{"id":2573,"date":"2025-05-27T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/materialcultureofwills\/?p=2573"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:25:10","slug":"will-of-the-month-a-tudor-lady-in-waiting-and-her-missing-book-of-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/materialcultureofwills\/2025\/05\/27\/will-of-the-month-a-tudor-lady-in-waiting-and-her-missing-book-of-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Will of the Month: A Tudor Lady-in-Waiting and her missing \u2018Book of Hours\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Emily Vine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

**This will inspired a Chris Hoban song! Read his lyrics at the end of the post.**<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month\u2019s post examines the will of Margaret \u2018Pennington\u2019 Cooke (d. 1552), a widow of Hornchurch in Essex. Margaret Cooke moved in prominent circles and had royal connections \u2013 she was a lady-in-waiting to both Catherine of Aragon and her daughter princess Mary (Margaret served her before she was crowned Mary I).[1]<\/a> Her meticulous will is full of references to members of the royal court, and also rich in details of the objects that made up her material world.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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A tapestry in the Flemish style of Catherine of Aragon and her ladies in waiting with her husband Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. <\/em>https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/d\/dc\/ArthurCatherine.jpg<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u2018<\/strong>fellowes in service\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret had married into the prominent Cooke family of Gidea Park and the Royal liberty of Havering-atte-Bower. Havering Palace had been owned by Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, while the princesses Mary and Elizabeth spent time at Henry VIII\u2019s nearby Pyrgo Palace.[2]<\/a> When Margaret made her will in 1550, Edward VI was still on the throne. She left \u2018unto the most excellent princess\u2019 (Mary) \u2018for a Remembrannce of my good will and service a Ringe of golde with a Turkes and five olde soverans of gold most humble beseching her good grace to Remember in her prayers to god the soule of me now her poor beadwoman\u2019.[3]<\/a> The ring of gold with the turquoise, and the gold sovereigns (coins) were specifically left with the intention that Princess Mary would remember and pray for her former lady-in-waiting. While a \u2018beadwoman\u2019 was someone who prayed \u2018for the soul or spiritual welfare of another\u2019, its usage here suggests Margaret\u2019s request of reciprocal prayers. The term \u2018beadsman\/beadswoman\u2019 could also be used in a similar manner to the phrase \u2018your humble servant\u2019.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret Cooke made several bequests to her \u2018fellowes in service\u2019 \u2013 princess Mary\u2019s other ladies-in-waiting – including \u2018mother Jernyngham\u2019, Anne Basset, and Mabel Browne. They each received \u2018one old Angell\u2019 (a gold coin featuring a picture of the archangel Michael) \u2018for a poore token of remembrance\u2019. Margaret\u2019s executors were Robert Rochester, \u2018Comptroller\u2019 of the royal household, and the prominent solicitor William Cordell. For their pains they received bequests including \u2018a spanyshe bowle a carpet for a borde with the castell in the mydds\u2019 (presumably a carpet embroidered with a picture of a castle) and \u2018my Lytle Clock\u2019. This ambiguous spelling hints at some of the problems of using wills to uncover details of material objects. Though unusual, \u2018well-off subjects\u2019 did own clocks and timepieces in the sixteenth century, but this reference could also be a variant spelling of \u2018cloak\u2019.[5]<\/a> While some objects mentioned in wills, such as the \u2018old Angells\u2019, are easily identifiable from their descriptions, others can be more uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018the pewe where I use to knele\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the level of description in Margaret Cooke\u2019s will that ensures it is an interesting document for reasons beyond the testator\u2019s royal connections. Her descriptions of places and objects provide an insight into the daily routines of her household. When discussing her burial, she asked that her body \u2018be buryed within the Chapell of saynt Edwarde there in our lady Chappell before the pewe where I use to knele\u2019. Her intended permanent resting place was adjacent to the location of her regular prayers. Like one of the other sixteenth-century testators<\/a> featured in this blog, Margaret had purchased her tombstone a couple of years before her death. She wished that \u2018the stone whiche I have alredye bought be layde upon my grave with my picture and my late husbands and our severall Armes graven thereupon\u2019. This stone appears to have been a precursor to a later, grander Cooke family memorial which still stands in the Church of St Edward the Confessor, Romford. It was built for Margaret\u2019s stepson, Sir Anthony Cooke (d.1576), a humanist who had been a tutor to Edward VI.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Cooke Memorial at the Church of St Edward the Confessor, Romford https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Cooke_Memorial_at_the_Church_of_St_Edward_the_Confessor,_Romford.jpg<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret left the same stepson \u2018all my hanginges of Tappistrie that were wont to hange in my haull in the parlor and in my Chamber at the haull ende and my hoope of gold that was my wedding Ringe\u2019. This bequest gives a sense of the layout and decoration of Margaret\u2019s home, as well as of the jewellery she habitually wore. Similarly, she left to a London Physician, Mr Westcote, \u2018my Signet of golde graven with the picture of Seynt John Baptist the wch I use to ware upon one of my fyngers\u2019. Other bequests to her \u2018old servinte Johanne Myddleton\u2019 detailed \u2018my fetherbedd that I use to lye upon at my said house in Romeforthe [\u2026] Also my least Salt of sylver and gilt that I was accustomed daylie to use at my saide house by Romforthe\u2019. In each bequest Margaret set out how, when, or where she interacted with her household objects, or how, where, when or where she wore her personal jewellery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Margaret had described herself as \u2018in service\u2019 to princess Mary, the role of Lady-in-Waiting was largely one of companionship. Yet Margaret appeared relatively generous in the bequests to her own servants \u2013 ensuring that they would be kept in board and lodging for a month after her death, and their wages paid for a whole year. She also made specific bequests that provide a glimpse into the living conditions of individual servants: John Hethe received \u2018one of my kyen\u2019 (a cow) and \u2018the mattras that he lyeth upon in my house w[ith] the coverlet bolster and blankettes that dothe belonge unto the said bedd and a payre of course shetes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A version of Germain Hardouyn’s book of hours in the collection of The Met Museum – similar to the inscribed book in the Morgan Library https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/468941<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Absent bequests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret Cooke\u2019s will is extremely detailed in its discussion of possessions that were integrated into daily life \u2013 the rings that she wore on her fingers, the silver gilt salt she used very day, the beds, sheets, and blankets that her servants slept in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being such a meticulous record of material objects, one of Margaret Cooke\u2019s most important possessions does not feature in her will. In the Morgan Library in New York is a 1528 \u2018Book of Hours\u2019<\/a> \u2013 an illuminated devotional text – that was owned by Catherine of Aragon. The book\u2019s inscription confirms that it had been gifted to Margaret: \u2018Thys boke was good quen[e] kat[er]in boke and she gave yt to [Mar]ge Coke her woman and [she] gave yt Betryce Ogle hyr dowghter\u2019.[6]<\/a> Beatrix Cooke Ogle, Margaret\u2019s stepdaughter, is named in her will, but the only bequest made at this point was of \u2018a doble docate\u2019 (a coin). It is probable that this precious book was gifted to Margaret\u2019s stepdaughter during her lifetime, and before she came to make her will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tudor wills often act as a written record of objects that have not survived to the twenty-first century. It is a useful reminder to also consider surviving objects that have a clear provenance, but which were not mentioned in a will, and which may not have left a paper trail. So much of gifting was informal or conducted during an individual\u2019s lifetime: possessions regularly changed hands, and goods owned or bequeathed at the end of life can only ever be a snapshot of one moment in time. Wills like Margaret Cooke\u2019s can provide fascinating glimpses into Tudor households, but entire facets of an individual\u2019s material life may have been obscured by ambiguous spelling or descriptions – was it a \u2018clock\u2019 or a \u2018cloak\u2019 that she left to her executor? – or may have slipped out of the paper records altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n