Will of Frances Aylmer 1540

[Bookbox]

Probatum fuit sup(ra)scriptum test(amentu)m Coram d(omi)no Apud London’ xxj^o die mensis Marcij Anno D(omi)ni

Mill(es)imo quingentesimo quadragesimo Juramento Susanne Clarencious et Margarete butt(es)

executric(ibus) in h(uius)mo(d)i testamento no(m)i(n)at(is)  Ac approbatu(m) et insinuatu(m)  Et com(m)issa fuit adm(ini)stracio

om(n)i(um) et sing(u)lor(um) bonor(um) &c dict(i) defunct(i) prefat(is) executric(ibus) de bene &c  Ac de pleno et fideli Inve(nta)rio

&c exhibend(o)  Necnon de plano et vero compoto redd(endo)  Ad Sancta dei Ev(a)ngelia Jurat(is)

The above-written will was proved before the lord at London on the 21st day of the month of March in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and forty* by the oath of Susan Clarencious and Margaret Buttes, the executors named in this will, and was approved and inserted (in the register); and administration of all and singular the goods etc. of the said deceased was granted to the aforesaid executors to well, etc.; and to submit a full and faithful inventory, etc.; and also to present a plain and true account; sworn on the Holy Gospels of God

      * = 21 March 1540/41

[WillowG]

Oh, thank you so much, Bookbox!!! I am equally impressed every time!!! How wonderful! This was great work!

I will be very interested to hear if you all agree with me in my conclusions.

First, let us start with the information we had beforehand - From the ever invaluable Kate Emerson's Who's Who of Tudor Women:

FRANCES AYLMER (d.1540) (maiden name unknown)
Frances Aylmer (also spelled Aelmerand Elmer) was a lady of the privy chamber to Princess Mary Tudor from at least 1525 until 1533 and returned to her service in 1536. She served as Mary’s proxy when Mary was godmother to one of the children of Lord William Howard. In mid-July 1533, Thomas Cromwell wrote to Lord Hussey, Chamberlain of Mary’s household, ordering him to have Mary’s jewels and plate inventoried and placed in the custody of Frances Aylmer. This did not happen. The countess of Salisbury, who was Lady Mistress of the household, refused to comply unless she received written orders from the king himself. Frances is probably the same Frances Aelmer whose will was proved March 21, 1540, since she makes reference in it to Sir William and Lady Butts (Margaret Bacon), who were also members of Mary’s household. In a query to Notes and Queries in 1896, citing that will, the writer suggests that Frances might have been the mother of John Aylmer, Bishop of London (1520/21-June 3, 1594). This is certainly a possibility. The Oxford DNB entry for Aylmer list his parents as unknown. Online sources say he was the younger son of John Aylmer of Aylmer Hall in Tilney, Norfolk (John Aylmer had another son, Sir Robert Aylmer) but do not give life dates or a name for this senior John Aylmer’s wife.
url=http://www.tudorwomen.com/?page_id=642

Now, from the very start this did not strike me as the will of a woman who left behind unsupported minor children. John Aylmer, the later Bishop of London, would not have been a bishop at this time. Rather, he would have been a 19-year-old student at Cambridge, at the sufferance of his patron, Henry Grey, 3rd Marquis of Dorset.

Furthermore, history has given him an elder brother, Sir Robert. We also know that an Anne Aylmer, a young girl at the time, was mentioned in the will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquis of Dorset, in 1530.

And yet Frances Aylmer mentions none of these people.

Now, the following is pure speculation and conjecture, though based on the (few) facts that we have.

From the very start, this will struck me as having been written by someone who has made a makeshift family and is leaving all of their wordly goods to them.

Something about the tone of the will also strikes me as very young. (Feel free to disagree!) As does the list of goods she distributes.

In search of further clues to the Aylmer family I went to the National Archive website, and found, among other documents of middling to little interest, this:

Short title: Aylmer v Curson
Plaintiffs: Frances, and Anne daughters and heirs and executors of Elizabeth, late the wife of Edmund Aylmer, gentleman.
Defendants: John Curson, grandson of Johanne, formerly the wife of the said Edmund.
Subject: Arrears of annuity charged by Roger Appulton and John Nethersole on the manor of Ingoldisthorpe.
(Decree endorsed).
Norfolk.
Date: 1515-1518
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7468961

Now, these two girls/ladies/women are both obviously still unmarried, as no husbands are mentioned in the suit. Furthermore, they are orphans, both of their parents, Edmund Aylmer, gentleman, their father, and their mother, Elizabeth, having passed away.

As we see, the names of the female plaintiffs fit perfectly with the two names that we have: Frances and Anne.

Furthermore, the suit takes place in Norfolk, the same county that John Aylmer was born in.

Ingoldisthorpe in Norfolk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingoldisthorpe

There appears to have been some kind of the perception (?) through the years that Princess Mary Tudor had no companions of her own age when she was sent to Ludlow, as I have seen people argue against this as if it were an often repeated established fact.

If indeed that is the case, it is in the event patently untrue. If we go back to the list I posted at the beginning of this thread, Mistress Katherine Mountecue was the granddaughter of Margaret Pole, Lady Salisbury, the Princess's governess, and probably born sometime between 1516-1518. Lady Katherine Grey, the daughter of the 2nd Marquis of Dorset, was probably born around the same time, making them both either the same age or between one and two years younger or older than the Princess.

(Information about Katherine Mountecue here:
http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4009/2/DX207809_1_0001.pdf)

It is therefore not unlikely that they would have had another girl of around this age with them.

Whatever their relationship in later life (Katherine Grey is not specifically mentioned in the will, though she might be one of the unnamed 'fellowes'), the number of ladies who went into Wales with the Princess is such that in the eight (!) years they served in the household of Princess Mary Tudor together they must have had some degree of contact. Perhaps that is how the Aylmers entered into the lives of the Greys?

Because it is an historical fact that they did.

[WillowG]

Again, whatever their relationship in later life, as they are not included in the will either, as a little girl Frances may have been closer to or had some sort of relationship with her cousins, if we are to assume that that is what Sir Robert and John Aymler were to her.

Item the rest of my Juelles and goodes I co(m)myt to the discrescion and order of Misterys Claurencions & Misteris buttes praying them to bestowe them to the good bringing up of my cosen ffrannces Aelmor

This is clearly a very small child, if not an infant. I could not find a Frances among the children of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, and he would have been a student of nineteen at the time, besides, but his elder brother Sir Robert may have had one.

Sadly, the Lincolnshire Pedigrees, edited by A.R. Maddison, gives us on the whole precious little information that we did not already have about the family, especially what concerns Bishop John Aylmer's ancestry, his father, and his brother.

However, the Lincolnshire Pedigrees do give John Aylmer an unknown first wife, whom I have not seen referred to elsewhere, with whom he had precisely one child, a daughter. Sadly, no name is given. All that we know of her is that she was the wife of Adam Squire, D.D., Master of Balliol College, Oxon.

The Lincolnshire Pedigrees, edited by A.R. Maddison
https://archive.org/stream/LincolnshirePedigreesV50/LincolnshirePedigrees_Maddison_v50#page/n69/search/Aylmer

Now, as I have learned here, cousin could stand for all sort of relationships The baby could be a niece, or even a granddaughter. But, why then does not Frances mention her children? Her (late?) husband? A sister or a brother who was the parent of this child?

(The reason of course, if I am right about who Frances was, that she does not mention her sister Anne, is that she must have sadly passed away between 1530 when Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquis of Dorset, included her in his will, and 1540, when Frances Aylmer did not include her in hers. Of course, little Frances Aylmer could have been Anne's child, even if my theory is right, but then it is strange that she did not inherit the bulk of the belongings, especially if she had been illegitimate in addition to being motherless, as the name would seem to indicate.)

This would explain why Frances Aylmer's maiden name is unknown, if she never married.

This would also explain why she gave away everything to her makeshift 'family', the household of Princess Mary in which she had served from she was very young, if she had no close relatives left.

According to the index and notes of the Privy Purse Expenses we find Mrs. Frances Elmer, or Aelmer, included among the “ladies and gentlewomen,” each of whom was allowed an attendant.

Thank you so much, all of you again!!!

[WillowG]

Since writing the above I have made some exciting discoveries Sharing them just in case somebody is interested:

Short title: Aylmer v Curson
Plaintiffs: Frances, and Anne daughters and heirs and executors of Elizabeth, late the wife of Edmund Aylmer, gentleman.
Defendants: John Curson, grandson of Johanne, formerly the wife of the said Edmund.
Subject: Arrears of annuity charged by Roger Appulton and John Nethersole on the manor of Ingoldisthorpe.
(Decree endorsed).
Norfolk.
Date: 1515-1518
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7468961

I cannot have been the only one who felt that the above indicated that Johanne must have been the second wife of Edmund Aylmer, thereby creating difficulties for the timeline of our theory, according to which both Frances and Anne must have necessarily been very young in 1515-8.

However, apparently there is a famous divorce case from the 1400's concerning an Edmund Aylmer and a Johanne/Jane Curson:

The Language of Abuse: Marital Violence in Later Medieval England by Sara Margaret Butler

Divorce in Medieval England: From One to Two Persons in Law by Sara M. Butler

Boundaries of the Law: Geography, Gender and Jurisdiction in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Edited by Anthony Musson

This is the case in question:

Short title: Radcliff v Curson.
Plaintiffs: Robert Radcliff, Roger Drury, Thomas Thursby and Robert Drury, executors of Henry Straunge.
Defendants: Dame Jane Curson, previously the wife of Edmond Aylmer.
Subject: Costs of defendant's divorce, lent to her by Henry Straunge.
Date:   1486-1493
Held by:   The National Archives, Kew
Legal status:   Public Record(s)
Closure status:   Open Document, Open Description
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7455137

Johanne/Jane Curson was not Edmund Aylmer's widow. They were divorced Making it likely that Elizabeth was his second wife, therefore increasing the likehood that this Frances and Anne could be of the age of our Frances and Anne, and by extension, could be our Frances and Anne.

For what it is worth, one of the sons of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, was called Edmund

[WillowG]

A closer look on the man Dame Jane Curson borrowed money from, and the executors of his will:

Robert Radcliff, Roger Drury, Thomas Thursby and Robert Drury, executors of Henry Straunge.

Neither Henry (le) Strange nor his executors were just anybody:

Henry (le) Strange

Sir Robert Radcliff

Searching for Radcliff and Lestrange I got lots of Harry Potter results, lol

Thomas Thursby

Roger Drury

Robert Drury, son of the above. With Sir Robert Drury began for this family a long connection with the courts of the Tudor sovereigns, and a succession of capable and eminent men whose careers are part of English history throughout the 16th century. In 1473 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, where he became a prominent figure. Drury House, the mansion built by Robert Drury, eventually gave its name to London's Drury Lane and to the well-known Drury Lane Theatre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Drury_(speaker)

The lady moved in elevated circles

[WillowG]

The Curson case appears to have continued to haunt everyone involved:

Short title: Cursom v The Mayor of London.
Plaintiffs: Johan Cursom, executrix of John Cursom, knight, previously the wife of Edmund Aylemer, esquire.
Defendants: The mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of London.
Subject: Action of debt brought by Richard Somar, gentleman, and Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of the said John Cursom. Corpus cum causa. London.
SFP
Date: 1475-1480, or 1483-1485
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7450991

Short title: Aylmer v Paston.
Plaintiffs: Edmund Aylmer, esquire.
Defendants: William Paston.
Subject: Detention of bonds between Roger and Thomas Aylmer and complainant of the one party, and Harry Straunge, Thomas Drury, and John Sharnburgh, of the other.
3 documents
Date: 1386-1486
Held by: The National Archives, Kew

Could the three of them, Edmund, Roger and Thomas Aylmer, have been relatives, perhaps brothers?

Some connection there must have been, because later (perhaps after Edmund's death, on behalf of his nieces Frances and Anne?) Roger is answering questions about the Curson case alone.

Robert Curson v. Roger Aylemer: answer
Date: Sixteenth century
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9471331
   
Short title: Aylmer v Wygmore.
Plaintiffs: Alexander, nephew and heir of Thomas Aylmer, gentleman.
Defendants: Robert Wygmore.
Subject: Detention of deeds relating to messuages and land in Tivetshall.
Norfolk.
2 documents
Date: 1532-1538
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7479310

As we remember, the given birthplace of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, was Tivetshall, Norfolk.

Short title: Aylmer v Adyngton.
Plaintiffs: Christopher, grandson and heir of Thomas AYLMER.
Defendants: Thomas ADYNGTON, John CRAMPHORN, Anne his wife, and John FAWSSETT (Forssett) and Magdalen his wife.
Subject: Cottage and land in the said Adyngton's manor of Harlow. Essex
Date: 1553-1555
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7500864

Sir Laurence Aylmer's son Anthony had been the vicar of the parish church of Harlow in Essex.

Alexander Aylmer and Christopher Aylmer may very well have been the nephew and grandson of Thomas the Elder (Sir Lawrence's father and Edmund's brother?) or Thomas the Younger, Lawrence's brother.

Reference: E 211/339
Description: Indenture by Covenant Parties: Sir Arthur Plantagenet, kt., and Elizabeth his wife; Sir Henry Guldeford, kt., and Sir Thomas West, kt.; Anthony Wyndesore, John Wayt esqs., Leonard Wayt and Alexander Aylmere. Places or Subjects: Kingston Lisle, Balking, Uffington, Sparsholt and elsewhere., County Berks. Chaddesley Corbett., County Wors. Norton Beauchamp, Sampford, Lympsham, Tarnock, Worle and elsewhere., County Soms. Painswick, Gloucester, Moreton Valance and elsewhere., County Glos. Kibworth Beauchamp., County Leics.
Note: Copy
Date: 14 Hen.VIII (1523)
Held by: The National Archives, Kew

Sir Arthur Plantagenet, knight, is the same person as we encountered as Lord Lisle in the will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquis of Dorset.

Sir Henry Guildford was also mentioned in the will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquis of Dorset. They were brothers-in-law.

Furthermore, I find an Alexander Aylmer as the steward of Kingston Lisle in 1533 in the Lisle Papers.
The Lisle Letters: An Abridgement, by Muriel Saint Clare Byrne

[WillowG]

Kingston Lisle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Lisle

Some notes on Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle, the wife of Arthur Plantagenet. Through at series of marriages she ended up as step-mother to amongst others, John Dudley, later Duke of Northumberland, who would become the father-in-law of Lady Jane Grey.
http://tudortimes.co.uk/people/honor-grenville-1

Apart from a general interest in Honor Grenville, Lady Lisle's, life, I also posted the link to show the importance of sponsorships and who you knew in Tudor society when it came to securing important posts.

Frances Aylmer was sent along as one of only 17 ladies in the entourage of Princess Mary Tudor. Princess Mary Tudor was at that point, in 1525, heiress to the throne. This was a great honour, and a great opportunity for advancement. She would have had to have had someone sponsoring her for the position, as well as great connections.

She would also have needed the approval of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the Princess's governess, of Henry VIII, of Queen Katherine of Aragon, and of Wolsey.

One did not simply pick up a companion to the heir of the throne from the streets.

At the very least Frances Aylmer would have had to have had an unimpeachable reputation and impeccable manners, and a family that made such a placement natural.

Which opens up the question, who was Elizabeth, the widow of Edmund Aylmer? Was it her family who managed to get Frances so well placed?

Edmund Aylmer, Esquire, and Elizabeth, his wife, is mentioned together, married and alive, in this document in 1507, in connection with the manor of Rokehall.
http://esah1852.org.uk/images/pdf/ffines/F1400000.pdf

According to this document, http://www.academia.edu/35620531/better_in_remembrance_Medieval_commemoration_at_the_Crutched_Friars_London_2010_ (see page 54, the search function didn't work), Elizabeth left a will (!) and died in 1518. She apparently requested to buried at the Crutched Friars in London.

I have sadly been unable to locate this will 

[WillowG]

If I were a betting person, I would have bet good money on that it is here the ancestry of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, is to be found, in this particular branch of the family of Aylmers. My guess is that he is the descendant of one of Edmund's brothers, one that we know of, or one that we don't.

John Strype gives John Aylmer a brother, Sir Robert Aylmer of Aylmer Hall, the Leicester Pedigrees a father called John.

We have to remember that with how late Edmund's second marriage took place, there is the very good chance of generational differences, so that John Aylmer, later the Bishop of London, though the peer of Frances Aylmer, lady of the Privy Chamber to Princess Mary Tudor, age-wise, could in fact have belonged to a different generation in the family, being her first cousin once, or even twice removed.

This more distant relationship could help explain his omission in the will of Frances Aylmer in 1540. There is something almost pointed in her bequest Item the rest of my Juelles and goodes I co(m)myt to the discrescion and order of Misterys Claurencions & Misteris buttes praying them to bestowe them to the good bringing up of my cosen ffrannces Aelmor.

Almost like she has doubts about the parents ability to bring the child up good ... The fact that she entrusts the child's part of the inheritance to the keeping of the Mistresses Clarencioux and Butts instead of the child's parents does not indicate the greatest trust in their abilities.

This first led me, along with the following quote in Notes and Queries:

JOHN ATLMER, BISHOP OP LONDON. Who were his parents? On 21 March, 1540, the will of one Frances Aelmer was proved (P.C.C., 25 Alenger). Was this lady the Bishop's mother? From the will it is clear she was on intimate terms with Sir William and Lady Butts. The Buttses were a Norfolk family, and Bishop Aylmer belonged to the same county. Is it known at what college at Cambridge Aylmer was educated? What relation was his wife, Judith Bures, to Henry Bures, of Acton, Suffolk, whose three daughters married the three sons of Sir William Butts, M.D. ? CHAS. JAS. FERET.
https://archive.org/stream/s8notesqueries10londuoft/s8notesqueries10londuoft_djvu.txt

To assume that Frances Aylmer the Younger may have been the Bishop's daughter.

Margaret Bacon, Lady Butts, may very well have been a conscientous woman. And tasked with taking an active part in the child's upbringing, she may have done exactly that. There is no reason to assume that Margaret Bacon, Lady Butts, a rich, well-connected lady at court, whose husband would elevated to the knighthood shortly after writing of Frances Aylmer's will, would not have been welcome in nearly every family. And in the event, she was, because the connection between Judith Bures and Lady Butts's daughter-in-laws is as follows:

Henry Bures of Acton Hall, Esquire, was born in 1502 and was the elder son of Robert Bures of Acton. He succeeded his father as lord of the manors of Acton, Moryeves, Foxherd and Brokehall. The manors of Roydon and Whersted in Suffolk were given to him and "the heirs of his body" in 1517 by Sir James Hulbert and William Frost, probably as the result of the wish of the late Earl of Ormond, Henry Bures married Anne, elder daughter of George Waldegrave of Smallbridge, Bures St. Mary's, Suffolk, Esquire, and had three daughters, Jane, Bridget, Anne and Mary.
http://www.clingram.com/famhis/getperson.php?personID=I109735&tree=Ingram

The Bishop's wife, Judith Bures, was the daughter of Robert King and widow of Nathaniel Treherne. It is therefore somewhat peculiar that she went by the name of Judith Bures. This is probably owing to the fact that her mother was Anne Bures, daughter of Robert Bures of Acton, and sister of the above Henry Bures of Acton Hall, Esquire, making Judith his niece.
https://www.geni.com/people/Ann-King/6000000003345404811

John Aylmer's wife Judith was thus the first cousin of all the three wives of all the three sons of Sir William and Lady Butts. Sir William and Lady Butts were both beneficiaries of Frances Aylmer's will, and two of the sons that were to marry the cousins of Judith Bures were witnesses to the will.

[WillowG]

It is natural to assume that there would have been religious differences between the two, Frances Aylmer and John Aylmer.

Frances Aylmer was in the service of Princess Mary Tudor, a strong adherent to the old faith, and John Aylmer may have already have been a strong advocate of the evangelism he would later educate Lady Jane Grey in.

There was a strong sense of loyalty in Princess Mary Tudor's household.
http://www.gutenberg-e.org/mcintosh/chapter2.html

This and either an imprudent marriage or a somewhat illegitimate child would not have left Frances Aylmer the Elder perhaps with the greatest confidence in his judgement.

However, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650. Edited by Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, and Jo Eldridge Carney makes a compelling argument for the Bishop's unnamed daughter married to Adam Squire and John Aylmer's well-documented daughter Judith Aylmer Lynch being one and the same person. Another odd thing is that if Frances Aylmer the Younger were the Bishop's unnamed the daughter and had been born by 1540, why she only married and had children in the 1580's.

Then I realised I had needlessly complicated matters. Frances Aylmer the Younger may simply have been John Aylmer's younger sister. This too would have brought the Buttses and through them the Bureses into the orbit of the life of the later Bishop.

John Aylmer's family would not have been the first to use the ploy of naming a child after a wealthy relative. In the event, it appears to have worked, as even though Frances Aylmer the Younger was not the main beneficiary of the will, she did receive a bequest, which it is by no means certain she would have otherwise, as no other family members are mentioned in the will of Frances Aylmer.

There is also the fact that John Aylmer and Judith Bures named one of their sons Edmund, among mostly religious names for their other sons. It is hardly hard-hitting proof, still, there it is.