A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: So-Sy
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her very out-of-date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)
KATHERINE SOAME
MARY SOMER (d.1607)
ANNE SOMERSET
see ANNE RUSSELL
ANNE SOMERSET (1538-October 17, 1596)
Anne Somerset was the daughter of Henry Somerset, 2nd earl of Worcester (1499-November 26,1549) and Elizabeth Browne (1500-1565). Probably. See ELIZABETH BROWNE. On June 22, 1558, she married Thomas Percy, 7th earl of Northumberland (1528-August 22,1572), by whom she had Elizabeth (b.1559), Thomas (1560-1560), Mary (1563-1643), Lucy, and Jane or Joan. In 1569, together with Jane Howard, countess of Westmorland, Anne was an instigator of the Northern Rebellion. Her husband was hesitant, but when, in the dead of night, his servants came to tell him that his enemies were surrounding him, the earl and countess fled to Branspeth, Westmorland’s house, and from there began their uprising against Queen Elizabeth. Lord Hunsdon, at the head of the queen’s troops, reported that Lady Northumberland was “stouter” than her husband and rode “up and down with the army.” When the rebellion failed, Northumberland sought refuge with Hector Graham, a borderlands robber, but Graham betrayed Northumberland to the earl of Moray. Anne was pregnant during the uprising. She gave birth on June 11, 1570 in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. On August 23, she and her baby fled to the Continent, arriving in Bruges on August 31,1570. Anne hoped to raise enough money to ransom her husband. She persuaded both King Philip II and the Pope to contribute to her cause, but her effort was in vain. Elizabeth of England outbid her, took charge of the prisoner, and executed him. Anne spent the rest of her life in exile. There is some mystery about her youngest child. Genealogical research on the Belgian family of Percy or Persy indicates that although the baby was given the name Maria, no sex was recorded, and argues that the child was a boy, subsequently called John Percy. A second John Percy shows up in records in Brussels in 1620, claiming to the the son of "Jean Piercy," son of Thomas, earl of Northumberland, who came to Flanders with his mother. This claim was apparently recognized by Spanish authorities. Although some English genealogists over the years have identified the child born in 1570 with the Mary Percy who founded a convent in Brussels, her epitaph there clearly states that she was "in England for a long time" before she first came to the Netherlands. Other sources say that this Mary was eighty at the time of her death in 1643, which would be consistent with a 1563 birth date. Anne Somerset's daughters had to be abandoned in England when the rebellion failed. Two of them were found at Wressel, the family seat, in a pitiful state, nearly frozen, half starved, and terrified. The servants with whom they’d been left had been murdered and the house ransacked. Their uncle, Henry Percy, who subsequently was granted their father's title, took his brother's daughters into his own household and they were raised at Petworth. Meanwhile, their mother was at Liège, living on a pension from Philip II. There she wrote “Discours des troubles du Comte de Northumberland” and involved herself in Catholic plots. She spent the next decade moving from place to place in the Spanish Netherlands, staying in contact with other exiles. She was living at Malines in 1572, in Mechlin in 1573, in Brussels in 1574 and again in 1576, and was back in Liège in 1575. In 1576 she was briefly expelled from the territory in an attempt to placate Queen Elizabeth, but she returned almost immediately. In September 1591, Charles Paget, an English exile in Antwerp, wrote to the Percy family in London to say that Anne had died and to request that her youngest daughter, Jane, come to Flanders to claim her mother's belongings. This appears to have been a ruse to allow Jane to visit her mother. Anne died of smallpox while living in the convent at Namur, but not until five years later.
BLANCHE SOMERSET (1583/4-October 28, 1649)
CHRISTIAN or CHRISTIANA SOMERSET
ELEANOR SOMERSET
ELIZABETH SOMERSET (c.1576-1625+)
ELIZABETH SOMERSET
see ELIZABETH BROWNE; ELIZABETH HASTINGS
KATHERINE SOMERSET (c.1575-October 30, 1624)
LUCY SOMERSET (1524-February 23, 1582/3)
Lucy Somerset is the "daughter" of the mysterious “Madam Albart” of a letter of Ambassador Chapuys to Charles V in 1542, naming her as one of three young ladies in whom King Henry VIII was showing a marked interest. Queen Catherine Howard was at that time in the Tower, facing execution, and the king was known to be looking for a sixth bride. Lucy was the daughter of Henry Somerset, 2nd earl of Worcester and Lord Herbert of Ragland (1499-November 26,1549) and his first wife, Margaret Courtenay (c.1499-April 14,1526). She may have been styled Lady Lucy Herbert and Chapuys’s “Albart” would be typical of his misspellings of English names. Lucy’s stepmother was Elizabeth Browne (1500-1565), the sister of Sir Anthony Browne, thus explaining Chapuys’s further identification of her as Browne’s niece. “The Lady Lucy” was a maid of honor to Catherine Howard and in 1545 married Queen Katherine Parr’s stepson, John Neville, 4th baron Latimer (c.1520-April 22,1577) and was part of Katherine’s household as Lady Latimer. They had four daughters: Catherine (1546-October 28, 1596), Dorothy (1547-March 23, 1608/9), Lucy (d.April 39,1608), and Elizabeth (c.1550-1630). Lucy was buried in Hackney. Her will, written November 16, 1582 and proved March 16, 1583, instructed that an alabaster tomb with pictures of herself and her four daughters be erected and left 500 marks for this purpose. Various bequests to her daughters and others included a cross of diamonds, a new carpet, "my jewel named Cupid," beds, cups, and sums of money. She left £200 to her granddaughter, Lucy Cecil but only £40 to another granddaughter, Lucy Danvers. To Blanche Parry, she left "one piece of gold called a portague of the value of three pounds ten shillings."To Bridget Keys, wife of John Keys, avener of the queen's stables, she left a ring of gold set with rubies and opals and a portrait of "old Lady Lennox." Lucy Keys, her goddaughter, got a portague. Her servants, William and Elizabeth Hargill, received money, beds, and all her books, as well as the residue of her goods and chattels. Their daughter, another Lucy, got £20 and "my silver jug with two ears." Three more female servants (Mary Thornill, Lucy Preston and Elizabeth Kyrkebye) were also left money, if they were still with her at her death.
THEOPHILA SOMERSET
see THEOPHILA NEWTON
MARGARET SOMERVILLE
see MARGARET ARDEN
CECILY SONDES
JANE SONDES
MARGARET SONDES
MARY SONDES
ELIZABETH SOTEHILL
ELIZABETH SOTEHILL (May 21, 1505-May 19, 1575)
JANE SOTEHILL (d.1556+)
ELIZABETH SOUTHERN
AGNES SOUTHCOTE
ANNE SOUTHCOTE (c.1557-1585+)
ANNE SOUTHWELL
BRIDGET SOUTHWELL
ELIZABETH SOUTHWELL
ELIZABETH SOUTHWELL (1569-1602+)
ELIZABETH SOUTHWELL (c.1586-September 13, 1631)
MARGARET SOUTHWELL
MARY SOUTHWELL
MARY SOUTHWELL (1566-December 19, 1601)
NAZARET SOUTHWELL
MARGARET SOUTHWORTH
RACHEL SPEGHT (c.1597-before 1661)
JOAN SPEKE
CATHERINE SPELMAN (d. before 1608)
ALICE SPENCER
ALICE SPENCER (May 4, 1559-January 16, 1637)
Alice Spencer was the sixth daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe (d. 1586) and Katherine Kytson. She married first, in 1579, Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange (1559-April 16,1594). By him she had three daughters, Anne (1580-1647), Frances (May 1,1585-March 11,1635), and Elizabeth (1587-1633). Her husband became earl of Derby on September 24, 1593 and when he died at Lathom House, Lancashire less than seven months later, there were rumors he had been poisoned or bewitched to death. He was buried at Ormskirk without an inquest. For a month after his death, his company of players performed as the Countess of Derby’s Men and as such may have given the first performance of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the wedding of the dowager countess of Southampton. They had been at Lathom House shortly before the earl’s death. As Alice had no sons, her brother-in-law inherited the title. In October, 1600, the countess remarried, taking as her second husband Thomas Egerton (1540-March 15, 1616/17), who later became Baron Ellesmere (1603) and then Viscount Brackley (1616). Under the terms of her first husband's will, this cost her the residue of lands he'd left her to augment her dower. Alice’s daughter Frances married Egerton’s son John shortly after their parents’ wedding. In 1601, Egerton purchased Harefield Place in Middlesex and entertained the queen there in July of 1602. In 1603, Alice’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry Hastings, earl of Huntingdon. When she visited them at Ashby-de-la-Zouche in 1607, a masque by John Marston was performed in her honor. Together with her second husband, Alice founded the Bridgewater Library. In 1634, John Milton’s Arcades was presented at Harefield by the four sons and eleven daughters of Alice’s daughter Frances, who by then was countess of Bridgewater. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Spencer [married names Stanley, Egerton], Allice." Portraits: portrait in NPG; anonymous engraving; another likeness (shown below) that has been tentatively identified as Alice Spencer and attributed to the circle of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger by Dr. Roy Strong; monument with her three daughters in St. Mary’s Church, Harefield, built to the countess’s specifications shortly before her death.
ANNE SPENCER (c.1555-September 22, 1618)
Anne Spencer was the fifth daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe (d. 1586) and Katherine Kytson. She married William Stanley, 3rd Baron Mounteagle (1527-November 10,1581) in 1575 and following his death wed Henry, 1st Baron Compton (1538-1589). On December 4, 1592 she married her third husband, Robert Sackville, 2nd earl of Dorset (1561-1609) In 1608/9, he sought a separation from her on the grounds of misconduct and she, in turn, invaded King James’s Privy Chamber to bring her side of the matter to the king’s attention. Dorset died before he could negotiate a formal separation or a divorce. Poet Edmund Spenser dedicated his Mother Hubbard’s Tale to Anne in 1591 and she was probably the “bountiful Charillis” of his Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1595).
ELIZABETH SPENCER (June 29,1552-February 25,1618)
Elizabeth Spencer was the second daughter and sixth child of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe (d. 1586) and Katherine Kytson. On December 29, 1574, she married George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon (1547-September 9,1603). Her second husband was Ralph, 3rd Baron Eure (September 24,1558-April 1,1617), to whom she was "newly married" in January 1613. Like her sisters, she was a patron of the arts and received dedications from Edmund Spenser and Thomas Nashe. She is said to have inspired Nashe to write his Muiopotmos (1590) when he saw her sitting at her loom. John Dowland, the musician, wrote "My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe" for her. She had one child, Elizabeth Carey (May 24,1576-April 23,1635). Elizabeth was buried in Westminster Abbey on March 2,1618. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Carey [Carew], Elizabeth." Portrait: a miniature by Nicholas Hilliard which has been mislabeled “Catherine Carey, wife of Lord Hunsdon.”
ELIZABETH SPENCER (1589-1618)
ELIZABETH SPENCER (d.1632)
ISABELLA SPENCER
JANE SPENCER (1496-1560)
KATHERINE SPENCER
KATHERINE SPENCER (1477-October 1542)
SUSAN SPENCER
GRACE SPOONER (d.1585+) (maiden name unknown)
ALICE SPRING (d.1538) (maiden name unknown)
MARGARET SPRING
ALICE SQUIRE (c.1500-1560)
ANNE STAFFORD (c.1483-1544+)
Lady Anne Stafford was the daughter of Henry Stafford, 2nd duke of Buckingham (1455-November 2,1483) and Katherine Woodville (1457/8-May 18,1497). She married Sir Walter Herbert (d. September 16, 1507) on February 15, 1500 and, after his death, although she had jointure properties worth 300 marks/year, lived in the household of her brother, Edward, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478-x. May 17, 1521), at Thornbury Castle, Penshurst Place, Blechingley, and the Manor of the Rose, London. According to Buckingham’s biographer, Barbara J. Harris, he took a paternalistic interest in both his sisters and arranged both of Anne’s marriages. In April 1508, he paid two physicians from Bristol 13s. 4d. for visiting Anne when she was sick and in July paid Anne herself £8 out of her jointure. She wed for the second time on December 2, 1509, taking as her husband George, 3rd baron Hastings (1486/7-March 24,1544). Henry VIII gave an offering of 6s.8d. "at my Lord Hastings's marriage," apparently his standard gift. It was as Lady Hastings that she was at court as one of Queen Catherine of Aragon’s ladies. By May of 1510, she was at the center of a scandal. Her own sister, Elizabeth, Lady Fitzwalter, informed their brother that Anne’s behavior was bringing shame on the Stafford family. Buckingham subsequently caught Sir William Compton (d. 1528) in Anne’s chamber. After a heated exchange during which Buckingham is reported to have told the pair that "women of the Stafford family are no game for Comptons, no, nor for Tudors, either," the duke saw to it that Anne’s husband spirited his wife away from court, initially transporting her to a convent some sixty miles distant. Speculation ran high that Compton had been soliciting Anne’s favors on behalf of King Henry VIII, and that Anne was the king’s mistress, but whatever the truth of that relationship, William Compton himself seems to have developed a strong bond of affection with Lady Hastings. Records of the Court of Arches (an ecclesiastical court) from 1527, seventeen years later, indicate that Compton was obliged to take the sacrament to prove he had not committed adultery with Anne during his wife’s lifetime. In his will, made in March 1522, he left Anne a life interest in property in Leicestershire and founded a chantry where prayers would be said daily for her soul. The latter provision was one usually made only for one’s self and close family members. Whatever the relationship with Compton, Anne seems to have developed a strong and loving relationship with her husband, as evidenced by a letter he wrote to her in 1525. It begins "Mine own good Anne, with all my whole heart, I recommend me unto you as he that is most glad to hear that you be merry and in good health." He was in London and had been ill. She had offered to come to him to nurse him, and he now wrote to assure her that he was "well amended over that I was" and to urge her to remain where she was, saying that "rather than I would wish you to take such a journey upon you, considering your feebleness and also the foul way, I ensure you I would be glad to come home afoot." She was also named as one of the executors in his will (written on June 13, 1534, ten years before his death). They lived primarily at Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire and at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, but were both participating in court revels in the spring of 1515. The grant of an annuity of £10, made on June 30, 1515 to "Anne Bokynham," was not to Anne, who would have been called Lady Anne Stafford or Lady Hastings. A later payment of this annuity, in November 1520, specifies that Anne Bokyingham, whoever she was, lived in Kent. Lady Hastings was present at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. She may have been at court when her brother was executed for treason in 1521. She became countess of Huntingdon in 1529 when Hastings was elevated in the peerage and from the late 1530s was part of the household of Henry VIII's daughter, Mary Tudor. Anne had eight children, five sons and three daughters: Mary (d. March 1532/33), Henry, Francis (1514-June 20, 1561), Thomas (1515-1558), Catherine (b.1516), William (1518-1556), Dorothy (1519-1547+), and Edward (c.1520-March 5, 1573). Anne was buried at Stoke Poges. Portrait: 1535 by Ambrosius Benson.
CATHERINE STAFFORD (c.1499-May 14, 1555)
CECILY STAFFORD
DOROTHY STAFFORD (October 1,1526-September 22, 1604)
Dorothy Stafford was the youngest daughter of Henry Stafford, Baron Stafford (September 18,1501-April 30,1563) and Ursula Pole (1504-August 12,1570). She lived in the household of her aunt, Elizabeth Stafford, duchess of Norfolk (1499-November 30, 1558) as a child, as did her sisters Susanna and Jane. In 1545, Dorothy married Mary Boleyn’s widower, Sir William Stafford, later of Chebsey, Staffordshire (d. May 1556) and had six children by him, Elizabeth (c.1546-February 6, 1598/9), Dorothy (b.1548), Sir Edward of Grafton (c.1552-1604), Ursula (b.c.1553), William (1554-1612), and Sir John of Marlwood Park (January 1556-1624). Alison Weir suggests she was the Mistress Stafford with Elizabeth Tudor in the Tower in 1554, but in March 1554, the entire family went into exile, settling in Geneva. John Calvin was godfather to their youngest son and, after her husband's death, tried to keep custody of the boy.With all her children, Dorothy left Geneva for Basel, where she remained until January of 1559. Under Elizabeth Tudor, Dorothy was at court and became quite influential there. Her first warrant for wages is dated August 13, 1559. In 1575 (or 1563), she is said to have been appointed Mistress of Robes and to have held that position until the queen's death in 1603. However, there was no official post by that title until the next reign. In the late 1580s, Dorothy was forced to confine one of her women, Barbara Heron, to Bedlam. She paid for Barbara's maintenance for the eight or nine years she was confined there. When two maids of honor, Elizabeth Brydges and Elizabeth Russell, were banished from the Coffer Chamber for three days, they stayed with Lady Stafford. Dorothy was buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Stafford [née Stafford], Dorothy." Portraits: effigy in St. Margaret's.
DOUGLAS STAFFORD
see DOUGLAS HOWARD
ELEANOR STAFFORD
ELIZABETH STAFFORD (d. May 1532)
Elizabeth Stafford was the daughter of Henry Stafford, 2nd duke of Buckingham (1455-November 2,1483) and Katherine Woodville (1457/8-May 18, 1497) and the sister of Edward, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3,1478-May 17,1521). She was at court as one of Elizabeth of York's maids of honor by 1494, when she participated in the pageant celebrating Prince Henry's creation as duke of York. On July 23,1505 she married Robert Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter (1483-November 27,1542), who was created earl of Sussex in 1529. It was as Lady Fitzwalter, however, that she was at the court of Henry VIII. She did not stay long. In May of 1510, after she informed her brother that their younger and newly married sister, Anne, was being courted by the king (a bit of gossip that led to Anne being spirited away to a nunnery), the king himself forced Queen Catherine of Aragon to dismiss Elizabeth Fitzwalter from her service. She was, however, in attendance at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. Her children were Henry, 2nd earl of Sussex (c.1506-February 17,1557), Sir Humprey (c.1509-August 13,1566), Thomas (1511-1539), and George Radcliffe. She was buried at Boreham, Essex on May 11, 1532.
ELIZABETH STAFFORD (1499-November 30,1558)
This second Elizabeth Stafford was the daughter of Edward, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3,1478-May 17,1521) and Eleanor Percy (1470-1530). Robert Hutchinson's House of Treason gives alternate life dates as 1493-September 4, 1558. Elizabeth was to have married one of her father's wards, Ralph Neville, earl of Westmorland, at Christmas 1512, but shortly before that she acquired a new suitor in the person of the recently widowed Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey (1473-August 25,1554). Buckingham offered his other daughters to Surrey, but the earl was determined to have Elizabeth, described by Jessie Childs in Henry VIII's Last Victim: The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey as "passably pretty, with soft features, light colouring and a distinguished forehead." Early in 1513, Elizabeth married Surrey, bringing with her a dowry of 2,000 marks. They had five children: Henry (1517-x.January 19,1547), Mary (1519-December 9,1557), Charles (d.yng), Thomas (1528-1582), and a fifth child who died young and may have been named Muriel. Elizabeth was often at court and became close friends with Catherine of Aragon. She carried Princess Mary to the font at the princess's christening in 1516 and was a patron of the poet John Skelton, who describes Elizabeth and her ladies making a chapelet in the poem "A Goodly Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell." When the earl of Surrey was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1520, he was ordered to take his entire family with him. There they were exposed to war, disease, crowded conditions, and severe shortages of just about everything. To make matters worse, during their sojourn in Ireland, Elizabeth's father was accused of treason and beheaded. In 1524, with the death of her father-in-law, Elizabeth became duchess of Norfolk. She continued to serve as a lady-in-waiting to the queen, at court for months at a time, but with the king's growing determination to obtain a divorce, her role changed. By 1530, Elizabeth was spying on her own husband, on the lookout for any information that would help Queen Catherine. By then, there were also problems in Elizabeth's marriage. In 1526, Norfolk took Bess Holland, daughter of his chief steward, as his mistress, a long-term relationship which he did not trouble to keep secret from his wife. Elizabeth continued to be vocal in her support of Catherine of Aragon. Norfolk, and most of the Howard family, favored the king's plan to marry Anne Boleyn, whose mother was a Howard. Elizabeth went so far as to refuse to bear Anne's train at her investiture as Marchioness of Pembroke and was conspicuously absent from both Anne's coronation and the christening of Princess Elizabeth. In May 1533, Norfolk wrote to Elizabeth's brother, Henry Stafford, asking him to take her in. Stafford refused, expressing the fear that "her accustomed wild language" would place him and his family in danger if he did so. The matter came to a head on Tuesday of Passion Week 1534. Norfolk arrived at Kenninghall, his principal residence, to find his wife in a rage because he was still keeping Bess Holland as his mistress. Norfolk's response was to lock Elizabeth in her chamber, then banish her to Redbourne, a manor in Hertfordshire. Elizabeth referred to this as imprisonment, even though she had twenty servants and an allowance of three hundred marks per annum. Legally Norfolk was within his rights to do as he wished with her. She tried three times for a reconciliation, but to no avail. Norfolk was not about to forgive some of the claims she had made, including one that he had assaulted her when she was pregnant with their daughter in 1519. Some of the charges may indeed have been "false and abominable lies," but Norfolk was known to have a temper, too. In 1541, Elizabeth was still trying to regain freedom of movement, as well as a bigger allowance. Her children, to her distress, sided with their father. Indeed, most people did. Wives were expected to put up with their husbands' infidelities, not make a fuss about them. In 1546, Norfolk was arrested and all his goods, including the clothing at Kenninghall that belonged to Elizabeth was inventoried. Among the items were a gown of purple velvet and two of purple satin. Upon Mary Tudor's accession, Elizabeth returned to court and there was reunited with her husband, who had been in the Tower of London since 1547. He died at Kenninghall the following August. Although both Elizabeth and Norfolk appear in effigy on the same monument in Framlingham, completed in 1559, only he is buried there. She was interred in the Howard Chapel in St. Mary's Church, Lambeth, in December 1558. The epitaph written by her brother lauds her kindness and says she was to him "a mother, sister, a friend most dear." He was her residual heir. She left all her clothes and jewels to his wife, as well as her best saddle, which was covered with velvet. Biography: "Marriage Sixteenth-Century Style: Elizabeth Stafford and the Third Duke of Norfolk" by Barbara J. Harris in Journal of Social History, 15/3 (1982); Oxford DNB entry under "Howard [née Stafford], Elizabeth." NOTE: the DNB gives her date of birth as 1497. Portraits: artist unknown, Arundel Castle.
ELIZABETH STAFFORD (c.1546-February 6, 1598/9)
Elizabeth Stafford was the daughter of Sir William Stafford (d. May 1556) and Dorothy Stafford (October 1, 1526-September 22, 1604). She was in exile during Mary Tudor's reign with her parents and returned to England in 1559. On November 28, 1568 she became a chamberer to Queen Elizabeth at £20 per annum. In 1573, she married Sir William Drury of Hawstead (May 30,1550-January 18,1590), by whom she had Sir Robert (January 30, 1575-1615), Frances (June 13, 1576-1642), Elizabeth (January 4, 1577/8-February 26, 1653/4), Charles (d.1600), Susanna (1584-September 29, 1606), Diana (d.1638), and Dorothea (d.yng). Both Elizabeth and her daughters received gifts of clothing from Queen Elizabeth and the queen visited Hawstead in 1587. After her husband was killed in France by Sir John Borough in a duel over precedence, Elizabeth was left deeply in debt. Her husband owed £6000. The Drury estate was seized by the Crown in 1591. In 1590, Elizabeth married Sir John Scott of Nettlestead, Kent (d.1616). Portraits: there are three, one with one of her children and one attributed to William Seger c. 1595; effigy on her tomb in Nettlestead, Kent.
ELIZABETH STAFFORD
JANE STAFFORD
MARGARET STAFFORD (c.1511-x.May 25, 1537)
Margaret Stafford was the illegitimate daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478-May 17,1521). He planned to marry her to Thomas FitzGerald, son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th earl of Kildare (d.1513) and his second wife, whose wardship and marriage he obtained in October 1519. There are several entries in Buckingham's accounts for 1519-1520 that may refer to Margaret Stafford, although they have been transcribed as "Mistress Mary." They are not likely to refer to the duke's legitimate daughter, Mary, after she became Lady Bergavenny. Payments were made on May 15, 1520 to William Heyton and William Buttre for cloth for Mistress Mary: tawny broadcloth, russet frieze, tawny camlet, black velvet, yellow sarcenet, and crimson and green satin, this last for a kirtle. There is also a payment to Mrs. Kendal, for part of the "board wages of Mistress Mary from 1 Dec. till a fortnight before my Lord went over the sea" (to the Field of Cloth of Gold at the end of May, 1520). Margaret was probably the daughter of Margaret Geddynge, a gentlewoman and a member of the duke’s household as early as 1499/1500. She was one of the duchess’s ladies in waiting and in charge of the nursery at Thornbury. By November 1520, she had apparently quarreled with the duchess and been discharged from her service, but by March 1521 she was back. At the time of Buckingham’s death, Margaret Geddynge held the farm of demesne lands in Eastington and Gilkerton, Gloucestershire. After the duke’s execution for treason, the matrimonial choices for his illegitimate daughter would have been severely limited. Margaret married William Cheney or Cheyne, a vintner of London (c.1509-c.1534), about whom little is known. Sir John Bulmer of Wilton, Yorkshire (c.1490-August 25,1537) then “bought” her from Cheney, apparently with Margaret’s approval. As his mistress, living about five miles from Wilton Castle at Pinchinthorpe Hall, she bore him three daughters, Martha, sometimes called Mary (b.c.1531), Frances (b.c.1533), and Anne (b.c.1535). After her husband died, she married Bulmer. Dates for their marriage vary from 1534 to early 1536, and for either a letter from Bulmer’s son, Ralph (c.1510-1558), casts doubts on its validity, since Ralph seems to indicate that his mother was still living as late as November 1, 1536. In any case, 1536 was a busy year. Bulmer’s first wife’s nephew, Sir Francis Bigod, was one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Margaret, who is described by P.R.D. Davison in his history of the Bulmer family, Saxon Survivors? as “devastatingly attractive” but possessed of “a violent temper,” urged her husband to join with Bigod and was heard loudly supporting a plan to capture and execute the duke of Norfolk. Norfolk was the abusive husband of Elizabeth Stafford, who was probably Margaret’s half sister. According to Roland Connelly's Women of the Catholic Resistance in England 1540-1680, Margaret was known in local legend as "Madge Wildfire" and "Black Meg" and rode at her husband's side at the head of a citizen's army to support the rebels. On May 7, both Bulmer and Margaret were indicted for treason, but they were pardoned. In January 1536/37, Margaret gave birth to a son, John (d. February 6, 1608), at Lastingham. Two months later, she and Bulmer were ordered to appear in London. Suspecting that to obey would place their lives in jeopardy, Margaret tried to convince Bulmer to flee the country. Instead, he attempted to revive the Pilgrimage of Grace by planning an Easter uprising. By April 8, Margaret was under arrest in London. By April 21, both she and Bulmer were in the Tower. Although Bulmer insisted they were legally married, Margaret is referred to in documents as the “untrue” wife of John Bulmer and was blamed for the plot. On May 16, she, Bulmer, his brother (another Ralph), and several others were tried and convicted of treason. Both Bulmer and Margaret pleaded guilty. She was burned to death at Smithfield. Bulmer was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. Biography: two chapters in Sharon Jansen’s Dangerous Talk and Strange Behavior.
MARY STAFFORD (d.before 1530)
MARY STAFFORD
see MARY BOLEYN
URSULA STAFFORD
ANNE STANHOPE (c.1510-April 16, 1587)
Anne Stanhope was the daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope of Rampton, Northamptonshire (d. 1511) and Elizabeth Bourchier (1474-1557). Her mother was a sister of the earl of Bath and a descendant of King Edward III. In 1529, Sir Edward Seymour (1502-x.January 22,1552) fell in love with Anne, who may have been at court as a maid of honor, and repudiated his wife in order to marry her, which he did before March 9, 1535. They had ten children: Edward (October 12,1537-1539), Anne (1538-1588), Edward (1539-April 6,1621), Margaret (b.1540), Henry (b.1540), Jane (1541-1561), Mary (d.1619/20), Katherine, a third Edward (1547-1574), and Elizabeth (1550-June 3,1602). Anne had apartments at court and for a time her sister-in-law, Jane Seymour, met King Henry there. When Jane became queen, her brother was elevated in the peerage so that Anne became, in rapid succession, viscountess Beauchamp and countess of Hertford. Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, wrote a sonnet about her called “a lady who refused to dance with him,” which portrayed her as haughty and cold. The king visited Wulfhall, the Seymour country seat, in 1539. Anne managed to stay on good terms with both Princess Mary and Queen Katherine Parr but her religious leanings were Protestant. She sent aid to Anne Askew in 1545. Upon King Henry’s death in 1547, Anne’s husband became Lord Protector for his nephew, Edward VI and was elevated in the peerage to duke of Somerset. Anne quarreled with Katherine Parr and after her death claimed the manor of Hanworth for herself. As early as 1547, Anne was urging her husband to arrest his brother, Thomas Seymour, who had been married to Katherine Parr, on charges of treason. Meanwhile, Anne herself was scheming to marry her son Edward to Lady Jane Grey and her daughter Jane to King Edward. In October 1549, Somerset was removed from power and held in the Tower of London. In an effort at reconciliation, Anne and the earl of Warwick’s wife, Jane Guildford, arranged a marriage between Anne’s daughter, Anne Seymour and Warwick’s eldest son, John Dudley, who became earl of Warwick when his father was elevated in the peerage to duke of Northumberland. Somerset was arrested again on October 16, 1551, accused of plotting against Northumberland. This time he was executed. Anne was also arrested and remained a prisoner in the Tower of London until May 30,1553, even though she was never charged with any crime. A contemporary attack in print on the duchess referred to her as "that imperious and insolent woman . . . whose ambitious wit and mischievous persuasions led him [Somerset] and directed him also in the weighty affairs and government of the realm to the great harm and dishonor of the same." Under Mary Tudor, three of Anne's daughters were at court. Her oldest son, Edward, was restored in blood. Anne was granted a number of Northumberland’s confiscated properties and Hanworth, Middlesex, where she chose to live. It was at Hanworth that a romance secretly blossomed between Anne’s son Edward and Lady Catherine Grey, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey. When the young couple eloped in 1560 and were subsequently confined in the Tower of London, Anne was careful to distance herself from them. The next year, Anne married Francis Newdigate (c.1500-January 26,1581/2), who had been Somerset’s steward. When her son was released from the Tower, Anne was given custody of him and also of the older of the two sons he had with Lady Catherine Grey. Anne tried to advance Lady Catherine’s claim to the throne by backing John Hales’s Discourse on the Succession but met with little success. Although she was rarely at Elizabeth's court, on one visit she had with her nineteen servants, including a chaplain and seven stable lads. She was buried in St. Nicholas's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Seymour [née Stanhope], Anne." NOTE: the DNB gives her birthdate as c.1510, Edward Seymour's as c.1500, and Francis Newdigate's as 1519. Portraits: effigy on her tomb; portrait said to be Anne Stanhope and her son Edward is Catherine Grey; engraving based on 1540s portrait is shown below, together with a portrait currently in the National Gallery of Ireland.
ANNE STANHOPE
ELIZABETH STANHOPE
JANE STANHOPE (1536-January 3, 1617/18)
MARGARET STANHOPE
MARGARET STANHOPE (1495-January 1, 1539)
ALICE STANLEY
see ALICE SPENCER
ANNE STANLEY
see ANNE HART; ANNE HASTINGS; ANNE SPENCER
ANNE STANLEY (d. September 22, 1602)
Anne Stanley was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd earl of Derby (May 10, 1508-October 24, 1572) and Dorothy Howard (d. before 1547). On February 10, 1549, she married Charles, 8th baron Stourton (c.1521-x.March 6, 1556/7). Early in her marriage, she was thrust into her husband's feud with his neighbors, the Hartgills, and with his father's mistress, Agnes Rhys. Agnes, who was in possession of Stourton House, also took possession of some of the livestock at Stourton. Anne tried to stop her, but was unsuccessful. Anne and Charles were the parents of John, 9th baron (c.1552-October 13, 1588), Edward, 10th baron (c.1555-May 7, 1633), Charles, Mary (d.1622+), Anne, and Catherine. After a little more than eight years of marriage, Stourton was executed for murdering two of the Hartgills. Anne may have been the Lady Stourton at court in 1558/9, although this seems unlikely. Not only was she a prominent recusant, but with her husband's conviction the family was stripped of both lands and title. The other possibility, perhaps more likely even at age seventy, is her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Dudley. Two months after Charles's execution, Anne was allowed to purchase back the goods the Crown had confiscated. The wardship of the four-year-old heir was sold to Sir Hugh Paulet for £340. Anne petitioned Queen Mary, asking that she be allowed to supervise her son's education and keep him with her until he was ten, and also choose his wife. She told the queen that she had lost a loving, true, and faithful husband, her greatest comfort in the world. The queen granted her request and also an annuity of £40 from the Stourton lands. Shortly after Queen Elizabeth succeeded her sister, Anne remarried, taking as her second husband Sir John Arundell of Lanherne (c. 1530-November 17, 1590). The wardship and marriage of John Stourton were then granted to the earl of Derby. Anne's children by Arundell were Dorothy (c.1560-1613), Elizabeth, Cecily, Margaret, Gertrude (b.1574), and John (d.1633). She continued to be known as Lady Stourton after her second marriage. Sir John was in prison in 1581 for recusancy. From 1583, Father John Cornelius was the Arundell family priest. In March 1588, Anne was living at Muswell Hill, London. Arundell's will left her £100 and all the plate and household stuff he received from her on their marriage. Anne lived at Chideock Castle in Dorset after her second husband’s death, but maintained contact with Catholics in London, including Father Cornelius. In 1594, an informant’s report led to Cornelius’s arrest and that of all those who had harbored him. The men were executed, but Lady Stourton was only detained briefly and then released. Roland Connelly, in Women of the Catholic Resistance in England 1540-1680, confuses Lady Stourton with her daughter, Dorothy, incorrectly gives the date of Sir John Arundell's death as January 17, 1591, and does not seem to know that Sir John's wife had previously been married to Lord Stourton, even though his book also includes a chapter on her daughter, Mary Stourton. I believe it is Dorothy Arundell who spoke up in court for Father Cornelius and the others, not her mother, especially since she apparently made reference in the speech to having a mother still living. Whoever spoke on the prisoners' behalf, it was to no avail. They were all executed on July 4, 1594. In 1601, Lady Stourton was indicted at the Dorset assizes. She petitioned the queen and Elizabeth Tudor ordered the case against her dismissed. Two of her daughters, meanwhile, Dorothy and Gertrude Arundell, went abroad to become nuns and were co-founders of the English Benedictine convent in Brussels.
ANNE STANLEY (1580-October 11, 1647)
Anne Stanley was the eldest daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th earl of Derby (1559-April 16, 1594) and Alice Spencer (May 4, 1559-January 16, 1637). She married first, in 1608, Grey Brydges, 5th baron Chandos (1579-August 10, 1621), by whom she four children, Elizabeth (d.1679), George (d.1672), William, and Robert, and second Mervyn Touchet, 2nd earl of Castlehaven (x.1631). Castlehaven created a scandal by inducing one Giles Brodway to rape Anne while he held her hands and one foot. Castlehaven was tried for rape and sodomy and executed. Even though Anne’s participation in a criminal act had been unwilling, she required to be pardoned for it.
ELIZABETH STANLEY (d.1590)
Elizabeth Stanley was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 3rd earl of Derby (May 10, 1508-October 24, 1572) and Dorothy Howard (d. by 1547). She married Henry Parker, 9th baron Morley (January 1533-October 22, 1577) before 1555. She was a lady of honor in 1558/9 and Queen Elizabeth visited her house in Allington Morley, Great Hallighbury, in 1561. But the Morleys were also recusants. In June 1570, Lord Morley left England in secret and went into exile. He wanted his wife and children—Edward (1555-April 11,1618), Alice, Anne (d.1591+), and Mary (and according to the DNB, two younger sons)—to join him in Bruges, but Queen Elizabeth refused permission for them to leave England. In 1572, his estates were seized by the Crown. On Palm Sunday, April 14, 1574, Elizabeth and other members of her family were among those taken into custody when fifty-three people were rounded up at illegal Catholic services in London. Twenty-three of them had been meeting in her house near Aldgate. In September 1575, Lady Morley, a daughter, and a son arrived in Antwerp. She was reunited with her husband in Maestricht in 1576. She remained abroad after his death and died in exile. Her daughter Anne was her executor.
ELIZABETH STANLEY (1587-1633)
Elizabeth Stanley was the youngest daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th earl of Derby (1559-April 16, 1594) and Alice Spencer (May 4, 1559-January 16, 1637). She had a marriage portion of £7000. She married Henry Hastings (1586-1643), later earl of Huntingdon, on January 15, 1601. They had five children: Ferdinando (January 18, 1608-1655), Alice (d.1667), Elizabeth, Henry (1610-1666), and Mary (1612-1660). A patron of the arts, she was also a writer herself. A series of devotions she wrote is still extant. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Hastings [née Stanley], Elizabeth.” Portraits: miniature by Nicholas Hilliard c. 1601-10; portrait by Paul Van Somer, c. 1614.
ELIZABETH STANLEY
FRANCES STANLEY (May 1583-March 11, 1636)
Frances Stanley was the daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th earl of Derby (1559-April 16, 1594) and Alice Spencer (May 4, 1559-January 16, 1637). She had a marriage portion of £7000. She married her stepbrother, John Egerton (1579-December 4, 1649) around 1602. In 1617, Egerton was created earl of Bridgewater. They had fifteen children, eleven daughters and four sons, many of whom died in childhood. Those who survived to adulthood included Frances (1603-1664), Arabella (d.1669), Elizabeth (d.1688), Mary (d.1659), Penelope, Katherine, Magdalen, Alice (d.1689), and John (1523-October 26, 1696). Like her mother and sisters, Frances was a patron of the arts. She was also a book collector. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Egerton [née Stanley], Frances.” Portraits: two portraits and one engraving.
HELEN or ELLEN STANLEY
see HELEN or ELLEN PRESTON
MARGARET STANLEY
see MARGARET CLIFFORD
MARY STANLEY
see MARY BRANDON; MARY COTTON
URSULA STANLEY (c.1568-1636)
BLANCHE STANNEY (d. August 8, 1563)
ELIZABETH STAPLETON
see ELIZABETH PIERREPOINT
JANE STAPLETON (c.1444-1519)
OLIVE STAPLETON
MARGARET STARKEY (d. October 20, 1542)
ELIZABETH STATHAM (d.1577) (maiden name unknown)
JUDITH STAUNTON (d. March 1614)
EDITH STAVERTON
FRANCES STAVERTON (1502-1526+)
FRANCES STAWELL
MARY STAWELL
ELIZABETH STEYNING
FRANCES STEYNING
ELIZABETH STILE
ELIZABETH STOKE (d. March 18, 1567)
ELIZABETH STOKER
ANNE STOKES
see ANNE CAREW
FRANCES STOKES
see FRANCES BRANDON
ANNE STONARD (d.1579+) (maiden name unknown)
MAUD STONE (1545-1616)
CECILY STONOR
see CECILY CHAMBERLAYNE
ELIZABETH STONOR (d.August 25,1560)
Elizabeth Stonor was the daughter of Sir Walter Stonor of Stonor, Oxfordshire (1477-October 8, 1550), Lord Lieutenant of the Tower, and Anne (or Margaret) Foliot. Some accounts give her first husband as Sir William Compton of Compton Wynyates (d.1528), but the History of Parliament entry for Sir Philip Hoby, Elizabeth's third husband, calls him Sir William Compton of Hawton, Nottinghamshire and Fenny Compton, Warwickshire. Are they the same man? I'm not sure, especially since biographies of Sir William Compton of Compton Wynyates usually do not mention a second wife. What is known is that Elizabeth Compton, widow of a Sir William, had to apply for a license in 1529 in order to marry Walter Walshe or Welshe of Abberley and Elmley Castle, Worcestershire (d.1538), a page of the privy chamber. Her attempts to collect her jointure from her first marriage continued into her second widowhood. With Walshe she had at least three children, Walter, Margaret, and Frances. By 1540, she had married Sir Philip Hoby of Leominster, Herfordshire and Bisham Abbey, Berkshire (1505-May 29, 1558). She was part of Queen Katherine Parr's inner circle. She was buried in Wreysbury, Buckinghamshire. Portrait: Holbein's drawing of "Lady Hobeii" was done about 1540 and is in the Royal Library at Windsor.
ISABEL STONOR
MRS. STONOR
see MARGARET (or ANNE) FOLIOT
ANNE STOURTON
see ANNE STANLEY
DOROTHY STOURTON (c.1520-1552+)
ELIZABETH STOURTON
FRANCES STOURTON
MARY STOURTON (d. 1622+)
URSULA STOURTON (1518-September 4, 1551)
Ursula Stourton was the daughter of William 7th baron Stourton (1484-September 16, 1548) and Elizabeth Dudley (1488-1560). She was a maid of honor under Anne of Cleves. She married Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Lord Clinton (1512-January 16,1585) before June 15, 1541 and by him had Henry, 2nd earl of Lincoln (c.1540-September 26, 1616), Edward (c.1545-before September 20,1575), Anne (c.1546-1585), Thomas (b.c.1548), and Frances (1551-September 12,1623). Shortly before her death, she had an affair with Sir Thomas Cotton's brother. When her husband threatened to expose her, she appealed to the duke of Northumberland, who was her cousin (her mother was his aunt). Although Cotton made no attempt to deny the affair, it was hushed up.
ANNE STRADLING (c.1469-1539)
DAMASCIN STRADLING (1524-1567)
KATHERINE STRADLING (February 12,1512/13-April 24,1585)
Katherine Stradling was the daughter of Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donat’s, Glamorganshire (c.1474-1535) and Elizabeth Arundell (c.1484-1513). She was in the service of Mary Arundell, countess of Sussex, at the same time as Anne Bassett and the subject of a heated correspondence with Anne’s mother, Lady Lisle, because Anne passed on to Katherine some pearls Anne's mother had sent to her. Katherine went on to be named one of the English maids of honor assigned to Anne of Cleves at the beginning of 1540, but soon after that married Sir Thomas Palmer of Parham, Sussex (1498-April 15,1582). Their daughter Margaret was christened on August 23,1540. Their other children were Catherine (b.1542), Robert (b.1543), William (July 14, 1544-December 24,1586), and Thomas (b.c.1548).
CATHERINE STRANGEWAYS
see CATHERINE GORDON
CECILY STRANGEWAYS (d.1550)
ELEANOR STRANGEWAYS
JANE STRANGEWAYS
ELLYN STRANGMAN
ANNE STRELLEY (1495-October 12, 1554)
FRIDESWIDE STRELLEY
see FRIDESWIDE KNIGHT
ISABEL STRELLEY (d.1540+)
JANE STRELLEY (d.1546/7)
see KATHERINE BANKS
Mary Somer was the daughter and coheir of John Somer or Sommer of St. Margaret's Parish in Rochester, Kent, possibly the same John Somer of Hoo St. Mary who was a clerk of the signet and died c.1585. In 1590, at St. Bride's, Fleet Street, she married Thomas Penyston/Peniston (d.c.1601), a wealthy wool merchant, by whom she had two sons and two daughters, including Sir Thomas of Leigh, Sussex (c.1591-c.1644). They lived in the house she had inherited from her father. In Penyston’s will she received her jewels, including gold chains, pearls, and a diamond that had belonged to John Somer. In 1602, she married Sir Alexander Temple of Etchingham, Sussex and Long House, Chadwell, Essex (c.1582-December 1629). Their children were Susan, James (1606-c.1674), and another son who died in 1627. She was buried in Rochester Cathedral, as were both of her husbands. Portrait: by Robert Peake the elder, 1598, with her son Thomas. 
Blanche Somerset was the sixth daughter of Edward Somerset, 4th earl of Worcester (1553-March 3,1628) and Elizabeth Hastings (c.1546-August 24,1621). She was one of the young women who danced at her brother’s wedding to Anne Russell in 1600. In 1607, she married Thomas Arundell, 2nd baron Arundell of Wardour (c.1586-May 19,1643). In the absence of her husband and her son, Henry (February 1608-1694), during the Civil War, Blanche was called upon to defend their home, Wardour Castle, Wiltshire. She held out from May 2 until May 8, at which point the castle was ransacked and she was taken prisoner. She was already ill when she was taken from Wardour to Doncaster. With Blanche at Wardour were her daughter-in-law, Cecily Compton, and her three grandchildren. They were separated after the castle fell. Blanche was released before the end of May and went to Salisbury. It was there that she was finally told that her husband had died from wounds suffered in battle while she was a prisoner. That September, Blanche’s son laid siege to Wardour Castle and retook it the following March. Two months later, his children were released in a prisoner exchange. Blanche died at Winchester and was buried at Tisbury. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Arundell, Blanche [née Lady Blanche Somerset].” Portrait: engraving by Edward Scriven after an unknown artist.
see CHRISTIAN or CHRISTIANA NORTH
see ELEANOR SUTTON
Elizabeth Somerset was the daughter of Edward Somerset, 4th earl of Worcester (1553-March 3,1628) and Elizabeth Hastings (c.1546-August 24,1621). She and her sister Katherine went to court in 1593 as maids of honor to the queen and were married in a double wedding on November 8, 1596 at Essex House, for which the poet Edmund Spenser wrote his Prothalamion. Elizabeth married Sir Henry Guildford of Hemstead Place, Kent (b.1566). Her sister Katherine (c.1575-October 30, 1624) married William Petre, 2nd baron Petre (d. 1637). Portrait: c.1625.
Katherine Somerset was one of the daughters of Edward Somerset, 4th earl of Worcester (1553-March 3, 1628) and Elizabeth Hastings (c.1546-August 24, 1621). She and her sister Elizabeth (c.1576-1625+) went to court in 1593 as maids of honor to the queen and were married in a double wedding on November 8, 1596 at Essex House, for which the poet Edmund Spenser wrote his Prothalamion. Katherine married William Petre, 2nd baron Petre (June 24, 1575-May 5, 1637). Their children were: John (d.1613), Robert (1599-October 23, 1638), Mary (1600-1640), William (1602-1677), Edward (1603-1664), Thomas (b.1606), Catherine (June 10, 1607-August 15, 1681), Anne (July 2, 1609-October 18, 1610), Henry (March 27, 1611-c.1648), George, and Elizabeth. Another of Katherine’s sisters was also named Catherine (c.1591-November 6, 1654). This second Catherine married Thomas, 6th baron Windsor (September 29, 1591-December 6, 1642). Portrait: 1599 by Marcus Gheerearts.
see CECILY TUFTON
see JANE SANDES
see MARGARET BROOKE
see MARY FYNCH
see ELIZABETH PLUMPTON
Elizabeth Sotehill was the daughter of Henry Sotehill of Stoke Faston, Leicestershire (1470-1505) and Joan Empson (c.1466-1510+) and the twin of Joan Sotehill. She married Sir William Drury of Hawstead (c.1500-January 11, 1557/8) as his second wife. Their children were Elizabeth (d.1621), Mary (d.1594), Robert (d. December 1557), Henry (d. 1587), Anne (d.1561), Dorothy (d.1602), Francis (d.1621), and Bridget (b. September 11, 1534). Elizabeth wrote her will on March 5, 1573 and it was proved November 7, 1575. In it she identified herself as being of Lawshall, Suffolk. It is a very detailed will, especially concerning various debts. She left £8 and a silver and gilt cup to each of her surviving daughters. To her gentlewoman, Bridget Jervis, she doubled the legacy of £6 13s. 4d left to Bridget by Sir William and added a gown and the bed and furniture Bridget used, including blankets, sheets, and so forth. She left other gowns to others and her separate bequests to her daughters included such things as beds and saddles. She was buried at Hawstead on May 20, 1575.
Jane Sotehill (Sothill/Soothill) was the daughter and coheir of Henry Sotehill of Stoke Faston, Lincolnshire (1470-1505) and Jane Empson (c.1466-1510+). She and her twin sister, Elizabeth (d. May 19, 1575), were born on May 21, 1505. They were raised by Sir William Pierrepont, their mother's second husband. By February 1521, Jane had married Sir John Constable of Tibthorpe, Yorkshire (d. c.1555) by whom she had three daughters, Anne (d. August 1611), Catherine, and Cecily. Jane's dowry included several manors in Yorkshire and Kinoulton (Knowlton), Nottinghamshire, which became the family seat. Constable made his will on June 19, 1554. It was proved October 8, 1556. Jane was his executor and was to hold the lease on Kinoulton and all his other lands for life. After her death, they passed to her daughter Cecily's sons, William and Edward Oglethorpe.
see ELIZABETH BLACKBURN
see AGNES KIRK
Anne Southcote was the daughter of John Southcote of Witham, Essex (1510/11-April 18, 1585), a judge, and Elizabeth Robins (d.1580+). Her father was remembered after his death as being "governed by his wife." On December 12, 1574, Anne married Francis Curzon of Waterperry, Oxfordshire (1552-October 31. 1610) in St. Gregory, London. Their children were John, Richard, Francis, Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary. Elizabeth and Anne became nuns. Portrait: tomb effigy in St. Mary's Church, Waterperry.
see ANNE HARRIS
see BRIDGET COPLEY
see ELIZABETH HOWARD
Elizabeth Southwell was the daughter of Sir Thomas Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk (c.1542-c. 1572) and his third wife, Nazaret Newton (c.1541-April 16, 1583). She was at court as a maid of honor by 1588/9 and in 1591 suffered from “lameness in her leg”—she was pregnant. Thomas Vavasour (1560-1620), brother of Ann, a former maid of honor whose pregnancy a decade earlier had cost her the queen’s favor, took the blame for her condition and was imprisoned for misconduct. What happened to Elizabeth is unclear, other than that she gave birth to a boy named Walter (1591-c.1641) who was given to Lettice, countess of Essex and Leicester, to be raised at Drayton Bassett. She may have returned to court, but more likely she was simply still referred to as a maid of honor. In May 1595, the queen learned that the father of young Walter was not Thomas Vavasour but rather Robert Devereux, earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth was furious, not only because the child had been fathered by Essex, her on and off again favorite, but because she had been deceived. By March 22, 1598, when Sir Barrington (Barentine) Molyns (Moleyns, Mullens, Mullins) (d. 1618+), visited Simon Forman the astrologer, Elizabeth Southwell had agreed to marriage with Molyns. According to Paul E. J. Hammer’s The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics, Molyns was almost blind, weakened by wounds he’d received in service to the queen, and “notorious for his ugliness.” Forman’s records indicate disgusting health problems as well, and yet, in April, he was considering abandoning the match with Elizabeth if he could persuade another woman, Mary Hampden, to marry him. Then, in June, he had a license to marry Elizabeth Southwell, but she had apparently changed her mind. In notes made later, in 1600, Forman noted that Elizabeth Southwell had three suitors and that she was thirty years old. She was already married to Molyns by that time, since she attended the christening of Robert Sidney’s daughter Barbara in December 1599 as Lady Molyns. In 1602 she gave birth to their only child, a son.
Elizabeth Southwell was the daughter of Robert Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk (1563-October 12, 1598 or 1599) and Elizabeth Howard (d.1646). On January 5, 1599, Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that “the young faire Mrs. Southwell shall this Day be sworn Mayde of Honor.” As the daughter of Elizabeth Howard and the granddaughter of Catherine Carey, she was the third generation to serve in Queen Elizabeth's Privy Chamber. She was still there when Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. On October 26, 1604, Elizabeth’s mother remarried, taking as her second husband John Stewart, earl of Carrick (d.c.1644). Elizabeth Southwell must have had many opportunities to make a good marriage under James I and she is known to have been courted by Sir Clement Heigham, but instead of marrying, she became the mistress of Sir Robert Dudley (August 7, 1574-September 6, 1649), a married man (see ALICE LEIGH) who had seven daughters, five of whom lived to adulthood. He was the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. In July 1605, disguised as a boy, Elizabeth eloped with him and fled with him to the Continent. They were married by special Papal dispensation and she spent the rest of her life in exile in Italy. They had thirteen children, including Henry, Anna (d.1629), Mary, Carlo (1614-October 26, 1686), Ambrose, Fernando, Teresa, Cosmo, and Anthony Enrico (b. September 12, 1631). She died on the day following her youngest son’s birth, although the Oxford DNB entry for her husband attributes the death to the plague.
see MARGARET NEVILLE
see MARY DARCY
Mary Southwell was the daughter of Sir Francis Southwell of Wyndham Hall, Lakeham, and Norwich, Norfolk (d.1582) and Barbara Spencer. Her father's will, dated October 6, 1581 and proved February 9, 1582 names her as his heir after her brothers Miles and Francis and also leaves her £666 13s. 4d., together with "parcels" of plate and jewels, which were to go to her at eighteen or when she married, whichever came first. She was also to have her choice of a bed and, in a codicil, his white nag. She apparently married four times, although not all genealogies list Thomas Sydney as her first husband. She was married to Nicholas Gorges of Alderton (d.1594), then Sir Conyers Clifford, Governor of Connaught (1566-c.1599), by whom she had Conyers (d.1625), Henry, and Frances. Her last husband was Sir Anthony St. Leger (d.1612/13), Master of Rolls for Ireland, as his second wife. His first wife, Eleanor Markham, died on February 2, 1598. By St. Leger, to whom she brought Bobbing Court, Kent, she had two further children, another Frances and Anthony (c.1599-1661). She died in Dublin.
see NAZARET NEWTON
see MARGARET BUTLER or BOTELER
Rachel Speght was for years said to be the daughter of Thomas Speght, a schoolmaster who, in 1598, edited Chaucer's works. He was no doubt related to her, but her real father was James Speght (d.1637), rector of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, London. Her mother's name is not known, but her godmother, to whom Rachel dedicated her third book, was Mary Hill (1562-1656), wife of Thomas Mountfort, a well-known London physician. In 1615, Joseph Swetnam published The Araignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant women. In response, Rachel Speght, who was not yet twenty, wrote A Mouzell for Melastomus (1617). She later complained that readers believed it had been written by her father. Two other responses to Swetnam's books were most likely written by men using female pseudonyms. Accompanying the book, but with a separate title page, was Certain Quaeres to the Bayter of Women and in 1621, Rachel's third book, Mortalities Memorandum was published, together with the long poem, The Dreame. On August 6, 1621, Rachel married William Proctor (1593-1661), a cleric, and stopped publishing. Proctor was curate of the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate from 1627 until 1631, when they moved to Stradishall, Suffolk. They had at least three children, Rachel (b.1627), William (b.1630), and Joseph (b.1634). In 1644, after her husband was ejected from his living for his radical views, Rachel was ordered to move three miles out of town or lose an income to maintain herself and her children. The family appears to have stayed in Stradishall, where Proctor then ran a school in their home. Rachel is not mentioned in his 1661 will, indicating that she'd died before him. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Speght [married name Proctor], Rachel."
see JOAN PORTMAN
Catherine Spelman was the daughter of Francis Spelman and Margaret Hill. She married c.1570 William Davison (1541-December 21, 1608) and had by him Francis (1573/4-1613+), William (1577-1605), Walter (c.1581-1608+), Christopher (b. December 1581), and two daughters. In August 1577, Davison requested that his friend Henry Killigrew help him transport Catherine to the Netherlands, where he was serving as the English ambassador. He wrote: "I think every day a year until I hear of her safe arrival, faring as a merchant who has all his riches in one venture." She joined him in Antwerp in November with their son Francis (called Frank) and another child was born to them there in the summer of 1578. Their son Christopher’s godparents in 1581 were Sir Christopher Hatton and Catherine’s grandmother, Elizabeth Isley, Lady Mason (widow of Richard Hill). Davison fell out of royal favor after the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 because he was the one who obtained Queen Elizabeth’s signature on the warrant for Mary’s execution. Accused of tricking the queen into signing, he was kept in the tower for a number of months and fined. After his release he lived a retired life, possibly by choice.
see ALICE BROMFIELD.jpg)
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Elizabeth Spencer was the daughter of Robert Spencer, 1st baron Spencer of Wormleighton, Northamptonshire (1570-October 25, 1627) and Margaret Willoughby (c.1570-August 17, 1597). She married Sir George Fane of Burston, Kent (c.1581-June 26, 1640) on September 3, 1607. They had no children. When she died at only twenty-eight, her husband erected an elaborate alabaster and marble monument to her in St. Nicholas's chapel in Westminster Abbey. She was buried on November 19, 1618. Her effigy kneels in prayer while Sir George, although he was not buried with her, is shown with his hand on the skull placed on the desk between them. The inscription, in Latin, praises Elizabeth for her virtue and calls her "chaste, modest, and religious" and also "matchless," although Sir George did, in fact, remarry and have six children by his second wife.
Elizabeth Spencer was the daughter of Sir John Spencer (d. March 3, 1610), a wealthy merchant, Master of the Clothworker’s Company, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1594/5, and Alice Bromfield (d. April 1610). Elizabeth's father was extremely wealthy, keeping houses at Crosby Place in London and Canonbury in Islington and making loans to peers. She was a prize on the marriage market, reputed to have a dowry of £40,000. One of her earliest suitors, c. 1584, was elderly alderman Anthony Ratcliffe. There was talk of a marriage to a member of the Heveningham family, although the DNB and Lawrence Stone's article in History Today, "The Peer and the Alderman's Daughter," disagree on whether it was Sir Arthur or his son. In any case, sometime in 1598, Elizabeth met and fell in love with William, 2nd baron Compton (created earl of Northampton in 1618). Compton (1568-June 24, 1630) was deeply in debt and in need of £10,000 to pay down his debts and another £18,000 to redeem mortgages. Not surprisingly, Elizabeth's father tried to discourage the match. In January 1599, he hid her away and further claimed she had a pre-contract with Heveningham. Compton retaliated by persuading the Privy Council to imprison Spencer in the Fleet. Upon his release, Spencer allegedly beat Elizabeth in an attempt to make her change her mind. This time Compton used his influence at court to have her removed from her father's care, although legend has him disguising himself as a baker's boy and smuggling Elizabeth out of the house wrapped in a blanket. Shortly after March 15, 1599, Elizabeth and Compton were married. Reconciliation was slow in coming, even though Elizabeth's first child was named Spencer (May 1601-March 19, 1643). Her second, Elizabeth, was born in her father's house, indicating that they were on better terms by then. A third child was named Mary (d. August 17, 1675). Compton, meanwhile, continued to accumulate debt. When Elizabeth's father died, followed a few weeks later by her mother, Elizabeth and Compton inherited everything because there was no will. The estate was valued at between £300,000 and £800,000. Almost at once the rumors began that there had been a will and Compton had destroyed it. The tales were fueled when Compton apparently "fell mad" and had to be confined in the Tower for about a month before he recovered his wits and was released. There was an investigation, but whatever the decision, Compton was not charged. He was said to have spent £72,000 in eight weeks, gambling and buying horses, once he had control of his late father-in-law's fortune. Elizabeth apparently had no trouble in spending money, either. A letter quoted in detail in the History Today article lists, among other items she required, £1,600 a year for clothing, £600 a year for charitable works, three horses, two gentlewomen, and two coaches.
see ISABELLA GRAUNT
Jane Spencer was the daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorp, Northamptonshire (d. April 14, 1552 [or1522?]) and Isabel Graunt (d.1556). In 1521/2, by the same arrangement whereby her brother married his sister, she wed Richard Knightley of Upton and Fawsley, Northamptonshire (d. March 30, 1538), by whom she had five daughters, two of whom, Jane and Mary, were still living at the time of their father's death. Susan, Anne, and Frances were not. Since Knightley's heir was his brother, Jane was left with debts and harrassed by the Knightleys. According to the History of Parliament entry for Knightley, her solution to her problems was to marry Sir Robert Stafford of Dodford, Northamptonshire (1501-1574), "who defended her rights."
see KATHERINE KYTSON
Katherine Spencer was the daughter of Sir Robert Spencer of Spencercombe, Devon (c.1430-March 13, 1492+) and Eleanor Beaufort, countess of Wiltshire (c.1431-August 16, 1501). She married Henry Percy, 5th earl of Northumberland (January 14, 1478-May 19, 1527). They were the parents of Margaret (c.1495-c.1540), Henry, 6th earl (1502-January 30, 1537), Sir Thomas (c.1504-x. June 2, 1537) Sir Ingram (or Ingelram) (1505+-1538), and Maud (d. yng). After Northumberland's death at Wressle, the earl of Cumberland was sent by Cardinal Wolsey and the king to administer his estate. A letter to Thomas Heneage, gentleman usher to Wolsey, written on July 17, 1527, indicates that, according to instructions, Cumberland had requested that Katherine and her sister take up residence in his house of Bolton, in Craven. The countess claimed to be too weak and ill to make the journey. Her preference was to remain where she was or to go to Lady Pickering, in the same county. A letter included in Mary Anne Everett Green's Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, written from Katherine’s manor at Semer or Seamer (near Scarborough) on January 11, 1535, to Thomas Cromwell, asks the king’s secretary to intervene on behalf of one of her servants who is being held in jail for a crime he did not commit. According to her, his enemies had lied, claiming he’d spoken out against the king. In February 1537, Lady Northumberland herself was arrested on the charge that she'd forwarded a letter to her son Thomas from Sir Francis Bigod, one of the rebel leaders in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Her son Thomas was executed, and her son Ingram was imprisoned. She is generally believed to have taken an active role in supporting the rebels, but as was usual in these cases, noblewomen were not severely punished. Sir Ingram's will, written on June 7, 1538 and proved March 21, 1538/9, left his mother a tablet of gold and control of the £20 he left to his illegitimate daughter, Isabel, until the child was of age. Katherine's goods and properties were seized and inventoried when she was arrested, but upon her release in early October they were returned to her. From her son, the earl of Northumberland, Katherine held an annuity of £413. 6s. 8d in lieu of a jointure and it apparently continued after his death.
see SUSAN KNIGHTLEY
Grace Spooner and her husband, Lawrence Spooner of Myrryhill, Warwickshire, were cloth merchants. What is remarkable about Grace is that she apparently traveled a regular circuit through the Midlands, riding from one market to another with her goods on a second horse behind her. For nearly twenty years, she traveled some 120 km. between Monday and Saturday, setting up her "standing" (stall) in a different town every day. She specialized in linen and other kinds of cloth, ranging from fine lawn to housewife's flax. We know this about Grace because of the Exchequer case against her husband (who was legally responsible for the business) in which it was charged that they sold cloth in the open market at Tamworth, Staffordshire on March 27, 1585 in violation of the local ordinances against anyone who was not a freeman of the borough selling there. The cloth seized was valued at £127 15s. Grace was the one who actually sold the cloth. Lawrence seems to have traveled only to make purchasing trips to the larger cities and fairs.
Although Alice is given the maiden name of King in Suffolk Manorial Families, the more recent entry in the Oxford DNB clarifies that King was the surname of Thomas Spring's first wife, Anne, who died on January 20, 1513. Alice's parentage is unknown, but she was from Bocking, Essex and had previously been married to a man named May, by whom she had two daughters, Margaret (d.1552) and Alice (d.1552+). Her second husband, Thomas Spring (c.1456-June 29, 1523) of Lavenham, Suffolk was a rich clothier. She brought 600 marks to the marriage, but he was far wealthier, holding twenty-five manors when he died. In 1522, he was in possession of £1800 in ready money and was owed another £2200. He had numerous children by his first wife but only one by this second, a daughter named Bridget (d.1557+). Alice was named one of the executors of her husband's will and left 1000 marks. In 1524, she paid taxes for herself and as executor of £66 13s. 4d. Only the duke of Norfolk paid more in Suffolk that year. In her own will, made on April 13, 1538, Alice left her daughter Bridget a tenement in Lavenham and all the money due to Bridget by Thomas Spring's will. To her daughter Alice and her husband, Sir Richard Fulmerston, Alice left £100. She left the resideue of her estate to her daughter Margaret and her husband, William Rysby or Risby (d.1551) but she added a codicil on August 31, 1538. On August 15, 1538, her daughter Bridget was espoused to William Erneley of Cakeham, Sussex (1501-January 20, 1546). In the codicil, Alice specified that the amount left to Bridget was five hundred marks, a considerable dowry. Alice was buried in Lavenham where, as executor for her husband, she had spent over £1000 on improvements to the church. Bridget had two sons (Richard and John) and two daughters by Erneley. Her second husband , married June 25, 1546, was Sir Henry Hussey of Slinfold, Sussex (d. August 28, 1557).
see MARGARET APPLETON
Alice Squire was the daughter of Sir Oliver Squire (Squier/Squyer) of Southby, Hampshire (c.1480-c.1505). Her mother is sometimes given as Margaret Myrrffun. Alice married three times. Her first husband was John Brigandine (Bryganten, Brykynden, or Brockenden) of Southampton, by whom she had a daughter, Alice (x. March 14,1551) and a son, John (d.1563+). Her second husband was Edward Mirfyn of London (d.1528), by whom she had no children. Thirdly, she married Edward North of Kirtling, Cambridgeshire (1496-December 31, 1564). They had four children, Christiana (c.1529-March 20, 1563/4), Roger (February 27, 1530-December 3, 1600), Thomas (1535-June 1601), and Mary (c.1538-November 1558). It was through Alice's third husband that her daughter from her first marriage met her future husband, Thomas Arden of Faversham, Kent. On February 15, 1551, Arden was murdered and Alice was found guilty of plotting the crime. She was tried and found guilty and burnt to death in Canterbury. In spite of the notoriety, Edward North was created Baron North of Kirtling in 1554 and as Lady North, Alice was often at court during the last year of her life. She was buried at Kirtling on August 22, 1560.
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Catherine Stafford was the daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478-x. May 17, 1521) and Eleanor Percy (1470-1530). Her older sister Elizabeth was to have married their father's ward, Ralph Neville, 4th earl of Westmorland (February 21, 1497-April 24, 1550), but when she married Thomas Howard instead, Catherine was betrothed to Westmorland. The wedding took place between April 1, 1516 and March 31, 1517. They had eighteen children, including Henry (1525-February 10, 1564), Margaret (d. October 13, 1559), Dorothy (d.1547), Ralph (d.1565), Thomas, Sir Christopher (d.1575+), George, Edward, Elizabeth (d.c.1553), Cuthbert (d.1569+), Eleanor, Mary (d. March 14, 1596), another Eleanor, Anne (d. July 17, 1583), Ursula, and Sir William of Chebsey. During the Pilgrimage of Grace, she reportedly "rather playeth the part of a knight than of a lady" in the absence of her husband. A letter from the countess to the earl of Shrewsbury, Lieutenant of the North, is extant. In 1540, she traveled to Belvoir Castle, Lincolnshire, for the birth of her first grandchild to her son Henry's young wife, Anne Manners. In a group wedding in 1536, Catherine's children Henry and Margaret had married two of the children of the earl of Rutland. Writing on April 25, 1544 from Brandspath (Brancepeth), she recommends her servant, Ninian Meuvill to be one of Shrewsbury's captains. She was involved, peripherally, in her sister's ongoing battle with her husband, Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, since the duchess called upon her former sweetheart for assistance. Catherine's reaction to this is not recorded. In a letter of 1552 to her daughter Margaret, countess of Rutland, she thanked Margaret for furthering the marriage of her sister. The ceremony was to take place from Margaret's home. In her widowhood, Catherine lived with Eleanor Paston, dowager countess of Rutland, at Holywell, the house the Rutlands kept in London. Both countesses were buried in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. Portrait: memorial at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch erected by her granddaughter, Lady Adeline Neville in 1591. She shares it with Eleanor Paston and Margaret Neville, both countesses of Rutland, and her goddaughter and granddaughter, Catherine Neville, Lady Constable, whose bequest in her will made its construction possible; another effigy is at Staindrop, Durham, with her husband.
see CECILY BONVILLE
see ELEANOR PERCY.jpg)
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see ELIZABETH CAVE
see JANE SPENCER
Mary Stafford was the youngest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham (February 3, 1478-x. May 17, 1521) and Eleanor Percy (1470-February 13, 1530). She seems to have lived at home until her marriage to George Neville, 3rd baron Bergavenny (c.1469-June 13, 1535), as his third wife, which took place in early 1519 (before June), even though her father did not make a payment of £6 14s. 9d. to the Pope for a dispensation until November of that year. The duke of Buckingham, in addition to Mary's dowry of £1,660 13s. 4d., paid £123 19s. to Lord Bergavenny for velvet and cloth of silver "wedding gear." Henry VIII visited the Bergavennys at Mereworth during his 1519 summer progress and Mary was at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520. She was pregnant with her first child at the time and gave birth that November. In 1521, her husband was implicated in her father's treason and spent nearly a year in the Tower of London. Mary's children were Catherine, Margaret, John (d.yng), Mary (1523-1578+), Dorothy (d. September 22, 1559), Henry, 4th baron (1527-February 10, 1586/7), Ursula (c.1528-1575), and Thomas (d.yng). The date of her death is not known, but Bergavenny had married for a fourth time by January 1530.
see URSULA POLE.jpg)
see ANNE RAWSON
see ELIZABETH BOURCHIER
Jane Stanhope was the daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope of Shelford, Nottinghamshire (1502-x. February 26, 1552) and Anne Rawson (1513-February 20, 1587/8). After her father was executed for treason, the family was allowed to remain at Shelford Priory. Jane married first, Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham, Norfolk (1543-1590), by whom she had two sons, Sir John (1568/9-August 2, 1603) and Robert. She inherited a life interest in the Townshend estates and later bought most of the land her son John had inherited. Her second husband was Henry Berkeley, 7th baron Berkeley (November 26, 1534-November 26, 1613). They were married on March 9, 1597/8 in St. Giles Cripplegate, London. They had no children but when her son died in 1603, Jane obtained the warship of her eldest grandson, Roger (November 1595-January 1, 1637). Correspondence to and from Jane and numerous other written records, such as her household accounts for 1591-3 and the inventory taken of the furnishings in her London house in 1614, are extant in the Bacon-Townshend Collection at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In 1602-5, Jane built Ashley House in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Shortly before her death, she purchased a baronetcy for her grandson. Her will is dated July 20, 1617 and was proved March 10, 1617/18 by Sir Roger Townshend.
see MARGARET PORT
Margaret Stanhope was the daughter of Edmund Stanhope of West Markham, Nottinghamshire (d. before November 1510) and Alice (d.1510+), his wife. In 1515, she married Thomas Skeffington (1493-June 29, 1543). Their children were William (1518-September 22, 1571), Anthony, Edward, George, Francis, and six daughters. Portrait: memorial brass.
see ELIZABETH de VERE
Ursula Stanley was the illegitimate but acknowledged daughter of Henry Stanley, 4th earl of Derby (September 1531-September 25,1593) by his longtime mistress, Jane Halsall (c.1536?c.1550?-c.1591?) of Knowsley, Lancashire. In 1586, Ursula married Sir John Salisbury or Salusbury of Sterney, Derbyshire and Lleweni, Denbighshire (1566/7-July 24,1612). They had seven sons and three daughters, including Henry (d.1632), John, and Arabella. Her happy marriage was the subject of a book of poems, “The Phoenix and the Turtle,” commissioned by her husband in 1601. Contributors included Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. One story, without much foundation, has the earl of Derby hiring Shakespeare as a tutor for his two illegitimate daughters, Ursula and her sister Dorothy. Although he was at one time a wealthy man, Salisbury died deeply in debt.
Blanche Stanney was the eldest daughter of Richard Stanney of Oswestry, Shropshire (d.1540) and his wife Jane. In his will, written November 14, 1539 and proved April 15, 1540, her father left her his "best drinking pot for ale of silver double gilt with a cover." She married three times. Her first husband was Richard Reynolds (Raynolde/Reynolde) of London (d. May 6, 1542), a mercer. They lived in the parish of St. Christopher in the Stocks. He made his will September 30, 1541 and it was proved May 26, 1542. Anne F. Sutton, in The Mercery of London, suggests that Blanche may have been a silkwoman, as her mother-in-law was. Husband number two was Robert Palmer (1474-May 12, 1544). She was his second wife. They had no children of their own, but she acquired several stepchildren by this marriage. They lived in St. George nigh Pudding Lane and St. Giles without Cripplegate. He made his will on May 5, 1544 and it was proved on July 24, 1544. Her third husband was Sir William Forman (d. January 12,1547), a haberdasher who had been Lord Mayor of London in 1538/9. They married on August 30, 1544. They had one son, John Forman. Forman had been married before, so Blanche also acquired stepchildren. His will was dated January 10, 1547 and proved March 12, 1547. He was buried in St. George, Botolph Lane, where Blanche erected a monument to him. The inquisition post mortem dated August 17, 1547 lists, among other properties, five messuages and tenements in St. Lawrence Poultney, one in St. Leonard's Eastcheap, one in Canwyck (Candlewick) Street, St. Martin le Orgar, two in St. Bartholomew the Less, and one in St. George next Eastcheap. The heir was age nine on that date and therefore not Blanche's child. Blanche made her own will on March 29, 1563. This lengthy document, proved February 9, 1564, can be found in its entirety at oxford-shakespeare.com. Dame Blanche Forman asked to be buried in St. Christopher by the Stocks and left detailed instructions for her burial and the funeral. Among her bequests to family, friends, and servants are such items as "a great cypress chest," "a painted cupboard," a "bird cage that stood in the hall," and "my best Turkey carpet, being new and for the long table in the hall." To Anne Lloyd, her servant, she left £20 and various household items. Some bequests were contingent upon a "suit in Flanders." Apparently, she was owed a considerable sum of money from some business dealings there. If that debt was paid, she left instructions to double her bequest of £20 to Christ's Hospital.
Jane Stapleton was the daughter of Sir Miles Stapleton of Ingham, Norfolk (1402-October 1, 1466) and Catherine de la Pole (c.1406-October 13, 1488/9. In about 1467, she married Sir Christopher Harcourt of Great Ashby (c.1444-1476+), by whom she had Miles, Richard, Sir Simon (c.1472-January 16, 1546/7) and Edmund (c.1479-c.1537). Her second husband was Sir John Huddleston of Millom Castle, Cumberland (d. January 1, 1512), by whom she had Sir John (c.1488-1547), Elizabeth (d.c.1529), and Anne. Her will, written on April 18, 1518 and proved June 10, 1519, contains one extremely revealing section: "Whereas my son, John Huddleston, had a feoffment within my lordship of Coterston of the yearly value of £40, to him and his first wife and to their heirs of the gift of my husband his father, that feoffment was made without my consent, and I never did agree thereunto. And this is my will, to have it reformed and reserved to my heirs of the Harcourts." Barbara J. Harris in English Aristocratic Women 1450-1550 gives an explanation for this. According to Sir Simon Harcourt, Sir John Huddleston persuaded his mother to levy a fine on her inheritance, so that it would pass to her son by her second marriage, John Huddleston, rather than to Simon. Sir John’s will charged his son to released the property back to the Harcourts, but his remorse and his wishes seem to have been ignored. When Jane made her will, she accused John of fraud, recounting how, c.1516, he tricked her into signing away her inheritance by showing her a document written in Latin and telling her that it was something other than what it was. If it had been written in English, she could have read it for herself. She claimed that he had "therein utterly and untruly . . . distrained me." She made her last wishes known in the presence of the prior of Hailes, stating that everything but one manor should go to the Harcourts.
see OLIVE SHERRINGTON
Margaret Starkey was the daughter of Lawrence Starkey of New Hall, Lancaster (d. July 24, 1532) and his first wife. Her first husband was George Singleton (d.c.1518). On September 7, 1515, the abbess of Syon, Elizabeth Gibbs (d.1518), granted the lease of the manor of Aldcliffe, Lancashire to Singleton. In later lawsuits, it was claimed that the abbess had wanted him to marry Margaret and to encourage this had promised that he would hold the manor by the custom of tenant-right. Starkey then gave Singleton money enough to replay his debts to the abbess. In about 1520, Margaret married William Banester of Lancaster (d. by 1539), by whom she had one son, Wilfred (c.1534-1569+). Banester claimed that he now held Aldcliffe in her right as the widow of George Singleton. This was challenged in 1523, after Agnes Jordan, who had succeeded both Elizabeth Gibbs and Constance Brown (d.1520) as abbess of Syon, granted the lease of the manor to someone else, to begin on the expiration of the lease to Singleton. The outcome is unclear. Upon the death of her father, Margaret became embroiled in more controversy. Early in 1537, her half sister, Etheldreda and her husband, Humphrey Newton of Newton and Pownall, Cheshire, petitioned the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with the claim that Banester had refused to pay Etheldreda her inheritance. This dispute dragged on for years, even after Banester died. On March 31, 1539, Margaret was described as a widow when she granted an annuity to a servant. In July 1541, she was granted the wardship of her son and an annuity of £5. She made her will on October 6, 1542, leaving land in Cheshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire. She also owned a tenement in Henley-on-Thames, which she specified had come to her from her mother.
Elizabeth married Nicholas Statham (d.1538), a mercer. They had at least one daughter, who was married to Vincent Randall and still living in 1572. He made his will on October 2, 1538 and it was proved on October 23, 1538. Elizabeth was her husband's heir and sole executor of his will. As such, she was charged with administering his bequest to make loans to young members of the Mercer's Company. His bequest was first considered by the company in September 1539 but it was 1544 before the 500 marks he had left was authorized. In 1548 matters were still unsettled. It was 1550 before the bequest was finally in operation. Elizabeth Statham was a committed evangelical who entertained the religious radicals Barnes, Garnet, Jerome, and Latimer in her house in Milk Street, which she rented from the Mercers' Company. In 1540, when she was indicted under the Act of the Six Articles, her worth was assessed at over £500. By a license dated February 3, 1544/5, she married Maurice Denys of London and Siston, Gloucestershire (d. August 25, 1563), an official of the court of Augmentations who was knighted February 22, 1547. She received the manor of Sutton-at-Hone, Kent as a wedding gift. It had formerly belonged to her first husband. In his will, written on October 29, 1562, Denys left his widow his house in Clerkenwell. His property in Kent was to be sold to pay debts and legacies and other land sales were to fund redeeming Siston, in which Elizabeth was to have a life interest. She left administration of his estate to the registrar of the prerogative court of Canterbury. She did not want to take charge of it herself because she did not know how greatly in debt her husband was to the queen. Elizabeth's will, made in 1572, left bequests to poor scholars at the universities.
Judith Staunton of Longbridge, Warwickshire was an heiress in her own right when she married Hamnet Sadler (c.1562-1624), a baker of Stratford, in about 1579. Among their fourteen children, seven of whom died young, were John (1580-1580), Jane (b.1581), Margaret (b.1583), Thomas (1585-1585) and Judith (b. April 1596). Although the family was prosperous to begin with, after their house was destroyed by fire on September 21, 1594, their fortunes declined. For more details see Germaine Greer’s Shakespeare’s Wife. The Sadlers were friends with William and Anne Shakespeare and stood as godparents to their twins.
see EDITH WILLIAMS
Frances Staverton was the daughter of Richard Staverton and Joan or Johanna More (March 11, 1475-1542). She was probably educated with her cousins, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Cecily More, sharing their tutor, Richard Hyrde (d.1528). Hyrde addressed the preface to Margaret More's translation of Erasmus's A Devout Treatise upon the Paternoster (1526) to Frances Staverton. This was a twelve page treatise in itself. It is the earliest known printed discourse on female education originating in the English language.
see FRANCES DYER
see MARY PORTMAN
see ELIZABETH HARRIS
see FRANCES de VERE
see ELIZABETH WOLSTON
Elizabeth Stoke was the wife of Sir Richard Lister of Lyster (c.1480-March 16, 1553/4), attorney general and chief baron of the exchequer. They were married c.1534. His entry in the Oxford DNB incorrectly names Elizabeth as the mother of his children Michael and Elizabeth. While it was probably Elizabeth's predecessor, Isabel Shirley, who was sketched by Hans Holbein, there is a slim possibility Elizabeth was his subject. Although she is not mentioned in Sir Richard's will, she is credited with erecting his monument in St. Michael's Church, Southampton. She is also buried there.
see ELIZABETH NEVILLE
Anne Stonard was the wife of John Stonard of Loughton, Essex and Luxborough Hall, Chigwell (1522-October 16, 1579). Queen Elizabeth paid three visits to the Stonards, to Loughton Hall in 1561, and to Luxborough Hal in 1576 and again on September 20, 1578. They had one surviving child, Susan (c.1542-c.1606), who had married Robert Wroth of Enfield by 1576. As a widow, Anne held Luxborough Hall and half the contents plus twenty-four cows, a bull, six draught oxen, four cart horses, and five riding horses.
Maud Stone was the daughter of Reynold or Reginald Stone of Henley-on-Thames, Berkshire. She is said to have been a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth, but I do not find her name on any lists. Her first husband was Edward Little of Abingdon. In June 1567, she married Thomas Tesdale of Abingdon (October 1547-June 13, 1610), a maltster. They had three sons who died young. In his will, dated May 31, 1610, Tesdale left £5000 to send scholars from Abingdon to Balliol College, Oxford. Later this bequest was converted into a fund used to transform Broadgates Hall into Pembroke College. Portrait: tomb effigy at St. Mary's Church, Glympton, Oxfordshire.
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see ISABEL AGARD
Dorothy Stourton was the daughter of William, 7th baron Stourton (1484-September 16, 1548) and Elizabeth Dudley (1488-1560). She married Richard Brent of Cossington, Somersetshire (d.1570) on January 6, 1545/6. They had one daughter, Anne, who married Lord Thomas Paulet. In 1551, Brent's only sister, Grace, and her husband, John Denham, were living with the Brents when Richard "conceived a great malice and displeasure" against them. The following year, he was found to be an "idiot" by a commission headed by his brother-in-law, Charles, 8th baron Stourton. There were later several chancery suits between the Denhams and the Paulets over inheritance rights to Cossington. The Paulets won.
see ELIZABETH DUDLEY
see FRANCES BROOKE
Mary Stourton was the eldest daughter of Charles, 8th baron Stourton (c.1521-March 1556/7) and Anne Stanley (d. September 22, 1601). In 1575, she married Francis Tregian of Volvedon, Cornwall (1598-September 25, 1608). After a raid on their home in June 1577, he was arrested for recusancy and harboring priests and sent to the Marshalsea Prison in London and all his goods were seized by the Crown. The Tregian estates were granted to Sir George Carey, who promptly expelled Mary and her two small sons. She went to London and demanded the right to share her husband’s imprisonment. Over the next sixteen years, she is said to have borne him eleven more children, most of whom lived. Francis was finally released and banished in 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, but Mary remained in England. She is said to have lived in poverty, but she had a number of influential relatives and I suspect she was not entirely destitute. Among her children were Mary (d.c.1608) and Francis.
Anne Stradling was the daughter of John Stradling of Dauntsey, Wiltshire (d.1471) and Alice Langford. She became a considerable heiress following the murder of her brother, Edward, during a robbery at Dauntsey. Everyone in the house was killed except a plough boy who had hidden himself. Anne, fortunately, was living at the time in Paternoster Row in London. A messenger was sent to inform her of what had happened. Sir John Danvers of Culworth, Northamptonshire (1455-1514/15), "by good fortune," encountered this messenger before he reached Anne and, seizing his opportunity, "clapped up the match before she heard the news." They were married on December 13, 1487. They were the parents of Dorothy (d.1559), Thomas (d.1532), Richard (d. July 17, 1517), Elizabeth (d.1539+), William (1496-July 20, 1544), John, Margaret (1500-1541+), Anne (d. July 11, 1523), Susan (1504-March 1527), and Constance. Anne was also joint heir to the Scilly Isles, which led to a court battle in about 1530 over the right of presentation at Lanyvett Church. She also lived at Prestcote and may have become a vowess during her widowhood. More on her life and her descendants, together with her will, can be found in Francis Nottidge Macnamara, Memorials of the Danvers Family (of Dauntsey and Culworth), available at ebooksread.com. Portrait: brass in Dauntsey Church (stolen in 2004).
Damascin Stradling was the daughter of Sir Thomas Stradling (1498-1571) and Catherine Gamage. Damascin accompanied Jane Dormer, countess of Feria, to Spain. She died at Cafra.
Cecily Strangeways was the daughter of James Strangeways of Smelton and Anne Conyers. She married Thomas Boynton of Barmston and Aclam, Yorkshire (1501-1523) and was the mother of Matthew, Anne, Jane, and one other child. They lived in Roxby. After her husband’s death, she was left to raise her children with the help of her mother-in-law, Margaret Say. In 1532, she was apparently contracted to marry a widower, Josceline Percy (1480-September 8, 1532), fourth son of the 4th earl of Northumberland, but Percy died before they could wed. His will, made on September 7, named Cecily as his executor. It is possible Percy was murdered. Certainly his brother, Sir William Percy, thought so. In a letter to Lord Cromwell, he accused a maidservant and three menservants of poisoning Josceline. If Cromwell investigated, the results do not appear to have survived.
see ELEANOR TALBOYS
see JANE ASTON
see ELLYN BLOUNT
Anne Strelley was the daughter and coheir of John Strelley of Strelley, Nottinghamshire (1448-January 22, 1501/2) and Sanchia Willougby (1457-1533). Some genealogies and the History of Parliament entry for Sir John Markham say her first husband was Richard Stanhope of Rampton, Nottinghamshire (1494-January 21, 1528/9), but other Stanhope sources say Richard married her sister Elizabeth. Anne was the third wife of Sir John Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire (1482-October 1559). Their children were Frances, William (d.1570/1), Thomas (d.1602), Isabella (1529-May 20, 1579), and another daughter. She received a generous legacy from a cousin in 1546/7 (see JANE STRELLEY), but she had more difficulty with another, earlier inheritance. Barbara J. Harris recounts the story in her English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550. It seems that when John Strelley died, he made his widow responsible for the dowry that was to go to Anne. Sanchia Strelley subsequently married Sir John Digby, who appropriated both the dowry and the livestock Strelley had left to Anne. In a court case in Chancery, Anne and her second husband sued, contending that Lady Digby had brought "a great substance" of the Strelley estate to her second marriage, which Digby had appropriated. Lady Digby supposedly died (in 1533) feeling "great remorse" and "with sore lamentation" but Digby still refused to yield either dowry or livestock to Anne. He died soon after his wife, obliging the Markhams to sue his executors. One of them, Simon Digby, claimed that his stepsister (Anne) had received both livestock and dowry years earlier and that, moreover, their mother, on her deathbed, had given her further gifts, a chain and jewels worth far more than the goods and money the Markhams were demanding. In the end, it took an Act of Parliament to settle the matter. The Strelley lands were divided among Anne and her sisters.
Isabel Strelley was the daughter of Nicholas Strelley of Strelley, Nottinghamshire (c.1480-August 25, 1560) and, probably, Isabel (or Elizabeth) Spencer (1496-August 25, 1560?). Unfortunately, Sir Nicholas is listed in various online genealogies with three different wives and few dates. The other two are Sara (or Grace) Digby and Ellen Gresley. Isabel was left a bequest in the will of her father’s cousin, Jane Strelley in 1546/7. The order in which she and her siblings are listed indicates that she may have been the oldest child. She was a waiting gentlewoman in the household of Eleanor Paston, countess of Rutland in the 1530s and early 1540s, along with Anne Bassett and Catherine Stradling.
Jane Strelley of Strelley, Nottinghamshire, "late of Southewell, gentlewoman" left behind a detailed will dated October 19, 1546 and proved May 16, 1547. Although she names many relatives, it is difficult to place her in the family tree. She appears to be a granddaughter of Robert Strelley (c.1423-March 12, 1490 or January 5, 1488) and Isabel Kemp (d. February 7, 1459), but the names of her parents remain a mystery. Her most generous bequests are to Anne Markham, third wife of Sir John Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire. Anne Markham (1495-October 12, 1554) was the daughter of John Strelley (1448-January 22, 1501/2), son of Robert and Isabel. Anne was to have the "featherbed in the highe chamber, with all things belonginge to the same, and my rounde hoope of golde, for a remembrance to prae for me." She also received the residue of the estate after the other bequests had been made. To Lady Strelley, wife of Sir Nicholas (d. August 25, 1560), Jane left a silver salt with a cover and a gold ring with a diamond in it. To their daughter, Alice Strelley (d.1599), Jane's goddaughter, she willed a gold ring with a "turkes" (turquoise?) in it and to another of their daughters, Jane, also her goddaughter, she left a silver gilt spoon. She also left money to be divided among all of Sir Nicholas’s children: Isabel, Alice, Jane, Nicholas, John, and Henry. Other bequests went to her niece, Anne Emerson, her sister, Elizabeth Cade, her nephew, William Cade, and various servants and godchildren. Another cousin, Elizabeth Leeke, was particularly singled out to receive an annuity from Jane's farm of Gedlinge, Jane's "chamlett gowne and kirtill, my skarlett petticoite, my best fedderbed save one, a bolster, ij pillouse, ij of my best coverlettes, too paire of blankettes, and a paire of shetes, and one ringe of golde, and the coffer at my beddes fete," and "my tenement or housse in Southwell that I dwell in, and the yerde belonginge to the same to the stuppe of the southe side of my broode yaites to the one half of the landes and garden belonging to the same . . . frome the dae of the departure of me furthe of this world to the ende and terme of xviij yeres then next and ymediately followenge."