Elizabeth SEYMOUR (B. Cromwell)

Elizabeth Seymour is descended from, on her paternal side, Sir Richard St. Maur, who arrived in England with William the Conqueror, and on her maternal side, King Edward III, through the Duke of Clarence, and Hotspur. Her Father was Sir John Seymour of Wolfhall, Wiltshire. Commander during the suppression of the insurrection by the Cornish rebels in 1497, and during the French wars. Made Knight Bannaret by King Henry VIII in 1513. Sheriff of Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire. Married Margery Wentworth, 2nd daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nesttlested, Suffolk.

Elizabeth Seymour was born at Wolfhall. At the age of 13 she was married to Sir Anthony Oughtred, Governor of the Isle of Jersey. Some sources say that Lady Oughtred first came to Court in service to the Queen, Anne Boleyn.

When it became obvious, even to Elizabeth, that the King had resumed his search for a Queen who could give Him a male heir, his eye had lit upon her sister, Jane.

Sir Anthony died in 1534, but Elizabeth returned to Court in 1536 to witness Jane’s marriage to the King.

In Mar of 1537, the widowed Elizabeth, living in poverty in York, wrote to Lord Cromwell to ask for the grant of some of the goods from one of the dissolved monasteries. Instead, Cromwell proposed that she marry his son, Gregory. In 1537 her brother Edward arranged a marriage between Elizabeth and Gregory, they wed on 3 Aug 1537. Her new father-in-law was an extremely powerful man at the time of the marriage: Privy Councilor, Chancellor of the Exchequer, King’ Secretary, Lord Privy Seal, and Great Lord Chamberlain. It was he who saw to the removal of Queen Anne from Henry’s life.

The year 1540 proved especially significant to Thomas Cromwell. He was created Earl of Essex, accused by the Duke of Norfolk of treason, attainted, and beheaded. He shouldn’t have recommended the King marry Anne of Cleves. Lord Cromwell’s fall from power in 1540 was a setback for the family, but Gregory was not implicated and he was restored as Lord Cromwell of Oakham later that same year.

In 1551, when Elizabeth’s brother, Edward Seymour, then Lord Protector, was arrested, Elizabeth was given charge of his daughters. Later that year, Gregory Cromwell died of the sweat and Elizabeth was also ill, at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, but recovered. She gave birth to her last child after her husband’s death. Following the death of her nephew, Edward VI, Elizabeth was generally shunned at Court by those who felt the days of the Seymours as a power were done. She wished to retire to Launde (formerly Launde Abby, which had been appropriated by Thomas Cromwell during his overseeing of the dissolution of the monasteries), but knew that flight would end any hopes of restoring the luster that had belonged to the Seymours not so long ago. So she withstood, and in time her patience was rewarded.

In 1557 Elizabeth married John Paulet, the widowed Baron St. John. His father, William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester and Earl of Wiltshire, had assumed the position of Lord Treasurer upon the death of the Duke of Somerset. He held the office through the reigns of Edward VI, Jane Grey, Mary, and Elizabeth. Her son Henry married her new husband’s daughter Mary. Henry Oughtred pedigrees are confused and contradictory. He was presumably son of Sir Anthony Oughtred by Elizabeth Seymour. Henry Oughtred married Elizabeth, wid. of Sir William Courtenay, dau. of Sir John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester, later the third husband of Elizabeth Seymour.

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