Sir Rhys Mansel (c. 1487 – 1559), also Sir Rice Mansel, also Sir Rice Manxell, also Sir Rice Maunsell, was an administrator and courtier.
Career He was a son of Jenkyn Mansel of Oxwich Castle and Edith Kyme, daughter of George Kyme. Jenkyn Mansel attended a tournament at Carew Castle.John Montgomery Traherne, Historical notices of Matthew Cradock (Llandovery, 1840), p. 26.
Rice Mansel was Vice-Admiral, High Sheriff of Glamorgan, a Commissioner of Peace and served as Chamberlain of Chester to King Henry VIII of England. He was High Sheriff of Glamorgan for 1542.John Montgomery Traherne, Historical notices of Matthew Cradock (Llandovery, 1840), pp. 26–31.
In 1529, he was one of the witnesses to the will of Matthew Cradock, who was married to Lady Catherine Gordon, widow of Perkin Warbeck.John Montgomery Traherne, Historical notices of Matthew Cradock (Llandovery, 1840), p. 20.
He owned estates at Penrice and Oxwich, and at the Dissolution of the Monasteries he purchased Margam Abbey, which remained the property of his descendants until 1941.
He married three times, firstly Eleanor Basset, daughter of James Basset of Beaupre, and secondly, Anne Bridges, daughter of George Bridges of Coberly. Her son, Philip Mansel, married Mary Darrell.Edward Phillipps Statham, History of the Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel (1917), p. 247.
Cecily Dabridgecourt, Lady Mansel In 1527, he married his third wife, Cecily Dabridgecourt (died 1558), a daughter of William or John Dabridgecourt of Wolston and Solihull and Maria, a daughter of Richard Mynors of Treago.Edward Phillipps Statham, History of the Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel (London, 1917), pp. 329–333, 248 From 1525, she was a lady in waiting to Lady Mary, later Mary I of England, who gave her gifts of jewellery.Stanley Bindhoff, The House of Commons, 1509-1558, 2 (London, 1982), p. 565: Frederick Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of Princess Mary (London, 1831), p. 184. The poet Richard Edwardes wrote of her "Mansell is a merry one".Ros King, The Collected Works of Richard Edwards: Politics, Poetry and Performance in Sixteenth-Century England (Manchester, 2001), pp. 19, 188, 232.Thomas Park, Nugae Antiquae, 2 (London, 1804), 394 citing BL Cotton Titus A. xxiv.
Princess Mary wrote to Thomas Cromwell after Cecily had married Rice Mansel, mentioning her "long and acceptable service to me done".Henry Ellis, Original Letters, series 2 vol. 2 (London, 1825), p. 29. Mansel wrote to Cromwell in 1535 describing his military service in Ireland with William Skeffington fighting Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare.James Gairdner, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 8 (London, 1885), p. 188 no. 485.
Lady Mansel rode in Mary's coronation procession.David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford, 1992), p. 355: John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, 3:1 (Oxford, 1822), p. 55 Anne Browne, Lady Petre, was chief mourner at her funeral at St Bartholomew-the-Great in September 1558.Edward Phillipps Statham, History of the Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel (London, 1917), p. 334 Rice Mansel's brother, Philip Mansel of Llandewy married Anne Dabridgecourt.Edward Phillipps Statham, History of the Family of Maunsell, Mansell, Mansel (1917), p. 247
Children and will Rice Mansel's children with his second wife, Anne Bridges, included:John Montgomert Traherne, Historical notices of Matthew Cradock (Llandovery, 1840), pp. 27. Philip Mansel Elizabeth Mansel, who married William Morgan of Llantarnam, Monmouthshire Catherine Mansel, who married William Bassett of Beaupre Rice Mansel's children with his third wife, Cecily Dabridgecourt, included: Edward Mansel (d. 1595), who married Jane Somerset, daughter of the Earl of Worcester, and was the father of Robert Mansell sailor and glass-making entrepreneur. Anthony Mansel (MP), who married Elizabeth Basset,BASSETT, John II (by 1513-51), of Llantrithyd, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 daughter of John Basset of Llantrithryd.Stanley Bindhoff, The House of Commons, 1509-1558, 2 (London, 1982), p.565. Mary Mansel, who married Sir Thomas Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk, and was the mother of Sir Robert Southwell.
Rice Mansel died on 10 April 1559. He was buried at Little St Bartolmew's in Smithfield, and there is a family monument at Margam. By his will, Rice Mansel left an "upper abiliment of goldsmith's work" for wearing on a French hood and a gown of purple cloth of silver to his daughter-in-law Jane. He left a pointed diamond to his daughter Mary Mansel which Queen Mary had given to his wife Cecily.John Montgomert Traherne, Historical notices of Matthew Cradock (Llandovery, 1840), p. 28: English Baronetage, 1 (London, 1741), pp. 487–489.
References
Maunsell, Charles Albert and Statham, Edward Phillips, History of the Family of Maunsell (Mansell, Mansel) , 2 vols. in 3, Anchor Press LTD, Tiptree Essex, 1917-20.
External links Heraldry Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Rice Mansel