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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2008-07 > 1217345333
From: Matthew Connolly <>
Subject: Re: Mary Browne, widow of Lord John Grey, of Pirgo, Essex and her alleged 2nd marriage to Henry Capel
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:28:53 -0700 (PDT)
References: <edf58891-0d88-4a9a-ba8f-94a7e5bac0aa@f36g2000hsa.googlegroups.com><c1f102bd-16c3-4ef1-acfa-8f5ec17779cb@w8g2000prd.googlegroups.com> <b7e6d981-84ea-40df-a51c-4b262a8e7ae2@p25g2000pri.googlegroups.com> <165233f3-b147-4974-8755-7cc7cf3c02ab@w8g2000prd.googlegroups.com> <c3a929b4-fd56-4ea5-9ba4-045fecc9b13c@w39g2000prb.googlegroups.com> <cd6b03e2-9382-49ee-85d5-3131c853cc92@79g2000hsk.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 22, 11:24 pm, Matthew Connolly <>
wrote:
> On Jul 19, 11:25 pm, wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > Also, Fletcher's "Leicestershire Pedigrees" includes an additional
> > daughter for Sir [or Lord] John Grey of Pirgo named Frances, said by
> > Fletcher to have mar. Sir Henry Cooke of Gidea Hall. In fact, the
> > 1558 visitation of Essex (HSP 13) indicates that her husband was
> > actually Sir William Cooke, later of Highnam, Gloucs, a younger son of
> > Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall. [This one, at least, was properly
> > recorded in MCA and RPA.]
>
> There's a tiny bit of confusion in the Essex Visitation account;
> Frances Grey married William Cooke (c.1533-1589) of St Martin-in-the-
> Fields, Westminster, who was indeed Sir Anthony's younger surviving
> son but was not a knight. It was their son and heir William
> (1572-1619) who was knighted and was the first of Highnam, *jure
> uxoris*. Also, the visitation puts the elder William's child 'Francis'
> with his sons, but I believe this is actually another daughter, named
> after the mother. Both Williams have HoP entries.
I had a look at various Cooke family wills last week, and the will of
William (d.1589) confirms that Frances was his youngest daughter, with
the other children as given in the above-mentioned visitation (the
printed version of which clearly contains several decades' worth of
continuations, not always wholly accurate).
In case it's of interest to the Grey discussion, there are the
folowing mentions of that family:
-The 1576 will of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (d.1576) mentions a
covenant with "my Ladye Graye" on the marriage of his younger son
William.
-The 1587 will of William Cooke, esquire (d.1589), in which he
describes himself as son of Sir Anthony of Gidea Hall, names "my very
good brother in Lawe Sr Henry Graye of Pirgo knight" as an executor,
and also refers to a christening gift given to the daughter Frances by
"my sister Graye".
-The 1607 will of Frances Cooke (d.1608), widow of the above William,
mentions "my brother Mr Edward Graye", "the right honorable my good
Ladye and mother the Ladye Mary Grey widow", and "my Sister Elizabeth
Ladye Grivell".
Frances desired to be buried with her late husband in the crypt of St
Martin-in-the-Fields; the present church is a later rebuild, but about
ten years ago I sketched a carved stone achievement of arms on display
in the crypt, among various fragments of the earlier structure, which
evidently showed the arms of William and Frances impaled. On the left
are Cooke of Gidea Hall, a crescent for difference, with 7 other
quarterings (including Malpas, Belknap, Boteler and Sudeley); on the
right, 8 quarterings which I read as Grey, Hastings, Valence, Ferrers,
Quincy, Wydville, Bonvile and Harington, over the top four a label,
probably of four points although the end of the label was missing and
only three points remained. The crypt has recently been restored and
the arms are no longer on show there, unfortunately.
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