Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Elizabeth Hardwick

Female Abt 1527 - 1608  (~ 81 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Elizabeth Hardwick 
    Birth Abt 1527  [1
    Gender Female 
    Death 13 Feb 1608  [1, 2
    Burial 4 May 1608  Derby, Derbyshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Person ID I21440  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
    Last Modified 13 Nov 2021 

    Father John Hardwick,   b. Abt 1495, of Hardwick in Ault Hucknall, Derbyshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 29 Jan 1528 (Age ~ 33 years) 
    Mother Elizabeth Leeke   d. Abt 1570 
    Marriage 1512  [3
    Family ID F21312  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 George Talbot   d. 1590 
    Family ID F12749  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Dec 2018 

    Family 2 William Cavendish,   b. 1 May 1508   d. 25 Oct 1557 (Age 49 years) 
    Marriage 20 Aug 1547  Bradgate, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Children 
     1. Elizabeth Cavendish   d. 1582
    +2. Henry Cavendish,   b. 24 Dec 1550, of Tutbury, Staffordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Oct 1616 (Age 65 years)
    +3. Charles Cavendish,   b. Nov 1553, of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 4 Apr 1617 (Age ~ 63 years)
    Family ID F12733  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 12 Apr 2024 

  • Notes 
    • "Bess of Hardwick," later Countess of Shrewsbury.

      From Wikipedia:

      [A] notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series of well-made marriages, she rose to the highest levels of English nobility and became enormously wealthy. Bess was a shrewd business woman, increasing her assets with business interests including mines and glass making workshops.

      She was married four times, firstly to Robert Barlow, who died aged about 14 or 15 on 24 December 1544; secondly to the courtier Sir William Cavendish; thirdly to Sir William St Loe; and lastly to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, sometime keeper to the captive Mary, Queen of Scots. An accomplished needlewoman, Bess joined her husband's captive charge at Chatsworth House for extended periods in 1569, 1570, and 1571, during which time they worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings.

      In 1601, Bess ordered an inventory of the household furnishings including textiles at her three properties at Chatsworth, Hardwick and Chelsea, which survives, and in her will she bequeathed these items to her heirs to be preserved in perpetuity. The 400-year-old collection, now known as the Hardwick Hall textiles, is the largest collection of tapestry, embroidery, canvaswork, and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family. Bess is also well known for her building projects, the most famous of which are: Chatsworth, now the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire (whose family name is Cavendish as they descend from the children of her second marriage), and Hardwick Hall.

  • Sources 
    1. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing.

    2. [S2664] English Genealogy by Anthony Wagner. Third edition, Phillimore, Sussex, 1983., year only.

    3. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013.