Elizabeth Smith, widow of Thomas Smith of Eton College 1572

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Tompkins, M.L.

Elizabeth Smith, widow of Thomas Smith of Eton College 1572

Legg inn av Tompkins, M.L. » 27 feb 2006 18:19:01

I wonder if anyone knows when Elizabeth Smith, widow of two Fellows of
Eton College called Richard Williat and Thomas Smith, died? It was
sometime between 1584 and 1610.

Her first husband, Richard Williat, was born in Little Horwood in north
Buckinghamshire in 1513-14 to a yeoman family, was at Eton School
c1528-32, at King's College, Cambridge 1532-45 (ordained as a priest
1541) and then a Fellow at Eton College from 1545 until his death in
1550. In his will (proved at Eton, which had its own peculiar probate
jurisdiction) he left land in Great Horwood and elsewhere to his wife
Elizabeth for her life. (Their married life must have been short but
interesting - he was one of the first priests to marry after Edward
VI's's new protestant regime allowed clerical marriage in 1549 - if he
hadn't died in 1550 they'd have had to separate a few years later or
face Bloody Mary's fury - while his brothers and father had taken part
in the 1549 peasants' revolt - which in some regions was inspired by
dislike of the new protestant prayer book - and had hastily to buy
pardons after its suppression by royal troops.)

Some time later Elizabeth married Thomas Smith, another Eton Fellow (not
to be confused with Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State in the 1570s,
who was Provost of Eton in the late 1540s). He also had a degree from
King's and was Fellow at Eton from 1563 until his death in 1572, when
Elizabeth was his administratrix (the printed Calendar of Bucks Wills
suggests that it was she who died in 1572 but the Eton College archivist
tells me otherwise).

In 1552 Elizabeth appears in some Great Horwood records as 'Elizabeth
Crosse, formerly wife of Richard Williat', so it may be that Smith was
her third husband, though it is just possible that Crosse was her maiden
name.

I'm pretty sure she was still alive in 1584 and dead by 1610, but I
would like to know exactly when she died (I need to know when her life
interest in the Great Horwood properties ended). If anyone can tell me
I shall be very grateful, and would happily reciprocate with all the
information I have about her and her husbands.

Regards,

Matt Tompkins

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