A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: W-Wh
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her very out-of-date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)
ELIZABETH WADE
DOROTHY WADHAM
see DOROTHY PETRE
FLORENCE WADHAM (c.1530-c.1596)
Florence Wadham was the daughter of Sir John Wadham of Branscombe, Devon (c.1515-March 8, 1578) and Joan Tregarthen (d.1581). In 1556, she married John Wyndham (c.1506-August 25, 1572). In 1557, she fell ill and died. Or at least that’s what everyone thought. She was duly buried in the Wyndham family vault in St. Decumin’s Church in Watchet, Somerset. That night, so the story goes, a sexton bent on stealing her jewelry, opened her coffin and tried to remove her rings. This brought her back to consciousness and sent the sexton screaming from the crypt. Her family, however, welcomed her back and the following year she gave birth to a son, John (1558-1645). Florence remarried after Wyndham’s death, taking as her second husband John Faringdon. Portrait: 1572 brass in St. Decumin's Church.
JANE WADHAM (1517+- 1551+)
Jane Wadham was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Wadham, of Merrifield, Somerset, Governor of the Isle of Wight (by 1472-March 5, 1542) and his second of four wives, Margaret Seymour (c.1478-before June 1517), making her the cousin of Queen Jane Seymour. She was a nun at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, under Abbess Elizabeth Ryprose, at the time it was dissolved on July 11, 1538, as was her half sister, Katherine (b.1511), who was subprioress. Jane was sexton, but she had no real vocation. Because ex-religious were required to remain chaste, a ruling retained until 1549 and revived from 1553-1558, Jane had to obtain a "capacity" to return to the world. She claimed that "malevolent persons" had ignored her objections to becoming a nun and that prior to taking her vows, she had gone through a private form of marriage, per verba de praesenti, with John Foster or Forster (1505/6-June 8, 1576). These same "malevolent persons" also forced Foster to become a priest, to invalidate the marriage. John Foster's father was steward at Romsey and John is variously called steward and chaplain there. According to his entry in The History of Parliament, he was a priest by December 1536. Geoffrey Baskerville's English Monks and the Suppression of the Monasteries states that Jane married Foster after the surrender of Romsey in 1539, in the expectation that clerical marriage would be legalized. This was actually their second marriage. In June 1539, Foster had to sue for a pardon for his hasty marriage and it was issued on the condition that he renounce his wife. Jane and John, however, continued to live together as man and wife and had three children, Edward, Andrew, and Jane. By June 1541, concerns about the validity of their marriage caused Foster to separate from Jane. They petitioned the king to legalize their union. A special commission of two bishops was formed. Records are scarce, but it seems that this first effort failed because Jane was again asking that a commission look into the validity of her marriage in April 1544. Foster, meanwhile was the incumbent at Baddesley by 1543. One account has Jane living there with him. The History of Parliament states that, by 1544, Foster had given up the ministry to study law. In 1549, priests were allowed to marry. In 1551, Jane inherited a "modest patrimony in the West Country" upon the death of her brother, Nicholas. In 1553, Foster bought the manor of North Baddesley, Hampshire but he was deprived of the property and others under Queen Mary. He later regained possession and was living there at the time of his death. Baskerville cites a reference to Jane Foster, gentlewoman, in May 1558, but this could be either Jane or her daughter.
MARGARET WADHAM
JOAN WAKEMAN
AVIS WALDEGRAVE (d. 1612+)
BRIDGET WALDEGRAVE (1487-1549)
FRANCES WALDEGRAVE
GRISEL WALDEGRAVE
JOAN WALDEGRAVE
see JOAN BULMER
MARY WALDEGRAVE (d. December 19, 1599)
ELIZABETH WALDEN (1491-July 1567)
ELIZABETH WALLOP
see ELIZABETH HARLESTONE
ELIZABETH WALSHE
see ELIZABETH STONOR
ANNE WALSINGHAM
see ANNE JERNINGHAM
ETHELRED or AUDREY WALSINGHAM
FRANCES WALSINGHAM (October 1567-February 17,1633)
Frances Walsingham was the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham (c.1532-April 6,1590) and Ursula St. Barbe (c.1550-June 1,1602). Her father was English ambassador to France in 1572, and had his family with him, when the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Huguenots took place. Frances met her future husband, Sir Philip Sidney (November 30,1554-October 17,1586) when he took shelter with the Walsinghams in Paris. In 1581, one John Wickerson was said to have a contract of matrimony with “Mrs. Frances,” but he spent the next two years in the Marshalsea and on Friday, September 21, 1583, she married Sidney. They lived with her parents at Barn Elms, Surrey, six miles from London, where their daughter, Elizabeth (November 1585-1614) was born. Frances arrived in Flushing in the latter part of June 1586, to join her husband. She was pregnant when Sidney died of a gunshot wound sustained in the Battle of Zuthpen on September 22,1586. By the end of December, Frances was very ill. She either miscarried or her second daughter, Frances, was born prematurely and died young. Sidney had entrusted his wife’s care to his friend Robert Devereux, earl of Essex (November 19,1566-February 25, 1601). Essex married her in the spring of 1590, shortly after her father’s death. Their children were Robert (1591-September 14,1646), Walter and Henry, who died young, Frances (1599-1674), and Dorothy (1600-1636). Frances was born just after Essex was imprisoned for his unauthorized return from Ireland. As soon as she was able to rise from childbed, Lady Essex went to court, dressed in widow’s weeds, and attempted to see the queen. She had already been forbidden to come to the court for marrying Essex and was denied access to the queen. Later, however, she was permitted to nurse Essex when he fell ill at York House. During this period, Lady Essex had other troubles, as well. She was being blackmailed over some letters that a servant had stolen. Shortly before Essex had been taken into custody, Frances had given her maidservant, Jane Rehora, recently married to another Essex servant, John Daniels, a casket of letters to hide for her. Daniels found the casket under his bed and had copies made of some of the letters. In January, 1600, when the countess reclaimed them, she realized that some were missing. Confronted, Daniels denied all knowledge of them and berated both Frances and Jane for endangering him by hiding them in his house. Daniels then suggested that his wife’s maidservant, who had recently been dismissed, might have stolen them, and offered to try to get them back. In March, he told the countess he could restore her letters . . . for £3000. The countess sold her jewels to raise part of that sum and turned the money over to Daniels, but she did not get all of her letters back. In June, after Daniels attempted to sell the letters to the government, he was arrested and charged with extortion. He was condemned to life in prison and fined £3000. The money does not seem to have been returned to Frances, for after Essex was released, the family was deeply in debt. The queen’s refusal to renew certain leases, his main source of income, drove him to desperate measures. Frances was at Essex House during his abortive rebellion in February of 1601 but it was her sister-in-law, Penelope, Lady Rich, who was egging Essex on. After the earl was executed, Frances lived with her mother until that lady’s death. Early in the reign of James I, she married a third time, taking as her husband Richard Burke, 4th earl of Clanrickard (d.1635). They had one son, Ulick (1604-1657) and a daughter, Honora. Portraits: The only verified portrait of Frances was painted c. 1590 and is attributed to William Seger, but Sir Roy Strong belives Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger's woman in Persian dress (c.1600) may be Frances.
JOYCE WALSINGHAM
URSULA WALSINGHAM
see URSULA ST.BARBE
ANNE WARCOP
MARGARET WARD (x. August 30, 1588)
MARY WARD (January 23,1585-January 20, 1645)
Mary Ward was the daughter of Marmaduke Ward of Mulwith Manor, Yorkshire (c.1552-1601+) and Ursula Wright. From 1590-1594, she lived with her grandmother. Ursula Rudman Wright (d.1594) at Ploughlands in Holderness. This grandmother had spent fourteen years in prison as a recusant. In 1597-1600, Mary was with her kinswoman, Katherine Ingleby Ardington (d.1600+) at Harwell Hall. Katherine had been in prison with Mary's grandmother. By 1600, Mary was living in another Catholic household with her cousins the Babthorpes at Osgodby, Yorkshire. Although she attracted many suitors, Mary chose the religious life and became a nun at St. Omer. In 1609, with a vision for a new religious community, she was living in a house on the Strand in London and, with other like-minded English ladies, and ministering to persecuted Catholic women. What became the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary made Mary Ward a controversial figure at the time and she continued to be so until the twentieth century. Her order was devoted to the education of women. Biography: Margaret Mary Littlehales, Mary Ward: Pilgrim and Mystic (2002); Oxford DNB entry under “Ward, Mary.” Portraits: numerous, including the one below, 1621, by an unknown artist.
KATHERINE WARNEFORD (d.1565+) (maiden name unknown)
ELIZABETH WARNER
see ELIZABETH BROOKE
MARGARET WARNER (d.1559)
JOAN WARREN
ISABEL WARSOP (d. April 1565)
ELEANOR WASHBOURNE (d.1505/6)
JOYCE WASHBOURNE (d.1520)
AGNES WATERHOUSE (x.1566) (maiden name unknown)
Agnes Waterhouse of Hatfield Peverell, Essex, was accused of witchcraft in 1566, along with her daughter, Joan, and Elizabeth Francis. She was said to have bewitched one William Fynne, who had died on November 1, 1565. In a confession, she claimed she had been a witch for fifteen years and admitted to killing livestock, bewitching her husband, and trying to kill another man. She said she had tried to use Mrs. Francis’s familiar, a cat named Sathan, to help her, but that Sathan had turned himself into a toad. She denied she had ever succeeded in killing anyone by witchcraft, but she was found guilty of Fynne’s death at the Chelmsford Assizes and hanged. Portrait: a drawing of “Mother Waterhouse” is included in a chapbook describing the trial.
MARY WATERS or ATWATER (1527-May 11, 1620)
LUCY WATTS (d. March 1560/1)
ELIZABETH WEBB
MARTHA WEBB
SUSAN WEEKS (d. 1592)
Susan Weeks was the second wife of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrooke, Huntingdonshire (1537-January 7, 1603/4), marrying him at some point after October 12, 1584. In March, 1590, Lady Cromwell paid a visit to Warboys, where the young daughters of Robert Throckmorton were alleging that Alice Samuel, an old woman who lived nearby, was the cause of their fits. Lady Cromwell took Mrs. Samuel aside and berated her for what she had done. The quarrel escalated until Lady Cromwell plucked up a pair of scissors, cut off a lock of Mrs. Samuel’s hair, and gave it to Mrs. Throckmorton to burn—a folk remedy believed to weaken a witch’s power. Mrs. Samuel protested that she had never done Lady Cromwell any harm . . . “as yet.” That night, Lady Cromwell had nightmares and fell ill. She did not die, however, until July of 1592, and it was December of that year before Alice Samuel, persuaded to it by a local parson, confessed to being a witch. She confessed again before the bishop of Lincoln and was subsequently imprisoned, along with her husband, John, and her daughter, Agnes. They were tried on April 5, 1593 for the murder, by witchcraft, of Lady Cromwell, convicted, and hanged. Sir Henry Cromwell confiscated the Samuels’ property and used it to pay for an annual sermon against witchcraft to be preached in Huntingdon in perpetuity. It was discontinued in 1812.
MARY WELD
ANNE WELLES (x. June 28, 1592)
CECILY WELLES
JOAN WELLES
AGATHA WELLESBORNE (c.1505-June 13,1595)
Agatha Wellesborne was the daughter of Humphrey Wellesborne of Bisham, Berkshire. She married William Barlow (c.1500-August 13,1568), who at that time was probably already Bishop of St. David’s in Wales. Later he was Bishop of Bath and Wells. The story that Agatha was a nun before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, or even a "runaway abbess of Norfolk," have no basis in fact. At that time, however, it was illegal for clergy to marry. In 1554, Barlow fled to the Continent and Agatha followed him into exile for the duration of the reign of Mary Tudor. They were in Embden, then Wesel, and in 1556 Barlow was serving as chaplain to Catherine Willoughby, duchess of Suffolk, in exile at Weinheim Castle. Under Elizabeth Tudor, Barlow was made Bishop of Chichester. Their son, William (c.1549-May 25,1625) became Archdeacon of Salisbury and their five daughters all married bishops. Margaret Barlow (c.1533-1601) married William Overton (1525-1609), Bishop of Coventry. Anne Barlow (d.1597) married first Augustin Bradbridge (d.1567), prebendary of Salisbury, and after his death wed Herbert Westphaling, Bishop of Herford (1532-1602). Elizabeth Barlow (1538-1575) married William Day, Bishop of Winchester (1520-September 20, 1596) in 1562. Frances Barlow (c.1551-May 8, 1629) married first Matthew Parker (1551-1574), son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and then Tobie Mathew, Bishop of York (1546-1628). Anthonine Barlow (c.1552-1598) married William Wickham, Bishop of Lincoln and later Bishop of Winchester (1539-1595). There were also sons John (d.1634) and Arthur, Hugh, Marmaduke, Thomas, and Thomas, all of whom died young. Agatha lived the last part of her life with her eldest son at Easton, Hampshire, where she is buried. Her daughter Frances erected a monument to her there.
ALICE WELLS
KATHERINE WELLS (d.1525+)
AGNES WENMAN
see AGNES FERMOR
JANE WENMAN
ANNE WENTWORTH
see ANNE ATKINSON; ANNE HOPTON
ANNE WENTWORTH (c.1526-January 1580/1)
ANNE or JANE WENTWORTH (c.1503-c.1572)
Anne Wentworth was the daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth of Gosfield, Essex. Around 1515, when she was twelve, she fell ill and began to have visions, much in the manner of Elizabeth Barton (the Nun of Kent) but in her case the visions were believed to be the work of Satan. Then one of her visions convinced her that she must go on a pilgrimage to the Virgin at Our Lady of Ipswich. She did so, and went through various torments there, but these torments supposedly drove out the devils that had possessed her and she was left with the gift of prophesy. Although her father objected, she wished to become a nun and entered the Franciscan convent of Bruisyard in Suffolk. After the dissolution of the monasteries, she lived in Framlingham. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Wentworth, Jane."
BARBARA WENTWORTH (c.1526-1558+)
CECILY WENTWORTH
DOROTHY WENTWORTH (1510-1552)
DOROTHY WENTWORTH (1543-January 3, 1601)
Dorothy Wentworth was the daughter of Thomas, 1st baron Wentworth (1501-March 3,1551) and Margaret Fortescue (c.1502-c.1548). She married three times. Her first husband was Paul Withypole (Wythypole; Wythipool) of Ipswich and Rendlesham, Suffolk. In April 1591 (Oxford DNB says 1590), in Whitwood, Yorkshire, she married Sir Martin Frobisher (c.1535-November 1594) as his second wife. Later she married Sir John Savile of Methley (1545-February 2, 1607) as his third of four wives. By her first husband, she had children Paul, Edmond, Elizabeth, and Mary. Portrait: Dorothy may be the subject of the painting c.1567 sometimes called Dorothy Wentworth, Mrs. Tollemache (her aunt), assuming the inscription as to age was added later and is inaccurate.
ELIZABETH WENTWORTH (c.1470-c.1542)
ELIZABETH WENTWORTH
JANE WENTWORTH (c.1539-April 16, 1614)
MARGARET WENTWORTH (d.1587/8)
MARGERY WENTWORTH (c.1478-October 18, 1550)
Margery Wentworth was the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk (d.1499) and Anne Say or Saye (d.c.1494). Margery was sent to join the household of her mother’s half sister, Elizabeth Tylney, countess of Surrey, at Sheriff Hutton Castle, Yorkshire, and was there at the time poet John Skelton was writing his poem the Garland of Laurel in praise of the countess and her ladies. The work included a shorter piece titled “To Mistress Margery Wentworth.” One of the lines is “Benign, courteous, and meek, With words well devised; In you, who list to seek, Be virtues well comprised.” On October 22, 1494 Margery married Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire (1474-December 21,1536). Their children were: John (d. 1510), Edward (1502-x.January 22,1552), Henry (d.1578), Thomas (1507-x.March 10,1549), Jane (c.1508-October 24,1537), Elizabeth (1511-June 1563), Dorothy, Margery (d.c.1528), and Anthony (d.c.1528). Although Lady Seymour may have been at court from time to time when Catherine of Aragon was queen, she did not spend time there when her daughter Jane was Queen of England or when her son Edward was duke of Somerset and Lord Protector for her grandson, King Edward VI. She made her home at Wulfhall, even after it passed into the possession of her eldest surviving son on the death of Sir John. It was a small establishment, the usual staff consisting of forty-four menservants and seven servant women, two of the latter nurses for Edward Seymour’s children. When King Henry VIII visited Wulfhall for four days in August 1539, Margery and her grandchildren moved into nearby Tottenham Lodge to make room for the royal party. The king arrived with a retinue of 200 and on the Sunday of the visit the Seymours had to feed some 400 persons. In September 1548, when her daughter-in-law, Katherine Parr, died in childbirth, some sources report that Margery temporarily joined the household of her son Thomas at Sudeley Castle to care for the newborn Mary Seymour. Others accounts have Thomas bringing the child to his brother’s house in London. In letters written at this time to Lady Jane Grey’s parents, in the hope of having Lady Jane returned to his guardianship, Thomas Seymour assured them that he would keep his late wife’s household intact and that his mother take charge of it and treat young Lady Jane as if she were her own daughter. Lady Jane thereafter went to live at Seymour Place, Thomas Seymour’s London house, and one must suppose that Lady Seymour was there also. Only six months later, however, Thomas was executed for treason and his baby daughter was sent to live with Catherine Willoughby, duchess of Suffolk. It is difficult to imagine Margery Seymour’s feelings at that time, especially when it was her older son, Edward, who had sent Thomas to his death. Margery did not live long enough to see Edward executed in his turn, but by the time she died, she must have known that he had many enemies. When he attempted to give her a state funeral, claiming it was her right as the king’s grandmother, the Privy Council refused permission, some say simply to spite the much despised Lord Protector.
ANNE WEST
CECILY or CECILIA WEST
ELEANOR WEST
ELIZABETH WEST
FRANCES WEST
JANE WEST (1558-1621)
ANNE WESTON
see ANNE PICKERING; ANNE SANDYS
ANNE WESTON (d. June 26, 1519)
DOROTHY WESTON
ELIZABETH WESTON
see ELIZABETH LOVETT
ELIZABETH JANE WESTON (November 2,1582-November 23,1612)
Elizabeth Jane Weston was the daughter of Joanna or Jane Cooper of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire (1563-1602) and John Weston (d. May 1582). By April 1583, Joanna was married to Edward Kelley, who worked as an assistant to Dr. John Dee. It has been said that he was paid to marry her to legitimize her children by an aristocratic lover, Elizabeth Jane and her brother John Francis (1580-1600), but there is no proof of this. Kelley and his new wife went abroad with Dee, his wife, and their children. Joanna's children at first remained with their grandmother but later joined their mother and stepfather in Prague. When the Dees returned to England, the Kelleys remained behind. Kelley was, for a time, high in the favor of Emperor Rudolph II, but he was imprisoned in 1591 for killing a man and is believed to have died around 1597. From that point onward, especially after the death of her brother three years later, Elizabeth Jane and her mother were in dire financial straits. She wrote letters appealing to members of the court for aid and also began to write poems in Latin. Poemata was published in 1602. She had been well educated and spoke German, Greek, Latin, Italian, and all the Czech languages and was welcomed into literary circles as the "new Sappho." In April 1603, she married Johannes Leo, a lawyer and courtier. They had four sons, all of whom died young, and three daughters. Known professionally as “Westonia” and famous as “an English maiden,” she described herself in 1610 as “Elizabeth Jane, wife of Johannes Leo, Agent in the Imperial Court and Englishwoman of the Weston family.” She died in childbirth (the Oxford DNB says of consumption) and was buried in the Church of St. Thomas in Prague. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Weston, Elizabeth Jane." Portraits: J. Balzer engraving from an edition of her poems (1677); drawing in Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany.
ISABEL WETHERSTONE
AGNES WHARTON (d.1566+)
ANNE WHARTON
see ANNE RADCLIFFE; ANNE TALBOT
DOROTHY WHARTON
ANNE WHEATHILL (d.1584+)
ELIZABETH WHETEHILL
MARGARET WHETEHILL (1446-1518+)
ALICE WHITAKER (c.1542-x. August 20, 1612)
BRIDGET WHITE
FRANCES WHITE (d.1569)
Frances White was the daughter of Sir Thomas White of South Warnborough, Hampshire (d. November 2, 1566), Master of Requests to Queen Mary, and Agnes White (daughter of Robert White of Farnham, Surrey). She married Francis Yate of Lyford Grange, Berkshire (1548-1588) but she was not the Mrs. Yate at Lyford Grange when Edmund Campion was arrested there. See JANE TICHBORNE for details.
JOAN WHITE
MARY or MARIA WHITE (c.1500-c.1587)
SUSAN WHITE (before 1510-1566)
Susan White was the daughter of Richard White of Hutton Hall, Essex and Maud Tyrell. As early as 1525, Susan may have been in the service of Mary Tudor, remaining with Mary until she was dismissed in late 1533. By 1534, she had married Thomas Tonge, Clarencieux King-at-arms (d.March 1536) and she is better known to history as Susan or Susanna Clarence, Clarencius, or Clarencieux. In June 1536, when Mary’s household was reorganized, Susan was one of the three women Mary asked for by name. In 1544, Susan received an annuity of £13 and the grant of Chevenhall. When Mary became queen, Susan was named Mistress of Robes, a new position that combined the duties of Yeoman of the Wardrobe and Groom of the Stole. This title is questioned by Charlotte Merton in her The Women who served Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. She argues that there was no such official position until the reign of James I. In 1554, Susan was granted Chingford Earls and Chingford St. Pauls. In 1555, she was the only one present when the recently imprisoned Elizabeth Tudor met with her half sister the queen. A story told in Linda Porter's First Queen of England paints Susan as somewhat conniving and greedy. She persuaded the Venetian ambassador, Michieli, to make a gift to Queen Mary of his coach and horses, after which Mary turned around and presented them to Susan. She received many gifts from Queen Mary, both grants of land in Essex and the wardships of William Latham of Essex and Robert Stapleton of Yorkshire. She is recorded as having spent 16s. at the sale of Archbishop Cranmer's possessions in 1553, for an old Turkish "foot carpet" and a carpet for a sideboard. Susan was with Mary when the queen died on November 17, 1558 and the dying Mary gave her further gifts to insure her future. Susan transferred her English properties to her brother, Richard, before leaving the country in August,1559 in the household of Jane Dormer, countess of Feria, where she appears to have remained until her death. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Tonge [née White], Susan;" Jennifer Ann Rowley-Williams, chapter in Image and Reality: the Lives of Aristocratic Women in Early Tudor England (unpublished PhD dissertation, 1998).
MARGERY WHITEHAND
ISABEL WHITEHEAD (before 1515-March 18, 1588)
Isabel Whitehead was a nun at Arthington Priory, Yorkshire at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The prioress, Elizabeth Hall, age 45, surrendered the priory on November 26, 1540. She received a pension of £35 but the eight nuns in her charge received considerably less. They ranged in age from 25 to 72. Dame Isabel is likely to have been one of the younger nuns, since she lived another forty-eight years. Isabel lived for a time with Lady Middleton of Stockeld, probably the third wife and widow of William Middleton (d.1552). After Lady Middleton’s death, Isabel “wandered up and down doing charitable work” until she went to live with Katherine Ingleby (d.1600+), wife (or more probably widow) of Sir William Ardington of Ardington Hall. By this time Dame Isabel was quite elderly (even seventy-two would have been considered ancient in the sixteenth century) and in poor health. At Michaelmas 1586, the Ardington house was searched for Catholics. Mrs. Ardington and her daughter, Jane (or Anne) (1556-1606), the wife of Sir Ralph Grey, were taken into custody and the searchers badgered Dame Isabel, who lay sick in her bed, threatening her with swords and saying that they would kill her if she did not tell them were David Ingleby (Mrs. Ardington’s brother) and a Mr. Winsour were. Winsour was Edward Windsor, son of the 3rd Lord Windsor, who was David Ingleby's co-conspirator in the Babington Plot. The searchers finally arrested Dame Isabel and took her off to prison in York Castle. She died there the following March and was buried “under the castle walls.” As for Mrs. Ardington, she was at large and entertaining another houseguest during the years 1597-1600, when she was living at Harwell Hall. This was her kinswoman Mary Ward, granddaughter of one Ursula Wright (born Ursula Rudson) (d.1594). Ursula had spent fourteen years imprisoned for her religious beliefs, at least part of that time in company with Katherine Ardington.
JOAN WHITELOCKE
ELIZABETH WHITLOK
BLANCHE WHITNEY
see BLANCHE MILBORNE
ELINOR WHITNEY (c.1550-March 1596)
ISABELLA WHITNEY (c.1540-1580+)
Isabella Whitney was the daughter of Geoffrey Whitney of Coole Pilate, Cheshire (c.1520-1587). Her brother, a second Geoffrey (c.1548-c.1601), was an emblem book writer. Isabella's original poetic works were “The Copie of a letter, lately written in Meeter by a yonge gentilwoman to her inconstant louer by Is. W.” (1567) and “A Sweet Nosgay, or pleasant Posye containing a hundred and ten Phylosophicall Flowers” (1573). According to some genealogies, she married a man named Eldershae and had two children.Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Whitney, Isabella."
ANNE WHITTLE (c.1535-x. August 20, 1612)
ANNE WHORWOOD (d. June 1, 1552)
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all material ©2008-11 Kathy Lynn
Emerson (all rights reserved)
see ELIZABETH ROLLESTON
see MARGARET SEYMOUR
see JOAN THORNBURY
Avis Waldegrave, sometimes called Alice, was the daughter of Sir William Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall, Suffolk (d. August 17, 1613) and Elizabeth Mildmay (d.1581). She married Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex (1559-1604) and was the mother of Edward (March 3, 1579-July 20, 1625), Anne (c.1581-April 18, 1592), Hercules Francis (c.1585-November 1661), Elizabeth (b. July 1, 1589), William (July 9, 1590-July 9, 1650), Penelope (January 28, 1591-March 26, 1650), and Alice (July 8, 1595-May 14, 1596). She and her husband lived at Bedfords while her mother-in-law, Anne Caunton, remained at the family seat, Gidea Hall. According to Marjorie K. McIntosh’s articles on the Cooke family, Avis was aggressive, articulate, and clever when it came to both business and politics. This did not prevent the family’s descent into financial difficulties, however. In 1612, she was obliged to allow her son Edward to sell off some of the lands she held for life.
Bridget Waldegrave was the daughter of Sir William Waldegrave of Bures (1464-1527) and Margery Wentworth (d.1540). Her first husband was William Findern/Fyndhorne of Little Horkesley, Essex (d.1523). After his death she married John, 2nd baron Marney (1493-April 27, 1525) and became the stepmother of his two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth. She had no children of her own. When her mother died, she left her samplers, damask and Venetian gold cloth, unwrought silk, and weaving goods to her daughters, "that their young folks may therewith be well occupied." Bridget continued the tradition in her will, leaving samplers, unworked silk and gold, weaving stools, and everything else belonging to her "silk works" to two nieces, who were also her goddaughters (one was Bridget Spring, daughter of Sir John Spring), to "well occupy themselves." This tidbit comes from English Aristocratic Women 1450-1550 by Barbara J. Harris. In her “Sisterhood, Friendship and the Power of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550" in Women and Politics in Early Modern England, 1450-1700, edited by James Daybell, she reports that Bridget named her sister, Dame Dorothy Spring (1500-1564), as her co-executor and left her a gold ring with a sapphire. In "The Fabric of Piety: Aristocratic Women and Care of the Dead, 1450-1550" in The Journal of British Studies 48 (April 2008), Harris again quotes Bridget, this time in connection with the wishes she expressed in her will with regard to her burial. She ordered that a brass depicting one husband on each side of her "shew the time of my decease and of what stock I came of and to what men of worship I was married unto."
see FRANCES NEVILLE
see GRISEL PAGET
Mary Waldegrave was the daughter of William Waldegrave of Smallbridge Hall, Suffolk (d. August 17, 1613) and Elizabeth Mildmay (d.1581). She married Sir Thomas Clopton of Kentwell Hall, Suffolk (d.1597) on September 13, 1590. Their children were Elizabeth (b.1591), William (February 27, 1592-1618), Mary (b.1594), and Walter (1596-1627). Portrait: c.1600 by Robert Peake.
Elizabeth Walden was the daughter of Richard Walden of Erith, Kent (1465-June 1539) and his second wife, Margery Wogan or Hogan. In about 1512, Elizabeth married, as his second wife, George Talbot, 4th earl of Shrewsbury (1468-July 26, 1538). They had two children, John (b.1514) and Anne (March 18, 1523-July 18, 1588). When the earl died he made provision for a marble tomb at Sheffield with three images, "the third to be of my wife that now is on my left hand with her mantel and arms." His will, made on August 21, 1537 and proved January 13, 1538/9, is a very long document making bequests to his children and others and disposing of property. His "right entirely beloved dame Elizabeth my wife" was left various items of plate and furniture, property, and the wardship of Peter Compton, who was already married to their daughter Anne. Elizabeth was to have the governance of both Peter and Anne, as well as custody of the manors that made up his inheritance. Shrewsbury also specified that Elizabeth should have "all jewels, rings, chains, brooches, girdles, stones, and apparel which she now hath as they were entered in a book by particular parcels, also four caskets covered with iron with all jewels in the same, and all money contained in the same caskets." He also left Elizabeth's waiting gentlewoman, Elizabeth Powell, "three score angel nobles for her diligent service unto me." Elizabeth, although represented in effigy at Sheffield, was buried with her family in Erith, Kent. Portrait: effigy; drawing of same.
see ETHELRED or AUDREY SHELTON.jpg)
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see JOYCE DENNY
see ANNE GATENBY; ANNE SYMONDS
Margaret Ward was born in Congleton, Cheshire. For providing Father Richard Watson with a rope and a ladder so that he could escape from Bridewell Prison, she was arrested, tortured for several days, and finally hanged at Tyburn, thus becoming a Catholic martyr. She was canonized on October 25, 1970. Very little is known about her background. She was said to be a gentlewoman. While in London, she lived with a lady named Whitall or Whittel.
Katherine Warneford, widow of Thomas Warneford of Sevenhampton, Berkshire, was the third wife of Christopher Ashton (d.1561+), widower of Lady Catherine Gordon. They married around 1540. In 1556, when Ashton became involved in a plot to overthrow Queen Mary, his goods were confiscated. They were given to one Walter Loveden, who had initially been in on the plot with Ashton but who was pardoned on February 10, 1557, probably for turning state’s evidence. In 1565, by which time Katherine was married to her third husband, Robert Temple, she brought a bill of complaint against Loveden in an attempt to recover some of the Ashton property.
Margaret Warner was the daughter of Richard Warner, who appears to held the post of exchequer teller until 1544 when the reversion of that office was granted to his son-in-law, Nicholas Brigham (d. December 1558). Margaret's mother was Warner's wife, Margaret (d.1557+), who remarried after 1544, taking as her second husband Hugh Mynors (1511-1557). By Brigham, Margaret had one child, Rachel (d.1557). In 1556, Margaret may have been romantically involved with William Hunnis (d.1597), a musician in the Chapel Royal. The Oxford DNB entry on Hunnis calls him one of Brigham's friends. In early February 1556, Hunnis was recruited by the members of the so-called Dudley Conspiracy in the hope that he would use his connection to the Brighams to help them rob the exchequer. How much Margaret knew of this plans is impossible to say. Hunnis was arrested on March 18, 1556 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He confessed and was indicted on April 29, 1556 but was not executed. In May 1558, Brigham received an annuity of £50. In August of that year, it was extended to Margaret in survivorship. By the end of the year, he was dead. As for William Hunnis, if he had not been released before then, he was certainly freed when Elizabeth Tudor took the throne. He married Margaret at Thaxted, Essex on April 26, 1559, but she did not live long afterward. Her will, naming him as her executor, was proved on October 12, 1559.
see JOAN TRELAKE
Isabel Warsop (called Isabella Worpfall in the Oxford DNB entry for her husband) married first a knight named Taverson, by whom she had at least two daughters. He left her a wealthy widow and at some point after the death of his first wife on December 28, 1522, she married Sir Richard Gresham (c.1485-February 21, 1549), who was Lord Mayor of London in 1537-8. Although some sources say she was not the mother of any of the Gresham children, the Oxford DNB records that in October 1532, when one of her daughters died of an unspecified illness, Isabella and her son by Gresham were also extremely ill. At the time of his death, Gresham owned Inwood Hall, Norfolk, Ringshall, Suffolk, Orembery, Yorkshire, and a house in London, together valued at £800 per annum. He died at his house in Bethnal Green and was buried in St. Laurence Jewry. According to Anne F. Sutton, The Mercery of London, on May 10, 1550, Isabel purchased a mansion in Lad Lane (Milk Street) from the Mercers, together with five other tenements. Its value as a rental was £13 10s/year. In 1551, she began to make gifts to the Mercers' Company and continued to do so until her death. These included her mansion and the tenements that went with it, which were given in spite of opposition from her stepson, Sir Thomas Gresham.
Eleanor Washbourne was the daughter of Norman Washbourne of Wichenford, Worcester (d.1479) and Elizabeth Kniveton or Kynaston (c.1425-1454). She married Sir Richard Scrope (d.1485), a younger son of Lord Scrope of Bolton, in 1467. Their children were Stephen, Anne, Elizabeth (d. June 26, 1537), Eleanor, Margaret (d.1515), Mary (d. August 15, 1548), Katherine, Dorothy, and Jane (d.1521+). Her second husband was Sir John Wyndham of Felbrigg, Norfolk, who was beheaded on May 6, 1502. They had one child, a daughter named Frances (d.1505+). In accordance with her first husband's will, the manor of Bentley was to be sold for the benefit of their daughters. Sir John Wyndham bought the estate and two other Scrope manors for £1000 and bequeathed that amount to Katherine, Mary, and Jane Scrope for their marriages. Eleanor's will was written on December 11, 1505 at Carowe. She asked to be buried in the Austin Friars at Norwich beside the high altar. She left her best feather bed and other furniture to her daughter Elizabeth, and a black velvet gown furred with marten to her daughter Eleanor, who had married Wyndham's son, Thomas. To her unmarried daughters from her first marriage—Anne, Mary, and Jane—she left "all the residue of my array and household stuff not before bequeathed." The will was proved in January 1506.
Joyce Washbourne was the daughter of Norman Washbourne of Wichenford, Worcester (d.1479) and Elizabeth Kniveton or Kynaston (c.1425-1454). She married first, as his second wife, Sir Robert Percy of Scotton, Yorkshire (d.1485) and then John Holmes of Aldborough, Yorkshire (d.1504). Joyce made her will on August 3, 1519 and it was proved May 8, 1520, leaving bequests to her daughter, Mary More, and her "sons" Robert, Francis, and John, although the wording of the will is confusing and Robert and John may refer to her godsons, Robert Garthome and John Thorpp. "To Elizabeth Dobson if she be with me at my departing," she left "a featherbed with a bolster, a pair of blankets, a pair of sheets . . . two pair of linen sheets . . . a pair of harden sheets . . . with a coverlet." She also made arrangements for perpetual prayers to be said for herself, her two husbands, her parents, her sister Eleanor, and "Dame Anne the Countess of Shrewsbury." The latter would be Anne Hastings, who died c.1512 and suggests that Joyce might have been in her service at one time.
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Mary Waters was the daughter of Robert Waters of Lenham, Kent (c.1500-1565) and Katherine Bright of Royton. She married Robert Honywood or Honeywood of Charing, Kent in February 1543. They had sixteen children—Robert, Katherine, Priscilla, Anthony, Thomas, Mary, Anne, Grace, Arthur, Walter, Elizabeth, Susan, Bennett, Dorothy, Isaack, and Joyce. During the reign of Queen Mary, she visited prisons to give comfort to the heretics held there. She attended at least one execution by burning. From the age of forty, Mary supposedly suffered from consumption but since she lived to be ninety-three, this seems to have been an inaccurate diagnosis. In 1591, having believed herself to be possessed by a devil for more than a dozen years, she was exorcised by one William Hacket, later revealed to be a charlatan. In 1605 her son Robert bought Marks Hall, where Mary spent the rest of her life. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Honeywood [née Waters], Mary.” Portraits: 1597; 1605; line engraving.
Lucy Watts was the daughter of London grocer John Watts or Wattes and his wife Alice Gate. She appears to have had three husbands. Certainly, her first husband, married in 1521, was John Petyt/Petit/Pettyt/Petty (d.1532), warden of the Grocer's Company, a wealthy man who was proprietor of several wharfs and landing stages near London Bridge. He was also a Lutheran and suspected of financing William Tyndale. His house at London Quay was searched for banned books and he was taken to the Tower of London, where he "caught his death" and died. His will, which was proved on January 24, 1532/3 made Lucy his executor and mentions young children but does not give their names. The History of Parliament says they had at least one son and two daughters. Lucy appealed for assistance to Thomas Cromwell. Then she married John Parnell, a London draper, to help her fight legal battles connected to her late husband's estate. Parnell waged a long and costly lawsuit against Sir Thomas More which he eventually lost. He also tried and failed to charge More with corruption. He did, however, eventually triumph over More, in that he served on the jury that convicted More of treason in 1535. With no mention of Parnell, numerous online genealogies state that Lucy, widow of John Petyt, married, as his second wife, William Bolles (1495-March 2, 1582) of Wortham, Suffolk. Some date the marriage c.1537, others c.1540. If the earlier date is correct, then Lucy was probably the mother of all four of Bolles's children, William, Boneventine, Mary, and Benjamin (1542-November 22, 1582). According to one account, Lucy was buried at Worksop on March 16, 1560/61. Another says the date of her death, as given on her monument, is November 28, 1558.
see ELIZABETH NORRIS
see MARTHA SHAKLETON
see MARY SLANEY
According to John Bellamy's Strange, Unnatural Deaths: Murder in Tudor England, Anne Welles was a young woman of London who was courted by rival goldsmiths, John Brewen and John Parker. When Brewen realized he was unlikely to be successful in his suit, he asked Anne to return the gifts he had given her. When she refused, he had her arrested. Parker, meanwhile, had gotten Anne with child and refused to marry her. She offered to marry Brewen if he would withdraw the charges against her and they were duly wed. This apparently revived Parker's interest and he persuaded her that he would marry her if she killed her husband. Her first attempt to poison him was made after they’d been married only three days. After their wedding night, she vowed not to live with him until he got another house. She returned at night to her own lodgings and even continued to go by her maiden name. In spite of this, Brewen ate poisoned sugar sops she gave him and apparently did not make the connection between eating them and falling violently ill. Randall Martin, in Women, Murder and Equity in Early Modern England, identifies sugar sops as pancakes. When Brewen died, it was attributed to natural causes and the child she later bore was assumed to be Brewen's. For the next two years, she had a sexual relationship with Parker, but he refused to marry her. When she again became pregnant, they were overheard arguing and eventually the truth came out about her husband's murder. After Anne's second child was born, she was tried and convicted of Brewen's murder and sentenced to be burned at Smithfield, after watching Parker's execution by hanging. An account of the crime was written by Thomas Kyd the playwright. For more details from that source, see Bellamy's book, pp. 53-55. Portrait: title page of "The trueth of the most wicked and secret murthering of John Brewen, Goldsmith of London, committed by his owne wife . . . " (actually a woodcut recycled from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
see CECILY PLANTAGENET
see JOAN HILL
see ALICE MORIN
Katherine Wells was prioress at Littlemore in Oxfordshire by 1507. It was a small priory with only five nuns in 1517. Around 1509, she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter. The father was Richard Hewes, chaplain of Littlemore. He was a priest in Kent who visited the convent two or three times a year. Katherine kept her daughter with her and sold priory property to provide a dowry for the child. She also gave priory plate to Hewes. A visitation to the priory on June 17, 1517 resulted in charges that she had a child of seven or eight and that she would not give Hewes up because she loved him. Hewes was due to return in his role as chaplain around the first of August. Another complaint against her was that she was excessive in her punishments, putting nuns in the stocks if they criticized her. One of her nuns, Julian Wynter, apparently took her prioress as a role model. She had engaged in a love affair with a married man, John Wikisley of Oxford, and had given birth c. 1516 to his illegitimate child. When Katherine was examined by the bishop, she at first she denied the charges against her. Then she confessed to having given birth to a daughter but said the child had died four years earlier. Remarkably, although Katherine was deposed as prioress, she was allowed to continue to perform the functions of the office. One of the first things she did was put one of the nuns, Anne Willye, in the stocks for a month. And she continued her affair with Hewes. When the bishop visited on September 2, 1518, he found matters at Littlemore worse than before. When Elizabeth Wynter offended Katherine by playing games with some boys in the cloister, Katherine beat her and put her in the stocks. The other nuns rescued her, burnt the stocks, and broke a window to escape the priory and go stay at the house of one Inglyshe for two or three weeks. In 1524, Cardinal Wolsey recommended that the priory be dissolved and this was done in February 1525. As prioress, Katherine Wells received a pension of £6 13s.4d.
see JANE WEST
Anne Wentworth was the daughter and heir of Sir John Wentworth of Gosfield, Essex (d.1567) and Anne Bettenham, her siblings having all died by about 1554. She married Sir Hugh Rich (d. November 1, 1554) and then, in mid-April 1555, Henry Fitzalan, Lord Maltravers (1538-June 30, 1556). He was sent on a mission to the King of Bohemia shortly after their marriage and died in Brussels. Anne's third husband was William Deane. In 1579, Lady Maltravers entertained Queen Elizabeth at Gosfield. She was buried there on January 20, 1580/1, next to her first husband.
Barbara Wentworth was the daughter of Roger Wentworth of Hamthwaite, Adwick-le-Street (d.1551). In 1531, when she was four or five years old, she was betrothed to eight-year-old Anthony Norman of Arksey. When Barbara reached the age of consent, she rejected the match and in May 1549, she pursued a claim for a formal annulment. In January 1550, she married Robert Holgate, archbishop of York (1481/2-November 15, 1555). The legality of this marriage was almost immediately challenged by Anthony Norman, with the result that the Holgates were summoned to appear before the Privy Council in November 1551. The marriage was apparently accepted, and they had a son, Robert, but in October 1553, Holgate was arrested for being a married priest and on March 16, 1554, he was deprived of his see. He recanted and repudiated his wife and was released in January 1555. In his Apology, he claimed he’d been forced into marrying Barbara because of pressure from the duke of Somerset and the earl of Warwick (later duke of Northumberland) and that marrying her was an error in judgment. According to Mary Prior in "Reviled and crucified marriages: the position of Tudor bishops' wives," in Women in English Society 1500-1800 (edited by Mary Prior), in spite of her repudiation, Barbara Holgate was still in possession of Scrooby in 1558, holding it in survivorship after Holgate died.
see CECILY UNTON
Dorothy Wentworth was the daughter of Richard Wentworth (d. October 17, 1528) and Anne Tyrrell (c.1479-1529+) and the sister of the first baron Wentworth. She married Sir Leonard Tollemache of Helmingham, Suffolk, by whom she had Lionel (1545-1575), Mary (d.1606), and Cecily. In some accounts she is incorrectly identified as the subject of a portrait painted in 1567 by the Master of the Countess of Warwick. Her age makes it impossible for her to have been the sitter, who is identified as being forty-three. This also makes the subject too old to be Dorothy’s daughter-in-law, Susan Jermyn (d.1597). Queen Elizabeth visited Dorothy at Helmingham on her 1561 progress.
Elizabeth Wentworth was the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead (c.1494-October 17, 1528) and Anne Saye (d.c.1494). She married first, in 1499, Roger Darcy of Danbury, Essex (1478-September 30, 1508), squire of the body to Henry VII, by whom she had Thomas (1506-June 28, 1558), Elizabeth, Thomasine, Eleanor, and Margaret. On August 1, 1509, the king granted her a license to remarry and she took as her second husband Thomas Wyndham of Felbrigg, Norfolk (d.1522). They had a son, Thomas (d. March 1554). In his will, written on October 22, 1521 and proved March 4, 1523, Wyndham left his stepdaughters, Margaret and Elizabeth £200 each as a marriage portion. To his wife, he left his manors of Bentley and Hamethwayte in Yorkshire, Melton Constable, Aylmerton, and Runton in Norfolk, and the manor-place of Felbrigg for life. She also received household goods and plate and various rents. If she remarried, some of these bequests reverted to his eldest son by his first wife. In fact, Elizabeth did remarry, becoming the third wife of John Bourchier, earl of Bath (July 20, 1470-April 30, 1539).
see ELIZABETH CECIL; ELIZABETH NEVILLE
Jane Wentworth was the daughter of Thomas Wentworth, 1st baron Wentworth (1501-March 3, 1551) and Margaret Fortescue (c.1502-c.1548). In about 1565, she married Henry Cheney, Baron Cheney of Toddington (May 31, 1540-September 3, 1587). They had no children. Henry Cheke dedicated his Freewyl to Lady Cheney and she employed the madrigalisst Henry Lichfield at her home from c.1586-1614. He dedicated "The firste set of madrigals in 5 parts" to her in 1613. One one occasion (undated), she hosted an entertainment attended by the earl and countess of Kent and Sir John and Lady Crofts. Portraits: c.1563 by Hans Eworth (tentatively identified as Jane); effigy at Toddington, Bedfordshire.
Margaret Wentworth was the daughter of Thomas, 1st baron Wentworth (1501-March 3, 1550/1551) and Margaret Fortescue (c.1502-c.1548). By a settlement dated April 19, 1557 she married, as his second wife, John, baron Williams of Thame (1500-November 15, 1559). She acquired Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire in the marriage settlement. They had one daughter. Margaret was at court as a lady of the privy chamber early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Lord Williams left his widow several manors and his house at Elsingspital, together with cups given him by the queen, the duchess of Norfolk, and the second earl of Bedford. Less than a year after the death of her first husband, on October 10, 1560, she married William Drury (October 2, 1527-October 13, 1579), by whom she had Jane, Anne, and Elizabeth. He was knighted in 1570 and died of illness while serving as Lord Deputy of Ireland. In 1580, she married James Croft (d. September 4, 1624), third son of Sir James Croft of Croft Castle, Herefordshire, who had been on Sir William's staff in Ireland. They settled at Weston-on-the-Green in the summer of 1580. Portrait: Dr. Roy Strong has suggested that the portrait by Hans Eworth, long believed to be Margaret Clifford, countess of Derby, is really Margaret Wentworth. Given its similarities to the probable portrait of her sister Jane, this is a reasonable assumption.The coat of arms was added much later and isn't right for either Margaret.
see ANNE CRESACRE; ANNE KNOLLYS
see CECILY or CECILIA SHERLEY
see ELEANOR COPLEY
see ELIZABETH BONVILLE
see FRANCES FITZLEWIS
Jane West was the daughter of William West, created Baron de la Warr in 1570 (1519-December 30, 1595) and Elizabeth Strange (1534-1561+). According to the story reported in The Chronicle of St. Monica's, Jane fell in love with one of her father's gentlemen, James Cressy. Finding this an unsuitable match, de la Warr sent the young man away and married his daughter to Sir Thomas Wenman of Thame Park and Twyford, Buckinghamshire (c.1550-July 22, 1577) on June 1, 1572. Jane bore her husband two sons, Richard (1573-1640) and Ferdinando (d.1610). After his death, she took matters into her own hands and married Cressy, by whom she had one child, a daughter named Lettice. Following Cressy's death, Jane married again, on January 16, 1588, Sir Thomas Tasburgh of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire (1554-January 1603). Sir Thomas had no children, but he arranged the marriage of his nephew and heir, John Tasburgh of Flixton, Norfolk, to Jane's daughter, Lettice. The young couple were wed in around 1595. Following Tasburgh's death, Jane married a fourth time, choosing as her husband Sir Ralph Sheldon of Beoley, Worcestershire (d.1613). Sheldon was a manufacturer of tapestry maps. Although Jane was brought up in the Church of England, her second husband apparently converted her to Catholicism and their daughter was raised in that faith. A portrait exists of Lettice, Lady Tasburgh, with six of her children, four girls and two boys, painted around 1605. When the oldest girl, Agnes, wished to become a nun, it was her grandmother, Jane West, who helped her travel abroad and join St. Monica's at the age of twenty-five. Portrait: c.1593-5. (also shown below is the portrait of Lettice and her children.)
Anne Weston was the daughter of Sir Edmund Weston of Boston, Lincolnshire and Catherine Camell. She was a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon. In October 1511, when she married Ralph Verney of Pendley (c.1482-May 8, 1525), also a member of the queen's household, Queen Catherine gave her a dowry of 200 marks. The Weston children were Anne, Catherine (1516-July 22, 1553), Francis, Eleanor, Edward or Edmund, and possibly another son. Anne and her husband were buried in Albury, Hertfordshire.
see DOROTHY ARUNDELL
see ISABEL PATE
Agnes Wharton was the daughter of Thomas, 1st baron Wharton (d. August 23, 1568) and Eleanor Stapleton. She was betrothed to Henry Curwen but married Richard Musgrave of Hartley, Westmorland and Edenhall, Cambridgeshire (August 1524-September 1555). Her father was briefly his guardian in 1544-5 and they were probably married during that period. They had two children, Thomas (June 1546-March 3, 1565/6) and Eleanor (d. July 24, 1623). Agnes was granted the wardship of her son on May 1, 1556. In 1566, after he died, his great uncle, Simon Musgrave, claimed that Agnes had been married to Curwen and that her children with Richard Musgrave were therefore illegitimate, making him (Simon) the Musgrave heir. The archbishop of Canterbury set up a commission to investigate. They ruled in favor of Agnes and her daughter.
see DOROTHY COLBY
Anne Wheathill (also spelled Whethill, Whetehill, and Whettles) was a gentlewoman, probably unmarried, who published a collection of forty-nine prayers titled A Handfull of Holesome (though Homelie) Hearbs in 1584. The Oxford DNB entry under "Wheathill, Anne" adds no further biographical information.
see ELIZABETH MUSTON
Margaret Whetehill was the daughter of Richard Whetehill (1410-1484/5) of Earl's Barton and Sywell, Northamptonshire, London, and Calais, where he served as mayor, and his wife Joan. In 1464, in Calais, she married Thomas Walden of London, Walden, Essex, and Deptford and Erith, Kent (1439-June 1474), by whom she had three children, Sir Richard (1465-June 1539), John, and Jane. Like her father, her husband as a merchant of the staple of Calais. Her second husband was John Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter (January 1, 1452-November 24, 1496), to whom she was married before July 6, 1475. Their children were Robert, 1st earl of Sussex (1483-1542), Mary (d. by 1512), Bridget, Ursula, Jane (a nun) and Anne. Even though her husband was beheaded for treason in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, Margaret was a lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York until 1503 and may have been the Lady Fitzwalter who was among Catherine of Aragon’s ladies at the funeral of King Henry VII in 1509, although from July 1505 there was a second Lady Fitzwalter, her daughter-in-law, Lady Elizabeth Stafford. John Radcliffe's attainder was reversed in 1504 and the manors of Southmere, Docking, Billingford, and East Rushton, Norfolk were settled on his widow for life. The last mention of Margaret in official records is in the marriage settlement of her daughter Anne to Sir Walter Hubert (or Hobart), dated July 6, 1518.
Alice Whitaker was the daughter of Giles Whitaker of Huncoat, Lancashire. In c.1560/61 she married Richard Nutter of Roughlee (d.1584). They had five children, Miles (1565-1633), John, James, Richard, and Elizabeth. As a widow, Alice lived at Crow Trees. In 1612, Alice was accused of helping kill a neighbor, Henry Minton, by witchcraft. She refused to speak in her own defense. It has been suggested that she kept silent to protect Catholic friends. Another possibility is that she was suffering from age-related dementia and had little idea what was going on.
see BRIDGET BRADSHAW
see JOAN TRELAKE
Mary White was the daughter of William White of Reading, Berkshire (c.1460-1523), a clothier, and Mary Kibblewhite of Fawley, Berkshire (d.1523). Her brother, Thomas (1492-1567), was Lord Mayor of London in 1553 and founder of St. John’s College, Oxford. Mary wed twice, first to John Bridgman or Bridgeman (c.1465-c.1557), by whom she had two daughters, Katherine (b.c.1530) and Anne (b.c.1531), and two sons, William and Edward, and then to William Matthew or Mathew (d.1565), a mercer who moved from Abingdon to Oxford in 1558, apparently at about the time he married Mrs. Bridgman. He was mayor of Oxford when he died. As his widow, Mary Mercer took over her late husband’s business. She set a record among women who took apprentices by having twelve of them during her widowhood. Portrait: painted while she was still Mrs. Bridgman.
see MARGERY FREEMAN
see JOAN COLTE
see ELIZABETH ROLLESTON
Elinor Whitney was the daughter of James Whitney of Clifford (c.1500-1564) and his first wife, Sybil Parry. She married Richard Bull on October 14, 1571 at St. Mary-le-Bow, London. Bull was sub-bailiff at Sayes Court, the manor house of Deptford, Kent, a village less than a mile from Greenwich Palace, and owned his own house with a garden. In 1589, Elinor inherited £100 from her “cousin” Blanche Parry, the queen’s lady in waiting. [NOTE: Blanche’s biographer says Elinor was the granddaughter of James and Sybil, not the daughter, but does not say who her parents were.] Richard Bull died in April of 1590, whereupon his widow seems to have begun to take in lodgers. Contrary to some reports, she did not run a tavern on Deptford Strand. It was at her house that, on May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe met three other men and was killed in a quarrel over a reckoning. One of the four men, probably Ingram Frizer, was Elinor’s lodger. Elinor was mentioned in trial records, but not involved in the crime. She had no children. She was buried at St. Nicholas, Deptford, with her husband.
Anne Whittle, known as "Old Chattox," was one of the Pendle Witches. According to the account in John A. Clayton’s The Lancashire Witch Conspiracy, her parents were probably Christopher Whittiles (d.1567+) and Jeneta Whyttle (c.1576). Or else she took her name from the area she came from—Whitelea. She seems to have had three daughters by a man named Ellis Brown (d.1576)—Agnes or Anne, Jeneta, and Elizabeth. Anne Whittle is said to have become a witch around 1565. Her eldest daughter, Anne, married Thomas Redferne. She was also accused of being a witch, a charge Anne Whittle vehemently denied in court. It is possible that Anne Redferne was the victim of a vindictive young man whose demand for sexual favors she’d turned down.
Anne Whorwood was the daughter of William Whorwood (d. May 18, 1545), attorney general of England, and his first wife, Cassandra Grey. She became the first wife of Lord Ambrose Dudley. Very little is known about her, but her unexpected death at Otford, Kent was described in considerable detail in a letter from her father-in-law, John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, to Sir William Cecil. Some sources, especially older ones, say this death and description were of Northumberland’s own daughter, Temperance, who died at age seven, but that is not the case. Anne had been ill, seemed to be recovering, and suddenly took a turn for the worse. Curiously, one sources says she left behind a daughter, Margaret, by a first husband whose surname was Whorwood and that the child became Northumberland’s ward, but the entry for William Whorwood in The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1509-1558, makes it clear that Ambrose's wife, Anne Whorwood, was Whorwood's eldest daughter. The Margaret in question was Anne's younger half sister, daughter of Whorwood's second wife, Margaret Brooke (d.1589). 