Frances (Walsingham) Burgh (1569 - 1633)

Born 1569 in Scadbury Park, Chislehurst, Kent, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 17 Feb 1633 at about age 64 in Tonbridge, Kent, England

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Biography

Frances Walsingham was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Angela McLeod, author of The Brilliant Stage The story of Frances Walsingham says of Frances:^[1]

Much has been written on Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth the First's Secretary of State and Spymaster, but very little on his daughter, Frances, who is comparatively unknown but closely connected with the greatest of that era.

As a child, she survived the massacre of St.Bartholomew's Eve, together with Sir Philip Sidney, in Walsingham's embassy in Paris. At thirteen, she contracted herself in marriage to one of her Father's employees and, when this was forbidden, she was married to Sidney. She followed him on campaign in the Netherlands and was with him when he died of wounds following the battle of Zutphen. She then married the Queen's favourite, the Earl of Essex. Sidney had died with chivalric perfection, Essex, after a treasonable uprising, died with his head on a block eleven years later.

Within two years, Frances married the Irish Earl of Clanricarde, who had been brought up in the Essex household, and had accompanied Essex on several campaigns. She converted to Catholicism and together they built and left to posterity two outstanding houses. The book covers the last half of the reign, including the defeat of the Armada, Dutch, Spanish and Irish campaigns.

Frances was a survivor, but must have had, besides intelligence, rare charm or beauty to have married, in succession, three of the most charismatic men of the age. Seven of her twelve children survived.

Frances Walsingham was the only daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Principal Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth I of England.^[2]

Frances married:

1. Sir Philip Sydney, Knight, the son of Sir Henry Sidney, KG, and his wife, Mary Dudley, and Sir Henry on 24 July, made settlements on Philip's marriage with Frances.^[3] Frances and Sir Philip had children:^[4]
   1. Elizabeth Sydney, baptised on 15 November 1585 at St Olave, Hart Street, London,^[5] died 1 September, married Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland;^[2]
2. secretly Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, with whom she had children:
   1. Robert Lord Deaueraux, Viscount Hereford, son and heir of Robart Earle of Essex, his baptism on 22 January 1590 in "my Lady Wallsingham's howse, mother to the Countis. Sir Francis Knolls & the Lord Rich with the Cowntesse of Leicester, wittnesses. Doctor Andrewes (afterwards Bishop of Winchester) preached and baptized the child" was recorded in the Parish Register of St Olave, London;^[6]
   2. Maister Walter Deaveraux, second son to the Earl of Essex his baptism on 21 January 1591, "in my Lady Walsingham's howse: Sir Thomas Parratt and Sir William Knolles, knightes, and my Lady the mother weare wittnesses: M^r Doctor preached. And baptized the child" was recorded in the Parish Register of St Olave, London;^[7]
   3. Maister Henry Deaveraux third son to the Earle of Essex, his baptism on 14 April 1595, "in the Lady Walsingham's howse ; the Earle of Norththumberland and the Lord Burrowes and the Lady Rich weare the sewerties ; Maister Sharpe he preached and babtized the child" was recorded in the Parish Register of St Olave, London;^[8]
   4. Penelope;
   5. a stillborn son;
3. Richard de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde, in 1603, with whom she had children:
   1. Ulick, born in Athlone Castle, Ireland, in November, 1604;
   2. Honora, married John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester;

Frances' first husband, Sir Philip Sydney, said to be "the Jewel of her [Queen Elizabeth I] times", was 32 when he died on 16 October 1586 at Arnheim from wounds received during the stand made before Zutphen in Gelderland on 22 September. After his Death:^[4]

... the States of Zeland became Suiters to her Majesty, and his noble Friends, that they might have the Honour of burying his Body, at the publick Expence of their Government. Which Request was not permitted, the Queen, in Regard to his great Worth and Accomplishments, giving Order for his Burial at her own Expence.

Whereupon his Corpse was brought from Arnheim to Flushing, and there kept 8 Days; from whence, on the 1st of November, he was brought to the Sea-side, the English Garrison, of 1200 Men, being under Arms, marching 3 and 3, the Ensigns trailing; the Burghers of the Town following; and his Body embarked under a triple Discharge of the small Arms, and great Ordnance. On the 8th of November, he was landed at the Tower Wharf, and after conveyed to the Minories without Aldgate, where he lay in State for some Time, till his magnificent Funeral, on the 16th of Feb. following, in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, where, on a Tablet, fastened to a Pillar, was this Inscription:

A briefe Epitaph upon the Death of that most valiant, and perfect honourable Gentleman, Sir Philip Sidney, Knight, late Governor of Flushing in Zealand, who received his Deaths Wound at a Battell neare Zutphen in Gelderland, the 22 Day of September, and died at Arnhem the 16 Day of October, 86. Whose Funerals were performed, and his Body interred, within this Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in London, the 16 Day of February next following, in the Yeare of our Lord God, 1586.

In his will, Sir Philip left to Dame Franclucis Sidney, his wife, one half of all his manors, lands, tenements, rents, rights and reversions, with all and singular the appurtenances and commodities whatsoever, for the term of her natural life, and to his daughter, Elizabeth Sydney, he left four thousand Pounds of English Money to be paid to her by Philip's brother, Robert Sydney, before the Feast of St Michael the Archangel, 1588.^[4]

Frances died on 17 February 1632/3 and was buried in Tonbridge Parish Church, Kent.

Images of the houses in which Frances livesd and the churches she frequented can be seen on Angela McLeod's website.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ Angela McLeod, "The Book", Angela McLeod -The Brilliant Stage, http://angelamcleod.weebly.com/the-books.html, accessed 17 November 2023.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Collins, 1746, p 113.
3. ↑ Col F W T Attree, ed., "Notes on Post Mortem Inquisitions taken in Sussex. 1 Henry VII to 1649 and After", Sussex Record Society, XIV, (London: Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, Printers, 1912), accessed 13 July 2015, http://www.sussexrecordsociety.org/olb/srs014/ pp.208. Inquisition no 952.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Collins, 1746, pp 104-10.
5. ↑ Bannerman, 1916, p. 12.
6. ↑ Bannerman, 1916, p. 14.
7. ↑ Bannerman, 1916, p. 15.
8. ↑ Bannerman, 1916, p. 17.
9. ↑ Angela McLeod, "The Houses and Churches", Angela McLeod -The Brilliant Stage, http://angelamcleod.weebly.com/the-houses-and-the-churches.html, accessed 26 October 2015.

See also:

• W Bruce Bannerman, ed., "The Registers of St Olave, Hart Street, London. 1563&mdassh;1700", The Publications of The Harleian Society, Registers—XLVI, (London: printed by Roworth & Company Limited, 1916), accessed 26 October 2015, https://archive.org/stream/registersofstola46stol#page/n3/mode/2up .
• Collins, Arthur, Letters And Memorials of State, In the Reigns of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, King James, King Charles the First, Part of the Reign of King Charles the Second, And Oliver's Usurpation, London: Printed for T. Osborne, 1746, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015014689551, accessed 24 October 2015.
• Ancestral File(R) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ancestral File Number: 99T0-1N
• Brydges, Samuel. The British Bibliographer (London, 1810) Vol. 1, Page 87