Thomas Southwell (died 1643) explained

Thomas Southwell (1598-1643) was an English landowner.

He was a son of Robert Southwell (died 1598) of Woodrising, Norfolk, and Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, and a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth.

He held the office of Vice-Admiral of Yarmouth.

He sold the family estates to Francis Crane.

Thomas Southwell died in 1643.^[1]

Marriages, infidelity, and children

Southwell married Margaret Fuller on 27 March 1618. Robert Herrick wrote an Epithalamium.^[2] Their children included:

• Elizabeth Southwell (d. 1619), buried at Burnham Overy
• Sarah Southwell, who married William Peacock
• Elizabeth Southwell, who married John Middleton of Hangleton, Sussex
• Frances Southwell, who married William Bemboe
• Penelope Southwell, who married William Levet of Petworth

He came to live apart from his first wife in the company of Mary Eden, the daughter of a Doctor of Laws (presumably Thomas Eden LL.D. of Trinity Hall, Cambridge). Margaret Southwell complained in 1634 about his adultery and relationship with her sister.^[3] He married Margaret Eden in 1637, they had no children.

Notes and References

1. [Francis Blomefield]
2. Tom Cain & Ruth Connolly, The Complete Poetry of Robert Herrick, vol. 2 (Oxford, 2013), pp. 52.
3. Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1635-1636 (London, 1866), p. 212.