Sir Richard Williams ( – 20 October 1544), also known as Sir Richard Cromwell, was a Welsh soldier and courtier in the reign of Henry VIII, who knighted him on 2 May 1540. He was a maternal nephew of Thomas Cromwell, profiting from the Dissolution of the Monasteries in which he took an active part. He was the patrilineal great-grandfather of Oliver Cromwell.

Early life Richard Williams was born about 1510 in the parish of Llanishen, Glamorganshire. cites: Leland's Itinerary, vide letter B in the proofs and illustrations. He was the eldest son of Morgan (ap William) Williams (Llanishen, Glamorgan, 1469 - Putney, Derbyshire, bef. 12 July 1529), an aspiring Welsh lawyer (son of William ap Yevan and a paternal descendant of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, prince of Powys), who was possibly the same Morgan Williams later recorded as a brewer at Putney, Greenwich and elsewhere. Morgan Williams married Katherine Cromwell (died bef. 12 July 1529), the sister of Thomas Cromwell, long before the latter came to power under Henry VIII, but Williams and his son would eventually benefit substantially from this relationship, receiving large amounts of land confiscated from the church.

Protégé of Thomas Cromwell Richard was to enter the court of King Henry VIII thanks to his relationship to the powerful minister Thomas Cromwell, who rose from humble origins to become before his death Earl of Essex, Vicar-General, and Knight of the Garter. At the time when Thomas Cromwell made his will in July 1529, his nephew's parents had died and the young man was in the service of the Marquess of Dorset (father of Henry Grey, and grandfather of Lady Jane Grey). By the autumn of 1529, he had adopted the name Cromwell, and following Dorset's death in 1530, he was employed by Stephen Gardiner until early 1533, when he joined his uncle's household at Austin Friars and while in his service was introduced at court. For the next ten years, as Richard Cromwell alias Williams, he was employed in both public and private matters and served as a channel of communication with the minister. Closely involved with his uncle's work, he was in a position to benefit from the redistribution of property at his uncle's hands. He was entrusted with considerable appointments at a young age, and apparently took an active part in suppressing the Pilgrimage of Grace insurrection. cites Vide letter E in the proofs, etc.

Dissolution of the Monasteries

During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Sir Richard was appointed one of the Visitors of the religious houses, and received an ample reward for this work, perhaps thanks to his uncle's influence. cites William Dugdale's History of Warwickshire.

On 8 March 1537/8 he was granted the nunnery of Hinchingbrooke, in Huntingdonshire. The stated value of the property in the deed of grant was only £19. 9s. 2d., but this appears to have been a considerable under-rating, since it included land and premises not only in the parishes and hamlets of Hinchinbrooke, Huntingdon, Stewkley-Magna, Stewkley-Parva, Turkington, Houghton, Esington, Alconbury, Paxton-Magna, Paxton-Parva, Hail Weston, Waresley and Bawynhoo in Huntingdonshire, but also Eltisley, Bottisham and Boxworth in Cambridgeshire, Staplewe and Bewlow in Bedfordshire, Hamildon-Parva in Rutland, and Stoke Doyle and Oakley in Northamptonshire. cites: Grant in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich. Turkington, Bawynhoo, Elington, Staplewe, and Bewlow, are unknown, except Esington is put for Ellington, which is an adjoining parish to Alconbury. In that same year he also received a royal grant of the monastery of Sawtry-Judith, in the county of Huntingdon, which was valued at £199 11s. 1d. cites: Thomas Tanner, Notitia monastica, The church of All Saints, at Fulbourn, in Cambridgeshire, passed by this grant as an appendant to Saltry. Mr Baker's M. S. S.

On 9 April 1539, for a fee of only £1 0s. 5d., he was granted property in Eynesbury, Eton, and Little Paxton in Huntingdonshire that had formerly belonged to the chantry of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire, cites: Grant in the possession of the earl of Sandwich, whose ancestors purchased the manor of Eynsbury; Eton is supposed to be Eaton Socon, or Eton, in Bedfordshire, and is the adjoining parish to Eynesbury and Little Paxton, and where Lord Sandwich has a small parcel of land; probably the same that is mentioned above. and he received Greyfriars Abbey in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk from the King that same year. cites: Papers communicated by the Rev. Dr Lort. On 4 March 1540 he came into possession of the site of the rich Abbey of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, states: "The revenue, according to Dugdale, was £1716. 12s. 4d., but according to Speed, £983. 15s. 3 d." and cites Chronicon Abbatiæ Rameseiensis in Rolls Series (1886); Cartularium Monasterii de Ramsesia in Rolls Series (3 vols.); Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, II (London, 1846); Reyner, Apostolatus Benedictinorum, 149; Wise, Ramsey Abbey, its rise and fall, (1881). which included the various meres or lakes belonging to it. cites: The lakes belonging to the Abbey of Ramsey mentioned in the grant were, Huggemere (now Uggmeer) Browswage, Dawntiy (now Dantry) Longbeche, Pollingmere, Wickesmere, Rawingsmere, Baxtermere, Rowmere, and Worlinglowe. Noble gave them as they are written in his time; some of them are large waters, but they are inconsiderable places, many of them not having an house near them. The terms of this grant state that it was made in consideration of his good service, in return for a payment of £4,963 4s. 2d. to be held in capite by knights service. Notes that: Grant from a manuscript in Sir Rob. Cotton's own hand-writing, now the property of Lord Carysfort, communicated to me. Mr. Fuller in his church hist, has fallen into some mistakes relative to Ramsey; he says the money paid was £4,963 4s. 2d. and that there was a rent of £29. 16s. reserved, but this does not appear by the grant, any more than that Sir Richard had all the manors held of the abbey in Huntingdonshire; not one is mentioned: however, he must have another grant for that purpose; it is certain that all Ramsey, and very many manors in Huntingdonshire became his, which once belonged to this abbey. This was a considerable sum of money at that time, but was dwarfed by the value of the abbey in question, which in addition returned an annual revenue of £1,987. 15s. 3d per year. The value of the ecclesiastical lands is entirely taken from Speed's maps, as he acknowledges, that he had the history of Huntingdonshire from a very learned and judicious friend of his, who was no other than Sir Robert Cotton, a gentleman every way qualified for such an undertaking. Hinchinbrooke is valued by Sir William Dugdale, at £17. 1s. od. and by Speed, in his Historie of Great Britaine, at £19. 9s. 2d. Sawtry, by them at £141 3s. 8d. and £199. 11s. 8d. and Ramsey, at £1,716 12s. 4d. and £1,983 15s. od. 3qr. Although he had to purchase many of the other grants, the cost was probably relatively nominal, since many of the dissolved religious houses were sold off for almost nothing, and he was in favour with the King thanks to his role as Visitor and as the nephew of Thomas Cromwell. According to Mark Noble, cites: Grants, and Thomas Tanner, Notitia monastica. "all these grants passed to him by the names of Rich. Williams, otherwise Cromwell".

Member of Parliament and High Sheriff By 1539 he was a gentleman of the privy chamber, and in the same year was elected MP for the seat of Huntingdonshire. In 1539, or early 1540, at the age of thirty, he may have been the subject of a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger.

He was knighted on 2 May 1540 during a tournament at Westminster where he distinguished himself by his military skill and gallantry:

Sir Richard and the five other challengers were granted 100 marks annually as a reward for their valour and a house each from the estates of the monastery of the Friary of St Francis, in Stamford, which had been dissolved on 8 October 1538, cites: Fuller's hist, of the church, and M.S. in the possession of Dr Lort. grants which were made possible by the fact that Sir William Weston, the last prior, who had an annuity out of the monastery, died two days after the jousts. According to an anecdote reported by Noble, "when Henry saw Sir Richard's prowess he exclaimed, 'Formerly thou wast my Dick, but hereafter thou shalt be my diamond'; and dropped a diamond ring from his finger, which Sir Richard taking up, he presented it to him, bidding him afterwards bear such a one in the fore gamb of the demy lion in his crest". cites: Fuller's church hist.—The more ancient way of bearing the crest was a javelin in the demy lion's gamb, the protector Oliver used it before his exaltation, but the stone ring after his assumption of sovereign power; Mr Peck not knowing the armorial bearing of the family, supposed it to represent, that he was married to the state: in one visitation of Huntingdonshire there is an ancient mace substituted for the gem ring; in another, a crescent.

The fall and execution of Sir Richard's uncle Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, in July 1540, Vide no; i. vol. ii. of the persons and families allied to, or descended from the prot. house of Cromwell; in which is some account of Thomas Earl of Essex, and his descendants. apparently had no adverse effect on his social standing or private fortune. He was appointed High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1541, cites: Nomina vice comitum, Harl. coll. no. 259. and was again returned as the Member of Parliament for Huntingdonshire in the parliament which began 16 January 1542. cites Willis's Not. Parl. He received a grant from the King in 1542 of Huntingdon Priory and St Neots Priory, cites Thomas Tanner, Notitia monastica. with yearly revenues of £232 7s. and £256 1s. 3d. respectively. cites Speed's maps. Dugdale values St Mary's at £187 13s. 8d. and Speed, in his history of Great Britain, at £232 7s. Dugdale and Sir Simon Degge, value St Neots at £241. 11s. 4d.—These grants passed to him, says Tanner, by the styles of Sir Richard Cromwell, alias Williams, and Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell.

In addition he was at some unknown date given the office of steward of the lordship of Archenfield, with the constableship of Goodrich Castle in the Welsh Marches, and the power of appointing the master serjeant and porter belonging to those offices during the minority of the Earl of Shrewsbury. cites Harl. M.S.S. vol. 433. He also received the priory of St Helen Bishopsgate in London, cites: M.S.S. lent to him by Dr Lort. the castles, lordships, and manors of Manorbier and Penally, both in the county of Pembroke, valued at £100, to be held by knights' service, and Neath Abbey in Glamorgan, which he chose to obtain by exchange for other lands, possibly because it was close to his birthplace.

War in France