Joyce Culpeper

Joyce (Jocasta) Culpeper (c.1480/1-c.1531) was the mother of Catherine Howard who later became the fifth wife and Queen Consort to King Henry VIII.

Early life

Joyce was born in Oxenhoath, Kent, the first child of Sir Richard Culpeper of Oxen Hoath and his second wife Isabel Worsley. She had a younger sister called Margaret (c.1481) and a younger brother Thomas (1484 - 1492). Her father died in 1484 and her mother married again to John Legh of Stockwell. Joyce was also the sister-in-law of Elizabeth Boleyn and aunt of Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleyn and George Boleyn.

Marriage and Issue

In 1496 she married Ralph Legh (Leigh) and together they had five children:
1) Isabel Leigh (c.1495-7 - ?) She married Sir Edward Baynton. Had issue.
2) Margaret Leigh (after 1496 - ?) She married Thomas Arundel. Had issue.
3) Joyce Leigh (after 1496 - ? ) She married John Stanney. May have had issue
4) John Leigh (after 1496 - ? ) He married Margaret Saunders. May of had issue.
5) Ralph Leigh (after 1496 - before 1563 ) He married Margaret Ireland. Had issue

From Joyce's first marriage came Isabel Leigh, born abt. 1495, who married Sir Edward Baynton, one of the largest landowners in Wiltshire. Their son Henry Baynton married Anne Cavendish, whose father, Sir William, was the ancestor of the Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire. This was through his marriage to Bess of Hardwick. Henry Baynton and Anne Cavendish had four sons, the fourth of which, Ferdinand born 1566, married Jane Weare and produced Anne Baynton, born 1602. Anne Baynton married Christopher Batt, gent., of Wiltshire and they emigrated to Massachusetts in 1638, where he became a prominent merchant in Boston (Lincolnshire). From them came many New England descendants.

Ralph died in c.1509/10, and somtime between c.1513-1515 she married Lord Edmund Howard and together they had 6 or 7 children:
1) Mary Howard (after 1515 - ? ) She married Edmund Trafford.
2) George Howard (after 1515 - ? )
3) Henry Howard (after 1515 - ? ) He married Anne Howard
4) Charles Howard (after 1515 - ? )
5) Catherine Howard (c.1521/5 - 13 Feb 1542) She married Henry VIII of England.

Death

Joyce died around 1531. Her husband Edmund found himself a widower for a second time he had around 10 children all in his keeping and as was a common practice he immediately started farming them out to various relatives.