Margaret Astley

Coat of Arms is Red Lion on White shield (left in photo).

Sir John Astley, of an ancient and well connected family, married 13 Oct. 1565, Margaret Lenton aka Grey, illegit. da. of Lord Thomas Grey.

The Peerage lists Margaret Grey as the daughter of Thomas Grey, whose Rebellion against Queen Mary resulted in the near extermination of the Protestant Grey family. Margaret's epitaph clearly identifies her parentage and she is buried near her husband in All Saints Church, Kent. After the ascendency of Queen Elizabeth to the throne, the Grey's attainder was finally removed and a small estate was granted to the surviving brother John, but years of Civil war and persecution, and continued support for the families' right to the throne, continued to endanger them, as well as other families. Margaret was probably hidden as a child to protect her life. There is no record of her mother.

Margaret, daughter of Thomas, Lord Grey, had the following children by Sir John Astley:

• Sir John Astley, of whom we shall hereafter make mention;
• Margaret, wife successively of Anthony Neville of Mattersey co. Nottingham, and of sir Godfrey Rodes/Rhodes;
• Bridget, wife of sir Norton Knatchbull of Mersham in Kent; and
• Eleanor, wife of Thomas Knatchbull, esq., brother'of sir Norton.

notes

About 1590 Astley became involved in an Exchequer suit over his Allington property. His wife wrote to her kinsman Vincent Skinner: ‘It will shorten Mr. Astley’s life to see the son of a Welsh cobbler prevail against him by craft, seeing his long service to her Majesty’. In the end the Allington lands seem to have been sequestered to the Crown.

By 1595 he was growing infirm, and in August of that year a new patent was issued, granting the mastership of the jewel house jointly to him and to Edward Carey, groom of the privy chamber, who presumably took over the duties of the office. sir John Astley died 1 Aug. 1596, and was buried four days later at All Saints’ church, near Maidstone palace, where his monument gives his age as 89. His will, made in January 1593, was proved by his widow on 10 Aug. 1596. Astley left detailed instructions about the division among his children of his property, including Allington, ‘had of my gracious mistress and sovereign’. The widow and sole executrix, who was to keep the ‘great house’ at Maidstone, was forbidden to cut down trees on the estates. The main charitable bequest was of 40 nobles to 40 poor persons of Maidstone, to be distributed at the discretion of the executrix. To assist her in administering the property, and to sell specified lands if necessary to meet her husband’s debts, five overseers were appointed, including Peter Osborne and Ralph Rokeby.

• http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/as...
• Collins's Peerage of England; Genealogical, Biographical, and ..., Volume 3. By Arthur Collins, Sir Egerton Brydges. Page 350. Said by some to have been the daughter and heir of Thomas Grey, 3rd son of Sir Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquis. "I suspect this Margaret to have been of the Greys of Barwell, descended from a younger son of Reginald Grey and Joan Astley."
• Complete Baronetage, 1611-1880 (1900-1906), Cokayne, George Edward, (5 volumes. Exeter [England]: W. Pollard, 1900-1906), FHL book 942 D22cg., vol. 2 p. 118. "Daughter & heir of Lord Thomas Grey, brother of Henry, Duke of Suffolk."
• "John Astley" in Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586-1609 By George John Gray. Page 182-183
• ASTLEY, of Hill-morton, Warwickshire The Baronetage of England: Or The History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as are of English Families; with Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Coats of Arms, Volume 2 (Google eBook). William Betham Burrell and Bransby, 1802 - Baronetage. Page 72-73