Author Topic: Will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset  (Read 8398 times)

Offline WillowG

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Re: Will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset
« Reply #126 on: Saturday 25 August 18 02:18 BST (UK) »
Anne Elmar[?]**could be a longer name, abbreviated

I searched a bit for an Anne Elmar or an Elmar family connected to the Greys, without result, until I came across this famous quote from the testator's granddaughter:

that I must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so ientlie, so pleasantlie

M. Elmer is better known to us as:

John Aymler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aylmer_(bishop)

John Aymler was born in 1521 at Aylmer Hall, Tivetshail St. Mary, Norfolk. While still a boy, his precocity was noticed by Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who sent him to Cambridge, where he seems to have become a fellow of Queens' College. About 1541 he was made chaplain to the Duke, and tutor to his daughter, Lady Jane Grey.

Anne Aymler may have been his sister, or some other relation. The request to hur mariage x li does fit with a girl of maritable age, or one who soon will be. According to John Strype, John Aymler had an elder brother, Sir Robert Aylmer, of Aylmer Hall in Norfolk. It is not implausible that he should have had a sister of an age befitting the testator's bequest too.

(Tivetshail St. Mary appears to be this place:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilney_St_Lawrence)

Using this version of the spelling, however, I found more Aylmers in connection with the Greys:

Frances Aylmer (also spelled Aelmer and Elmer), possibly mother of the above, served alongside Katherine Grey, Countess of Arundel, the testator's daughter, in the household of Princess Mary Tudor from 1525 until 1533. She returned to her service in 1536. 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.
https://www.geni.com/people/Frances-Aylmer/6000000012262247359
http://www.tudorwomen.com/?page_id=642

There is yet another Aymler who had a connection to the Greys:

Sir Gerald Aylmer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Aylmer_(judge)

In early life Sir Gerald Aylmer was loyal to Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare when he served as sheriff of Limerick in the earlier 1520's. Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, was the testator's brother-in-law. He was married to the testator's sister, Elizabeth Grey. Although the testator appears to have been estranged from all of his many siblings, there is the possibility that some connection existed between the families, and at some point a girl named Anne, the daughter of some aquaintances of the FitzGeralds, endeared herself to the testator and was remembered in his will.

Sir Gerald Aymler did have a sister Anne who married Thomas Luttrell:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Luttrell_(Irish_judge)

According to Wikipedia, however, this marriage took place in 1506, so it can't be that Anne.

Luttrell married firstly, and apparently while he was still in his teens, Anne Aylmer, daughter of Bartholomew Aylmer and Margaret Cheevers, and sister of his future colleague Sir Gerald Aylmer.

In a family with one Anne, there will often be more, however. Sir Gerald Aylmer alone is described as having 'numerous descendants'.

I have been unable to establish if there is any relation between these two families with the surname of Aymler, or if it indeed could be the same family altogether.