Margaret St. Loe

Edward St. Loe married his stepdaughter by marriage, Margaret Scutt. The marriage was long and apparently happy, but early on there were difficulties that grew out of St. Loe’s jealousy of his older brother Sir William. ... In early 1561, his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hardwick St.Loe, fell ill shortly after a visit from Edward and his mother. A letter from Lady St. Loe indicates that even she suspected her younger son of poisoning Bess and attempting to poison Sir William. Although others, including a cousin, also named Elizabeth St. Loe, were arrested and charged, Edward was not. ... Edward claimed that his father, who had died in December 1558, had meant Sutton Court to be left to Edward's wife and he accused Bess of Hardwick of bewitching William into marriage. Countercharges from William concerned the condition of Sutton Court. In the end, Edward and Margaret remained in residence, playing rent to William and Bess, but a portion of the rents from the estate were to be returned to Edward by William as income. Shortly thereafter, Sir William took the precaution of making a will that left everything he owned to Bess, so that Edward would not inherit even if William and Bess remained childless. This turned out to be a wise precaution. William fell ill and died unexpectedly early in 1565. Edward was with him at the time. After William's death, Edward produced a document that ceded Sutton Court to Edward and Margaret. Again there was a suspicion of poison but no proof and therefore no charges were brought. The matter of who owned Sutton Court, however, went before a judge. The ruling, in 1567, granted Margaret a lifetime interest in Sutton Court, with the property to revert to Bess on Margaret’s death.

Margaret may have been the Margaret Sketuse or Sketts listed as a hoodmaker in royal accounts from 1583, although Janet Arnold in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'dsuggests that Sketuze was the married name of a Margaret Barney, listed as a hoodmaker in 1580. Margaert and Edward appear to have had a son, John, and two daughters, Ann and Margaret (d.1591). Through this Margaret, who married Richard Stephens (d.1599), Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Margaret Scutt and Edward St. Loe.

Links

• http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenSa-Sn.htm