My English Rebels and Favorites of Tudor Royality

This year I was fortunate enough to travel to London, England.  During my stay, I took an afternoon trip to a church called St. Bolloph's without Aldgate (meaning outside the gate of London's old Roman defensive wall).  It is a very old parish located in the White chapel area of East London and where the infamous murders by Jack the Ripper took place.  This church contained the plaques from the burials of my Darcy ancestors.  Their financial support of the church allowed them to be buried very close to the altar of the church.  The original church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 with only minor damage.  However, the church fell into disrepair afterwards and then rebuilt in 1788-91.  The family Plaques that would have covered their burials were saved and restored.  

I was able to meet with the rector of the church who explained that church had been rebuilt, but the plaques on the wall  did not actually represent their burial locations.  The Church had added a more recent addition to expand the building and bring it into current codes.  This meant digging down to what would have been the roman time period, but in the process many bodies and bones were recovered and reburied under the church with current church ceremonies, despite many were probably Catholic.

The Orginal St. Boloph's without Aldgate.  The entrance to the church was actually facing the left side of the old church, now the entrance is under the tower shown in the photo above.

The rector explained that East London in earlier times had been the home of those who had opposed the changing of Church of England and still looked upon where rebels of the government still reside today.  The rector knew stories of my rebelious ancestors and their fates and some success.

Sir Nicholas Carew

Sir Nicholas Carew was born about 1496 in England.  At the age of six, he was placed in the household of King Henry VIII and shared the King's education. In the early years of King Henry's reign, he came to prominence at court through his skill at jousting, and was renowned for his fearlessness. He was knighted sometime before 1517.  He was a prominent member of the Court and held the position of Master of the Horse, as well as other prominent offices such as Master of the Forests, Lieutenant of Ruysbank (guarding Calais harbour), and Chief Esquire of the King. He was a close friend of the King and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1536.

Carew was popular with King Henry VIII, who sought his company, but was known in his youth for being something of a rake. He was one of a number of King Henry's companions whom Cardinel Wolsey believed had too much influence over the King. In 1518, Wolsey managed to have Carew sent away from court, replacing him with his own protégé. Wolsey finally engineered Carew's dismissal from the privy Chamber in 1526.  After Henry's marriage to Anne Bolelyn, Sir Nicholas resented the way she used her position, first as his mistress and later his wife and was sympathetic to his former wife, Catherine and daughter Mary.  

In late 1538, Carew was already out of favor at court, having responded angrily to an insult made by the king. When Oliver Cromwell treasonous letters which Carew had written were given to King Henry VIII, he believed that Carew had been involved in a conspiracy to depose him and place Cardinel Reginal Pole on the throne. Carew was arrested, put on trial on February 14, 1539, and found guilty of high treason.  He was beheaded at Tower Hill in London on March 3, 1539.  His head was set out on London Bridge and his body was said to have been buried at Crutched Friars, a Catholic religious order, but must have been removed at some point as he is buried at St Boloph's. His widow, Lady Elizabeth (Bryan) Carew's whose brother, Sir Francis Bryan sat on the trial that convicted her husband and reduced her to poverty was also buried with him.

Sir Thomas Darcy or Lord Darcy was born about 1467 in England.  Thomas was knighted and eventually the title of Lord Darcy in 1519.  He opposed the destruction of of the religious Monsateries by King Henry VIII.  1536 began on of the most serious revolts against the King which began in Lincolnshire and spread to other counties called the "Pilgrimage to Grace."  One of the protestant holdouts was Castle Pontefract which Darcy held, but gave up to the rebels.  He was arrested and put on trial and found guilty of treason and beheaded on June 30, 1537.

Sign at Tower Hill Scaffolding location

Sir Arthur Darcy, son of Sir Thomas Darcy and his wife, Dowsabel Tempest and grandson of Sir Nicholas Carew and his wife Lady Eliabeth Bryan through his marriage to Lady Mary Carew.  He was born in 1505 in Brigham, Yorkshire, England.  He was titled Lieutenant of the Tower of London and 10th Baron Darcy.   After his father's conviction, all the family lands were seized and barony degraded.  Although the barony was restored to Arthur's eldest brother, the lands were never restored.  Sir Arthur remained in London and was buried with his parents and grandparents at St. Boloph's.

Plaque at St. Boloph's for Nicholas Carew, his wife and his daughter's inlaws, the Darcys

                                    as well as his grandson, Sir Arthur Darcy in 2024.

Sir Edward Darcy was the son of Sir Arthur Darcy and Lady Mary Carew, born in 1543 in Dartford, Kent, England.  He was educated at Trinity college at Cambridge, England.  In 1579, he was made Groom of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I, a title also held by his father-in-law Thomas Astley.  She granted Edward a reversion of the manors of Epsom and Ashtead, both in Surrey, England being the nephew of Sir Francis Carew.  

Queen Elizabeth I of England 1575

In 1598, Queen Elizabeth granted Edward the exclusive patent to manufacture, import, and sell playing cards.  (In Showtime's "The Tudors" King Henry is often shown playing cards with his wives).  This was done as the queen was concerned that card playing was becoming a problem amongst her subjects and better having one person to regulate the activity.  However, Thomas Allin, a haberdasher in London started produce his own playing cards and Sir Edward brought sought against him in 1602.  The Queen's Bench Court decided against Sir Edward as it was a case of one person having a monopoly on a product which tradesman skilled could not produce to make a living, there would no limits on price, no reason to maintain the product quality and that the person in this case knew nothing about making playing cards himself.

The case of Darcy vs Allin is still used to today in English law on Monopolies and competition.  

Sir Edward Darcy died on October 28, 1612 and buried at St. Boloph's Church in London.

Plaque at St. Boloph's for Sir Arthur Darcy in 2024

The tudor era was tumultuous time in my ancestor's lives.  Those who opposed the King, even if they found favor with him, lost their heads, while others supporting the Queen (and not Queen Mary) also found favor and gained back little of what was lost by prior generations.  Sir Edward's daughter, Isabella Darcy (born in 1600) married John Launce, a gentleman (meaning his family had a coat of arms), who held some honor, but little if any property.  After his death in 1639, Isabella married a minister, Rev. Shadrach Simpson in 1640.  Her older brother succeeded to the family manors.  Isabella being one of 12 children inherited little or nothing of what was left of the family's former fortunes.

Isabella's daughter, Mary Launce who was born in 1625, also maried a Reverend, John Sherman of Dedham, Essex, England.  With little to keep them in London, they set sail on the "Elizabeth" for America in 1634 eventually settling in Watertown, Massachusetts. Their descendants would remain New England for generations.