Mary Wollacombe

Mary Bassett, c.1522-May 1598, was the youngest daughter of Sir John Bassett (1462-January 21, 1528) and his second wife, Honor Grenville (c.1494-April 1566). Mary was educated in France in the household of Anne Rouand, Mme. de Bours of Abbeville and Bours from August 1534 until March 1538, when she returned to Calais suffering from a chronic fever. A number of letters from and about her are extant. In one, written from Abbeville on March 14, 1536 to her older sister Philippa, she writes: "I enjoy myself so much here in this country, that I should be very well satisfied, if I could only see my lady my mother very often, to return no more to England. I send you a green velvet purse, and a little pot to my sister Frances [her stepsister, Frances Plantagenet], and a gospel to my sister Catherine, and a parroquet to my lord my father [her stepfather, Lord Lisle] because he is very fond of birds." Then she adds: "I owe a pair of shoes to the maid who attends my wants, which I lost playing against her." During her time in a French household, Mary was taken to the French court by Jeanne de Saveuzes, Mme. de Riou, sister-in-law of Mme. de Bours, and presented to Queen Claude. This was in 1537, shortly after the death of Nicholas de Montmorency, Seigneur de Bours. His son and heir was Gabriel de Montmorency, the young man with whom Mary fell in love and to whom she secretly became betrothed. Mary was regarded as the prettiest of the sisters. An attempt was made in 1538 to find her a position in the household of Elizabeth Tudor but this came to nothing. When her stepfather, Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, Lord Deputy of Calais, was arrested in 1540 on suspicion of treason, all the family papers were seized by English officials. Mary attempted to destroy her love letters by throwing them down the jakes but this only made her look more suspicious. It was, in fact, a crime to contract a marriage to a foreigner without permission. Mary's mother was confined to the house of Francis Hall in Calais but it is unclear where, or for how long, Mary and her oldest sister, Philippa (c.1516-1582) were held. She is next heard of on June 8, 1557, when she married John Wollacombe of Overcombe, Devon. They had five sons and two daughters: Honor (1558-1559), John (b.1559), Thomas (b.1561), Priamus (b.1563), Honor (b.1566), William (b.1570) and Henry (b.1571). Mary was buried on May 21, 1598 at Roborough, near Plymouth. Biography: More details are given in M. St. Clare Byrne’s The Lisle Letters.