Dorothy Bradbelt

Dorothy Bradbelt (died 1577) was an English courtier, a woman of the bedchamber to Elizabeth I.

Career at court

Her mother was probably Jane Bradbelt a chamberer at court. With Alice Huntercombe, she was appointed to the household of Elizabeth, Henry VIII's daughter, in 1536. ^[1] A "Mistress Brodebeck" appears in a 1539 gift roll amongst the gentlewomen. ^[2]

The council of Mary I of England refused permission for Dorothy to serve Elizabeth at Woodstock Palace in June 1554. ^[3] She was sometimes the queen's bedfellow in the 1560s. ^[4] Dorothy Bradbelt was bought clothes including a "petticoat of crimson satin razed with a broad border embroidered with silver and fringed, lined with unshorn velvet", ^[5] and a French kirtle of black velvet. ^[6] She was also given lucrative rewards, including a lease of lands at Hardingstone, ^[7] and a licence to export red herrings from London and Ipswich and import white fish. ^[8]

Dymocke affair

In 1562, she and Kat Ashley were censured and briefly held for taking part in a scheme for Elizabeth to marry Eric XIV of Sweden promoted by a former usher and jewelry salesman John Dymocke. ^[9] They wrote a joint letter to a Swedish politician Nicholas Guildenstern, hoping for the best outcome, which was seized by William Cecil. ^[10]

Royal pets

As a servant of Elizabeth, Dorothy kept the queen's parrot and pet monkey. An iron collar for the monkey was made in 1562. In 1563, a craftsmen, John Grene, made a cage for the parrot of "tynker" wire and pewter pots for the pets' water which were delivered to Dorothy. Blanche Parry and Lady Knollys also looked after the monkey. ^[11]

Intaglio seal

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a seal ring with an intaglio cut chalcedony stone with the initials "H.R" for Henry VIII and his portrait, which Dorothy used to seal a document in 1576. This was probably a royal gift to Bradbelt. ^[12]

Marriage and family

Dorothy Bradbelt married John Abington or Habington of Hindlip, Worcestershire, in 1567. He was clerk of the queen's kitchen and later a cofferer to Elizabeth I. ^{[13] [14]} According to one version of the family tree, "Dorathey Broadbill" or "Broadbeck" was his second wife, and his first wife was Catharine Wykes from Moreton Jeffries (also said to have been a royal servant). ^[15] Catharine Wykes was John Habington's cousin. ^[16]

As a wedding gift, Elizabeth gave Dorothy Bradbelt a Flanders gown of black velvet with satin made by her tailor Walter Fyshe. ^[17] Elizabeth gave them a lease of the rectory of Utterby in Lincolnshire, confirmed in June 1570. The patent calls Dorothy a gentlewoman of the privy chamber. ^[18]

Elizabethan Hindlip Hall

John Habington, whose parental home was at Brockhampton, ^[19] bought and rebuilt Hindlip Hall, where a fireplace was dated 1572. His portrait wearing a fur-edged robe survives. Elizabeth I came to Worcestershire in 1575. She stayed at the Bishop's Palace in Worcester and visited Hindlip on 16 August. ^[20] Habington was said to have been present when the queen hunted at Hallow Park near Worcester. ^[21] Elizabeth lost a gold button that day. She gave Dorothy a French kirtle of russet during her visit in 1575, the last recorded royal gift to her. ^[22] Dorothy signed the day book record for the gift, "Dorythe habingtoun". ^[23]

The historian Treadway Russell Nash mentions a herald's funeral certificate or description for John Habington's wife, who was a gentlewoman of the privy-chamber of Elizabeth in 1557, and was buried at Hindlip at the queen's expense. This lost document must have referred to Dorothy Bradbelt. ^[24]

There is some doubt over details of the family tree. ^[25] John Habington's children included:

• Thomas Habington (1560–1647), ^[26] who married Mary Parker, a daughter of Edward Parker, 12th Baron Morley, their children included the poet William Habington
• Edward Habington
• Richard Habington, who married Constance Bridges. Their children included a Dorothy Habington (said by Nash to have been brought up at court and a zealous Protestant). ^[27]
• A daughter who was the subject of a marriage negotiation in 1582 for Matthew Browne a son of Thomas Browne of Betchworth Castle. ^[28]
• Dorothy Habington, said to be a sister of Thomas Habington and brought up at court, a recusant who sheltered Thomas Butler alias Lyster and Edward Oldcorne at Hindlip. ^[29]

Edward and Thomas Abington were involved in the Babington Plot to replace Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots. Hindlip Hall was entirely rebuilt and later passed to the brewer Henry Allsopp, 1st Baron Hindlip and is now a headquarters building used by West Mercia Police.

References

1. Elizabeth Goldring, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 1 (Oxford, 2014), p. 248: James Gairdner, Letters & Papers, Henry VIII, 10 (London, 1887), p. 495 no. 1187.
2. Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), p. 148.
3. C. R. Manning, "State Papers relating to Elizabeth at Woodstock", Norfolk Archaeology, 4 (Norwich, 1555), p. 169.
4. Charlotte Merton, "Women, Friendship, and Memory", Alice Hunt & Anna Whitelock, Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth (Palgrave Macmillan, 210), p. 248.
5. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 172.
6. Janet Arnold, Lost from her Majestie's Back (Wisbech: Daedalus, 1980), pp. 28 no. 32, 30 no. 44, 32 no. 54, 33 no. 60.
7. Calendar Patent Rolls, Elizabeth, 1 (London, 1939), p. 439.
8. Calendar Patent Rolls, Elizabeth, 2 (London, 1948), p. 111.
9. Susan Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I (Routledge, 1996), p. 34.
10. Simon Adams, Ian Archer, George W. Bernard, 'A Journall of Matters of State', Religion, Politics, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge: Camden Society, 2003), pp. 110–111, 117: 43rd Annual Report by the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, Appendix II (London, 1882), p. 19: Joseph Stevenson, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 5 (London, 1867), pp. 217–222
11. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), pp. 229, 231.
12. Seal ring, V&A M.5-1960
13. William Tighe, 'Familia reginae: the Privy Court', Susan Doran & Norman Jones, The Elizabethan World (Routledge, 2011), p. 80.
14. Castara, p. 3.
15. William Phillimore Watts Phillimore, Visitation of the County of Worcester Made in the Year 1569 (London, 1888) p. 63: A. T. Butler, Visitation of Worcestershire, 1634 (London, 1938), p. 45.
16. Frederic William Weaver, Visitation of Herefordshire Made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1569 (Exeter, 1869), p. 79.
17. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 102.
18. Calendar Patent Rolls, Elizabeth, 5 (London: HMSO, 1966), pp. 52, 373.
19. A. T. Butler, Visitation of Worcestershire, 1634, p. 44.
20. Elizabeth Goldring, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 2 (Oxford, 2014), pp. 346–8.
21. John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington, 1 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895), pp. 2–3 & frontispiece: John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1823), pp. 541-2.
22. Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 102.
23. Janet Arnold, Lost from her Majestie's Back (Wisbech: Daedalus, 1980), pp. 46 no. 149, 52 nos. 194, 198.
24. T. R. Nash, Collections for the history of Worcestershire, 1 (1781), p. 587
25. Kenneth Allott, Poems of William Habington (London, 1948), pp. xii–xiii.
26. Castara, p. 3.
27. T. R. Nash, Collections for the history of Worcestershire, 1 (1781), p. 587.
28. Kenneth Allot, Poems of William Habington (London, 1948), p. xiii: HMC 7th Report: Molyneux (London, 1879), p. 637.
29. John Amphlett, A Survey of Worcestershire by Thomas Habington, 1 (Oxford: James Parker, 1895), p. 11.