Elizabeth Wyckes

Marriages and issue

Elizabeth married as her first husband Thomas Williams, a Yeoman of the Guard. There were no known children from this union.

Around 1515, Elizabeth remarried, this time to Thomas Cromwell, who had recently returned to England from Antwerp. Together, Thomas and Elizabeth had three surviving children:

• Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, c. 1520 – 4 July 1551
• Anne Cromwell
• Grace Cromwell

Little is known about Elizabeth Wyckes, or her marriage to Thomas Cromwell; she died early in his career, long before he reached his zenith. During the early years of their marriage, Thomas Cromwell had been a successful merchant and lawyer and there is evidence to suggest that he had taken over the running of Henry Wyckes' business. The home where Elizabeth lived with her husband and mother, and where her children were born, appears to have been both harmonious and prosperous. Cromwell could afford to buy expensive jewellery: "a sapphire ring" and "a gold bracelet with a jacinth worth £80." His friends were merchants and scholars and he and his wife regularly entertained them and corresponded with them. Elizabeth and her mother played their part in this circle of friends. One wrote asking for the good housewife "to send another plaster for his knee" and another desired to be commended "to your mother, after you my most singular good friend." The one surviving letter from Thomas to his wife suggests a normal, happy marriage. He also sent her a doe that he had downed while hunting.

Elizabeth Wykes was the daughter of Henry Wykes of Putney, Surrey, a shearman who later became a gentleman usher to Henry VIII. She and her husband Thomas Cromwell lived in Austin Friars, London. Before her death in Stepney, her husband had attracted the attention of Cardinal Wolsey and was rapidly making a name for himself in court circles. After her death, her mother, by then Mrs. Pryor, lived in Cromwell's house with her second husband for several more years.