Frances Cranfield

Lady Frances Cranfield, Lady Buckhurst, later Countess of Dorset (d.1687)

Frances Cranfield was born in about 1622, the daughter of Lionel Cranfield [Earl of Middlesex] and his second wife Anne Brett.

She married first to Richard Sackville [Lord Buckhurst, 5th Earl of Dorset] about 1637 [although her dowry payment was not finalised until 1641]. Frances and Richard had 11 children.

In 1675 their youngest child Thomas Sackville died & his parents commissioned a very elaborate memorial in his memory. Shortly before it was finished, Richard Sackville also died in 1677 and the memorial became one for him too. This memorial is at St Michael and All Angels, Withyham, Sussex. Along with a reclining statue of Thomas, there are also figures of Richard, Frances and their other children.

Frances married for the second time on the 28th June 1679 to Henry Powle. There are many legal cases listed in the UK archives as they fight the Sackville family for Frances's money. Those fights continued after her death on the 20th April 1687 [the date from one of the many cases]. Surprisingly, Frances was buried with her first husband at St Michael ans All Angels at Withyham, Sussex. She is entered into the burial register as the Dowager Countess of Dorset [which she was] but makes no mention of her current married name!

Henry Powle died on the 21st Nov 1692 and was buried at St Swithins, Quenington, Gloucestershire.

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60526::0 1,60526::2931265

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60526::0 1,60526::2931265

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ Web: Netherlands, GenealogieOnline Trees Index, 1000-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,9289::0 1,9289::6718033