Mary Honywood or Mary Waters (1527 – 1620) was a British co-heiress who visited the

Marian martyrs Protestants were executed in England under heresy laws during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I (1553–1558). Radical Christians also were executed, though in much smaller numbers, during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553), ...

. She lived to have 114 grandchildren and, in total, 367 descendants in her lifetime.

Life

Honywood was born in

Lenham Lenham is a market village and civil parish in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hotel), a couple of restaurants, and a tea ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1527. She was a co-heiress of Robert Waters, and she married Robert Honywood who was to take up residence at

Marks Hall Marks Hall was a Jacobean country house some north of Coggeshall in Essex, England. Previously a timber manor house, the 17th-century brick building was demolished in 1950. History In 1163 the manor house and estate of Markshall were granted ...

in Essex. Honywood was recorded because she had over 360 descendants whom she saw in her lifetime. She achieved this by having sixteen children herself, who in turn had 114 grandchildren. In her lifetime they had 228 great-grandchildren and they had nine great-great-grandchildren. Honywood died at the age of 93. Honywood was known for her work in the prisons looking after the people arrested for their Protestant beliefs. She sustained the

and wrote letters to

John Bradford John Bradford (1510–1555) was an English Reformer, prebendary of St. Paul's, and martyr. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged crimes against Queen Mary I. He was burned at the stake on 1 July 1555. Life Bradford was born ...

who was martyred for his beliefs in 1555. Honywood's compassion meant that she attended his execution to ensure that his death was quick.Jacqueline Eales, ‘Honywood , Mary (1527–1620)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 201
accessed 1 Jan 2015
/ref> Honywood died in Marks Hall, Essex in 1620. There was a plaque in Markshall church which recorded her pious life. The plaque said she was buried there, but in fact, she was buried with her husband in Lenham. The Markshall church was demolished in 1933, but Mary's monument was moved to the church of St Peter ad Vincula, Coggeshall.The Honywoods
Coggeshall Museum, retrieved 1 January 2014

Legacy

Her grandson Michael Honywood, who became

Dean of Lincoln The Dean of Lincoln is the head of the Chapter of Lincoln Cathedral in the city of Lincoln, England in the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln. Christine Wilson was installed as Dean on 22 October 2016.

, built the Wren Library at Lincoln Cathedral. The library contains his portrait and the portrait of his grandmother, of whom he was particularly proud. There are several other portraits, although one showing her with a Venetian glass was lost in the 19th century. According to the story, Mary Honywood replied to John Foxe, when he said that she would have a long life, that "as well might you have said … that if I should throw this glass against the wall, I might believe it would not break to pieces". She then threw the glass, but it failed to break.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Honywood, Mary 1527 births 1620 deaths People from Lenham