Isabel Leigh
Isabel Leigh, Lady Stumpe (c. 1496 – 16 Feb 1573) was a lady-in-waiting during the reign of her younger half-sister, Catherine Howard, fifth wife and Queen Consort to Henry VIII.
Early life
[edit]Isabel was the first child of Joyce Culpeper and Sir Ralph Leigh. She had two younger sisters and two younger brothers:
- Margaret Leigh (born c. 1500); married a man surnamed Rice.
- Joyce Leigh (born c. 1504); married John Stanney. May have had issue.
- John Leigh (born c. 1502); married Elizabeth, surname unknown. Had issue.
- Ralph Leigh (born c. 1498; died c. 1561); married Margaret Ireland. Had issue.
Ralph died c. 1509/1510 and Isabel's mother remarried to Lord Edmund Howard c. 1513/1515. They had six children.[1]
- Margaret Howard (c. 1515 – 10 Oct 1572); married Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle, son of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne and Lady Eleanor Grey. Had issue.
- Mary Howard (born after 1515); married Edmund Trafford.
- Henry Howard (born after 1515); married Anne Howard.
- Charles Howard (born after 1515).
- George Howard (c. 1519 – 1580).
- Catherine Howard (c. 1524 – 13 Feb 1542); married Henry VIII of England.
Marriage and issue
[edit]She married Sir Edward Bayntun or Baynton, of Bromham, Wiltshire, on 18 January 1531.[2] They had three children.
- Henry Baynton (b. c 1536). Married Anne Cavendish. Had issue.
- Francis Baynton (b. 1537)
- Anne Baynton (d. young)
After Edward's death in 1544, Isabel married Sir James Stumpe of Malmesbury, Wiltshire.[1] James had been her step-daughter Bridget's husband, and Isabel and James married after Bridget died in 1545. James died in 1563.[3]
Isabel married Thomas Stafford about 1565.[4]
Royal connections
[edit]The leases of many manors such as Paddington, Temple Rockley, and Chisbury were given to Edward Baynton during his marriage to Isabel.[5] Some leases were given to Isabel after Edward Baynton's death, and they passed on to their son Henry.[5]
On New Year's Day 1534, Isabel made a gift of a shirt to the King, embroidered with gold thread, following a gesture that had first been made by Edward's first wife Elizabeth.[5] Isobel continued to take part in the New Year's Day gift exchange at court. In 1539 she received a silver gilt "cruse" (a cup with a cover), made by the goldsmith Morgan Wolf, and gave Henry another shirt, of Holland linen embroidered with black silk.[6]
Isabel Baynton became one of Catherine Howard's Ladies of the Privy Chamber upon her marriage to Henry VIII.[5] Her husband Edward Baynton was Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to all of Henry VIII's later queens,[2] including Catherine Howard. When Queen Catherine was banished from court in 1541, Isabel was one of the four ladies-in-waiting she was allowed to take with her.[5][7] An account of the jewels that was taken following the Queen's arrest noted that she had given a "girdle of goldsmith's work" to the Lady Baynton.[5][8][9]
For a short time, from April 1539, Isabel and Edward Baynton served as guardians in charge of the households of Mary I of England, and Elizabeth I.[10][5]
Later life and death
[edit]In 1550, Isabel obtained a lease for the dissolved monastery at Edington, Wiltshire with Edward Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings of Loughborough.[5] An interest in the manor of Faulston near Salisbury was declined by Isabel, but after her death in February 1573 the interest was taken up by her son Henry.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Culpepper Family Tree no. 8495". The Culpepper Family History Site. Archived from the original on 8 April 2009 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b "BAYNTON, Sir Edward (by 1495-1544), of Bromham, Wilts". Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ "STUMPE, Sir James (by 1519-63), of Malmesbury and Bromham, Wilts". Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ "Biography". family search.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Bayntun History :: Sir Edward Bayntun 1480". bayntun-history.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
- ^ Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 147, 165, 171 fn. 88.
- ^ State Papers of Henry the Eighth, vol. 1 (London, 1830), pp. 691–693.
- ^ Barbara Harris, English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (Oxford, 2002), p. 225.
- ^ Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), pp. 200–201.
- ^ David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), pp. 115–117.