EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

Her will (dated 12 April 1631 to 4 April 1632) was probated on 7 May 1 632. '''The Countess of Buckingham, suspected of poisoning King Jame s I''' ''By Sandra Ford and Jean Heald'' According to the Complet e Peerage, Mary Beaumont was a notable beauty. She was born in 1570, b eing the daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leics. by his wife , daughter of Thomas Armstrong of Corby, Lincs. Arthur Wilson state d that she was “allied and yet a servant” to Lady Beaumont of Col e Orton while Roger Coke said that she was kitchen maid to old Sir Geo rge Villiers of Brokesby, Lincs. He married her as his second wife, an d she bore him children. A son, George Villiers, became a favourite o f King James I, who created him Earl of Buckingham in 1616/17. This hu sband died in 1605/6. Dame Mary was remarried on 19th June 1606 at Go adby, Leics. to her second husband, Sir William Rayner of Orton Longue ville, Hunts, who died only four months later. He had been knighted i n December 1603, the year in which he was Sheriff of Nottingham. He wa s “in occupation of the Manor” at Stanton on the Wolds We have co me across an account of this marriage and events at Stanton in a newsp aper cutting of 12th September 1925, entitled “Old Notts. Marriage R omances” by R. W. Marston of High Barnet, which is kept in the Loca l History Library (Scrapbook i 91). We reproduce the text: Particular s of an old Notts. matrimonial romance, in which an octogenarian bride groom figures, are contained in the Star Chamber proceedings of Jame s l's reign. The affair must have caused considerable gossip in severa l Nottinghamshire villages, and although we are left in doubt as to th e outcome of the case, an interesting and connected story may be evolv ed from the documentary evidence produced at the trial. The old spelli ng of names is retained as in the proceedings. About the year 1606, S ir William Rayner of Stanton-upon-the-Wolds, being 80 years of age, an d of weak state of body, contracted and concluded marriage with one Da me Mary Villiers, widow of Sir George Villers, “which marriage”, a ccording to the Attorney General of the time was “compassed by the e nticement and persuasions of the said Dame Mary Villiers and one Walte r Whalley, of Cotgrave, gentleman, and of John Waldrome, of Owthorpe