Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg (9 February 1637 (christened) – 14 March 1713) was an English noblewoman, the third daughter of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

and his wife

Elizabeth Bourchier Elizabeth Cromwell (née Bourchier; 1598 –1665) was the wife of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the mother of Richard Cromwell, the second Lord Protector. Family and marriage Eli ...

Biography

Born in either late 1636 or early 1637, Mary Cromwell was christened on 9 February 1637. On 19 November 1657 she married

Thomas Belasyse, 1st Earl Fauconberg Thomas Belasyse, 1st Earl Fauconberg PC ( 1627 – ; 31 December 1700) was an English peer. He supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War, becoming closely associated with Oliver Cromwell and marrying Cromwell's third daugh ...

(then

Viscount Fauconberg Viscount Fauconberg, of Henknowle in the Bishopric of Durham, was a title in the Peerage of England held by the head of the Belasyse family. This family descended from Sir Henry Belasyse, High Sheriff of Yorkshire from 1603 to 1604, who was create ...

), at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

, and became a Viscountess (later Countess Fauconberg in 1689). Fauconberg had been previously married to Mildred Saunderson, who had died. 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 Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a ''de facto'' public park leasehold estate, let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II of Engla ...

. 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 and to give her the real body, which she arranged to have buried at

Newburgh Priory Newburgh Priory is a Grade 1 listed Tudor building near Coxwold, North Yorkshire, England. Originally a house of Augustinian canons, it was founded in 1145 and became a family home following the dissolution of the priory in 1538. The present ...

, the family seat of the Fauconbergs. She died on 14 March 1713 in Sutton Manor in

Little Sutton, Chiswick Little Sutton was one of the four constituent medieval villages of Chiswick, in what is now West London, and the site of a royal manor house, Sutton Manor, later Sutton Court. The great house was accompanied by a small hamlet without a church of ...

, 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.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fauconberg, Mary Cromwell, Countess 1630s births 1713 deaths English countesses Cromwell family 17th-century English women 17th-century English nobility 18th-century English women 18th-century English nobility Children of Oliver Cromwell

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...