Elizabeth Seymour ( – 19 March 1568) was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.
Elizabeth lived under four Tudor monarchs (Lady Jane Grey is not included) and was married three times. By July 1530 she had married Sir Anthony Ughtred, Governor of Jersey, who died in 1534. She then married Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, the son of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII in 1537; Gregory died in 1551. She married her third and last husband, Sir John Paulet, later Lord St. John, the son of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester in 1554.
Seymour family The Seymour family took its name from St. Maur-sur-Loire in Touraine. William de St. Maur in 1240 held the manors of Penhow and Woundy (now called Undy in Monmouthshire). William's great-grandson, Sir Roger de St. Maur, had two sons: John, whose granddaughter conveyed these manors by marriage into the family of Bowlay of Penhow, who bore the Seymour arms; and Sir Roger ( – Bef. 1366), who married Cicely, eldest sister and heir of John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp. Cicely brought to the Seymours the manor of Hache, Somerset, and her grandson, Roger Seymour, by his marriage with Maud, daughter and heir of Sir William Esturmy, acquired Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. Elizabeth's father, Sir John Seymour, was a great-great-grandson of this Roger Seymour.
Sir John Seymour was born in 1474. He succeeded his father in 1492, was knighted by Henry VII for his services against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath in 1497, and was sheriff of Wiltshire in 1508. He was present at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournay in 1513, at the two interviews between Henry VIII and Francis I in 1520 and 1532, and died on 21 December 1536.
He married Margery, the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, and his wife Anne Say. Anne was the daughter of Sir John Say and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Cheney (or Cheyne) ( – 1461) and Elizabeth Cokayne. Margery Wentworth's grandfather, Sir Philip Wentworth, had married Mary, daughter of John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter of Henry Percy (Hotspur) and great-great-granddaughter of Edward III.
Sir John Seymour (1474 – 21 December 1536), of Wulfhall, Savernake, Wiltshire, and Margery Wentworth ( – ) were married 22 October 1494. The couple had ten children: John Seymour (died 15 July 1510) Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of Edward VI (/1506 – 22 January 1552) married firstly Catherine, daughter of Sir William Fillol, and secondly Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope. Sir Henry Seymour (1503 – 1578) married Barbara, daughter of Morgan Wolfe Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley ( – 20 March 1549) married Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII John Seymour (died young) Anthony Seymour (died ) Jane Seymour, queen Consort of Henry VIII ( – 24 October 1537) Margery Seymour (died ) Elizabeth Seymour ( – 19 Mar 1568) Dorothy Seymour ( – 4 January 1574) married firstly, Sir Clement Smith ( – 26 August 1552) of Little Baddow, Essex and secondly, Thomas Leventhorpe of Shingle Hall,Shingle Hall is also listed as Shingey, Shingley and Shinglehall in various sources. Hertfordshire.
Of the ten children born at Wulfhall, six survived:– three sons: Edward, Henry and Thomas, and three daughters: Jane, Elizabeth and Dorothy. Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth were courtiers. Edward and Thomas were both executed during the reign of Edward VI. Henry Seymour, who did not share his brothers' ambition, escaped their fate.
Early life Elizabeth Seymour was born about 1518, probably at Wulfhall. Historian Elizabeth Norton in Jane Seymour: Patronage, Material Culture and Image Crafting (2026) argues that Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth, born about 1510, and consequently around ten years older than her second husband, Gregory Cromwell. Norton claims that ″Margery Wentworth named her four daughters after herself and her three sisters.″ The eldest of Margery's sisters was Elizabeth Wentworth, who was still living in 1542. However, two other women also shared the name: Sir John Seymour’s mother, Elizabeth Darrell {d. 29 July 1537), who lived with the family at Wolfhall, and ″Margery’s high-profile stepmother″, Elizabeth, Lady Scrope, who died on 7 September 1517.
Her letters to Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII show that she was both intelligent and astute. She was also skilled in needlework. She played a brief but prominent role in the 1530s and 1540s, during the rise to power of her father-in-law, Thomas Cromwell, and her brother, Edward. Elizabeth and her sister, Jane, served in the household of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, their second cousin. She married three times and by her first two marriages had seven children. She is best known as the wife of Gregory Cromwell.
First marriage
By July 1530 Elizabeth had married, as his second wife, Sir Anthony Ughtred, of Kexby, Yorkshire.
The couple had two children: Sir Henry Ughtred, ( – 1599), born at Mont Orgueil, Jersey, married Elizabeth, daughter to John Paulet, Lord St. John and his first wife Elizabeth Willoughby and the widow of Sir William Courtenay. After his wife's death in 1576 he appears to have taken a second wife. Margery Ughtred, () married William Hungate of Burnby, Yorkshire. They had two sons, William and Leonard.
In January 1531, Henry VIII granted the couple the manors of Lepington and Kexby (Yorkshire), previously held by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. She was well-placed at court, in the service of Anne Boleyn, to support her husband's interests. In August 1532, when the pro-Boleyn Sir Anthony Ughtred was appointed captain and Governor of Jersey, it was almost certainly due to the influence of Anne Boleyn. He served in person, and remained in the post until his death.
On Saturday, 31 May 1533, Lady Ughtred was one of the ladies and gentlewomen attendant on horseback who accompanied Queen Anne Boleyn in a procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Hall.
Sir Anthony Ughtred died 6 October 1534 in Jersey, and was buried in the chapel of St George, in the castle of Mont Orgueil. After her husband's death, the young widow returned to England, to serve her mistress and cousin, the queen. Her daughter, Margery was probably born in Kexby, Yorkshire in the same year. Her one-year-old son, Henry, remained on the island for a time, in the care of Helier de Carteret, Bailiff of Jersey.
The Queen's sister
When Anne Boleyn failed to produce a male heir after almost three years of marriage, the able and ambitious Edward Seymour and his family, gained wealth and power as Jane supplanted Anne in the king's affections. In March 1536, Edward was made a gentleman of the privy chamber, and a few days later, he and his wife Anne together with his sister Jane, were lodged at the palace at Greenwich in apartments which the king could reach through a private passage.
In May 1536, accused of treason, incest and plotting the king's death, Anne was imprisoned in the Tower, awaiting her trial. Jane Seymour resided with members of her family, first at the home of Sir Nicholas Carew in Surrey and then moved closer to the king, to a house at Chelsea, formerly owned by Thomas More. While the king's second wife prepared for her execution, Jane was planning her wedding, "splendidly served by the King's cook and other officers" and "most richly dressed". On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. On 5 June, a week after his sister's marriage to the king, Edward Seymour was created Viscount Beauchamp. Two days later he received a grant of numerous manors in Wiltshire, including Ambresbury, Easton Priory, Chippenham, and Maiden Bradley. On 7 July he was made governor and captain of Jersey, and in August, chancellor of North Wales. He had livery of his father's lands in the following year, was on 30 January granted the manor of Muchelney, Somerset, and on 22 May sworn of the privy council. In the same month he was on the commission appointed to try Lords Darcy and Hussey for their role in the Pilgrimage of Grace. On 15 October he carried Princess Elizabeth at Edward VI's christening, and 18 October was created Earl of Hertford. Thomas Seymour was also made a gentleman of the privy chamber in 1536, and knighted 18 October of the same year. He was made captain of the Sweepstake in 1537.
When Henry VIII sought to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, Jane, who had previously served in Catherine's household, had remained loyal to her and her daughter, Mary. Elizabeth and her first husband, Sir Anthony Ughtred had supported Anne Boleyn and benefited from her rise. It is not surprising therefore, that she was not included in the new queen's household. There is no evidence that Elizabeth benefited directly from her sister's royal status, before the news of a royal pregnancy became public knowledge in 1537. The impending birth of an heir to the throne would dramatically increase her value as a potential bride.
On 18 March 1537, then a young widow of reduced means, residing in York, Elizabeth had written to Thomas Cromwell, then Baron Cromwell, who had previously offered to help her, if she was ever in need. She had hoped to "be holpen to obtain of the king's grace to be farmer of one of these abbeys if they fortune to go down ..." Cromwell, probably encouraged by Edward Seymour, proposed instead that she marry his only son and heir, Gregory. By June, it appears that Cromwell's offer had been accepted. Arthur Darcy, the son of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy, assured her that "I would have been glad to have had you likewise, but sure it is, as I said, that some southern lord shall make you forget the North."
Second marriage
On 3 August 1537, Elizabeth married Gregory Cromwell at Mortlake. Edward Seymour, then Viscount Beauchamp wrote to Cromwell on 2 September 1537, to know how he has fared since the writer's departure. Wishes Cromwell were with him, when he should have had the best sport with bow, hounds, and hawks and sends commendations to his brother-in-law and sister, adding: "and I pray God to send me by them shortly a nephew."
The couple had five children: Henry Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell, (before 1 March 1538 – 16 December 1592), married Mary, (died 1592), the daughter of John Paulet, Lord St. John and his first wife Elizabeth Willoughby. Edward Cromwell, (1539 – ?) died young Thomas Cromwell, ( – died between February 1610 and April 1611), married 18 August 1580, Katherine (died before 1 August 1616), daughter of Thomas Gardner of Coxford. Katherine Cromwell, ( – ?), probably named after Queen Catherine Howard, married John Strode of Parnham, Dorset Frances Cromwell, ( – 7 February 1562), married Richard Strode of Newnham, Devon.
On 12 November, three months after their wedding, Elizabeth and Gregory took part in the queen's funeral procession. Jane's death on 24 October, after being delivered of the king's longed-for son, naturally came as a blow to the Seymour family. It proved to be a setback to Edward Seymour's influence. He was described in the following year as "young and wise," but "of small power". The death of the queen would have disastrous consequences for Thomas Cromwell.