Margaret Haute

MARGARET WOOD (d.September 18, 1567)

Margaret Wood was the daughter of Oliver Wood of Collingtree, Northamptonshire (d.1521/2) and Joanna Cantelupe. Her first husband was Sir Walter Mantell of Horton Priory, Kent (d.1529), by whom she had Anne, Eleanor, John (1515-x.June 28, 1541), Walter (1517-x.May 1, 1554), Margaret (d. July 24, 1541), Mary, Thomas (July 25,1528-May 1588), Dorothy, and possibly Agnes. Mantell's will was dated August 31, 1523 and proved August 4, 1529. Her second husband was Sir William Hawte or Haute of Bishopsbourne, Kent (d.1539), whose daughter Jane married Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger. In about 1540, she married Sir James Hales of the Dungeon, Canterbury, Kent (c.1495-August 14, 1554), a judge. Her son Walter married his daughter Jane (or Mary) Hales. Margaret was known for her "good housekeeping." As Lady Hales, she brought up her grandson Barnaby Googe (1540-1594) after his mother died and her grandson, Matthew Mantell (d.1589), after his father was executed for treason. Her eldest son, John, was executed for murdering a park keeper. Her third husband was imprisoned for a decision at the assizes concerning religion. He recanted, but then tried to kill himself by slitting his veins with a penknife. After he had recovered, he was released by royal command in April 1554 but later committed suicide by drowning himself while staying with his nephew at Thanington, Kent. Since suicide was a felony, his goods, chattels, and leases were forfeit to the Crown, including those he had acquired through his marriage to Margaret. She retained lands that had been settled on her and estates inherited from her father, which she held in her own right. In 1558, she brought suit against Cyriac Petit to recover an indenture of lease of Graveney Marsh. This lease had been made to her husband and herself in 1551, to commence in 1560. According to the entry on Hales in the Oxford DNB, Margaret began a second lawsuit in 1560, claiming that the lease was hers by survivorship. The case was decided in 1562 in favor of Petit, who held the title from King Edward. Hales vs. Petit became notorious because it debated the question of whether the felony of suicide occurred during the lifetime of the deceased or after his death. The case was included in Les commentaries, ou, Les reportes de Edmund Plowden (1571) and is generally believed to have inspired part of the gravedigger scene in Hamlet. Margaret made her will in 1567. She is buried in the south or Woods chancel of St. Mildred's Church in Canterbury, where there is a monument but no effigy. There is an Inquisition Post mortem dated March 18, 1568 which gives her date of death as September 18, 1567, but the History of Parliament entry for her grandson, Matthew Mantell, says she died in 1573 and the Oxford DNB says it was 1577. The will of her stepson, Humphrey Hales, dated August 28, 1568, indicates that she was still living on that date. I have no explanation for this discrepancy.

A Who’s Who of Tudor Women

http://www.kateemersonhistoricals.com/TudorWomenWi-Z.htm

Many trees show Margaret Wood as mother of James Hales' children.

However: Margaret Wood was married to her first husband Sir Walter Mantell until his death in 1529, and married to her second husband Sir William Hawte or Haute until his death in 1539. Her son Walter Mantell married James Hales' daughter Jane.