Isabel Leigh

Isabel Leigh, Lady Stumpe (c. 1496 – 16 Feb 1573) was a lady-in-waiting during the reign of her younger half-sister, Catherine Howard, fifth wife and Queen Consort to Henry VIII.

Early life

Isabel was the first child of Joyce Culpeper and Sir Ralph Leigh. She had two younger sisters and two younger brothers:

Margaret Leigh (born c. 1500); married a man surnamed Rice.
Joyce Leigh (born c. 1504); married John Stanney. May have had issue.
John Leigh (born c. 1502); married Elizabeth, surname unknown. Had issue.
Ralph Leigh (born c. 1498; died c. 1561); married Margaret Ireland. Had issue.

Ralph died c. 1509/1510 and Isabel's mother remarried to Lord Edmund Howard c. 1513/1515. They had six children.^[1]

Margaret Howard (c. 1515 – 10 Oct 1572); married Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle, son of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne and Lady Eleanor Grey. Had issue.
Mary Howard (born after 1515); married Edmund Trafford.
Henry Howard (born after 1515); married Anne Howard.
Charles Howard (born after 1515).
George Howard (c. 1519 – 1580).
Catherine Howard (c. 1524 – 13 Feb 1542); married Henry VIII of England.

Marriage and issue

She married Sir Edward Bayntun or Baynton, of Bromham, Wiltshire, on 18 January 1531.^[2] They had three children.

Henry Baynton (b. c 1536). Married Anne Cavendish. Had issue.
Francis Baynton (b. 1537)
Anne Baynton (d. young)

After Edward's death in 1544, Isabel married Sir James Stumpe of Malmesbury, Wiltshire.^[1] James had been her step-daughter Bridget's husband, and Isabel and James married after Bridget died in 1545. James died in 1563.^[3]

Isabel married Thomas Stafford about 1565.^[4]

Royal connections

The leases of many manors such as Paddington, Temple Rockley, and Chisbury were given to Edward Baynton during his marriage to Isabel.^[5] Some leases were given to Isabel after Edward Baynton's death, and they passed on to their son Henry.^[5]

On New Year's Day 1534, Isabel made a gift of a shirt to the King, embroidered with gold thread, following a gesture that had first been made by Edward's first wife Elizabeth.^[5] Isobel continued to take part in the New Year's Day gift exchange at court. In 1539 she received a silver gilt "cruse" (a cup with a cover), made by the goldsmith Morgan Wolf, and gave Henry another shirt, of Holland linen embroidered with black silk.^[6]

Isabel Baynton became one of Catherine Howard's Ladies of the Privy Chamber upon her marriage to Henry VIII.^[5] Her husband Edward Baynton was Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to all of Henry VIII's later queens,^[2] including Catherine Howard. When Queen Catherine was banished from court in 1541, Isabel was one of the four ladies-in-waiting she was allowed to take with her.^[5]^[7] An account of the jewels that was taken following the Queen's arrest noted that she had given a "girdle of goldsmith's work" to the Lady Baynton.^[5]^[8]^[9]

For a short time, from April 1539, Isabel and Edward Baynton served as guardians in charge of the households of Mary I of England, and Elizabeth I.^[10]^[5]

Later life and death

In 1550, Isabel obtained a lease for the dissolved monastery at Edington, Wiltshire with Edward Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings of Loughborough.^[5] An interest in the manor of Faulston near Salisbury was declined by Isabel, but after her death in February 1573 the interest was taken up by her son Henry.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b "Culpepper Family Tree no. 8495". The Culpepper Family History Site. Archived from the original on 8 April 2009 – via Internet Archive.
^ ^a ^b "BAYNTON, Sir Edward (by 1495-1544), of Bromham, Wilts". Retrieved 12 December 2023.
^ "STUMPE, Sir James (by 1519-63), of Malmesbury and Bromham, Wilts". Retrieved 12 December 2023.
^ "Biography". family search.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "Bayntun History :: Sir Edward Bayntun 1480". bayntun-history.com. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
^ Maria Hayward, "Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII", Antiquaries Journal, 85 (2005), pp. 147, 165, 171 fn. 88.
^ State Papers of Henry the Eighth, vol. 1 (London, 1830), pp. 691–693.
^ Barbara Harris, English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers (Oxford, 2002), p. 225.
^ Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), pp. 200–201.
^ David Loades, Mary Tudor: A Life (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), pp. 115–117.