Anne Say (born c. 1453 – died between 1484 and 1494) was an English baroness through her marriage to Sir Henry Wentworth in c. 1470 until her death. She was the daughter of Sir John Say (1441–1483) and his wife Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Say. She was the maternal grandmother of Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII of England, and a great-grandmother of Edward VI.
Early life and family
Anne Say was born c. 1453 to Sir John Say and Elizabeth Cheney, Lady Say, the daughter of Sir Lawrence Cheney and his wife, Elizabeth Cockayne daughter of John Cokayne (died 1429) and Ida de Grey. Ida was a daughter of Welsh Marcher LordReginald Grey, 2nd Baron Grey de Ruthyn and Eleanor Le Strange of Blackmere.[1] Through her mother, Ida was a direct descendant of Welsh Prince Gruffydd II ap Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran.
Anne's father represented Hertfordshire in several Parliaments from 1453 to 1478 and was chosen to serve as speaker from 1463 to 1465 and again 1467 to 1468. From 1455 to 1478, he held the post of under-Treasurer of the Exchequer and from 1476 that of Keeper of the Great Wardrobe. Through her mother's first marriage to Sir Frederick Tilney, of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, and Boston, Lincolnshire, Anne was the half sister to Elizabeth Tilney. Both sisters would be the grandmothers to three of King Henry VIII's wives, Elizabeth being the grandmother to Anne Boleyn and her cousin, Katherine Howard, and Anne being the grandmother to Jane Seymour.
Anne had six other siblings. They were:
Sir William Say (1452–1529), of Baas (in Broxbourne), Bedwell (in Essendon), Bennington, Little Berkhampstead, and Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, Lawford, Essex, Market Overton, Rutland, etc., Burgess (M.P.) for Plympton, Knight of the Shire for Hertfordshire, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, 1478–9, Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, 1482–3, Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire, 1486–1506, and, in right of his 1st wife, of East Lydford, Radstock, Spaxton, Wellesleigh, and Wheathill, Somerset, and, in right of his 2nd wife, of Wormingford Hall (in Wormingford), Essex, Great Munden, Hertfordshire, etc. He married (1st) before 18 November 1472 (date of letters of attorney) Genevieve Hill, daughter/heiress of John Hill, of Spaxton, Somerset. She was still alive in 1478. He married (2nd) shortly after 18 April 1480 Elizabeth Fray, widow of Sir Thomas Waldegrave, by whom he had two daughters, Mary Say and Elizabeth Say.[2] Mary, the eldest daughter married Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex and 6th Baron Bourchier, by whom she had one daughter, Anne Bourchier, 7th Baroness Bourchier.[citation needed]
Thomas Say, of Liston Hall, Essex.
[Master] Leonard Say, clerk, Rector of Spaxton, Somerset. See Testamenta Eboracensia, 4 (Surtees Soc. 53) (1869): 86–88 (will of Leonard Say, clerk).
Mary Say, married Sir Philip Calthorpe, Knt., by whom she had issue.
Margaret Say, married Thomas Sampson, Esq.
Katherine Say, married Thomas Bassingbourne. Thomas and Katherine Bassingbourne lived chiefly, if not entirely, at Woodhall, where he died about 1500, leaving his widow with one son, who married Audrey Cotton.[3] In March 1457/8, John Bassingbourne, Esquire, being desirous of marrying his son Thomas to one of John Say's daughters, conveyed Hoddesdonbury to the Say trustees, giving to John Say the wardship and marriage of the said Thomas, the manor to be settled on Thomas and the Say lady whom he might marry. Thomas Bassingbourne married Katherine, daughter of John Say, and in 1493 sold to Sir William Say for £600 the estate described as "his manor of Hoddesdonbury and other lands in Hoddesdon, Mochell Brokesbourne, Litill Brokesbourne, Brekynden, Wormeley, and Amwell, of the yearly value of £24. The manors of Astwyk and Wodehall to be settled on the said Kateryn." Thomas died before June 1506, and all Hoddesdon and Broxbourne, save the Broxbornebury Estate and the Duchy property, were possessed by Sir William Say. Katherine retired to Woodhall with her son John, who married Audrey Cotton and had two daughters, one of whom married Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls, and the other married Thomas Gawdy, Serjeant-at-law, representative of the Gawdy family of Norfolk.[4]
Sir Richard Wentworth, who married Anne Tyrrell, the daughter of Sir James Tyrrell, by whom he had three sons, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth, Richard and Philip, and five daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, Margery, Dorothy and Thomasine.[5]
Margery Wentworth (c. 1478 – c. October 1550), who married, before 1500, Sir John Seymour, by whom she was the mother of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI.[12][13][14][8]
Anne's exact year of death remains a mystery. She was last mentioned in 1484, and her husband Henry Wentworth married his second wife Elizabeth Neville (died September 1517) on October 22, 1494. Therefore it is evident that she had died between 1484 and 1494. She is believed to be buried at Newsham Abbey, Lincolnshire, England, where her husband would later join her in c. 1499.
Richardson, Douglas (2004). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. pp. 237–8. ISBN978-1449966393.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. p. 289. ISBN978-1460992708.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
