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William Cavendish (courtier)

Sir William Cavendish MP (c. 1505 – 25 October 1557) was an English politician, knight and courtier.[1] Cavendish held public office and accumulated a considerable fortune, and became one of Thomas Cromwell's "visitors of the monasteries" during the dissolution of the monasteries. He was MP for Thirsk in 1547.[2] In 1547 he married Bess of Hardwick, and the couple began the construction of Chatsworth House in 1552, a project which would not be completed until after his death. His second son William Cavendish (1552–1626) became the first Earl of Devonshire, purchasing his title from the impecunious King James I.

Sir
William Cavendish
MP

c. 1505

25 October 1557

English

Politician, knight, courtier

Sir

16 (including William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire, Elizabeth Stuart, Countess of Lennox, and Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury)

Thomas Cavendish
Alice Smith

Sir John Cavendish (great-grandfather)

Early life[edit]

He was the younger son of Thomas Cavendish (1472–1524), who was a senior financial official, the "clerk of the pipe", in the Court of Exchequer, and his wife, Alice Smith of Padbrook Hall.[1] He was the great-great-great-grandson of Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle inherited the family name of Cavendish.[1]

Catherine, who married Thomas Brooke, son of Lord Cobham

Mary (died after 1547)

Ann, who married Sir Henry Boynton in 1561

Margaret, died in 1540

William Cavendish had a total of 16 children by three different wives. His first wife was Margaret Bostock; they had five children, but only three daughters survived:


In 1542, he was married to Elizabeth Parker; she had three children, none of whom survived. She died after giving birth to a stillborn daughter in 1546.


In 1547, he married Bess of Hardwick.[4] He sold his property in Suffolk and moved to Bess's native county of Derbyshire. He purchased the Chatsworth estate in 1549 and the couple began to build Chatsworth House in 1552.[5]


In the ten years before he died, they had eight children, six of whom survived infancy:

Pearson, John, The Serpent and the Stag, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983.

Brodhurst, F. (1907). "Sir William Cavendish 1557." Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, 29, pp. 81–102. Google Books

Cavendish, Sir William (c.1505-57), of Northaw, Herts. and Chatsworth, Derbys." HOP.

Cox, J.C. (1881). The Chronicles of the Collegiate Church Or Free Chapel of All Saints, Derby, pp. 130. Bemrose & Sons. Google Books

"Duke of Devonshire," (1790). The Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland, I, pp. 51–52. London. Google Books

Lee, S. (1887). Cavendish, William (1505?-1557) (DNB00). WikiSource.org

Lewis, M. (n.d.). "Sir William Cavendish, Burgess of Thirsk, Treasurer of the Chamber of King Henry VIII #37832, b. circa 1505, d. 25 Oct 1557," citing ; Cokayne; Burke. ORTNCA. Web.[30]

Richardson

, ed. (1911). "Cavendish, Sir William" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 581.

Chisholm, Hugh