Sunday, March 14, 2010

Question from Mary - Children of Thomas Wolsey

I am curious about Thomas Wolsey. I believe he had 2 children and was wondering what became of them and are there any descendants living today.

2 comments:

tudor fanatic said...

According to a genealogy site that I have found (I've never used it before so I don't know how accurate it is) there is at least one living descendant alive today, apparently called Juanita Kretzer (unusual name) who lives somewhere in America. I believe she is a descendant of Wolsey's son, Thomas Wynter. There is little record of what either of Wolsey's children got up to after their father's downfall, although Wynter apparently spent time in Paris with his tutor before later begging Cromwell for £100. One thing I can't understand is where did the surnames of Wolsey's children come from? They both appear to have had different names from not only both parents and their later stepfathers, but also from each other (Wolsey's daughter was named Dorothy Clancey). Does anyone know why this is, and who came up with the surnames?

Alia said...

I read that he and his illegal wife/mistress either made up the surname 'Wynter', or that Wynter was his wife's last name. He called his wife Mistress Wynter, his son Thomas Wynter, and his daughter Dorothy Wynter. Dorothy was adopted by John Clancey (hence the name Clancey in Tudor Fanatic's response) and later became a nun Shaftesbury Abby.

His wife was possibly Elizabeth, daughter of John Wynter of Cardington, or Joan Larke or Wynter.

Hope this helped :)