#13 Mary Gifford - Three times a Lady.

Sometimes in the course of my research, an ancestor seems to emerge from the past and draw attention to themself, almost as if to say "Don't forget about me!" Mary Gifford has been spotted waving at me from the 16th century several times in the last couple of months, so I am acquiescing to her demands to be noticed.

Mary Gifford was born in about 1550, a daughter of John Gifford and Elizabeth Throckmorton, making her my first cousin 13x removed. I'm always happy to include first cousins in my family lines, as growing up I was lucky enough to be surrounded by a plethora of cousins who added so much to my life that it would seems surly and ungrateful not to recognize cousins just because they happened to be born 13 generations earlier!

At this stage, I have 6 siblings for Mary, some of whom have amazing stories of their own, but they will keep for another day.

In about 1572, Mary married Richard Baker of Sissinghurst in Kent. When I discovered the marriage, I already had Richard Baker in the family tree. His father Sir John Baker was peripherally associated with the Courthoppes and Sheafs in Cranbrook, Kent. I even suspect that Sir John's grandmother was Benet Sheaf, but I have no concrete evidence of that....yet! Richard and Mary had 4 children John, Thomas, Chyrosgena (sometimes recorded as Grisgone) and Cicely. Chrysogena was named after one of Mary's sisters. Richard was responsible for enlarging Sissinghurst into a fine Tudor residence. In fact so fine was it, that in 1573, Queen Elizabeth spent three days there on her summer progress. One can only imagine the anxiety (and the cost!) to Richard and Mary at hosting the Queen and her court, even though it did result in a knighthood for Richard.

Sissingurst, now famous for its Vita Sackville-West gardens, with the remains of the Tudor buildings in the background. Photo by Klaus D Peter, Germany.

Sir Richard Baker died in 1594, but Mary did not long remain a widow, for later in that same year she married Richard Fletcher, newly made Bishop of London. Fletcher was also a man with connections to the Sheaf family and Cranbrook. His brother Giles had married Joan Sheaf and his father Richard, who had been Vicar of Cranbrook, officiated at the 'hatching, matching and dispatching' of many other Sheaf family members.

Unfortunately for Mary, her somewhat precipitous second marriage was not universally approved of. Both she and her ecclesiastical husband were in conspicuous disfavour with Queen Elizabeth for marrying without her express consent. The Queen objected to the marriage of all bishops, and thought it especially indecorous in one only two years a widower. Fletcher was forbidden the court and suspended from performing all episcopal functions.

Mary was described as a handsome woman, a 'fine lady' but her reputation was tarnished and she was ridiculed by satirists of the day as a whore and "my Lady Lecher", which conveniently rhymed with Fletcher! Poor Richard died soon after on the 15th June 1596; still largely in disfavour, debt ridden and surrounded by a fug of tobacco smoke. It is most likely that at this point Mary returned to Sissinghurst to be near the children of her first marriage, especially to her two daughters Chrysogena and Cicely who were then in their twenties and who were said to be especially devoted to her.

In about 1597, Mary Gifford married for the third and last time. Her new husband was Sir Stephen Thornehurst of Forde in the Isle of Thanet, Kent. They were together about thirteen years, until Mary died in 1609. Her husband buried her in the St Michael Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral under a splendid monument. Lady Mary reclines somewhat jauntily at the feet of Sir Stephen, not looking in the slightest bit pious or repentant, dressed in her Tudor finest; for all the world as if to say "Well yes, here I am! What took you so long?"

#8 William Sheaf - Cut from a Reforming Cloth

To get to this week's ancestor we have to go back, way back to about 1543 when William Sheaf was born in the town of Cranbrook in Kent. His grandfather Thomas Sheaf is the earliest recorded Sheaf in this area and William was born to Richard Sheaf and Elizabeth Andrews. William was the sixth of nine children born to this wealthy family of clothiers.

The Weald of Kent, where Cranbrook is situated, was known at this time for its excellent grey broadcloth. Many families in the area were involved in the cloth trade at all levels; either raising sheep for wool, milling the cloth or providing material or labour to use in the process. Edward III had encouraged Flemish weavers to move to England in order to break the Flemish monopoly over the wool trade. Many of them settled in the Kentish Weald and Cranbrook became a centre for the manufacture of a fine, woollen broadcloth called Cranbrook Grey. When Queen Elizabeth I visited the town in 1573, she is said to have walked along a mile long piece of Cranbrook Grey made specially for the purpose. There is certainly a possibility that this cloth may have been made by the Sheaf family or their many connections.

In 1569 William married Katherine Courthoppe, the daughter of another wealthy Cranbrook family involved in the cloth trade. There were several marriages between these two families, including one between William's sister Margaret Sheaf and John Courthoppe. Although William and Katherine both lived long lives, they had no children.

The next we hear of William Sheaf is in about 1575 in the midst of a religious squabble between the vicar of Cranbrook, Richard Fletcher and John Stroud a dissenting preacher. According to one source William Sheaf sympathized with Stroud who as well as being a radical preacher was operating an illegal printing press somewhere in the parish of Cranbrook. In order to quell the brewing parish troubles Richard Fletcher (son of Richard Fletcher the vicar of Cranbrook and also a preacher) came from Rye to caution the people against ideas of reformation, but his sermon "did not calm the troubled spirits and a fierce contention followed, whereupon William Sheaf, one of the Church wardens, met the noisy disclaimers in a true John Bull-like manner with his feet firmly set and his head erect, and uttered these decided words "We WILL have Mr. Stroud to preach to us."

As William aged, we learn from the sources that he did not enjoy the best of health. On 17th July 1598 a jury of Cranbrook worthies were all indicted for contempt because on 3 May 1598, being sworn as jurors at a hundred leet held at the market cross in Cranbrook, they elected William Sheaf of Cranbrook, yeoman, to serve as hundred constable "although they knew him to be an infirm man incapable of discharging the office." The hundred constable was a parish law enforcement officer, usually part time and usually unpaid! The motives of the jury in electing William to this office can only be suspect, given his inability to perform the duties required. William would have been about 55 years of age.

William lived for almost another 20 years after this and died in December 1616. Interestingly we learn a lot about William's lifestyle from his very detailed will and his many bequests to his brother and sisters, nieces and nephews. We know for instance that living with him at the time of his death, his wife Katherine having died in 1611, were two sons of his cousin Peter Courthoppe. He was also in a position to be lending money as he bequeathed the above named Peter Courthoppe "the £20 I lent unto our Sovereign Lord James (King James 1 of England), and the privy seal which I have thereof." This presumably allowed the money to be given to Peter Courthoppe should the King ever decide to pay back his loan. As well as other numerous bequests of money, William left silver cups, spoons and salters; his book of martyrs and two bibles; feather beds and other furniture and pots and glasses. He also held significant amounts of property around Cranbrook and neighbouring towns which he distributed among his relatives. One of these properties was 'Old Wilsley', a beautiful timbered Wealden hall house and cloth hall, probably built in the 15th century. There is some suggestion it may have been built by the Courthoppe family. Certainly it is known that in 1569 Richard Courthoppe’s widow Anne married the Revd Thomas Lawes, whose will in 1594 left ‘Wylsley in Cranbrook’ to his daughter Katherine and her clothier husband William Sheafe. William left it to his nephew Edmund Sheaf, son of his brother (our direct ancestor) Thomas.

Old Wilsley, Cranbrook, Kent.

William was buried inside the church of St Dunstan in Cranbrook and a brass plate was placed in his honour. "William Sheaf after he had lived godly and christianly the space of 73 years he departed this life the 21 of December, 1616, and his body lies here buried"

Brass plate for William Sheaf, St Dunstan, Cranbrook.

Isabel Sheaf

My grandmother's name was Isabella Sheaf. In the Sheaf family, her name was almost unique. As I have been researching the different lines of this family, Isabella or its variations has rarely featured.

Going back about 400 years however, there are fleeting references to an Isabel Sheaf, daughter of Thomas Sheaf  DD and Maria Wilson. Up until now, she has been a shadowy figure, mentioned by her birth name in only one family will. The first reference I found to Isabel was in the will of her uncle, David Rawson (Husband to the sister of Maria Wilson) citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, in 1616. He leaves her "three pounds to be bestowed in a piece of plate and given her at her age of twenty one years or at the day of her marriage, which ever shall first happen." From this, one presumes that Isabel is not yet married OR 21, putting her birth sometime between 1595 and 1616.

In the absence of any record for birth, marriage or death for an Isabel Sheaf at the appropriate time, this necessitated some alternative research strategies. One of the difficulties with this family is that they consistently referred to women in wills by their married family names only - eg: daughter Westley, daughter Norwood, sister Whitfield, sister Bale etc. Grrrrrr!

After trying many different combinations of names and places I found baptism/burial records for children of Thomas and Isabel Norwood in the parish of St Alphege, Canterbury and also in Harbledown, a hamlet just outside Canterbury. The children were named Mary, Rebecca, William and Isabel which fitted into the context of family naming patterns; and the dates between 1633 and 1639 also fitted an appropriate time frame. A little more research yielded the information that Thomas Norwood was an Anglican Clergyman, born in St Mildred Canterbury, ordained as a preacher to the diocease of Canterbury and Rochester in 1632 and appointed curate of the parish of Harbledown in 1636. A perfect fit! He died in 1637 and in his will named his widow Isabel and daughters Mary, Rebecca and Isabel.

The next reference that seems to match Isabel, was in the 1639 will of her father Thomas Sheaf, also an Anglican Clergyman. He refers to her as daughter Norwood but gives no other indication of her identity.

In 1647, Isabel's brother Edmund Sheaf died. He was a citizen and mercer of London and had married Elizabeth Cotton. He also names his sisters by their married names, but sister Norwood has disappeared from the list and "sister Bale" appears. From this I deduced that Isabel Sheaf, then Norwood, had remarried to a Mr Bale. I had a look at more Canterbury registers and found a baptism for John Bale in 1646, son of John and Isabel. This looked hopeful!

I cross checked against some other family wills and found a legacy to John Bale, son of Dr John Bale of Canterbury in the will of Isabel's brother Grindall Sheaf in 1680. Grindall (also an Anglican Clergyman) named several nieces and nephews but going by his birth date I think Dr John Bale was Isabel's son, rather than her husband, making the legatee a great-nephew of Grindall.

It is also highly probable that Isabel and John Bale had at least one other child, a daughter Isabel, who married Thomas Smith in 1677 at St Mary Bredin, Canterbury. Another highly probable link is that a John Bale of Canterbury married Elizabeth Juxon in 1676 also at St Mary Bredin. The Juxon family were connected to the Sheafs through the marriage of Edmund Sheaf (Isabel's brother) and Elizabeth Cotton, who was the daughter of Samuel Cotton and Elizabeth Juxon.

All things considered, I think it is highly probable that the Isabel Sheaf, daughter of Thomas and Maria, married first Thomas Norwood and then John Bale and bore at least 6 children.