Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Say

Elizabeth Cheney (1422 – 25 September 1473), later known as Elizabeth, Lady Tilney and Elizabeth, Lady Say, was an English aristocrat, who, by dint of her two marriages, was the great-grandmother of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, and Catherine Howard, three of the wives of King Henry VIII of England, thus making her great-great-grandmother to King Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, and Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Her first husband was Sir Frederick Tilney, and her second husband was Sir John Say, Speaker of the House of Commons. She produced a total of nine children from both marriages.

Family

Born in Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire in 1422, she was the eldest child of Sir Laurence or Lawrence Cheney or Cheyne (c. 1396 - 1461), High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Elizabeth Cokayn or Cokayne^[1] She had three younger sisters, Anne, wife of John Appleyard; Mary, wife of John Allington; Catherine, wife of Henry Barley, and one brother, Sir John Cheney who married Elizabeth Rempston, by whom he had issue.^[2] She also had two half-brothers by her mother's first marriage to Sir Philip Butler, a member of the noble Irish family, the Butlers of Ormond.

Her paternal grandparents were Sir William Cheney and Catherine Pabenham, and her maternal grandparents were Sir John Cockayne, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Ida de Grey, the daughter of Reginald Grey, 2nd Baron Grey de Ruthyn and Eleanor Le Strange of Blackmere.^[3]

Marriages and issue

On an unknown date, Elizabeth married her first husband Sir Frederick Tilney, of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, and Boston, Lincolnshire. He was the son of Sir Philip Tilney and Isabel Thorpe. They made their principal residence at Ashwellthorpe Manor.^[4] Together Sir Frederick and Elizabeth had one daughter:

• Elizabeth Tilney (before 1445- 4 April 1497), married firstly in about 1466, Sir Humphrey Bourchier, by whom she had three children; and secondly on 30 April 1472, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who later became the 2nd Duke of Norfolk, by whom she had nine children. These children included Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Elizabeth Howard, mother of Anne Boleyn, and Lord Edmund Howard, father of Catherine Howard.

Sir Frederick died in 1445, leaving their young daughter Elizabeth as heiress to his estates. Shortly before 1 December 1446, Elizabeth Cheney married secondly to Sir John Say of Broxbourne, Speaker of the House of Commons, and a member of the household of King Henry VI. He was a member of the embassy, led by William de la Pole, which was sent to France in 1444 to negotiate with King Charles VII for the marriage between King Henry and Margaret of Anjou.^[5]

Her father settled land worth fifty marks clear per annum upon the couple and their issue before Candlemas 1453.^[6] They made their home at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.

Together Sir John and Elizabeth had three sons and five daughters:

• Sir William Say (1452- 1529), Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset (1478-79), Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire (1482-83), married secondly Elizabeth Fray, widow of Sir Thomas Waldegrave, by whom he had two daughters, Mary Say and Elizabeth Say. ^[7] Mary, the eldest daughter married Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex and 6th Baron Bourchier, by whom she had one daughter, Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier
• Thomas Say
• Rev. Leonard Say, a Roman Catholic priest
• Anne Say (died 1478/1494), married Henry Wentworth, Sheriff of Yorkshire, by whom she had issue, including Margery Wentworth, mother of Jane Seymour.
• Mary Say, married Sir Philip Calthorpe, by whom she had issue.
• Elizabeth Say, married Thomas Sampson
• Katherine Say, married Thomas Bassingbourne
• Unnamed daughter, died young

Royal Descendants

Death

On 25 September 1473, aged 51, Elizabeth Cheney died. She was buried in the church at Broxbourne. Following her death, John Say remarried to Agnes Danvers. He died five years later on 12 April 1478. Sometime after 1478, Elizabeth's eldest son, Sir William Say, married his second wife, Elizabeth Fray, a daughter of his stepmother Agnes, by her first husband, Sir John Fray (1419- 1461), Chief Baron of the Exchequer.^[8]

Titles from birth to death

• 1422-before 1445: Mistress Elizabeth Cheney
• Before 1445-1445: Lady Tilney
• 1445-Before 1 December 1446: Elizabeth, Lady Tilney
• Before 1 December 1446-25 September 1473: Lady Say

Ancestry

Sources

• John Smith Roskell, Parliament and Politics in Late Medieval England, Vol.2, Google Books, accessed 9 September 2009

References