My Family Connections with King Henry VIII

One thing I like about genealogy is learning how my ancestors participated in American History whether is fighting in Wars from Colonial to current times, or settling new areas of the State of Maine.  Another part of history I enjoy, is early English history as so much of my family emigrated from England and that a few of my family lines trace back to Royalty.

The past year, I gave my niece and my brother a book which traced one of these family lines.  I became very interested in how my family ancestors were connected and interacted with Tudor family of England, namely King Henry VIII and at least two of his wives.

I'll start with my 15th Great-Grandmother, Elizabeth Tilney.  

Detail of a stained glass window at Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk depicting Elizabeth Tilney

Elizabeth Tilney was born sometime  before 1445 at Ashwellthorpe Hall in Norfolk, England, the daughter of Sir Frederick Tilney and his wife, Elizabeth Cheney.  Her father was the Lord of Ashwellthorpe.  His death left his young daughter the heir to his estates.  Her mother remarried to Sir John Say, a member of the household of King Henry VI of England.  

Elizabeth married 1) Sir Humphrey Bourgchier, son and heir of John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners in 1466.  They had a son and two daughters.  Sir Humphrey was killed in the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471.   On April 30, 1472, she married Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and 2nd Duke of Norfolk, in a marriage arranged by the King.  They had nine children together.  

Sir Thomas Howard

Elizabeth received her inheritance in 1475.  Her second husband was a close friend and companion of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was crowned king in 1483. Elizabeth was one of Anne Neville's attendants at Richard's coronation.  Thomas Howard was wounded at Bosworth and imprisoned in the Tower of London for several years, and the dukedom of Norfolk was forfeited. Elizabeth was fortunate that Thomas' attainder stipulated that she would not lose her own inheritance. In December 1485 she was living in London, near St. Katherine's near the Tower, which placed her in the vicinity of her incarcerated husband. 

After Thomas was released from prison and his earldom and estates were restored to him, he entered the service of Henry VII. In November 1487, Thomas and Elizabeth attended the coronation of Henry's consort Elizabeth of York, who appointed Elizabeth a Lady of the Bedchamber. Elizabeth was further honored by being asked to stand as joint godmother to the Princess Margaret Tudor at her baptism in late 1489.  

It is through Elizabeth's 2nd marriage that she was the grandmother of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of King Henry VIII's wives.

Anne Boleyn
my half 1st cousin 16 times removed

Catherine Howard
my half 1st cousin 16 times removed

They were the wives of King Henry VIII, a descendant of my ancestor John of Gaunt.

King Henry VIII
also my half 1st cousin, 16 times removed

Margaret Bourchier, my 14th Great-Grandmother, was the daughter of Sir Humphrey Bourgchier and Elizabeth (Tilney) Howard, born about 1468.  Margaret was brought up with her half brothers and half sisters, including Elizabeth Howard (Anne Boleyn’s mother) and Lord Edmund Howard (Catherine Howard's father).  Thus Margaret was a half aunt to two Queen consorts of the King of England. 

Her first husband, with whom there may only have been a marriage agreement was Sir John Sandes (or Sandys). The marriage agreement was signed when Margaret was 10 or 11 years old on 11 November 1478. Pre-contracts were not unusual among the Tudor period aristocracy and gentry, and it did not have result in a consummated marriage.

Margaret married 2) Sir Thomas Bryan of Ashridge, Hertfordshire before 1490. She was a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon, 1st wife of King Henry VIII, from 1509 to 1516 while her husband was vice-chamberlain of the queen’s household. She apparently brought their daughters Margaret and Elizabeth Bryan and her son Francis Bryan with her to court.

After the birth of Mary Tudor in 1516, Margaret was put in charge of the nursery at Ditton Park, Buckinghamshire and at Hanworth. She claimed she was given the title of Baroness Bryan when she was made governess for Princess Mary.  She remained with the princess for five years and when she left was given an annuity of £50 for life.

Princess Mary Tudor
Queen Mary I of England

In 1533 she was called back to care for Elizabeth Tudor at Hatfield.

Princess Elizabeth Tudor
Queen Elizabeth I

After the birth of Prince Edward in 1537, was put in charge of a combined household at Havering–atte-Bower. Margaret died in 1551 in Leyton, England. She was a character in the TV series, The Tudors.

Prince Edward
King Edward VI of England

Elizabeth Bryan, my 13th Great-Grandmother, was born about 1500 in England., daughter of Thomas Bryan and Margaret Bourgchier.  She was an English courtier and reputed mistress of King Henry VIII. Elizabeth became the wife of Henry VIII's close friend Sir Nicholas Carew, an influential statesman. Probably a marriage King Henry arranged.

Sir Nicholas Carew

Sir Nicholas was eventually fell out of favor with the King and was executed for treason by beheading on March 3, 1539. Elizabeth's brother, Sir Francis Bryan, a member of the Privy Chamber and one of the king's closest friends, was responsible for sitting in the jury that convicted his sister's husband to death and reduced her to poverty.  Beheading and poverty it seems was finally enough to end my family's connection to the Tudors.

A Mother's Civil War pension

I have written about how I found so much information on my ancestor, Robert R. Moulton from his Civil War pension and his death that I never knew.  So often there is some great information in these pension records that can be very insightful to your ancestor's lives.  At first I was determined to get the records of my direct ancestor's who served in the War, but I also found that often you need to also check pension records for siblings of your ancestors as well.

Such was the case for my 3rd great uncle, Orren Thompson, brother to my Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma (Thompson) Moulton.  Orren was a Civil War soldier. He never married and died from disease during the War according to his Civil War Registration Card.  He died on August 19, 1864 in Chester, VA. while serving in Company F, 30th Maine Infantry.

For many years, I felt this was enough to fill in my family tree.   But then websites like Fold3 began posting War records and pensions and made it easy to look at these records not just for ancestors, but also siblings, relatives, etc.

Orren Thompson's file contained a "Widow's pension," but as he was unmarried, how did he have a widow?  Widow's pensions also contain the pension petitions for mother's of Civil War soldiers if the soldier was the provider of income for his parents or mother, etc and the soldier had no widow.

Orren Thompson was the son of Rufus Thompson and Temperance Labree who were married in 1831 in Corinna, Maine.  He was born about 1835 in Cambridge, Maine according to the registration, but his family was residing in Corinna, Maine between 1830-1850, so his birthplace may not be correct. The family was said to be poor and census records show that Rufus owned little personal property.  Their oldest sons left home before 1860 with their eldest daughters marrying once of age.

Orren enlisted December 7, 1863 at North Anson, Maine as a private.  He died less than year later on August 19, 1864 at a hospital at Chester, Pennsylvania (not Virginia) from exhaustion following a fever.  He was buried at Chester Rural Cemetery in Chester, PA.

Orren's mother applied for a pension the following June 1865.  Her Pension application contains some interesting details.  She personally wrote of how she and her husband were dependent on their son's income and her her husband was unable to work  She also claimed that she had no other son to depend on and yet in 1865 when she filed her petition she had three younger sons ages 12 to 17 who were living at home.  These sons Otis, Simon and Silas were also living at home with their parent even on the 1870 census as laborers.   Charles Hoxie of Orneville did state in his  testimony that Temperance had 3 sons under age 16 who lived with her.

Her pension also included as Doctor's statement on her husband's condition which it appears he suffered as well with problems with back pain and the urinary tract (possibly he suffered from kidney stones which could produce similar issues).

Other people who knew the family testified that Orren did support his family by purchasing necessities for his parents when he was alive as well the farm the they lived on in Orneville, Maine.  A pension was granted to Temperance in 1866.

The family would lose another son, their eldest son, George Henry Thompson would die at the Battle of Petersburg in 1865.  He was married with a child, so a pension was filed by his widow and on behalf of his daughter. 

Temperance and her husband Rufus were residing in Orneville, Maine on the 1870 census,  but by 1880, they were living in Ripley, Maine with their sons, Otis and Simon.  The pension records state that the last payout of $8 was on November 18, 1885, but was stopped because of death, per a letter of January 15, 1886.  It can be assumed that this was the time period which Temperance died.   No death dates have been found for either Rufus or Temperance nor does anyone in the family know where they were buried.

However Orren's mother's pension record did provide some insight into the family during this time period that would have never been discovered otherwise.