Joanna Chaloner

Joanna (or Joan) was born Joanna Cotton (sometimes spelled Coton). The Cotton famiy of Christleton & Cotton Edmunds is an old Chesire family.(See project on Old Historic Families of Lancashire and Chesire). They also held lands in Leicestershire and rose to prominence through strategic marriages.

Her first husband was Sir Thomas Legh, who was a lawyer involved with the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1532 her husband was appointed ambassador to the King of Denmark. In 1536 he assisted at the trial of Anne Boleyn. He was knighted May 11, 1544. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Legh_(died_1545)_

Estate of Thomas Legh: “He assigned a third of his lands to the crown for the wardship of his only child Catherine, later the wife of James Blount, 6th Lord Mountjoy, left another third to his wife Joan for life and set aside most of the remainder for the payment of debts and the performance of legacies.”

By October 1550, Joan had remarried, taking as her second husband Sir Thomas Chaloner (1521-65). Her daughter, Catherine became Chaloner's ward and he arranged her marriage to James Blount, 6th baron Mountjoy (c.1533-October 20, 1581)[1]

Sir Thomas Chaloner the Elder was an important statesman. Thomas Chaloner was born in 1521 to Margaret Myddleton and Roger Challoner (c. 1490-1550), a descendant of the Denbighshire Chaloners. His father was a London silk merchant who lived at St Mary-at-Hill Street, Billingsgate. A courtier, Roger was a Gentleman-Usher of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII, a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer, and a Freeman of the City of London through the Worshipful Company of Mercers.[2][3] Roger died in 1550 and was buried in the main body of the Church of St Dunstan-in-the-East. Sir Thomas's two brothers, Francis and John Challoner settled in Ireland where John became a prominent politician and administrator. “ He married (1) Joan, widow of Sir Thomas Leigh; and (2) Etheldreda, daughter of Edward Frodsham, of Elton, Cheshire, by whom he had one son, Sir Thomas Chaloner (1561-1615), the naturalist.“

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Chaloner_the_elder, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Chaloner,_Sir_Thomas_

Sources for John Legh:

• 1.^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, vol. X, no. 238
• 2.^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, vol. X, no. 288
• 3.^ a b Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Legh, Thomas". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• 4.^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. James Gairdner, vol. X, no. 468
• 5.^ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/le...

References

• http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenL.htm
• Richardson, Douglas: Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd edn (2011), Volume 2, page 242, GARGRAVE 12. GoogleBooks
• “The Genealogist, Volume 19.” “Chaloner of Guisbrough.” Page 118. GoogleBooks “d 11 Jan 1556-7“