On the Marriage of Thomas Gardener and Ellyn Smyth

On 1 February, 1584/85, Thomas Gardener and Ellyn Smyth were married in the parish of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Surrey. 1 This marriage has been incorporated into one version of the Gardiner pedigree:

“Sir Thomas Gardiner ... was born 17 Mar 1564 in Bermondsey, Surrey, England; died 10 Aug 1632 in Basing, Peckham, Surrey, England. He married 1 Feb 1584, in St. Mary Magdalene Church, Bermondsey, Surrey, England, Ellyn Smyth. Sir Thomas Gardiner was knighted in 1603, according to Burke's Peerage. He was Justice of the Peace of Basing and Peckham, Surrey County, England, and was possessed of two Manors in Oxfordshire in addition to his manor, “Basing”, where he spent most of his life with his first wife, Ellyn Smyth. After she died, in 1617, he married his second wife, Frances Skipwith, daughter of Ralph Skipwith, Esquire, of Parkbury, Herts. He had no children by this second marriage. Sir Thomas Gardiner died 10 August, 1632, and his second wife, Frances, was buried 4 Sept 1638, after her stepson, Richard, came to Maryland.”2

From this can be extracted three pertinent assertions:

1. Sir Thomas Gardiner married Ellyn Smyth at Bermondsey in 1584.

2. Ellen Smyth/Gardiner died in 1617.

3. Ellyn Smyth was the mother of all of Sir Thomas Gardiner’s children.

To address these assertions individually:

1. Sir Thomas Gardiner married Ellyn Smyth at Bermondsey in 1584

In 1623 Samuel Thompson, Windsor , and Augustin Vincent, Rouge Croix , Marshals and Deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux , conducted a visitation of the County of Surrey. The purpose of the visitation was to regulate and register the coats of arms of nobility and gentry and boroughs, and to record pedigrees. The information gathered on armigerous families was provided by the head of the family. In the case of the family of Sir Thomas Gardiner of Peckham the information was provided by Sir Thomas Gardiner himself. Sir Thomas stated that his wife was Frances Skipwith and that she was the mother of all his children.3

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The Funeral Certificate of Sir Thomas’ father, William Gardiner, dated 22 December, 1597, held at the , gives full details of his family.4 The description it gives for Sir Thomas’ family is:

Thomas Gardyner second son married Frances, the eldest daughter of Ralf Skypworth of Parkbury on the County of Hereford, gent., by whom he had issue 3 sons and 3 daughters, viz.: Willm. that died young and Willm. now living about the age of 8 years, Richard died young, Margaret first daughter about 9 years old, Frances second daughter, aged 5, and Katheryne third daughter about a year old;

The Funeral Certificate was signed by William Gardyner and Nicholas Smyth, son and son- in-law of the deceased, and prepared by William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, and , of Arms in Ordinary.

On 22 December, 1597, Frances Skipworth was the wife of Thomas Gardiner. Therefore, it is impossible for him to have been married to Ellyn Smyth from 1584 to 1617.

From the baptisms and burials in the Register of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey,5 the first child of Thomas Gardiner whose baptism was recorded was William, christened 12 July, 1590. There were earlier children as on 9 April, 1590, “Wm the sonne of Mr Tho: Gardner” was buried. William Gardiner’s Funeral Certificate lists Thomas’ eldest daughter as Margaret, aged about 9 in 1597. She would therefore have been born in about 1588. The first William’s birth can therefore be placed in about 1586.

Therefore a date of marriage for Thomas Gardiner and Frances Skipwith can be calculated as about 1585. As Thomas Gardener and Ellyn Smyth were married on 1 February, 1584/85, there would have been little time for Thomas to have married, been widowed, and remarried in time to have children born in about 1586 and 1588.

These arguments aside, is the marriage likely? An examination of the marriages of Sir Thomas’ siblings sheds light on the question. His brothers who lived to marry were Christopher and William; his sisters were Katherine and Anne.

On 11 June, 1594, Mr Christopher Gardner married Mrs Judeth Sackfield at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. In the 1623 Visitation of Surrey6 she is referred to as the daughter and heir of Thomas Sackville of Shedingley, Sussex. In the annotated version of the 1568 Visitation of London7 she is described as “daughter of my Lord of Bukhurstes uncle.” “My Lord of Buckhurst” was Sir Thomas Sackville, the future Earl of Dorset and Lord High Treasurer of England.8

William Gardiner married Mary, daughter of Christopher Yelverton of Easton Mauduit, Northamptonshire. 9 Sir Christopher Yelverton was Speaker of the House of Commons 1597- 1598 and ancestor of the future Earls of Sussex.10

On 18 December, 1581, Mrs Katherine Gardyner married Mr John Stepkin at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. On 23 June, 1585, now widowed, Mrs Katherine Stepkin married

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Mr Nicholas Smyth at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. John Stepkin’s background is unclear but the title “Mr” indicates he belonged to the gentry. Nicholas Smith was the son of Christopher Smyth of Annables, Hertfordshire, Clerk of the Pipe.11 The Clerk of the Pipe was a post in the Pipe Office of the English Exchequer.12

On 4 July, 1583, Mrs Anne Gardner married Mr Symond Perrott at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. In about 1600 the widowed Anne Perrott married Marmaduke Dawney. Simon Perrott was described as being “of Stafford and Warwickshire,”13 and was a landowner at Sutton Colfield in Warwickshire.14 Marmaduke Dawney was the second son of Sir John Dawnay of Sessay, Yorkshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Marmaduke Tunstall of Thurland Castle, Lancashire.15

Sir Thomas Gardiner’s wife, as mentioned above, was Frances Skipwith. Frances was the daughter of Rafe Skipwith, second son of Thomas Skipwith of St Albans, Hertfordshire.16 The Skipwiths were an old family and had been granted arms in 1507.17

Ellyn Smyth married Thomas Gardener at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, on 1 February, 1584/85. Unlike the marriages Sir Thomas’ brothers and sisters at St Mary Magdalen the parties were not entitled “Mr” or “Mrs.” On 14 December, 1579, Ellyn’s father made his will. It was proved at London 28 December following.18 In his will William Smyth, “whelewright of Mary Magdalen pishe of Barmondsey” left his daughter, Ellyn, £10. His total bequests were less than £20. He signed his will with a mark.

All the recorded marriages of the children of William Gardiner of Bermondsey were to people of good birth, the children of the landed gentry, of knights of the realm and of holders of state offices. Ellyn Smyth was the daughter of an illiterate wheelwright.

Even if the marriage could not be excluded because of other evidence, Ellyn’s background makes it extremely improbable that William Gardiner, a man of considerable means and a mercenary disposition,19 would have permitted his son to marry her.

2. The Death of Ellen Gardiner

According to T. R. Gardiner, Ellen Gardiner died in 1617. T. R. Gardiner further asserts that at the time of her death Ellen Gardiner was living at Basing Manor, Camberwell, with her family.

A search of the Parish Register of Camberwell20 does not reveal the burial for Ellen Gardiner in 1617. As the family had come from Bermondsey it is possible she could have been buried there in a family vault. A search of the Parish Register of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, 21 found only one burial of a person with a similar name. On 8 December, 1617, “Ellin Garrett a mayd” was buried there. If “mayd” was a profession then this cannot have been Ellen Gardiner, if it was a description of her age it could not be Ellen Gardiner as she would have been about 55 years old.

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Burial Record of Ellin Garrett a mayd, taken from the Registers of St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey

A search of burials in London22 and Surrey23 reveals no other possible burial of Ellen Gardiner in 1617.

In the absence of any other relevant burial it can only be concluded that T. R. Gardiner found the record at Bermondsey and assumed it was the burial of Ellen Gardiner.

3. Ellyn Smyth was the mother of all of Sir Thomas Gardiner’s children.

The visitations of London and Surrey discussed above record Frances Skipwith as the mother of Sir Thomas’ children. In her will, signed 18 May, 1635, Dame Frances Gardiner makes bequest to various relatives and leaves the bulk of her estate to her son, Thomas Gardiner.24

As all contemporary evidence, including documents prepared by Sir Thomas Gardiner himself, indicates that Frances Skipwith was the mother of all Sir Thomas’ children then there is no credible reason to conclude otherwise.

Conclusion

As Ellyn Smyth was a native of the parish of St Mary Magdalen it is not surprising that she was married there. The surname Gardener is not an unusual name, deriving as it does from the profession of the same name.

The only possible conclusion is that Thomas Gardener was a man of the same class and background as Ellyn Smyth, that they were married in Ellyn’s home parish, and that they then moved elsewhere.

It can also be concluded beyond any reasonable doubt that Ellyn Smyth was not the wife of Sir Thomas Gardiner of Peckham. After all, Sir Thomas Gardiner would have known to whom he was married and who was the mother of his children.

William Good © June 2019

1 London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P71/MMG/002 viewable online at www.ancestry.com 2 Gardiner, Generations and Relations, Thomas Richard Gardiner (Leonardtown 1991); Volume1, pages 6-7; The spelling and grammar of this book has been left in its original state.

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3 The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, edited by W. B. Bannerman , Publications of the Harleian Society, Volume XLIII (London 1899), page 61 4 Shakespeare versus Shallow pages 348-350, quoting College of Arms, Funeral Certificates, I, 16, f.7. 5 London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P71/MMG/002 viewable online at www.ancestry.com 6 The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, edited by W. B. Bannerman , Publications of the Harleian Society, Volume XLIII (London 1899), page 61 7 The Visitation of London in the Year 1568, page 87 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sackville,_1st_Earl_of_Dorset 9 The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, page 61 10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Yelverton 11 The Visitations of Hertfordshire made by Robert Cooke, Esq.,. Clarencieux, in 1572 and Sir Richard St. George, Kt., Clarencieux in 1684 with Hertfordshire Pedigrees from Harleian Mss. 6147 and 1546, edited by Walter C. Metcalfe, Publications of the Harleian Society, Volume XXII (London 1886) page 164 12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerk_of_the_Pipe 13 The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, page 61 14 Visitation of England and Wales, Notes, Volume 1 edited by Joseph Jackson Howard and Frederick Arthur Crisp (1896) page 44 15 The Visitation of Yorkshire made in the Years 1584/5by Robert Glover, , to which is added The subsequent Visitation made in 1612 by , Norroy King of Arms, edited by Joseph Foster (London 1875) page 81 16 The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, page 61 17 The Visitations of Hertfordshire made by Robert Cooke, Esq.,. Clarencieux, in 1572 and Sir Richard St. George, Kt., Clarencieux in 1684 with Hertfordshire Pedigrees from Harleian Mss. 6147 and 1546, page 20 18 London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section, Clerkenwell, London, England; Reference Number: DW/PA/5/1579, viewable at www.ancestry.com 19 http://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/GardinerWilliam.html 20 London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P73/GIS/125, viewable online at www.ancestry.com 21 London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P71/MMG/002 viewable online at www.ancestry.com 22 London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 Database held on www.ancestry.com Westminster Burials Database held on www.findmypast.co.uk 23 All Surrey, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 Database held on www.ancestry.com 24 The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 177

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