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Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke

Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.

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Biography of Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban 1592-1650

Maternal Family Tree: Jane Coe

On 28th April 1583 [her father] Benedict Barnham (age 24) and [her mother] Dorothy Smith were married at St Clements Church. They had seven girls and one boy. Three girls and a boy died in infancy.

In 1592 Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban was born to [her father] Benedict Barnham (age 33) and [her mother] Dorothy Smith.

In 1598 [her father] Benedict Barnham (age 39) died. He left an estate of £20,000 of whom the chief beneficiaries were his wife [her mother] Dorothy Smith and her daughters [her sister] Elizabeth Barnham Countess Castlehaven (age 6), Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban (age 6).

In November 1598 [her step-father] John "Lusty" Pakington (age 49) and [her mother] Dorothy Smith were married. They had two daughters and a son.

On 10th May 1606 Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban (age 45) and Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban (age 14) were married. The difference in their ages was 30 years.

Before 1612 [her brother-in-law] Mervyn Tuchet 2nd Earl Castlehaven (age 18) and [her sister] Elizabeth Barnham Countess Castlehaven (age 19) were married. He the son of George Tuchet 1st Earl Castlehaven (age 60) and Lucy Mervyn Baroness Audley and Tuchet.

On 29th June 1612 Robert Crichton 8th Lord Sanquhar was hanged in Westminster Palace Yard for having arranged the murder of his fencing Master John Painter Turner who had previously disfigured him during practice. At his trial [her husband] Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban (age 51) read the charges.

In 1617 George Tuchet 1st Earl Castlehaven (age 66) died. His son [her brother-in-law] Mervyn (age 24) succeeded 2nd Earl Castlehaven, 12th Baron Audley of Heighley in Staffordshire, 9th Baron Tuchet, 2nd Baron Audley of Orier in England. [her sister] Elizabeth Barnham Countess Castlehaven (age 25) by marriage Countess Castlehaven.

In 1618 [her husband] Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban (age 56) was created 1st Baron Verulam. Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban (age 26) by marriage Baroness Verulam.

Letters of John Chamberlain Volume 2.310. [19th December 1618] Yt is growne altogether in fashion to burie now by night, as on Sonday last the Lady Haddington1 had a solemne convoy of almost an hundred coaches (and torches in aboundance), that accompanied her from Westminster to White-chappell on her way to New-hall in Essex where she is to be buried: in this troupe besides the countesses of Bedford (age 38), Excester (age 38), and Devonshire (age 50) was the Lady Verulam (age 26) with a world of other Ladies. The countesse of Salisburie (age 28) the Friday before made a great feast and a play, though her husband (age 27) were absent at court, and the rest of her house and frends in sorow about a lewde libell, that (excepting the highest) runs over all the court and countrie almost that followes not theyre faction, and though the author cannot be found out, yet notice is taken that the Lady of Wallingford (age 35) was one of the first that sunge yt, and the King thinckes of her yt may be required. I heare of another crosse libell that shold pay her and all hers in the same coine, but for my part I protest I have neither seene nor seeke after any of them, but only heare the generall buzze abrode.

Note 1. Cf. Letters 309.

William of Worcester's Chronicle of England

William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.

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On 9th February 1619 [her brother-in-law] Humphrey Ferrers and [her half-sister] Anne Pakington (age 20) were married at Kensington.

In 1622 [her sister] Elizabeth Barnham Countess Castlehaven (age 30) died.

On 27th January 1626 [her husband] Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban (age 65) was created 1st Viscount St Alban. Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban (age 34) by marriage Viscountess St Alban.

On 9th April 1626 [her husband] Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban (age 65) died of pneumonia. He was buried at St Paul's Walden Bury, Hertfordshire. Viscount St Alban and Baron Verulam extinct.

After 1636 [her brother-in-law] Philip Stanhope 1st Earl Chesterfield (age 52) and [her half-sister] Anne Pakington Countess Chesterfield (age 37) were married. She by marriage Countess Chesterfield.

Around 1639 [her mother] Dorothy Smith died.

On 29th June 1650 Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban (age 58) died.

Ancestors of Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban 1592-1650

GrandFather: Francis Barnham

Father: Benedict Barnham

Great x 1 Grandfather: William Bradbridge

GrandMother: Alice Bradbridge

Alice Barnham Viscountess St Alban

Great x 1 Grandfather: John Smith of Withcote in Leicestershire

GrandFather: Ambrose Smith of Withcote in Leicestershire

Great x 1 Grandmother: Dorothy Cave

Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Mervin

Mother: Dorothy Smith

Great x 1 Grandfather: John Coe of Coggleshall in Essex

GrandMother: Jane Coe