| Note: |
Mary Cornwallis was the daughter of Thomas Cornwallis and Anne Jerningham. She secretly married, on 15 Dec 1578, William Bourchier, Earl of Bath, though the connivance of her brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Kytson, who was the young earl's uncle. The marriage was later repudiated, according to some sources because the earl's mother, Frances Kytson, by then remarried to William Barnaby, would not consent to the match. A trial over the matter was instituted in May 1590 and the marriage was annulled on 28 Apr 1581. In 1582, Bourchier married Elizabeth Russell, daughter of the Earl of Bedford. Mary, however, did not accept this turn of events. She continued to style herself countess of Bath for the rest of her life and to stir up controversy over the matter. It was still a hot button issue in 1600, when poet Francis Davison, who had a connection to the Russell family, published his "Answer to Mrs. Mary Cornwallis". Included in Davison's account of the affair were charges that Mary had "lived an incontinent and lewd life" and had borne a child to her lover, one Francis Southwell, before she seduced William Bourchier into agreeing to marry her. On the other side of the argument, Sir Thomas Kyston left his sister-in-law £300 in his will in Jun 1601 and included in it a statement of his belief that she was the rightful Countess of Bath.
from http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/BOURCHIER1.htm#John BOURCHIER (5º B. Fitzwaryn)
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