Elizabeth Culpeper

Richard died before his father and so it was his two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, who succeeded to the Wakehurst fortunes.

Either because they were too young or because their grandmother, Elizabeth Wakehurst (the elder Richard's widow), was still alive, the two heiresses were not immediately entitled to their inheritance and so were put under the guardianship of their grandmother, two of her near relatives - John Gaynesford and Thomas Echyngham - and the two executors of their grandfather's will. Why they were not allowed to remain with their mother, Agnes, is a mystery. Perhaps she was thought to be too young herself, or inexperienced, to single-handedly arrange the girls' education and prepare them for their roles as heads of the family but, whereas it would be understandable if they had been taken into the main Wakehurst home, to acquaint them with their future responsibilities, instead they were sent to live with Sir John Culpeper of Bedgebury at his home near Goudhurst in Kent.

Why this decision was made is not clear, but the fact that Sir John Culpeper's wife, also named Agnes, is shown on the family tree as the sister of a John Gainsford, seems significant. Although the surname there does not have the same spelling as the girls' guardian's, in other references to Agnes, it does, so suggesting that her brother and the guardian John Gaynesford were close kinsmen, if not one and the same person. It is not known if the guardian in question was an uncle or a cousin to the girls and although there is evidence to show that their uncle could not have been Agnes's brother, no such evidence is apparent concerning their cousin who was also named John.

What does seem clear is that a great deal of attention was paid to ensuring the heiresses' safety and that whatever their exact relationship to Sir John Culpeper, their guardians were confident he would make a worthier warder than the girl's own mother. He in turn, promised, upon his honor as a knight, that they would not be wronged while in his charge; an ironic oath when it was his own two younger brothers who, scarcely a year later, abducted the girls. Richard and Nicholas Culpeper were said to have descended on Sir John's and Agnes Culpeper's home at Goudhurst, dressed and armed for war and carried off the girls who, according to the usual version of the story, wept piteously and loudly lamented their fate.

Richard died before his father and so it was his two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, who succeeded to the Wakehurst fortunes.

Either because they were too young or because their grandmother, Elizabeth Wakehurst (the elder Richard's widow), was still alive, the two heiresses were not immediately entitled to their inheritance and so were put under the guardianship of their grandmother, two of her near relatives - John Gaynesford and Thomas Echyngham - and the two executors of their grandfather's will. Why they were not allowed to remain with their mother, Agnes, is a mystery. Perhaps she was thought to be too young herself, or inexperienced, to single-handedly arrange the girls' education and prepare them for their roles as heads of the family but, whereas it would be understandable if they had been taken into the main Wakehurst home, to acquaint them with their future responsibilities, instead they were sent to live with Sir John Culpeper of Bedgebury at his home near Goudhurst in Kent.

Why this decision was made is not clear, but the fact that Sir John Culpeper's wife, also named Agnes, is shown on the family tree as the sister of a John Gainsford, seems significant. Although the surname there does not have the same spelling as the girls' guardian's, in other references to Agnes, it does, so suggesting that her brother and the guardian John Gaynesford were close kinsmen, if not one and the same person. It is not known if the guardian in question was an uncle or a cousin to the girls and although there is evidence to show that their uncle could not have been Agnes's brother, no such evidence is apparent concerning their cousin who was also named John.

What does seem clear is that a great deal of attention was paid to ensuring the heiresses' safety and that whatever their exact relationship to Sir John Culpeper, their guardians were confident he would make a worthier warder than the girl's own mother. He in turn, promised, upon his honor as a knight, that they would not be wronged while in his charge; an ironic oath when it was his own two younger brothers who, scarcely a year later, abducted the girls. Richard and Nicholas Culpeper were said to have descended on Sir John's and Agnes Culpeper's home at Goudhurst, dressed and armed for war and carried off the girls who, according to the usual version of the story, wept piteously and loudly lamented their fate.www.findagrave.com

Elizabeth Wakefield Culpeper
BIRTH 1449
England
DEATH 1517 (aged 67'9668)
West Sussex, England
BURIAL
St. Peter's Churchyard
Ardingly, Mid Sussex District, West Sussex, England
MEMORIAL ID 128655744

In the central alley of the Chancel are the brasses of Richard and Margaret Culpeper, d. 1516 and 1504, which originally lay before the altar, and of Nicholas (d. 1510) and Elizabeth Culpeper, with their 10 sons and 8 daughters.

These two Culpeper brothers married two sisters, Margaret and Elizabeth, granddaughters of Sir Richard Wakehurst, who thus brought the Wakehurst estate into the Culpeper family.

Source of text: Mary S. Holgate. F.S.A., Historical and Architectural Notes, The Parish Church of Saint Peter, Ardingly.

From Culpeper Family Tree:
"Nicholas, with his brother, Richard, under somewhat romantic circumstances, married the Wakehurst sisters, (granddaughters and co-heiresses of Richard Wakehurst, sen., of Wakehurst, in Ardingly). These two girls were confided by Elizabeth, their grandmother, to the care of John Colepeper and Agnes, his wife, the former of whom "promysed on the faithe and trouthe of his bodye and as he was a gentylman," that they should not be wronged. In spite of this promise, however, Richard and Nicholas, "with force and armes riotously agense the Kynges peas arayed in the manr of warre at Goutherst toke and caried" them away to Bobbing, Alexander Clifford's place in Kent, and afterwards transported them to London to a place of John Gibson, "the seide Margarete and Elizabeth at the tyme of their takyng away makyng grete and pittious lamentacion and wepyng.""
-Culpepper Connections! The Culpepper Family History Site

Elizabeth Wakehurst Culpeper died after 1517.

Inscription
Of yo charite pray for the soulles of Nichas Culpep Esquyer & Elizabeth his wyf the which Nichãs decessed the XXIII day of Maye ye yer of o Lord MDX and the seid Elizabeth decessed the ___ day of ___ ye yer of o Lord MD__ on whose soules ihu have mercy.
Gravesite Details
("ihu" = Jesus. The dates for Elizabeth were never filled in.)

Family Members
Spouse
Nicholas Culpeper
unknown–1510