Mary, Lady Bankes ( Hawtry; c. 1598 – 11 April 1661) was a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

who defended Corfe Castle from a three-year siege during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

from 1643 to 1645. She was married to Sir John Bankes, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Attorney-General of King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

Marriage and children

Mary Hawtry was born in about 1598, the only daughter of Ralph Hawtry, Esquire of Ruislip,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, and Mary Altham. In about 1618, she married Sir John Bankes, who later became Attorney-General to King Charles I and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. In 1635, Sir John purchased Corfe Castle in Dorset with all its manors, rights, and privileges from Lady Elizabeth Coke. Sir John died on 28 December 1644 at the age of 55. Together Sir John and Mary had four sons and six daughters: * Sir Ralph Bankes (1631–1677), married Mary Bruen, by whom he had two children. * Jerome Bankes * Charles Bankes * William Bankes * Alice Bankes, married Sir John Borlase, 1st Baronet, by whom she had issue * Jane Bankes, married George Cullen * Mary Bankes, married Sir Robert Jenkinson, by whom she had issue. * Joanna Bankes, married William Borlase of Great Marlow,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, younger brother of her sister Alice's husband, by whom she had issue. * Elizabeth Bankes * Arabella Bankes, married Samuel Gilly

Siege

In 1643, when civil war broke out in England, she assumed control of Corfe Castle when John Bankes had been ordered by the king to serve in combat in

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and

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. She remained behind with her children, servants, and a force of five men. By that point, Corfe Castle was the last Royalist garrison on the Dorsetshire coast. In May 1643, a force of Parliamentarians, consisting of forty seamen, demanded the surrender of the castle's four pieces of ordnance. She, her maidservants, and her small group of soldiers retaliated with cannon fire and drove them away. Later, she gave up the ordnance in order to have some time to resupply the castle. On 28 June, 500-600 parliamentary troops began their first siege of Corfe. Mary and her small group defended the Upper Ward and by heaving stones and hot embers from the battlements, managed to repel the assailants, killing and wounding over 100 men in August.
John Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3'' (London, 1837) pp.308-309. In 1646, one of her officers, Colonel Pitman, betrayed her by leading a party of Parliamentarians into the castle via a

sally gate A sally port is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter an ...

. The Parliamentarians under the command of a Colonel Bingham reversed their jackets and were mistaken for Royalists. As a result, she was forced to surrender the castle. However, because she showed such courage she was allowed to keep the keys of the castle, which are now held at

Kingston Lacy Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. It was for many years the family seat of the Bankes family who lived nearby at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War after its incumbent ow ...

near

Wimborne Minster Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a market town in Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town. It lies at the confluence of the River Stour and the River Allen, north of Poole ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

. The castle was

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

the same year it was captured by the orders of the House of Commons. It is recorded that her sons Ralph and Jerome bought the manor of Eastcourt on her behalf. Upon her death, the manor passed to her daughter Joanna Borlase, who in her turn passed it on to her daughters and co-heirs.

Death

Mary died on 11 April 1661 and was buried in

St Martin's Church, Ruislip St Martin's Church is a church in the town of Ruislip, within the London Borough of Hillingdon. It has been designated since January 1950 by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The present chancel and nave date back to the 13th ...

. On the south wall of the chancel inside the church there is a monument to Mary with this inscription: ''To the memory of Mary, Lady Bankes, the only daughter of Ralph Hawtery, of Riselip, in the county of Middlesex, esq., the wife and widow of Sir John Bankes, knight, late Lord Chief Justice of His Majesty's court of Common Pleas, and of the Privy Council of His Majesty King Charles I of blessed memory, who having had the honour to have borne with a constancy and courage above her sex, a noble proportion of the late calamities, and the restitution of the government, with great peace of mind laid down her most desired life the 11th day of April 1661. Sir Ralph Bankes her son and heir hath dedicated this''.
Lady Bankes Primary School
is named after her in

Ruislip Manor Ruislip Manor is an area of Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London. It is located approximately west north west of Charing Cross. The construction of a halt on the Metropolitan Railway in the area in 1912 led to the develop ...

References

* John Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3'' (London, 1837). * Basil Duke Henning, ''The House of Commons, 1660-1690, Volume 1'' (London, 1983) pp. 589–590. * ''A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4'', (London, 1924). * ''Dorset Echo'', www.thisisdorset.net, retrieved on 7 October 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Mary Mary Cavaliers People from Purbeck District Women in the English Civil War 1598 births 1661 deaths 16th-century English women 17th-century English women 17th-century English people Wives of knights