6:1 - The Golding Family of Bermuda
The De Vere Family of Essex
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The de Vere Family of Essex and their connection to Arthur Golding, the Translator
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
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Arthur Golding was the son of John Golding of Belchamp St. Paul and Ursula Merston. Through his half-sister Margaret’s marriage to Edward De Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford, the Golding family was elevated in status to a level of high prominence. Like the Golding family, the De Vere family was divided between two branches with the Earldom passing through several generations through Robert, the son of Richard de Vere, the 11th Earl of de Vere and his wife Alice Holland. Robert de Vere’s brother was John the 12th Earl of Oxford. Edward de Vere, the 16th Earl was the grandson of Robert de Vere and his wife Joan Carew. Margaret Golding was the second wife of Edward de Vere, his first wife being Lady Dorothy Neville of the powerful Neville family. They had one son named Edward who inherited his father’s title and an almost unfathomable fortune which he spent a good portion of his life squandering away on frivolous and immoral pursuits. That Edward the 17th Earl spent the last 16 years of his life begging for money to cover his debts is something he deserved because in spite of his brilliance he was a thoroughly detestable character. Some think he is the person who wrote the plays of Shakespeare and since the 1920’s there has been a whole theory called the Oxfordian Theory that seeks to give evidence to the claim.
Arthur Golding was Edward De Vere’s uncle but the two were only about 15 years apart in age. In 1568 Arthur Golding was receiver for his nephew and throughout his life tried to be a positive influence on the youth who eventually transformed into the vain, impulsive libertine that history remembers him to be.
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Edward de Vere, the son of Edward the 16th Earl and Margaret “Marjory” Golding was of a different line of the de Vere family than his cousins Elizabeth de Vere who married Sir Anthony Wingfield and Dorothy de Vere who married John “3rd Baron Latimer” Neville
Lucy Neville, the granddaughter of Dorothy de Vere married Sir William Cornwallis and he is the man who named Richard Nykke and Thomas Golding, Clerk as the co-executors of his will. Lucy’s sister Dorothy married Thomas Cecil, the Earl of Exeter and that is how Arthur Golding became involved with the Cecil family.
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The de Vere family were connected by marriage to the Wingfields, the Gosnold and Sir William Cornwallis. They among other prominent people played an instrumental role in creating the Virginia Company. Thomas Golding, Clerk to Richard Nykke, the Bishop of Norwich was the co-executor to the will of Sir William Cornwallis and is reported by some sources to have been a direct ancestor of Captain Peter Goulding of Boston, Massachusetts.
“And I ordain THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH supervisor of my will, and my wife Elizabeth and THOMAS GOLDING, CLERK, my executors. Proved 29th November 1519" It is my belief, yet unproven, that the THOMAS GOLDING, CLERK mentioned in the will of WILLIAM CORNWALLIS was Thomas “of Poslingford” Golding of the Suffolk branch of the Golding family. That branch was also connected by marriage to the Wingfield and Gosnold families. That man was the only person of that name in the area who matches that time frame. That is my theory but it isn't proven.
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Louis Thorn Golding wrote the most conclusive biography of Arthur Golding the Translator, whom he proved was one of his ancestors. In his book An Elizabethan Puritan, he wrote:
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“Edward de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford was amenable to woman's wiles and to official pressure. After his first wife's death, Lady Dorothy Neville, the daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland, a certain "Mrs. Dorothy, waiting woman" to his only child Catherine, then a girl of nine or ten, caught his eye. Banns for their marriage were twice published. Yet this marriage never took place, for the Lord Protector Somerset prevented it.
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Catherine got her father into further trouble about the same time by her mere existence. Somerset, casting a greedy eye on the vast Vere estates, wheedled or frightened the Earl into an agreement for the future marriage of the little girl to the Protector's son Henry, then a child of seven. He induced Oxford to consent, on Feb. 1, 1548 to a 'fine' in the interest of the children, which would have deprived collateral Vere heirs of the bulk of the estate. But this marriage never took place and after the fall of Somerset, Parliament annulled the 'fine' and made provision for the proper recognition of the children of Oxford's brothers.
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Castle Hedingham, under such a master, was hospitable to the new doctrines and practices set forth by Archbishop Cranmer, eagerly embraced by the young King and sternly enforced by the strong hand of Somerset. Edward VI, the scholarly and precocious youth who was upon the throne, was more interested in theology than in government. Under the influence of Cranmer, he devoted the full energy of his feeble frame to religious studies and observances.” (Golding)
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John Golding of Belchamp was an ambitious man and he saw an opportunity to marry his daughter into a wealthy family. Margaret was twenty-four years old at the time of her marriage. Dorothy Neville, the daughter of Ralph Neville and Catherine Stafford and the first wife of Edward de Vere was born about 1520 in Raby, Durham, England and she died on December 17, 1545. She had one daughter, the Katherine above mentioned. Her death left a void in the life of the elder Edward de Vere so he and Margaret Golding were married on 5 August 1548 and she became the Countess of Oxford. Not much is known about Margaret except that in 1559 she was appointed Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth and two years after that in 1561 the Queen was the guest of the Earl on one of the “Progresses” she was so fond of making. When Edward the elder died he left Margaret deeply in debt, but what is certain is that she enjoyed a life of luxury.
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John de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford
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The following is from AN ELIZABETHAN PURITAN by Louis Thorne Golding, p 22
“Castle Hedingham was the home of a very rich, sport-loving man, of no great energy or force of character, John de Vere, the sixteenth Earl of Oxford, as inclined to generosity and hospitality as to ostentation and display. Writing of him in 1598, Stow says:
"The late Earl of Oxford,..hath been noted within these forty years, to have ridden into this City and to his house by London Stone with eighty gentlemen in the livery of Reading tawny and chains of gold about their necks before him and one hundred tall yeomen in the like livery to follow him without chains but all having his cognizance of the blue boar embroidered on their left shoulders."
John de Vere had little taste for the politics of the day, but yet had skill and luck and pliability enough to save head and property in a time when many a noble lost both. When Elizabeth came to the throne many of the nobles were able to breathe a sigh of relief, especially after the bloody years of Elizabeth’s sister Mary. Elizabeth was more politically minded so John De Vere was quick to turn to the new Queen and seek her favor. He was one of the peers who accompanied Elizabeth from Hatfield on the journey she took to London to assume her throne.
Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford was the son of Margery Golding. He born on 12 April 1550 at Castle Hendingham and he died on 24 June 1604 in London. He was born into a position of wealth and privilege, but it didn’t take long for Lady Catherine Windsor, the only child of Margery’s husband’s first wife to attack his legitimacy. Her move threatened both Margery and her son’s rights to the Vere estates and also their names and titles as well. Their defense fell on Arthur Golding who was at the time only twenty-seven years of age, proving once again Cecil’s confidence in his ability.
The elder Edward de Vere died when his son was still a minor so the new Earl became a Ward of the Crown and he was installed in Sir William Cecil’s house. The wardship system meant that de Vere’s lands were used by the crown for it’s own profit and presumably for the ward’s benefit as well. His uncle Arthur Golding became his receiver in 1563. Even though he was technically De Vere’s uncle, Golding probably never forgot that his nephew held a higher rank than he did and that he needed to continue to curry favor. Of his many works of Translation, Golding dedicated “‘Thabridgemente of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, collected and wrytten in the Latin Tongue … by the famous Historyographer Justine’ (May 1564), by Thomas Marsh” to Edward de Vere.
By 1566 Margery, Edward’s mother and Arthur’s sister married for a second time to Charles Tyrrell. Oxford was on friendly terms with Tyrell as is revealed in Tyrrell’s will. Edward was possessed of a sharp mind but he had an impetuous nature and the fact that he was able to get away with infractions of common decency and the law because of his connections and his status only contributed to the outcome of his life. He was never expected to have to accept responsibility for his actions, and it cannot be said that Arthur Golding did anything to discourage that unfortunate trend. Edward de Vere went to Queen’s College, Cambridge to obtain legal training and he was awarded Master of Arts degrees at both Oxford and Cambridge. Thomas Twyne described him at the time as “being as yet in your flower and tender age and generally hoped and accounted of in time to become the chiefest stay of this your commonwealth”.
An example of Edward’s rashness occurred in 1567 while he was fencing with Edward Baynam, a tailor, in the backyard of William Cecil’s house in the Strand. The then seventeen year old Oxford killed an unarmed cook named Thomas Brincknell. William Cecil organized a packed jury and instructed them to rule that Brincknell had caused his own death by hurling himself on Oxford’s rapier. The whole incident was declared a suicide, Brincknell was denied a Christian burial and his pregnant wife was deprived of her property and was abandoned to her relatives and the parish church, all so the young Earl might walk free without paying any consequences. The only lesson Edward de Vere learned was that he could commit a crime and Cecil, who was soon to become the powerful Lord Burghley, would find a way to divert blame away from him.
In 1571 de Vere married Anne Cecil , the daughter of his protector William “Lord Burghley” Cecil and Mildred Cooke, the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke. Mildred and her two sisters were women of great intellectual curiosity, traits which she in turn passed onto her daughters including Anne. She had full charge of her children’s education as well as that of the various royal wards for whom her husband was responsible, including Edward de Vere. By 1569 Sir William was busy arranging the marriage of his daughter Anne. He first approached Sir Henry Sidney, the father of Phillip Sidney but they could not reach a financial agreement. The Earl of Rutland was another candidate but Anne it seems was herself interested in Edward, the Earl of Oxford. Burleigh persuaded himself that ‘there is much more in him of understanding than any stranger would think” but that turned out to be a mistake in judgement. On 19 December 1571, at the age of twenty-one Lord Edward regained control of his estates and married Anne Cecil, but almost immediately became unfaithful. The marriage was not a happy one. (Golding, p. 22)
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Edward de Vere in his youth
Lord Burghley went on to become Queen Elizabeth’s most trusted advisor and he and Lady Burghley entertained the queen on several occasions as their residences. Lady Burghley died on 4 April 1589 after 43 years of marriage and she lays with her daughter Anne Cecil, Countess of Oxford in Westminster Abbey. Depicted at her head are her three granddaughters, Elizabeth, Bridget and Susan de Vere and at her feet is her only son Robert.
De Vere was in his earlier years a favorite at court, where he seems to have lived most of the time when he was young. At the age of 25 he went on a tour of France, Germany and Italy and was there for over sixteen months and in 1575 he went further south in Italy where he spent over £4000 and wallowed in sexual excesses. He made Venice his base of operations where he lived the life of a libertine. Nathaniel Baxter published a poem entitled “Sidney’s Ouriana” two years after Oxford’s death in which he reported from personal knowledge that his former traveling companion had led a life of “infamie” in Venice. When Edward de Vere finally returned from his debauchery abroad he brought back with him a pair of silk gloves for the Queen, a choirboy from Italy and a case of syphilis. Oxford rejected his wife and refused to live with her for five years and denied paternity of the nine-month old daughter he had at one time acknowledged and relinquished them both to Lord Burghley’s care while he set up a separate household with the choirboy.
Edward de Vere, in spite of his many accomplishments, was a thoroughly detestable person. In addition to the three daughters he had with Anne Cecil, he also fathered a son with Anne Vavasour but that child died in infancy. The incident started a feud between Oxford and Anne’s uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvett which resulted in the deaths of three followers of de Vere and Knyvett as well as injury to both men.
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Anne Vavasour, who in 1580 was appointed as a Gentlewoman of Her Majesty's Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Collection of the Armourers and Brasiers of the City of London.
As much as Oxford’s rash, unpredictable nature minimized his success he nevertheless deserves recognition as a poet and a man of extraordinary intellectual interests, but that did not preserve him from eventual financial ruin. Henry Peacham, who wrote the Complete Gentleman listed de Vere as first among the poets of the Elizabethan period, and his recognition among his peers perhaps inspires people now to contend that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the plays generally attributed to William Shakespeare. (The Oxfordian Theory of Shakespeare's Authorship)
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De Vere in his later years
Anne Cecil died in 1588, and her husband spent the final years of his life scrounging for money. He applied for the right to gauge vessels for beer and ale and other financial opportunities but all failed. He repaired his fortune to a certain extent by marrying the wealthy Elizabeth Trentham and their only son Henry inherited the earldom. Of his three daughters, all of whom married into the aristocracy, it was Susan who was perhaps the most accomplished. She married the Earl of Montgomery, one of two noblemen to whom William Shakespeare’s First Folio was dedicated.
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Edward de Vere died on 24 June 1604, probably from plague at King’s Place in Hackney. He left no will and was presumed to have been buried at St. Augustine’s church but Percival Golding, the youngest son of Arthur Golding provided testimony that the Earl “died at his house at Hackney in the month of June 1604 and lies buried in Westminster Abbey.”
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References
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Golding, Louis Thorne (n.d.). An Elizabethan Puritan.
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The Oxfordian Theory of Shakespeare's Authorship. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfordian_theory_of_Shakespeare_authorship