Elizabeth Cokayne

Family/Spouse: Lawrence Cheyne. Lawrence (son of William Cheyne and Katherine Pabenham) was born about 1396 in of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, England; died on 31 Dec 1461; was buried in Barnwell Priory, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Philip le Boteler before 1412. Philip (son of Philip le Boteler and Elizabeth) was born about 1388 in of Watton Woodhall in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire, England; died on 5 Nov 1420; was buried in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also spelled Cheney.

Family/Spouse: Frederick Tilney. Frederick (son of Philip Tilney and Isabel Thorpe) was born about 1420 in of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England; died before 11 Nov 1446; was buried in Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Say. John was born in of Baas, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 14 Jul 1489

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire 1449-50. Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire 1463-64, 1474-75. He was a lawyer, admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1445-46.

John married Elizabeth Rempston before 1449. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1412

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Hertford, 1445-46, 1450-51. Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, 1450-51.

Philip married Isabel Willoughby about 1429. Isabel (daughter of Hugh Willoughby and Margaret Freville) died after 1470. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Thomas Howard. Thomas (son of John Howard and Katherine de Moleyns) was born in 1443; died in 1507. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Humphrey Bourchier after 11 Apr 1451. Humphrey (son of John Bourchier and Margery Berners) was born in of Massingham Parva, Norfolk, England; died on 14 Apr 1471 in Barnet, Hertfordshire, England; was buried in Chapel of St. Edmund and St. Thomas the Martyr, Westminster Abbey, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Henry Wentworth. Henry (son of Philip Wentworth and Mary Clifford) was born about 1448; died between 17 Aug 1499 and 27 Feb 1501; was buried in Newhouse Abbey, Lincolnshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Hasilden. John (son of William Hasilden and Elizabeth Daneys) was born about 1448 in of Meldreth, Cambridgeshire, England; died before 1505. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 1435 and 1436, of Watton Woodhall in Watton at Stone, Hertfordshire, England
• Alternate death: Between 6 Sep 1504 and 1 Oct 1504

Notes:

Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, 1490.

John married Constance Vere after 1471. Constance (daughter of Richard Vere and Isabel Greene) died on 16 May 1499 in Astwell in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, England; was buried in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "an impecunious younger son". Comptroller of Calais in 1531.

Family/Spouse: Joyce Culpeper. Joyce (daughter of Richard Culpepper and Isabel Worsley) was born about 1480; died after 1527. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Thomas Boleyn. Thomas (son of William Boleyn and Margaret Butler) was born about 1477 in Hever Castle, Hever, Kent, England; died on 12 Mar 1539; was buried in St. Peter's, Hever, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Margaret Bourchier was lady governess to the children of King Henry VIII of England, the future monarchs Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI, as well as the illegitimate Henry FitzRoy.

Margaret married Thomas Bryan before 1495. Thomas (son of Thomas Bryan and Isabel) was born in of St. John, Hampshire, England; died between 1 Oct 1508 and 30 Jan 1518. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 19 Mar 1533, Calais, France

Notes:

2nd Baron Berners. Lieutenant of Calais from 1520 on. Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1524. On commission from Henry VIII he made English translations of Froissart's Chronicles, the Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius, the History of Arthur of Lyttel Brytaine, and the romance Huon of Bordeaux.

Summoned to Parliament between 14 Oct 1495 and 9 Aug 1529.

"Berners was not present at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, as has been generally stated, but remained with the council in London." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

John married Katherine Howard before 13 May 1490. Katherine (daughter of John Howard and Margaret Chedworth) died on 12 Mar 1536. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Seymour. John was born in of Wolfhall, Wiltshire, England; died on 21 Dec 1536; was buried in Easton Priory, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Francis married Elizabeth Calthorpe before 31 May 1494. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Buried: Wappenham, Northamptonshire, England

Elizabeth married Thomas Lovett before 1491. Thomas (son of Thomas Lovett and Anne Drayton) was born on 29 Sep 1473 in Astwell in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, England; was christened in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, England; died on 14 Dec 1542; was buried in Stone, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In one of the charges leading to her downfall, she was alleged to have failed to resist the advances of a gentleman of the king's privy chamber named Thomas Culpeper, who was himself beheaded at Tyburn on 10 Dec 1541, two months before her own execution. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article about Katherine Howard notes that "he was distantly related to Katherine on her mother's side, for they shared a Culpeper ancestor who had lived in the reign of Edward II." This would be true if the courtier were a son of any number of Culpepers of sixteenth-century Kent, virtually all of them descendants of Thomas Colepeper of Brenchley who died in 1309. But the ODNB confidently states that the courtier Thomas Culpeper was "the second of the three sons of Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, Kent (d. 1541), and his second wife, Constance Harper (née Chamberlain); his elder brother, also named Thomas, was a client of Thomas Cromwell." This piques our interest, because this Alexander Culpeper was a son of John Culpeper (~1430-1480) and his wife Agnes Gainsford, who are themselves direct ancestors of JTS and (probably) TNH, AP, and GFS.^{1, 2}

The problem is this: Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury made his will on 20 May 1540, and died sometime in 1541 before 21 June, when his will was proved. His wife Constance made her will on 4 Oct 1541, after her husband's death. All of these events happened before the courtier Thomas Culpeper was accused, much less executed. And yet both wills name only one son named Thomas. Alexander's calls Thomas "myne eldist sonne" and mentions one other son, John. Constance's also names only two sons by Alexander, Thomas and John. (She had an additional son, George Harper, by her first marriage.)

Constance's will was proved at London on 13 Nov 1542, so it's entirely possible that she lived past 10 Nov 1541, the day the courtier Thomas Culpepper was executed. And there is a codicil to Constance's will, undated, but it makes none of the adjustments one might expect if one of one's legatees had been beheaded at Tyburn since the main will was drawn up.

Even more to the point, if backwoods gentry Alexander and Constance Culpeper had a son who was a fast-rising figure at the royal court, one would think he would at least be mentioned in one or both of their wills. Remember again that when both of these wills were drawn up, the courtier Thomas Culpeper had yet to be accused of any wrongdoing.

Finally, the will of the Thomas Culpeper who was definitely a son of Alexander and Constance Culpeper, mentioned in both of their wills, is dated 6 Aug 1557; it was proved 20 Oct 1558, and he was buried at St. Mary's in Goudhurst on 13 May 1558. He was married twice, to Elizabeth Hawte in about 1522 and to Ellen Hendley in about 1540. He is obviously not the courtier who was executed in November 1541.

Where does the claim about the courtier's parentage come from? Probably the 1592 Visitation of Kent. Specifically, the 1924 volume The Visitations of Kent, Taken in the Years 1574 and 1592 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, edited by W. Bruce Bannerman, part 2, London, 1924 (Harleian Society volume 75). "The present Volume contains the remaining portion of the letters, I-Z, of the second Visitation, in 1574, together with the third Visitation, made in 1592, based on a contemporary MS bearing the autograph of Percy, Viscount Strangford, London, 1816, with the addition, from other sources, of some further Pedigrees and Arms." We're uncertain what "contemporary MS" means in this context: an actual manuscript made by a herald in the 1590s, or not? And as to the "autograph of Percy, Viscount Strangford, London, 1816", we are doubtful about the mighty authenticating credibility emanating from the signature of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780-1855), whose career as a British diplomat went into an abrupt decline when, as ambassador to Russia in 1826, he was caught falsifying dispatches to the British government and revealing confidential documents to the Austrian ambassador in St. Petersburg. At any rate, these are the pertinent passages from the 1924 volume's representation of the 1592 visitation, all on page 92:

S^r John Colepeper of Bedgebery aforsaide knight Sonne and heire to Walter married Agnes the daughter of . . . . . and by her hathe issue S^r Alexander Colepeper knighte his eldest Sonne […]

S^r Alexander Colepeper of Bedgebery aforsaide knighte Sonne and heire to S^r John maried to his first wiffe Agnes Daughter to Roger Davye of Northfelde in the County of Kent Esquire and by her had issue Alys. After the saide S^r Alexander maried to his seconde wiffe Constance Daughter to Robert Chamberlein and wydowe of Harper, and her her had issue Thomas Colepeper his eldist Sonne, and Thomas Colepeper second Sonne, and John Colepeper thirde Sonne, Elizabeth maried to S^t Clere gent., Anne maried to Raulfe Molyns of Barkeshier, and Johan maried to Aldred ffitz James of Somersetshire Esquire, Margarett married to Phillippe Chowte gent and Katherin maried to Edwarde Barrett gent.

Anne's husband was actually William Molyns, not Raulfe or Ralph. Johanna's husband was Alfred Fitzjames, not Aldred, but given the fluidity of late-medieval names he may well have gone by Aldred two or three times a week. At any rate, even stipulating that these passages represent a perfect copy of the original 1592 visitation, it remains that this information would have been taken down by the heralds from people reciting family history over fifty years after the deaths of Alexander and Constance Culpeper.

We would like to know if the author of the ODNB essay about Katherine Howard, Retha M. Warnicke, has other sources that would indicate that the courtier Thomas Culpeper was in fact a son of Alexander and Constance. We would also like to know the source for the information that his stated older brother, also named Thomas, was "a client of Thomas Cromwell." In the absence of any such information, we're inclined to believe that this theory of the parentage of the courtier Thomas Culpeper is merely yet another example of the less-than-perfect reliability of visitation pedigrees.

_____

(1) Depending on whether TNH, AP, and GFS ancestor Joan Roberts was a daughter of her father Walter Roberts's second wife Isabel Culpepper, daughter of John Culpepper and Agnes Gainsford, as seems most probable, instead of his first wife, Margaret Penn. See Adrian Benjamin Burke, John Blythe Dobson, and Janet Chevally Wolfe, "The Exhurst Ancestry of the Stoughton Siblings of New England", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 165:245, October 2011; 166:46, January 2012.

(2) And possibly of PNH, if it's ever proved that his 9G-grandfather Henry Colepepper (d. 1675 in Virginia) was a son of his fellow Virginia emigrant John Culpeper (1637-1674), as has often been speculated. If this turned out to be the case, John Culpeper and Agnes Gainsford would be the most recent common ancestors of PNH and TNH.

Catherine married Henry VIII, King of England on 28 Jul 1540 in Oatlands Palace, Surrey, England. Henry (son of Henry VII, King of England and lord of Ireland and Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of England) was born on 28 Jun 1491 in Greenwich, Kent, England; died on 28 Jan 1547 in Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married William Carey in 1520. William was born about 1495; died on 22 Jun 1528. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Henry VIII, King of England in Jan 1533. Henry (son of Henry VII, King of England and lord of Ireland and Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of England) was born on 28 Jun 1491 in Greenwich, Kent, England; died on 28 Jan 1547 in Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Elizabeth Bryan was vice-chamberlain to Catherine of Aragon, an office also held by her father, and a reputed mistress of Henry VIII. Following her husband’s death, she was reduced to penury. Some of their former property eventually wound up in the Darcy family.

Elizabeth married Nicholas Carew in Dec 1514. Nicholas (son of Richard Carew and Malyn Oxenbridge) was born before 1496; died on 3 Mar 1540 in Tower Hill, London, England; was buried in St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1561

Notes:

Or Joan.

Family/Spouse: Edmund Knyvet. Edmund (son of Edmund Knyvet and Eleanor Tyrrell) was born in 1490 in of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England; died on 1 May 1539; was buried in Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Anthony Oughtred. Anthony died in 1534. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Gregory Cromwell. Gregory (son of Thomas Cromwell and Elizabeth Wykes) died in 1551. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Jane married Henry VIII, King of England on 30 May 1536 in Whitehall Palace, London, England. Henry (son of Henry VII, King of England and lord of Ireland and Elizabeth of York, Queen Consort of England) was born on 28 Jun 1491 in Greenwich, Kent, England; died on 28 Jan 1547 in Hampton Court Palace, Richmond upon Thames, London, England; was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Berkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1580 she he founded Peyton's Hospital in Isleham.

Frances married Robert Peyton in Jan 1516. Robert (son of Robert Peyton and Elizabeth Clere) was born about 1498 in of Isleham, Cambridgeshire, England; died on 1 Aug 1550; was buried in St. Andrew's, Isleham, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Anne Danvers. Anne (daughter of John Danvers and Anne Stradling) died on 11 Jul 1523. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Katherine married Francis Knolles on 26 Apr 1540. Francis was born about 1512; died on 19 Jul 1596; was buried in Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Arthur Darcy and Mary Carew were both descendants of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, he as a 6Xgreat-grandson and she as a 5Xgreat-granddaughter. By those descents they were, to one another, sixth cousins once removed. But in fact they were slightly more closely related than that: fifth cousins once removed by shared descent from Ralph de Greystoke and Katherine Clifford, and fifth cousins twice removed by shared descent from John de Welle and Maud de Ros.

Family/Spouse: Arthur Darcy. Arthur (son of Thomas Darcy and Dowsabel Tempest) was born in of Brimham, Yorkshire, England; died on 3 Apr 1561; was buried in St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Plumstead, Norfolk, England
• Alternate death: Bef 1561

John married Agnes Harcourt about 1538. Agnes (daughter of John Harcourt and Margaret Barantyne) died in 1578. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Knight of the shire for Cambridgeshire.

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Rich. Elizabeth (daughter of Richard Rich, Speaker of the House of Commons and Elizabeth Jenkes) died on 17 Oct 1591; was buried in Isleham, Cambridgeshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Anthony Cave before 1538. Anthony (son of Richard Cave and Margaret Saxby) was born in of Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England; died on 9 Sep 1558; was buried in Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Walter Devereux. Walter (son of Richard Devereux and Dorothy Hastings) died in 1576. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anne married Thomas West on 19 Nov 1571. Thomas (son of William West and Elizabeth Strange) was born about 1556 in of Wherwell, Hampshire, England; died on 24 Mar 1602. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Katherine Tyrwhit. Katherine (daughter of Robert Tyrwhit and Elizabeth Oxenbridge) died in 1567. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Conyers. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Edward Darcy was Groom of the Privy Chamber to Elizabeth I, 1583-1603. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1561, and was admitted at the Inner Temple in Nov 1561. Special ambassador to Francis, Duke of Anjou and William of Orange in 1583. Burgess (M.P.) for Truro, Cornwall, in 1584; justice of the peace in Kent from 1604 to his death.

His lifelong cupidity appears to have been notable even by the standards of Elizabethan court society. From his entry in the History of Parliament: "In 1594 the attorney-general protested at the nomination of one Wiseman to the post of clerk of the outlawries, after Darcy had virtually put up the office for auction, and in 1600 the widow of Edward Denny petitioned against Darcy's attempt to obtain part of the proceeds of the sale of her late husband's office. He had little need, she wrote, 'to suck this small portion of her Majesty's favour from the hungry mouths of my children'. [...] His patent for searching and sealing leather, which he was granted in 1592 (or 1593), led him to commit 'such exactions and outrages as disquieted all England', and his privileges were first reduced (in 1595) and then (before May 1598) replaced by a new patent for the monopoly of importing and manufacturing playing cards." Sometime between then and 1602, Darcy sued Thomas Allin (also spelled Allain, Allein, Allen, etc.), haberdasher of London, for infringing on his playing-card patent. In what came to be regarded as a landmark case in English law, known to history as the "Case of Monopolies," the King's Bench ultimately ruled against Darcy, declaring his patent void because monopolies are ultimately damaging to the public good. The arguments set forth in the verdict were later much quoted in the various deliberations leading to the creation of modern antitrust and competition law.

His loss in court can't have broken his stride too badly; he was knighted the next year, on 23 Apr 1603, and retired to live the comfortable life of a wealthy man.

——

Edward Darcy (1543-1612) = Elizabeth Astley
Robert Darcy = Grace Reddish
Edward Darcy = Elizabeth Stanhope [1]
Katherine Darcy (d. 1713) = Erasmus Phillips (d. 1697) [2] [3]
Elizabeth Phillips (b. abt 1664) = John Shorter [4]
Catherine Shorter (1682-1737) = Robert Walpole (1676-1745) [5]
Horace Walpole (1717-1797)

[1] Daughter of Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield.

[2] Erasmus Phillips and Katherine Darcy were parents of Sir John Phillips of Pembrokeshire, a leading Welsh social and religious reformer.

[3] Through his mother, Elizabeth Dryden, Erasmus Phillips was a first cousin of the poet John Dryden, a second cousin once removed to Jonathan Swift, and a first cousin once removed to Mrs. Ann Marbury Hutchinson, the antinomian religious reformer who was famously cast out of the early Massachusetts Bay colony.

[4] John Shorter was a son of John Shorter (1625-1688), Lord Mayor of London.

[5] Robert Walpole is generally considered to have been the first Prime Minister of England in the modern sense.

——

Edward Darcy (1543-1612) = Elizabeth Astley
Catherine Darcy (1581-1646) = William West (b. 1575)
Elizabeth West (1606-1669) = Francis Vane (1617-1680)
Francis Vane (1643-1691) = Hannah Rushworth (1646-1705)
Henry Vane (1669-1726) = Anne Scrope (1673-1721)
Thomas Fane (1701-1871) = Elizabeth Swymmer (1708-1782)
Mary Fane (1739-1809)= Charles Blair (b. 1735)
Charles Blair (1776-1820)
Thomas Richard Arthur Blair (1802-1867) = Frances Catherine Hare (1823-1867)
Richard Walmesley Blair (1857-1939) = Ida Mabel Limouzin (1875-1943)
Eric Blair (George Orwell) (1903-1950)

Family/Spouse: Elizabeth Astley. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Abigail married Martin Sedley in 1577. Martin (son of Martin Sedley and Elizabeth Mounteney) was born about 1531 in of Morley, Norfolk, England; died about 1609; was buried on 10 Feb 1610 in St. Peter's Chapel, Morley, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Created a baronet by James I on 22 May 1611.

John married Alice Osborne on 29 Jun 1580 in St. Dionis Backchurch, Langbourn, London, England. Alice (daughter of Edward Osborne, Lord Mayor of London and Anne Hewitt) was born before 4 Mar 1563; was christened on 4 Mar 1563 in St. Dionis Backchurch, Langbourn, London, England; died between 29 Jan 1626 and 6 Dec 1626. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Jerome Weston. Jerome (son of Richard Weston and Wilburga Catesby) was born about 1550 in of Skreens in Roxwell, Essex, England; died on 31 Dec 1603; was buried in Roxwell, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Robert Rich. Robert (son of Robert Rich and Elizabeth Baldry) was born on 25 Dec 1559; died on 24 Mar 1619. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Descendants of Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill makes her a daughter of Thomas West, 3rd Baron de la Ware (1577-1618), royal governor of Virginia from 1610 to 1618, and the man after whom Delaware is named. This appears to be an error--he was her brother.

Elizabeth married Richard Saltonstall before 5 Nov 1628. Richard (son of Samuel Saltonstall and Anne Ramsden) was born before 4 Apr 1586; was christened on 4 Apr 1586 in Rookes Hall, Highcliffe in Hipperholme, Halifax, Yorkshire, England; died before 25 Oct 1661 in Crayford, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

3rd Lord La Warr (or De la Warr), after whom the bay, river, and ultimately the state of Delaware are named.

He was appointed governor-for-life and captain-general of the colony of Virginia on 28 Feb 1610, replacing the governing council of the colony under the presidency of Captain John Smith.

Nathaniel married Frances Greville in 1621 in Virginia. Frances died before 10 May 1633. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1631

Family/Spouse: Grace Reddish. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1669, London, England

Notes:

Her second husband was the Rev. Sydrach Simpson, Master of Pembroke Hall at the University of Cambridge.

Isabella married John Launce about 1619. John (son of Robert Launce and Susan Tubb) was born about 1597 in of Penair in St. Clement, Cornwall, England; died before 25 Jun 1635; was buried on 25 Jun 1635 in St. Clement, Cornwall, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Muriel married Brampton Gurdon on 8 Jul 1606 in St. Peter's, Morley, Norfolk, England. Brampton (son of John Gurdon and Amy Brampton) was born in 1566 in of Assington, Suffolk, England; died before 2 Apr 1650; was buried on 2 Apr 1650 in Assington, Suffolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alice married John Peyton on 25 Nov 1602 in Isleham, Cambridgeshire, England. John (son of John Peyton and Dorothy Beaupré) was born about 1579 in of Doddington, Cambridgeshire, England; died between 24 Feb 1635 and 22 Apr 1635. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

1st Earl of Portland. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Treasurer of England.

From Wikipedia:

Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, K. G., was Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Lord Treasurer of England under James I and Charles I, being one of the most influential figures in the early years of Charles I's Personal Rule and the architect of many of the policies that enabled him to rule without raising taxes through Parliament.

Weston was the eldest son and heir of Sir Jerome Weston, High Sheriff of Essex for 1599, and the former Mary Cave. He was born at Roxwell, Essex, and was a student of the Middle Temple. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for a number of constituencies including Maldon (1601–1603), Midhurst (in the parliament of 1604-1611), Essex (in the Addled Parliament of 1614), Arundel (1622), Bossiney (1624), Callington (1625) and Bodmin (1626). He was knighted in 1603.

During the reign of King James I of England, Weston was sent on embassies to Bohemia, Brussels, and Spain. On the last assignment, he negotiated for the restitution of the Palatine. Upon his return to England in 1621, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and retained the post after the accession of Charles I; he proved a capable financial manager but incurred popular hatred as a (justly) suspected Roman Catholic, while also later earning the enmity of the (Catholic) queen, Henrietta Maria for refusing grants to her favourites. He opposed wars with Spain in 1623 and France in 1626, but managed to find ways of raising the money to fund them when required, even when it was impossible to secure the co-operation of Parliament.

Weston was elevated to the peerage on 13 April 1628, as Baron Weston, of Neyland. He was subsequently made Lord Treasurer of England and invested with the Order of the Garter. His policies proving highly unpopular, he escaped impeachment in 1629 only by the dissolution of Parliament. Nevertheless, he played an important role in the King's Personal Rule without Parliament, finding new sources of revenue while preventing any further increase in the King's expenditure, and being for a time the most influential of Charles's advisers. He persuaded the King to make peace with France in 1629 and Spain in 1630, removing the biggest drain on the treasury, and to sign the secret treaty with Spain in 1634. By the time he died in 1635, the Crown was solvent.

On 17 February 1633, Weston was created Earl of Portland. Lord Portland was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Pincheon of Writtle in Essex. His second wife was Frances Walgrave of Boreley in Essex. He had three children by his first marriage, including Lady Mary Weston (2 January 1603-after August 1678), who married the 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar in 1629, and Lady Elizabeth Weston, who married John Netterville, 2nd Viscount Netterville. He had seven children by his second marriage, including his son Thomas, who later succeeded as 4th Earl, and Lady Anne Weston, the first of the four wives of Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh. His nephew (his sister's son), Jeremy Clarke, became a Governor of Rhode Island in the American colonies.

Mary married William Clerke on 10 Feb 1599 in St. Andrew's, Holborn, London, England. William (son of James Clerke and Mary Saxby) was born in of East Farleigh, Kent, England; died before 12 Jun 1610; was buried on 12 Jun 1610 in East Farleigh, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]