Mary Honywood

MARY WATERS or ATWATER (1527-May 11, 1620)

Mary Waters was the daughter of Robert Waters of Lenham, Kent (c.1500-1565) and Katherine Bright of Royton. She married Robert Honywood or Honeywood of Charing, Kent in February 1543. They had sixteen children—Robert, Katherine, Priscilla, Anthony, Thomas, Mary, Anne, Grace, Arthur, Walter, Elizabeth, Susan, Bennett, Dorothy, Isaack, and Joyce [NO]. During the reign of Queen Mary, she visited prisons to give comfort to the heretics held there. She attended at least one execution by burning. From the age of forty, Mary supposedly suffered from consumption but since she lived to be ninety-three, this seems to have been an inaccurate diagnosis. In 1591, having believed herself to be possessed by a devil for more than a dozen years, she was exorcised by one William Hacket, later revealed to be a charlatan. In 1605 her son Robert bought Marks Hall, where Mary spent the rest of her life. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Honeywood [n%C3%A9e Waters], Mary.” Portraits: 1597; 1605; line engraving.

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

Robert Honywood and Mary Atwater had sixteen children of whom fourteen lived to maturity.

1. Robert Honywood, married 1st Dorathy Crooke, 2nd Elizabeth Browne[3][5]
2. Catherine Honywood, married 1st William Fleet, 2nd William Henmarsh
3. Priscillia Honywood, married Sir Thomas Engham
4. Anthony Honywood, married Ann Gibson, widow
5. Mary Honywood, died young
6. Mary Honywood, married George Morton
7. Anne Honywood, married Sir Charles Hales, Knt.
8. Grace Honywood, married Michael Heneage
9. Arthur Honywood, died young
10. Walter Honeywood, died young
11. Elizabeth Honywood, married George Woodward
12. Arthur Honywood married Eliza Spencer[4]
13. Susan Honywood, married Kerchen
14. Bennet Honywood, married Henry Croke
15. Dorothy Honywood, married William Croke
16. Isaak Honywood, slain at the Battle of Newport

Christie's Biographical Information

From Christie's website which listed information concerning her portrait (the one attached to this profile of her, which portrait was sold for £10,580 or $17,187 in 1997), the following biographical information is given:

"The sitter was the daughter and co-heiress of Robert Waters of Lenham, Kent, and married in 1543, aged 16, Robert Honywood of Charing, Kent, by whom she had sixteen children. She achieved quite a reputation both for her longevity and for the exceptional number of her descendants. She is reputed to have lived to see one hundred and fourteen grandchildren, two hundred and twenty-eight great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. Her grandson Dr. Michael Honywood, Dean of Lincoln, recalled a banquet given by her for her descendants, two hundred of whom were present."

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27
• Honywood, Mary by Edmund Venables
• HONYWOOD, MARY (1527–1620), daughter and coheiress of Robert Waters, esq., of Lenham, Kent, was born at that place in 1527. In 1543, being then in her sixteenth year, she married Robert Honywood, esq., of Charing, and afterwards of Marks Hall, Essex, by whom she had sixteen children. Mrs. Honywood was chiefly celebrated for her longevity, and for the unprecedentedly large number of lineal descendants whom she lived to see. By her sixteen children she had 114 grandchildren, 228 great-grandchildren, and nine great-great-grandchildren, 367 in all. Her grandson, Dr. Michael Honywood [q. v.], dean of Lincoln, was accustomed to tell of his having been present at a banquet given by her to her descendants, two hundred of whom sat down to table. She was also noted for her piety, but in her declining years fell into deep despondency. It is recorded that Foxe, the martyrologist, having visited her with the view of consoling her, she ‘dashed a Venice glass to the ground, saying, “Sir, I am as sure to be damned as this glass is to be broke,” when by God's wonderful providence the glass was taken up uninjured.’ She died at Marks Hall on 12 May 1620, aged 93. She was buried at Lenham on 20 May, and a monument was erected to her memory at Marks Hall. One portrait is at Marks Hall, ‘æt. suæ 70,’ and another in Lincoln Cathedral Library. An engraved portrait is in the ‘Topographer and Genealogist,’ ii. 185, 256.
• [Fuller's Worthies; Botfield's Cath. Libraries; Flavel's Mystery of Providence; Hasted's Kent; Topographer and Genealogist, ii. 185, 256.]
• From: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Honywood,_Mary_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionarynatio25stepgoog#page/n269/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionarynatio25stepgoog#page/n270/mode...

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• Mary Atwater
• F, #30387, b. 1527, d. 11 May 1620
• Father Robert Atwaters, Esq. b. 1479, d. May 1565
• Mother Katherine Bright
• Mary Atwater was born in 1527 at Royton, Lenham, Kent, England. She married Robert Honywood, Esq., son of John Honiwood, Esq. and Alice Barnes, in February 1543 at Shroftyde, Kent, England. Mary Atwater died on 11 May 1620 at Markeshall, Essex, England; She had 367 living descendants at her death.1
• Family Robert Honywood, Esq. b. 18 Sep 1525, d. 22 Apr 1576
• Children
  • Elizabeth Honywood+ b. 2 Dec 1561
  • Dorothy Honywood+ b. 30 Jul 1569, d. 13 Feb 1642
• Citations
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 336.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1012.htm#...

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• Mary Waters1
• F, #479989
• Last Edited=28 May 2012
• Mary Waters is the daughter of Robert Waters.1 She married Robert Honywood, son of John Honywood and unknown Barne.1
• Her married name became Honywood.
• Citations
• [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 1952. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p47999.htm#i479989

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• Mary Atwater Honywood
• Birth: 1527 Lenham, Kent, England
• Death: May 16, 1620 Essex, England
• She was married in February 1543, at the age of sixteen, to Robert Honywood of Postling in Kent.
• She had sixteen children. Two died young. An account of the remaining fourteen is given in "Morant's History of Essex". She lived to see three hundred and sixty-seven of her descendents, nine of them being in the fourth generation.
• Mrs. Honywood was on many accounts distinguished, but chiefly for her Christian character, for her attachment to the Protestant doctrines, and her fearless manifestation of sympathy with the Reformers. A sketch of her life can be found in the "History of the Croke Family" by Sir Alexander Croke.
• Mrs. Honywood was buried at St. Mary's Church, near her husband, though a monument was erected to her memory at Mark's Hall in Essex by her eldest son, Robert Honywood.
• Family links:
• Parents:
• Robert Atwater (____ - 1565)
• Spouse:
• Robert Honywood (1525 - 1576)*
• Children:
  • Anne Honywood Hales (1609 - 1681)*
• Burial: St Mary Churchyard, Lenham, Maidstone Borough, Kent, England
• Find A Grave Memorial# 70193190
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=honywood&GSfn...

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• Links
• http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Honywood,_Michael_(DNB00) & *https://archive.org/stream/dictionarynatio25stepgoog#page/n270/mode...

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Birth: 1527 Lenham Kent, England Death: May 16, 1620 Essex, England

She was married in February 1543, at the age of sixteen, to Robert Honywood of Postling in Kent.

She had sixteen children. Two died young. An account of the remaining fourteen is given in "Morant's History of Essex". She lived to see three hundred and sixty-seven of her descendents, nine of them being in the fourth generation.

Mrs. Honywood was on many accounts distinguished, but chiefly for her Christian character, for her attachment to the Protestant doctrines, and her fearless manifestation of sympathy with the Reformers. A sketch of her life can be found in the "History of the Croke Family" by Sir Alexander Croke.

Mrs. Honywood was buried at St. Mary's Church, near her husband, though a monument was erected to her memory at Mark's Hall in Essex by her eldest son, Robert Honywood.

MARY WATERS or ATWATER (1527-May 11, 1620) Mary Waters was the daughter of Robert Waters of Lenham, Kent (c.1500-1565) and Katherine Bright of Royton. She married Robert Honywood or Honeywood of Charing, Kent in February 1543. They had sixteen children—Robert, Katherine, Priscilla, Anthony, Thomas, Mary, Anne, Grace, Arthur, Walter, Elizabeth, Susan, Bennett, Dorothy, Isaack, and Joyce. During the reign of Queen Mary, she visited prisons to give comfort to the heretics held there. She attended at least one execution by burning. From the age of forty, Mary supposedly suffered from consumption but since she lived to be ninety-three, this seems to have been an inaccurate diagnosis. In 1591, having believed herself to be possessed by a devil for more than a dozen years, she was exorcised by one William Hacket, later revealed to be a charlatan. In 1605 her son Robert bought Marks Hall, where Mary spent the rest of her life. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Honeywood [n%C3%A9e Waters], Mary.” Portraits: 1597; 1605; line engraving.

A Who’s Who of Tudor Women, compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson

http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenW-Wh.htm

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Our 11th Great Grandmother, Mary Atwater was the youngest of the two daughters of Robert Atwater and Catherine. She was born at Royton in 1527. When she was 16 year old she married Robert Honeywood of Postling in Kent in Feb of 1543. She was given the following Manors from her father: Pette and Newcourt in Charing and Dawn Court and Royton in Lenham, which became the property of her husband as soon as she married according to law.

Mary and Robert resided at Royton in Lenham and Pette in Charing. Robert died in 1576 and was buried in the Church of Lenham. They had 16 children, 2 died young.

The following is an extract from an article entitled "Posterity of Mary Honeywood by her son Robert.

"My father married my mother in 1543" .. "my mother departed this life at my house in Markeshall upon Tewesday ye 16 day of May, 1620 in ye 93 year of her age and according to her desyer was buryed in Lenham Church in ye County of Kent, uppon Saturday then following" . Mrs. Homewood lived to see three hundred and 67 of her descendants, 9 of them in the fourth generation.... ("a dinner was once given by her to a family party of two hundred of her descendants").. who had at here decease ... descended from her 367 childern, 16 of her own, 114 grandchildren, 228 in 3rd generation, 9 in 4th ... on many accounts distinguished, but chiefly for her Christian character.

Victor Williamson, at his blog AN AMERICAN DYNASTY, the Story of a Dakota Family

http://atropesend.blogspot.com/2010/05/plague-struck-our-ancestors-...

Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Lenham', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (Canterbury, 1798), pp. 415-445. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol5/pp415-445 [accessed 7 May 2022].

… Robert Atwater, whose arms were, Sable, a fess wavy, voided azure, between three swans, proper, who leaving two daughters and coheirs, Mary, the youngest of them, carried it, with other estates at Charing and elsewhere in this neighbourhood, to Robert Honywood, esq. of Henewood, in Postling, eldest son of John Honywood, esq. by his second wife, daughter of Barnes, of Wye.

He afterwards resided at Pett in Charing, part of his wife's inheritance, and dying in 1576, was buried in Lenham church, bearing for his arms those of Honywood, with a crescent, gules, for difference. He left a numerous issue by his wife, who survived him near forty-four years, and dying in 1620, in the ninety-third year of her age, was buried near him, though a monument is erected to her memory at Markshall, in Essex. She had, as has been said, at her decease, lawfully descended from her 367 children, 16 of her own body, 114 grand-children, 228 in the third generation, and nine in the fourth. Their eldest son Robert Honywood, of Charing, and afterwards of Markshall, in Essex, was twice married; first to Dorothy, daughter of John Crook, LL. D. by whom he had one son, Sir Robert Honywood, of Charing, and a daughter Dorothy, married to Henry Thomson, gent. His second wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Brown, of Beechworth-castle, in Surry, by whom he had several sons and daughters; the eldest of whom, Thomas, was of Markshall, in Essex, esq. and father of John Le Mott Honywood, esq. of that place.

Sir Robert Honywood, on his death, devised the manor of Royton to Dorothy, his daughter by his first wife, married to Mr. Henry Thomson, the second son of Mr. Tho. Thomson, of Sandwich, ..

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"...Royton Manor did indeed belong to an ances- tor: Robert Atwater (1479-1522). Upon his death, he passed it on to his son Robert (1500-1565) who is not in our line. In turn Robert passed it to his daughter Mary who married Robert Honywood. From there it passed to Robert’s daughter Dorothy who married Henry Thompson, gent. Henry’s son Anthony, who died in 1682, passed it to his only daughter Dorothy (see above) who married Richard Crispe, gent. In turn they passed it to the Belchers, Fosters and Bests..."

References

• See 'The posterity of Mary Honywood' at. https://fmg.ac/resources/scanned-sources/file/129-tpg1-397?start=20 for details of her offspring
• http://www.anusha.com/pafg48.htm Robert Honywood and Mary Atwater had sixteen children of whom fourteen lived to maturity. Their decadency is nearly boundless. They are ancestral to Mary Baker, first wife of Robert Brooke, emigrant to Maryland abt 1650, and thus ancestral to a vast number of Americans. You can see several generations of their ancestry at
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jsgordon/Pedigree/index.htm
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jsgordon/Bookform/index.htm
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Honywood-2