Catherine Nevill, Lady Constable

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CATHERINE NEVILLE (1541-March 27, 1591)

Catherine Neville was the daughter of Henry Neville, 5th earl of Westmorland (1525-February 10,1564) and Anne Manners (1527-June 27,1549+). She married Sir John Constable of Holderness (June 10, 1527-May 25, 1579) as his second wife and had by him one son, John (b.c.1564). She was the Lady Constable who was a recusant and who spent time in prison at Sheriff Hutton in 1582-84. Portrait: A second version of this portrait is incorrectly called Bess of Hardwick. Her age is also incorrectly inscribed, since it is given as 60 in 1590. She left instructions that if she died in the north she should be buried with her husband at Halsham, Yorkshire and if she died in the south, with her family in Shoreditch. She left £40 for a memorial to herself, her two grandmothers (Catherine Stafford and Eleanor Paston) and an aunt (Margaret Neville), which was duly constructed in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, by her sister, Adeline. Catherine wrote her will on August 4, 1590 and it was proved on July 28, 1491 at York.

ADELINE NEVILLE (c.1547-1613)

Adeline Neville was the daughter of Henry Neville, 5th earl of Westmoreland (1525-February 10, 1564) and Anne Manners (1527-1549). She was left a thousand marks in her father’s will but never married. Adeline's brother, the 6th earl, was one of the "Northern Earls" who rebelled against the Crown in 1569. The Westmorland title was forfeit in 1571 and he ended his life in exile in 1601. Burke's Landed Gentry mentions Adeline as standing godmother to Anthony Trotter in 1576 and says that she "sheltered" with the Trotter family of Helmenden, to whom he says she was related by marriage, until her death. This is contradicted by Adeline's will, made on March 22, 1612/13, when she was living in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. In this will, she asked to be interred in the church at Stanthorpe, Durham and left £4 to her waiting gentlewoman, Elizabeth Tasbrough. The will was proved at London on October 7, 1613. It is as a result of the death of one of Adeline’s sisters in 1591, however, that Adeline is remembered today. Catherine Neville, Lady Constable, made Adeline her executor and left £40 in her will to be used to build a memorial to herself, their two grandmothers, and an aunt in St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch. Adeline duly oversaw the creation of a monument showing four women kneeling around a prayer desk. Represented were Catherine Stafford, Countess of Westmorland, Eleanor Paston, Countess of Rutland, Margaret Neville, Countess of Rutland, and Catherine Neville, Lady Constable. All except Lady Constable had died in the 1550s. Two of Adeline's uncles are also shown in effigy on the monument. In 1735, the church was torn down and replaced by a new building but the tomb was preserved in the British Museum.