New information on Sir Henry Willoughby's marriage & Sir Hugh Willoughby...

One of the long-standing unknown facts for those of us researching the history of Middleton Hall has been the date of birth of Sir Hugh Willoughby, the famous Tudor Navigator. Suggestions for his date of birth have generally been somewhere in the range of from about 1495 to 1508. The determination of his birth year has been hindered because the date of the marriage between his father, Sir Henry Willoughby, and his third wife, Ellen Egerton, was also unknown. This had been estimated as having occurred anywhere between the mid-1490s to 1512.

Research into the history of Middleton Hall and its owners and residents is continually ongoing. Last week, whilst going through some documents in detail, the year of the marriage between Sir Henry and Ellen was discovered.

The household accounts for Middleton Hall for 1509 are extremely fragmented and damaged and are therefore very patchy. However, nestled amongst these broken entries, was the statement: the expenses for my Master’s marriage. The entries in the accounts then proceeded to detail the materials purchased for the wedding including cotton and linen and specifically black velvet and beech marten fur for the clothing of Sir Henry and satin and velvet for Ellen. Additionally purchased were 2 barrels of sweet wine, a chafing dish and a ladle and scummer (device like the modern-day skimmer). The rest of the items that would have been listed have been lost due to damage to the document. It then listed rewards to the servants and minstrels of some of the guests when the marriage took place, including those of: Mr John Egerton (Ellen’s father); George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury; Edward Sutton, 2nd Lord Dudley; Mr Gresley of Drakelow; and Dr John Vesey (later known as Bishop Vesey).

The fact that it can now be stated that this marriage unquestionably occurred in 1509, means that Sir Henry and Ellen’s son, Sir Hugh, could not have been born in the commonly assumed date range for him. It makes it most likely that he was born about 1510. This is supported by the educational expenses for him that appear in the Middleton accounts in the 1520s. It also means that Hugh’s younger sister, Alice, was probably not born about 1510, which we had thought, but was actually born a couple of years later.

We are really pleased to have found this new piece of information to fill in another bit of the puzzle that is Middleton’s history, albeit it does unfortunately mean that some of the information provided on our existing displays is now not quite factually correct …   

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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