Sometimes you get it wrong
When I started researching Anne Lambe, I knew very little about her beyond the sermon preached at her funeral1. Her father was recorded as Thomas Lambe, Esq., and the sermon tells us that Anne was from Suffolk. I wanted to find a connection between Anne Lambe and Lady Wentworth, her patron or companion.
Anne was twenty-four when she married Thomas Glover, which made her relatively old to be still unmarried. She was a gentlewoman living with Lady Cecily Wentworth, which suggested that she was connected to the Wentworth family and that she was either without a dowry or in some way not considered a suitable marriage partner. I needed more information about her family.
Padley or Badley?
A number of sources said that Thomas Lambe, Esq., was from Padley or Badley. ‘Esquire’ indicates that he was a gentleman, possibly a landowner. There was little evidence, and the written records were ancient and unreliable.
The Wentworth connection
Anne’s mother was the daughter of John Poley of Badley and his wife, Anne Wentworth, daughter of Thomas, Baron Wentworth. Anne Wentworth was therefore Anne Lambe’s maternal grandmother, and Edmund Poley, MP,² was her maternal uncle. Here I could access the parliamentary records, which are brief but usually reliable.
I wondered whether the surname Poley and the place names Padley and Badley could have been confused. If Anne’s maternal grandmother was the daughter of Baron Wentworth, Anne was connected to the Wentworth family and thus a cousin. In Jacobean usage, ‘cousin’ covers any kin, including relatives acquired by marriage. I wondered if she was a poor relative and whether learning to embroider might have been her way of preparing for a life without a husband or financial means. A needlewoman with her skill would have been welcome in any aristocratic household.
Finding Thomas Lambe
But I still needed more information about her father, Thomas Lambe, and I found him in a record of Suffolk families.³
THOMAS LAMBE of Trimley, son and heir of Thomas, mar. Ann, daughter of John Poley of Badley in Suff, Esq., and had issue,—John, son and heir: Thomas; William; and Edmond; Anne, mar. to Sir Willion Glueer, Ambassctor into Turkey .
Trimley is listed in the Domesday Book and is indeed in Suffolk. Anne Lambe had four brothers, which might explain why she was sent to live in the household of a wealthy relative. Living there would have increased her chances of a good marriage and relieved her father of the cost of supporting her.
Another error
And here we find yet another error. Sir William Glover (Willion Glueer) was Thomas Glover’s uncle. The scarcity of unique Christian names may have caused the scribe to randomly name a more well-known Glover, a ‘Citizen and Alderman of London’ who was also a ‘Sheriff of London’ and also married to a woman called Anne.
Finally, I corrected the detail in the published book, and Mr Lambe, Esq., is now restored to Trimley.
Sources
1. A sermon preached at Constantinople, in the vines of Perah, at the funerall of the vertuous and admired Lady Anne Glover, sometime wife to the Honourable Knight Sir Thomas Glover, and then Ambassadour ordinary for his Maiesty of Great Britaine, in the Port of the Great Turke / by William Forde ... Ford, William, 1559- London.
3. The Visitations of Suffolk made by Hervey, Clarenceux, 1561, Cooke, Clarenceux, 1577, and Raven, Richmond Herald, 1612, with notes and an appendix of additional Suffolk pedigrees, edited by Walter C. Metcalfe.
