Royal and Noble Ancestors

According to the Dictionary of National Biography (British), Sir George Gregory Fienes had no children and his estates were taken over by his sister [Margaret]. Therefore the Mary listed on your page has no connection to royalty.
Yours,
Bruce Carpenter (descendant of Thomas Bliss)
"carpenter"

But a more recent email points to Mary as the bastard daughter of Sir George Gregory Fienes.

There is a website called simply Anne Sackville (B. Dacre of the South) that has information on Mary Fienes.

The mother of Mary is not mentioned, but it is mentioned in this history that Anne Sackville would have nothing to do with Mary because she was a bastard daughter of her husband, George Gregory Fienes. The site is at http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/AnneSackville.htm.

The person who did this research is Robin Kullick of the Bristol Renassaince Faire. In the article it mentions that Anne Sackville was from a very powerful and wealthy family, her father owning Salisbury Court - her father being Sir Richard Sackville a relation of the Boleyns. Her grandfather on her mother's side was the Lord Mayor of London - so I would imagine it would have been very difficult for a bastard daughter of a man who had so much less than his wife's family. It does mention that she married someone named Wheatley in the article.

Sarah Owen
Hi,

I did considerable research on the Fiennes Wheatley connection. I went to London and saw Anne Sackville's will, which did not mention Mary Fiennes. The fortune was left to a relative of the Sackville family, as well as Samson Leonard and his wife Margaret Fiennes, Gregory Fiennes's sister. However, I have a theory about all of this. Dorothy Wheatley, daughter of Mary Fiennes and Frank Wheatley, married Thomas Bliss in Daventry, England, and the person who was responsible for her at that time was John Wheatley, bailiff of Daventry (bailiff = mayor back then). SInce Frank and Mary had a son named John, I believe Dorothy was living in Daventry with her brother John at that time before her marriage. Why were the children living apart from their parents? At that time, there was a movement in that part of England called the recusant movement, which was a way for Catholics to practice their religion secretly, since it was outlawed in England. Parents sent their children to live in other areas (especially the area around Daventry, Northamptonshire, etc.) where the authorities could not track them down, and thus the children could still practice Catholicism and not be fined, as these fines could be ruinous. Adults caught practicing Catholicism were arrested and imprisoned. Priests were executed. Were Mary Fiennes and Frank Wheatley Catholics? It is quite likely that, if Mary Fiennes was a daughter of Gregory Fiennes, she was a Catholic, as Gregory Fiennes was a notorious Catholic, and was active in smuggling priests from Europe into England. Since he was a fairly close relative of Queen Elizabeth (as was Anne Sackville, from a different side -Boleyn), he was never charged with sedition, and in fact was ambassador to France! My theory about Mary Fiennes was that she was sent to live with relatives in the countryside, who adopted her. She was overlooked in her mother's will because, by that time, Queen Elizabeth had provided for her husband with valuable wool monopolies. Frank Wheatley and his sons had a wool exporting business. John Wheatley was a draper, meaning he was part of the business. There was no need for the not very large fortune left in the family by the time Anne Sackville died. Samson Leonard and his wife Margaret Fiennes received the castle (Herstmonceaux) and were ruined by the cost of restoring it, as it was in ruins. Part of this had to do with the attainder of Gregory Fiennes's father, Thomas Fiennes, who was executed by Henry VIII, leaving his wife, Mary Neville, one of the leading ladies in the country, destitute. Queen Elizabeth later lifted the attainder. returning the castle and some other proerties. Margaret Fiennes, Gregory's sister, and Anne Sackville, were enemies who appealed to Queen Elizabeth to settle their differences over who should get the estate, Margaret or Gregory. It is a very complicated and still unsolved question of who got what, but there was considerable bitterness over the outcome. Genealogists cannot be expected to be estate attorneys, but sometimes these things must be taken into consideration. In the case of Gregory Fiennes and Anne Sackville, there were considerable complications with the estate, and complicated plans were made to avoid the many traps awaiting their daughter. Queen ELizabeth aided them in this by giving Mary Fiennes's husband a valuable wool monopoly. Queen Elizabeth could not control the explosive emotions that were roiling the country over religion, SHe herself was a moderate, with no great opinion either way. Therefore, part of the plans took into consideration the position Mary Fiennes was in as a Catholic, that fortunes could be confiscated, fines imposed, and people imprisoned. I believe Mary lived apart from her family at court so that she could be taught Catholicism in the countryside, and that the same, essentially, held for Dorothy Wheatley, in Daventry with her brother.

Hope this helps. Don't discard the theory that Mary Fiennes was the descendant of Gregory Fiennes AND Anne Sackville. Stranger things have happened. You probably won't be able to quote me on much of this since I have proof of only some of it, such as the wool monopoly, Gregory Fiennes's Catholicism, and Dorothy Wheatley and John Wheatley in Daventry. The rest is "fill in the gaps".

Thanks for your attention to this matter, which has received little attention and quite a bit of misrepresentation,

Sarah Kennedy Owen