Sir William Kempe, II

as Eleanor Kempe, served in Catherine Parr's household from 1543-1547 and was one of the longest serving and most loyal of Mary Tudor’s ladies. She was part of Mary’s household by 1547 and was still there in 1558 when the Queen died. Eleanor’s will is dated 21 Aug 1560.

The document below is the Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the will dated 24 August 1558 and proved 11 December 1560 of Eleanor (nee Browne) Kempe, the widow of Sir William Kempe (1487-1539) of Olantigh in Kent, and the grandmother of the comedian Will Kempe and of Alice (nee Kempe) Hales (d.1592), the dedicatee of Robert Greene’s Menaphon (1589), to which Thomas Nashe contributed a preface.