Sir Henry Williams, alias Cromwell, MP

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Williams_(alias_Cromwell)_

-https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2317.htm...

• Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrook
• Surnamed the "Golden Knight"
• Knighted by Queen Elizabeth is 1563
• Oliver Cromwell By Frederic Harrison

http://tinyurl.com/2uk8hy3

“The Patrician Vol 1” by John Burke pub 1846 London and digitized by Google with the project members.

This volume gives us much early information about the families and life around Morgan Williams and Oliver Cromwell. Gary

http://books.google.com/books?id=K_c8AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq...

• Death : 1603
• Father : WILLIAMS Sir Richard ( 1495 - 1547 )
• Mother : MARTYN Frances ( ? - 1533 )
• Union 1 : WARREN Joan ( ? - 1584 )

   Children : 	

• CROMWELL Sir Oliver ( 1563 - 1655 )
• CROMWELL Elizabeth ( 1575 - 1665 )
• CROMWELL Ralph ( 1580 - 1581 )
• CROMWELL Dorothy ( 1582 - ? )
• CROMWELL Frances ( ? - ? )
• CROMWELL Mary ( ? - 1617 )
• CROMWELL Joan ( ? - ? )
• CROMWELL Sir Philip ( ? - 1630 )
• CROMWELL Richard ( ? - 1628 )
• CROMWELL Henry ( ? - 1630 )
• CROMWELL Robert ( ? - 1617 )

Kilde: http://www.datadirect.org.uk/cromwellcollection/genealogy/fiches/fi...

http://www.datadirect.org.uk/cromwellcollection/genealogy/fiches/fi...

CROMWELL Sir Henry - 4

• Death : 1603
• Father : WILLIAMS Sir Richard ( 1495 - 1547 )
• Mother : MARTYN Frances ( ? - 1533 )

Union 1 : WARREN Joan ( ? - 1584 ) Children :

• CROMWELL Sir Oliver ( 1563 - 1655 )
• CROMWELL Elizabeth ( 1575 - 1665 )
• CROMWELL Ralph ( 1580 - 1581 )
• CROMWELL Dorothy ( 1582 - ? )
• CROMWELL Frances ( ? - ? )
• CROMWELL Mary ( ? - 1617 )
• CROMWELL Joan ( ? - ? )
• CROMWELL Sir Philip ( ? - 1630 )
• CROMWELL Richard ( ? - 1628 )
• CROMWELL Henry ( ? - 1630 )
• CROMWELL Robert ( ? - 1617 )

Union 2 : WEEKS Susan ( ? - 1592 )

Sir Richard Cromwell's elder son Henry Cromwell was knighted by Elizabeth I in 1563, the year before she visited Hinchinbrook House. He was MP for Huntingdonshire in 1563 and four times High Sheriff of Hunts and Cambs. He was also a Commissioner for the draining of the Fens. He restored and repaired the Manor House at Ramsey, living there in the summer, and built Hinchinbrook House (now a school) in which he and his family lived in the winter.

He was famous for his liberality to the poor and was known as "The Golden Knight". There was, however, one dark episode towards the end of his life. His first wife having died after bearing him eleven children, he married again. The second Lady Cromwell died after a long and unpleasant illness. Because of its lingering nature, her death was attributed by local folk to witchcraft. An elderly couple from Warboys and their daughter were accused and in circumstances of extreme barbarity were tortured, condemned and executed. Their meagre possessions, valued at £40, were seized and should have reverted to Sir Henry as Lord of the Manor of Warboys. Instead, he gave the money to the Borough of Huntingdon on condition that a "Bachelor or Doctor of Divinity of Queens' College, Cambridge" should be invited to the town every year to preach a sermon against the evil of witchcraft in one of the churches. This annual sermon was still being preached as late as 1787.

Sir Henry Cromwell's eldest two sons - Oliver and Robert (father of the great Oliver Cromwell) both matriculated at Queens' early in 1579 (a year before their cousin Henry). A third son, yet another Henry, went to St John's College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow. He served as MP for Huntingdonshire and was one of the gentlemen adventurers who financed the colonisation and planting of Virginia. The next brother, Richard, was also an MP during the reign of Elizabeth I. The fifth brother, Philip Cromwell, followed Henry to St John's, Oxford, and was knighted by James I. The fate of his sons, all first cousins of the Protector, illustrates the terrible divisions in families caused by the Civil War. The eldest surviving son, Philip Cromwell, was a Major in the Parliamentary Army. He died of wounds sustained in the storming of Bristol. The next son, Thomas, was a Colonel in the opposing Royalist Army. The third son, Oliver, was an MP and also a Colonel in the Parliamentary Army. Sir Philip's youngest son Richard wisely kept out of the military and at the Restoration rapidly changed his name back to Williams.

- "Memoirs of the Protectoral -House of Cromwell" by the Reverend Mark Noble, published in 1787.

From the book, "Baronetage of England," published 1806: From him, the fifteenth in descent was FRANCIS, the first Baronet, knighted on the accession of King James I to the English crown. He married Joan, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, alias Williams, Knt. and had issue four sons and five daughters : 1, Thomas; 2, Robert; 3, Francis; and 4, John. The daughters were, Elizabeth, Mary, Winifred, Ruth, and Joan.

Sources:

   Title: Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell: Deduced from an Early Period, and Continued Down

   Author: Mark Noble

   Repository:

   Note: P. 53

   Title: Pedigree of Oliver Cromwell

   Author: Cromwell Museum/Society

   Title: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar 

Sir Henry Williams, of Welsh descent, the eldest son and heir of Sir Richard Williams, was highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth I, who knighted him in 1563, and did him the honour of sleeping at his seat of Hinchingbrooke, on 18 August 1564, upon her return from visiting the University of Cambridge.

He was in the House of Commons in 1563, as one of the Knights of the Shire for Huntingdonshire, and was four times appointed Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, by Elizabeth, viz. in the 7, 13, 22, and 34 years of her reign; and in the 20, she nominated him a commissioner with others, to inquire concerning the draining of The Fens through Cloughs Cross and so to the sea.

North front of Hinchinbrook (1787).

Hinchingbrooke House (2007). He made Huntingdonshire the entire place of his country residence, living at Ramsey Abbey in the summer, and Hinchingbrooke in the winter; he repaired, if not built the manor-house at Ramsey, and made it one of his seats. Mark Noble comments that he had heard that the house of Ramsey was only the lodge of that magnificent pile, and converted by Sir Henry into a dwelling-house. Sir Henry also built Hinchingbrooke House adjoining to the nunnery at Hinchingbrooke, and upon the bow windows there he put the arms of his family, with those of several others to whom he was allied.

Sir Henry lived to a good old age, dying in the beginning of the year 1604. He was buried in All Saints' Church, in Huntingdon, on 7 January. An indication of the funeral pomp used at his interment can be found by the charges of the heralds, which were the same as those incurred at the burial of some of the greatest knights of his day.

Mark Noble stated that Sir William was called, from his liberality, the "golden knight"; and reported that in Ramsey it was said, that whenever Sir Henry came from Hinchingbrooke to that place, he threw considerable sums of money to the poor townsmen. This excellent character is given of him, "he was a worthy gentleman, both in court and country, and universally esteemed"; and which his merit justly deserved. By the record of inquisitio post mortem, taken at Ramsey, 2 June, following his death, it appears that he died possessed of these manors in Huntingdonshire, Saltry, Saltry-Moynes, Saltry-Judith, Sawtry-Monastery, all valued at £60 per annum; Warboys and Whistow, with their rectories, and the New-red-deer Park, valued together at £40 per annum; Hinchingbrooke, valued at £10 per annum; Broughton or Broweton, with the rectory, valued at £20 per annum; Berry and Hepmangrove, and the rectory of Berry, valued at £20 per annum; the forefts of Waybridge, and Sapley, valued at £6 13s 4d; the farm or grange of Higney, and the messuage called the George, with the land belonging to it, valued at £10 per annum; and the manor of Ramsey, with the farm of Biggin, valued at £100 per annum. all of which were held of king by military service. except the forests of Waybridge and Sapley, together with the farm, or grange of Higney, the tenures of which were unknown.

Family Sir Henry Williams married twice. His first marriage was to Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, twice Lord Mayor of London; she died at Hinchinbrooke, and was buried in All Saints' church, oft. 72, 1584.

Some time after the death of Joan, Sir Henry married a lady of the name of Weeks, who bore for her arms azure a lion rampant checky argent and gules. She was buried at All Saints', Huntingdon, 11 July 1592 but no monument remains of either Sir Henry or of his wives, or indeed any of the name of Cromwell in that place as Huntingdon was devastated during the Civil War and all the monuments and brass plates to the dead were either destroyed or looted. Lady Weeks died of a lingering illness, which in that superstitious age was blamed on witchcraft. On 4 April 1593, in the court presided over by justice Fenner, John Samwell, his wife and daughter were found guilty of causing the death of Joan through witchcraft and executed a few days later (see the Witches of Warboys case).

By the first marriage, Sir Henry had numerous children; by the latter, none. Sir Oliver, the eldest son, gained the bulk of his fortune, to each of the other sons were given estates of about an annual value of £300.

Some of the children of Sir Henry and Joan his first wife were:

Sir Oliver Cromwell. Robert Cromwell (c. 1567 - 1617), married Elizabeth Steward (c. 1560 - London, 1654), and had two children: Anne Cromwell, married John Sewster, and had Robina Sewster, wife of Sir William Lockhart, of Lee, Scotland, who held the office of Ambassador to France, and had Robina Lockhart (ca. 1662 - Bothwell Castle, Lanarkshire, 20 March 1740/41), married on 19 August 1679 at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, London, to Archibald Douglas, 1st Earl of Forfar (3 May 1653 – 11 December 1712, bur. Bothwell Church) Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658), Lord Protector of England, Scots and Ireland Joan Cromwell (d. c. 1641, her will was probated on 14 December 1641), married Sir Francis Barrington, 1st Baronet (c. 1570 - 3 July 1628) Mary Cromwell, married Sir William Dunch, of Little Wittenham, Berkshire (d. 22 January 1610/11), and had Edmund Dunch. Elizabeth Cromwell (c. 1562 – 1664), married William Hampden (b. Great Hampden, Buckinghamshire, 5 November 1570), son of Griffith Hampden and Anne Cave, and had John Hampden