Talk:John Harington (treasurer)
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Etheldra
editIf you actually go to the History of Parliament page which is an official and highly regarded source -- it states that:
- Audrey (d. by 1559), illegit. da. of John Malte of London by Joan, da. of one Digneley
In September 1547 Harington bought two manors in Gloucestershire in part exchange for the surrender of his annuity. It is possible that this purchase was influenced by his marriage or betrothal to the illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII’s tailor John Malte. In the previous year Malte had purchased the manor of Kelston in Somerset on behalf of himself and Audrey Malte alias Digneley, ‘bastard daughter of the said John Digneley alias Dobson’, and on to Sept. 1546 he made Audrey, ‘my bastard daughter begotten upon the body of Joan Digneley’, his chief legatee and recipient of all his property in Berkshire, Hertfordshire and Somerset. At the time that Malte made his will Audrey was not yet 15 and engaged to an illegitimate son of (Sir) Richard Southwell, perhaps Richard Southwell alias Darcy. Harington’s marriage to Audrey Malte gave him wealth and position in the west country, as well as in the home counties: she was still alive in early 1556. The first reference to her as Henry VIII’s illegitimate daughter comes in the not altogether reliable Nugae Antiquae compiled largely by her stepson but as evidently neither John Malte nor Harington was aware of her august paternity it is doubtless a myth. Harington’s second marriage took place in 1559 or 1560 when Sir John Markham provided for his unmarried daughter Isabella. It is a MYTH! History of Parliament -- Lady Meg (talk) 04:15, 7 October 2013 (UTC)