Lady Elizabeth "Betty" Stoughton

Record for Anthony Stoughton on ancestry.com

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Massingberd-2

Elizabeth (Massingberd) Stoughton (abt. 1640 - abt. 1683) ID/Link/URL/Cite

Betty (Massingberd) Stoughton

Lady Elizabeth (Betty) Stoughton formerly Massingberd

Born about 1640 in Bratoft Hall, Lincolnshire

Daughter of Henry Massingberd 1st Bt and Elizabeth (Lyster) Massingberd

Sister of John Massingberd, Frances Massingberd, Thomas Massingberd, William Massingberd and William Massingberd [half]

Wife of Nicholas Stoughton AB BT — married 2 Jun 1662 in Londres, Angleterre

[children unknown]

Died about 1683 in Stoughton Place, Surreym

Massingberd-2 created 4 Feb 2016 | Last modified 23 Nov 2019

Biography

Research

This is from my Index to Persons in BL6174 cited below. It will take time to organize her life coherently. Numbers are pages in the MS.

Massingberd, Elizabeth, Mrs. Known to her family as Betty, lost her mother quite early. She had an older sister Francis and two brothers. (Henry died unmarried, 1666, aged 25, John, died unmarried, 1671).Their childhood home was a manor, well maintained with servants in green livery.

Betty's life spanned the period of the English Civil War when her father and uncle led troops in Lincolnshire for Parliament and for his efforts was charged with treason by the royalists. Somehow he escaped the usual consequences which would have included losing all his property. One can imagine the panic in the family including young Betty. But as the tide turned her father was created a Baronet by Cromwell. Then after Charles II was restored Massingberd was pardoned and confirmed.

Her father remarried when she was eight. Stepmother Ann Evans Stoughton had no surviving children from her first marriage and alienated her husband from his own sons in favour of the one she bore him. Betty was sent to school at Baltesly, London. (This was likely a boarding school where girls were taught subjects like writing, music and needlework.). Her father had musical instruments at the manor of Bratoft Hall so she likely learned to play there also. Her father also kept Christmas there (even throughout Cromwell's period) and although a Parliamentarian never wore the 'roundhead ' hairstyle as his portrait shows.

Betty suffered smallpox before marriage & had weak vision after. Her marriage match was arranged as the times dictated, with ' jointure 'contracts drawn up before Sir Nicholas Stoughton, BT. proposed. ' then her portion which was two thousand pd. was payed mee ^ before I was marryed to her, wch went towards the payment of my debts.' When he returned to Oxford, to settle his affairs there, she wrote loving letters. Their license was made in May in Chipping Barnet. They married in East Barnet ( Mon. June 2. 1662) and honeymooned in Lincolnshire, before settling in Surrey near his manor of Stoughton Place. 'Then we did agree with my Sister Glyd (who then lived alone, a widdowe with her children) att Pend Hill in Bletchingly) for one hundred & thirty pounds y annum for the dyet of [ourselves]; they parted & turned their Dining roome into a lodgeing & chamber for us, myselfe & wife & a man & a mayde; '(page 542). Nicholas describes Betty as grey-eyed, meek tempered and likely to 'grieve & pine over little matter'. Her husband had to serve as High Sheriff of Surrey in their first year of marriage, was often away and their circumstances were much straightened from what she was used to. She quickly bore the first of nine children (suffering a dropped uterus through a midwife's mismanagement which troubled her the rest of her life). Her children were Rose (first) who later died, Elizabeth and Ann ( also died very young, Frances, Henrietta, (and a miscarriage) then another Rose ( died young) and a son Laurence, (mild mannered and troubled by an problem with his eyes. The last was Sarah.

Nicholas says she was ‘so loving, sweete-natured a woman, so good & thrifty a housewife, so contented & suiteing herselfe to my love & necesitous[sic] condition as I have bin always in ever since I marryed her & a woman of so godly inclination & desirous to be acquainted with heavenly things & much delighting her selfe therein’ page 575, ‘so meet & suitable a Companion of my life, with whom the longer life the more I have cause to prayse God for’ page 719, He also praises her courage. She had a narrow escape in a runaway coach (page728),

She endured quartaine fever (malaria) dropsy, scurvy and fainting fits. In 1675 NIcholas took her to see ' Drs & Mr. Pall in Battersea, (page795) The next summer she had emotional distress and distemper (?).

Betty was charged with holding a conventicle (religious exercise of non-conformists) in their dining room in 1679). The usual fine was five shillings. She was present and charged for attending another in Guildford 21 Aug. 1680. Another was held about 29 July 1683. in the parish of Artington,Guildford.[1]

No wonder she was often depressed with grief and with the constant persecution the couple were beset with, as Nicholas was a strict Puritan in the new ' licentious' times of Charles II the 'merry monarch'. He had many debts and even so was addicted to buying land and books. Legal problems drained resources to the point where Nicholas even had to pawn his sword and the silver cup his children drank from. He was even imprisoned in London for some time. Meanwhile she was desperately anxious about her only son, to the point that Nicholas sent him away to be cared for by his sister who was a teacher in Guildford (against her wishes).

Nicholas' memoir ends abruptly about 1680, but later research tells that she died before him (1682/3) [2] She was likely buried in Stoke Church in the family crypt. He died 30th of June, 1686.

Her sister Frances was at one point quite jealous of her title of Lady after she married Stoughton. Her frailty was not unusual in this time of limited medical treatment, as also sadly her loss of children. She did have a loving husband and friends who shared her faith..... to be continued.

Sources

↑ Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=va86AQAAMAAJ] page 447 A topographical history of Surrey, By Edward Wedlake Brayley, John Britton and Edward William Brayley - 1841 BL6174 by Sir Nicholas Stoughton, Bt, her husband, has details of her life before and after marriage but I haven't yet completely summarized them. The transcription is my own. M.E. Walker https://books.google.ca/books?id=Xf8cAAAAYAAJ London Marriage Licences, 1521-1869 Page 679 Reports https://books.google.ca/books?id=XIIQAQAAMAAJ Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts - 1879