). On January 30, 1570, she married Sir John Fulford of Fulford, Devonshire (1524/5-August 23, 1580) as his second wife. He was one of the wealthiest men in Devon and after their marriage he completed the rebuilding of Fulford. They had no children. Her third husband was John Wray or Wrey of Trebigh, Cornwall (1566-1596). He died in Spain. She then married, in 1596, Ambrose Bellott of Downton, Devonshire (c.1561-1637).

FRANCES SMITH

see FRANCES BRYDGES

JOHANNA SMITH
see JOHANNA COLE

ANNE SMYTH (d.1575)
Anne Smyth was the daughter of Robert Smyth of London, although several genealogies give her birthplace as Northamptonshire. Birth dates given range from 1509 to 1526. She married twice, first to Robert Paget or Pagett of London, by whom she had two children, William and Grace. Her second husband, married in 1558, was Sir John Yorke (d.1569), master of the mint. They had a daughter, Amy or Anne (d.1600+) and Anne acquired several stepchildren, including Edward Yorke. Young Edward was to become friendly with Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford and it was at Lady Yorke's house in Walbrook that the two young men stayed before departing for the Continent in 1574. She also had a house in Pancake Lane, London. Anne made her will on August 9, 1575 and it was proved December 2, 1575. Among other bequests, she left £20 to her maid, Ellen, to be paid upon Ellen's marriage. Anne was buried August 21, 1575 at St. Stephen Walbrook.

DOROTHY SMYTH
see DOROTHY HOPTON

ALICE SMYTHE
see ALICE JUDDE; ALICE MOUNTAGUE

JOAN SMYTHE (1560-1622)
Joan Smythe was the daughter of Thomas "Customer" Smythe (1522-June 7, 1591) and Alice Judde (d.1593). On December 22, 1578, she married Thomas Fanshawe of Ware Park, Hertfordshire (1533-1600). His son, Henry (1569-1616) later married her younger sister, Elizabeth (1572-1631). She had eight children. Those who survived to adulthood were Thomas, William, Alice, and Katherine. Portrait: by Cornelius Ketel, 1579.

SARAH SMYTHE
see SARAH BLOUNT

HELENA SNAKENBORG
see HELENA VON SNAKENBORG

HELEN or ELEN SNAWE or SNOW (d.1539+)
Helen Snawe was one of nineteen nuns at Elstow, near Bedford, in 1529 and a troublemaker. When Abbess Agnes Gascoigne died in July of that year, Helen was subsacrist. In the voting for a new abbess, she received two votes, primarily because two of the nuns wished to avoid voting for the other's candidate. Helen herself, and most of the other nuns, voted for Elizabeth Boifeld or Boyvill. The older nuns blamed the young nuns, Helen among them, for this result. Helen was then one of two proctors chosen to seek confirmation of Elizabeth's election from the bishop. Fuller details of the political machinations may be found on pp. 46-47 of Eileen Power's Medieval English Nunneries. In 1530, the bishop suspended the abbess and deprived the prioress, Dame Anne Wake, of her post after his August visitation. He appointed Helen Snawe in her place. When her election was announced, however, eight nuns and the sub-prioress rose up in a body and left the chapter house in protest. The examinations of the nuns by the vicar general are reported in Power's book (pp. 48-51) but despite their complaints, including the implication that Elizabeth Boifeld's election was rigged, the nuns were enjoined to be obedient to their abbess and prioress. Further protests were quelled by the threat of excommunication. In 1537, there was more trouble. The nuns at Elstow had to give up their "households"—the places within the abbey where they entertained friends. They were also required to stop their "little parties" in Bedford. When Elstow was dissolved on August 26, 1539, there were twenty-three nuns in residence. The abbess received a pension of £50, Helen Snawe received £4, and the former prioress, Dame Anne Wake, was granted 66s. 8d.

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