Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg

Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg (9 February 1637 (christened) – 14 March 1713) was an English noblewoman, the third daughter of Oliver Cromwell and his wife Elizabeth Bourchier.[1]

Biography

Born in either late 1636 or early 1637, Mary Cromwell was christened on 9 February 1637.[1] On 19 November 1657 she married Thomas Belasyse, 1st Earl Fauconberg, at Hampton Court, and became Countess Fauconberg.[2] Fauconberg had been previously married to Mildred Saunderson, who had died.[3] Lady Fauconberg's residence in London was Fauconberg House which was on the north side of Sutton Street, and on the eastern side of Soho Square.[4]

It has been claimed that, when her father's body was disinterred and symbolically executed at the Restoration, Mary bribed some guards to substitute another body for Cromwell's[5] and to give her the real body, which she arranged to have buried at Newburgh Priory, the family seat of the Fauconbergs.

She died on 14 March 1713 at the age of 76, and was buried on 24 March in the church of St. Nicholas Church, Chiswick, the district where she had lived since 1676.[4]

References
Footnotes
  1. Anderson (1862), p. 1.
  2. Anderson (1862), p. 10
  3. Peter Walker (September 2007). Murders and Mysteries of the North York Moors. Pollinger in Print. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-905665-41-9.
  4. Anderson (1862), p. 29.
  5. George Bernard Wood (1957). Historic Homes of Yorkshire: With 106 Illus. by the Author. Oliver and Boyd. p. 92.
Sources
  • Anderson, James (1862). Memorable Women of the Puritan Times. 2. Blackie and Son.
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