Biography of Gregory Cromwell 1st Baron Cromwell Oakham 1520-1551

Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII 1528. 27th July 1528. R. O. 4560. John Chekyng To Cromwell.

His son Gregory [aged 8] is not now at Cambridge, but in the country, where he works and plays alternately. He is rather slow, but diligent. He had been badly tutored, and could hardly conjugate three verbs when committed to Chekyng's care, though he repeated the rules by rote. If this is Palgrave's style of teaching, does not believe he will ever make a scholar. Will have to unteach him nearly all he has learned. He is now studying the things most conducive to the reading of authors, and spends the rest of the day in forming letters. The plague, happily, is abating. Pembroke Hall, 27 July.

Hol., Lat., pp. 2. Add.: Clarissimo viro et domino suo optimo, D. Crumwello in ædibus Remi (Wolsey). Ex Cantabrigia.

Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII 1528. 8th November 1528. R. O. 4916. John Chekyng to Cromwell.

Various reports were spread here about Cromwell, which he is glad proved false. Gregory [aged 8] is well, et reliqui tui have now got cloaks to shield them from the cold. They have also a blazing fire to keep them comfortable. Little Gregory is becoming great in letters. Christopher does not require much stirring up. Acknowledges a bundle of cloth received yesterday from Cromwell. Pembroke Hall, 8 Nov.

P.S.—The plague which sent us into the country has nearly consumed our money.

Hol., Lat., p. 1. Add.: Suorum studiorum nequaquam vulgari patrono, D. Thomæ Crumwello, viro ut claro ita multis nominibus inclyto. Ex Cantabrigia.

On the night of the 24th and 25th October 1537 [his sister-in-law] Queen Jane Seymour [aged 28] died around two in the morning at Hampton Court Palace [Map] as a result of complications arising from childbirth.

On 18th April 1540 [his father] Thomas Cromwell [aged 55] was created 1st Earl Essex and appointed Lord Great Chamberlain.

On 1st May 1540 a tournament was held at Westminster [Map]. Gregory Cromwell 1st Baron Cromwell Oakham [aged 20], Thomas Poynings 1st Baron Poynings [aged 28], [his brother-in-law] Thomas Seymour 1st Baron Seymour [aged 32], John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland [aged 36], Richard Cromwell aka Williams [aged 45] and George Carew [aged 36] were challengers.

On 28th July 1540 [his father] Thomas Cromwell [aged 55] was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map]. Earl Essex, Baron Cromwell of Wimbledon in Surrey forfeit. He was buried at St Peter ad Vincula Church, Tower of London [Map].

On 4th July 1551 Gregory Cromwell 1st Baron Cromwell Oakham [aged 31] died of sweating sickness. His son Henry [aged 13] succeeded 2nd Baron Cromwell Oakham.

Henry Machyn's Diary. The vij day of July begane a nuw swet in London, and ... ded my lord Crumwell [deceased] in Leseter-shyre, and was bered [with a stand]ard, a baner of armes, and cote, elmett, sword, targett, and sc [ochyons, and] harold; and the sam tyme ded my lord Powes [deceased], and the x day [at W]ollwyche, sir John Lutterell [aged 32], knyght, a nobull captayne.

Note. Death of lord Cromwell. Gregory lord Cromwell died on the 4th of July 1551, and was buried at Laund in Leicestershire: his mural monument there is engraved in Nichols's History of that County, vol. iii. pl. xlv.

Note. Death of lord Powis. Edward third lord Grey of Powis. The funeral of his widow, a daughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, occurs in p. 163.

Note. Sir John Luttrell, of Dunster castle, co. Somerset, knighted at the taking of Leith in 1547, and made a knight banneret soon after, at the taking of Yester. Just before his death he had been divorced from his wife, for Strype notices "A Commission to sir William Petre, secretary, sir Richard Read, &c. upon due proof of the manifest adultery of the lady Mary Luttrel, to separate and divorce her from sir John Luttrel her husband. Dated in June, 1551." (Memorials, Book ii. chap. 29.) She was the daughter of sir John Griffith, K.B. and was remarried to James Godolphin, of Cornwall.