Elizabeth More was born on 28 April 1552, the eldest of the three children of Sir William More of Loseley, Surrey, and his second wife, Margaret Daniell, the daughter and heiress of Ralph Daniell of Swaffham, Norfolk, by Katherine Marrowe.[1] She was born in London at the house of her great-uncle, George Medley (d. 1554), esquire, mercer and Merchant of the Staple, and was baptised 1 May 1552.[2]
A London haberdasher, John Whetstone, was her godfather, and she had two godmothers, her great-aunt, Elizabeth Medley (née Marrowe, wife of George Medley),[3] and her paternal grandmother, Alice Polsted.[4] She had a younger brother, Sir George More, and a younger sister, Anne More (d. 1624), who married Sir George Mainwaring (d. 5 May 1628) of Ightfield, Shropshire.[5]
Richard Polsted died on 31 March 1576 at the age of thirty-one, leaving his property to his widow, whose hand was sought by at least three known suitors, Thomas Horsman, Tobias Matthew, and John Wolley. According to McCutcheon, Wolley, who is said to have been some twenty years older than Elizabeth,[8] was a protege of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a longtime friend of Elizabeth's father, Sir William More. Leicester, acting of behalf of the Queen, had knighted More at the Earl of Lincoln's home at Pyrford in 1576, and Elizabeth More's brother, George, was serving in Leicester's household by 1579. Elizabeth and John Wolley were married at Loseley before 3 July 1577.[9]
Elizabeth Wolley was for many years one of the ladies of Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Chamber. Although the date at which she entered the Queen's service is not known, she was well known to the Queen by 8 October 1581, when her husband wrote to Sir William More saying that the Queen:
is exceeding sorrye for my wives sicknesse, saying she would not lose her swete aple for all the gold in the world.[10]
Two years later, when Elizabeth Wolley's only son, Francis Wolley, was christened on 4 April 1583, the Queen stood godmother, with the Countess of Lincoln acting as her proxy, while both the Earl of Lincoln and the Earl of Leicester were personally present as the child's godfathers.[11]
Elizabeth Wolley is known to have exchanged New Year's gifts with the Queen in 1585, 1589, 1597, 1598, 1599, and 1600.[12] On the evening of 15 September 1595 she attended the queen at hawking with Sir Robert Cecil and they caught three partridges, which Wolley sent to her father. She wrote to her father asking him to ensure her son learnt French, so that his talents would impress the queen.[13]
In 1597 Henry Lok included sonnets to a large number of court personages, among them Elizabeth Wolley, in his Ecclesiastes (STC 16696). According to McCutcheon, a copy now in the Huntington Library bears her signature, and was probably the copy presented to her by Lok.[14]
Elizabeth Wolley's second husband, Sir John Wolley, died on 28 February 1596, appointing her sole executrix of his estate.[15] A year and a half later, in early October 1597, she married Lord ChancellorEgerton.[16]
Elizabeth Wolley died in January 1600,[17] and on 4 May 1600 her son, Sir Francis, took over administration of his father's estate.[18] In 1614 the bodies of Elizabeth Wolley, her second husband, Sir John Wolley, and their son, Sir Francis Wolley, were reburied 'between St. George's Chappel and that of our Lady' in Old St Paul's Cathedral, and a magnificent monument was erected there to their memories at a cost of £4,000.[19] She is also depicted on the monument to her parents in the Loseley Chapel in St Nicolas' Church, Guildford.[20]
Several of Elizabeth Wolley's letters have survived in the Loseley manuscripts.[21]
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the Secretary of State of England (1596–1612) and Lord High Treasurer (1608–1612), succeeding his father as Queen Elizabeth I's Lord Privy Seal and remaining in power during the first nine years of King James I's reign until his own death.
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon KG PC, was an English nobleman and courtier. He was the patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's playing company. The son of Mary Boleyn, he was a cousin of Elizabeth I.
Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys,, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.
Sir Francis Englefield was an English courtier and Roman Catholic exile.
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley,, known as Lord Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-one years.
Sir Thomas Bromley was a 16th-century lawyer, judge and politician who established himself in the mid-Tudor period and rose to prominence during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was successively Solicitor General and Lord Chancellor of England. He presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots and died three months after her execution.
William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester was an English nobleman, the son of John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester and his first wife, Elizabeth Willoughby. His maternal grandfather was Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke.
Anne Vavasour was a Maid of Honour (1580–81) to Queen Elizabeth I of England, a member of the Vavasour family and the mistress of two aristocratic men. Her first lover was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by whom she had an illegitimate son – Edward. For that offence, both she and the earl were sent to the Tower of London by the orders of the Queen. She later became the mistress of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, by whom she had another illegitimate son.
Roger North, 2nd Baron North was an English peer and politician at the court of Elizabeth I.
Sir Moyle Finch, 1st Baronet JP was an English politician, knight, sheriff, and MP.
Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in Devon was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry. He was Sheriff of Devon in 1579–80 and received the rare honour of having been three times elected MP for the prestigious county seat (Devon) in 1584, 1589 and 1601.
Sir George More was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1625.
Sir William Strode (1562–1637) of Newnham in the parish of Plympton St Mary, Devon, England, was a member of the Devon landed gentry, a military engineer and seven times a Member of Parliament elected for Devon in 1597 and 1624, for Plympton Erle in 1601, 1604, 1621 and 1625, and for Plymouth in 1614. He was High Sheriff of Devon from 1593 to 1594 and was knighted in 1598. In 1599 he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Devon. There is a monument to him in the parish church of Plympton St Mary.
Sir William More, of Loseley, Surrey, was the son of Sir Christopher More. The great house at Loseley Park was built for him, which is still the residence of the More Molyneux family. Of Protestant sympathies, as Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Surrey he was actively involved in local administration of the county of Surrey and in the enforcement of the Elizabethan religious settlement, and was a member of every Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the owner of property in the Blackfriars in which the first and second Blackfriars theatres were erected. He has been described as "the perfect Elizabethan country gentleman" on account of his impeccable character and his assiduity and efficiency of service.
Sir John Wolley was Queen Elizabeth I's Latin Secretary, a member of her Privy Council, and a member of Parliament from 1571 until his death in 1596.
Sir Francis Wolley was the son of Queen Elizabeth's Latin secretary, Sir John Wolley, and Elizabeth More, the daughter of Sir William More of Loseley, Surrey. He was a Member of Parliament, and one of those to whom King James granted the Second Virginia Charter. From 1601 to 1609 he provided a home at Pyrford for John Donne and Anne More after their clandestine marriage.
Dorothy Kitson, later Dorothy, Lady Pakington, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Kitson, a wealthy London merchant and the builder of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk. Her first husband was Sir Thomas Pakington, by whom she was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Sir John "Lusty" Pakington. After Sir Thomas Pakington's death, she married Thomas Tasburgh. She was one of the few women in Tudor England to nominate burgesses to Parliament and to make her last will while her husband, Thomas Tasburgh, was still living. Her three nieces are referred to in the poems of Edmund Spenser.
Chilworth Manor is a historic country house located midway between Chilworth, Surrey and St Martha's Hill to the north. The manor is grade II listed by Historic England.
Sir Edward Wingfield of Kimbolton (c.1562-1603), member of Parliament and author of a masque.
Cordell Annesley was an English courtier.
References
Carlyle, Edward Irving (1900). Wolley, John. Vol.62. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1890. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
Kempe, Alfred John, ed. (1836). The Loseley Manuscripts. London: John Murray. pp.316–21. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
McCutcheon, Elizabeth (1999). "Playing the Waiting Game: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Wolley". Quidditas; Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association. Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association. 20: 31–54.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
