Joyce Culpeper

Jocasta "Joyce" Culpeper, of Oxon Hoath (c. 1480–1531) was the mother of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife and Queen Consort to King Henry VIII.

Contents

Early life

Joyce was born in Oxon Hoath, West Peckham, Kent, the first child of Sir Richard Culpeper of Oxon Hoath and his second wife Isabel Worsley. She had a younger sister Margaret (c. 1481) and a younger brother Thomas (1484 - 7 October 1492). Her father died in 1484 and her mother married again to John Legh, of Stockwell. Joyce was also the sister-in-law of Elizabeth Boleyn and aunt by marriage of Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleyn, and George Boleyn.

Marriage and issue

In 1496 she married Ralph Legh (or Leigh), a relative of her stepfather, and together they had five children:

From Joyce's first marriage came Isabel Leigh, born abt. 1495, who married Sir Edward Baynton, one of the largest landowners in Wiltshire. Their son Henry Baynton married Anne Cavendish, whose father, Sir William, was the ancestor of the Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire. This was through his marriage to Bess of Hardwick. Henry Baynton and Anne Cavendish had four sons, the fourth of which, Ferdinand born 1566, married Jane Weare and produced Anne Baynton, born 1602. Anne Baynton married Christopher Batt, Gent., of Wiltshire and they emigrated to Massachusetts in 1638, where he became a prominent merchant in Boston. From them came many New England descendants.

Ralph died in c. 1509/10, and sometime between c. 1513-1515 she married Lord Edmund Howard and together they had 6 children[1]:

Death

Joyce may have died around 1531: Joanna Denny's 2005 biography assumes that she died giving birth to her youngest child, Catherine. Joyce's husband Edmund found himself a widower for a second time. As he had around 10 children all in his keeping, he immediately started farming them out to various relatives, as was a common practice.

Ancestry

[7] [8]

References

  1. ^ Lord Edmund Howard
  2. ^ L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 9. Hereinafter cited as The New Extinct Peerage.
  3. ^ "Margaret Howard, daughter of Lord Edmund Howard"
  4. ^ Sephton, James H., Preston Hall, Aylesford, 496 Station Road, Aylesford, Kent: J. H. Sephton, 1997, Repository: Warren Culpepper's Personal Library.
  5. ^ Culpepper Relations
  6. ^ Phillippa Clifford, Baroness Ferrers of Groby
  7. ^ Culpepper Family Tree; Ancestry of Catherine Howard, fifth Queen of Henry VIII [1]
  8. ^ Peerage.com - Joyce Culpeper