Mary Fiennes, Baroness Dacre
Mary Fiennes, Baroness Dacre was the daughter of George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny by his third wife, Lady Mary Stafford, youngest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.
Life
In 1536 she married Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre. Both Lord and Lady Dacre were among the party appointed to meet Anne of Cleves and welcome her to England. In 1558, Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre, assisted at the funeral of Mary I.By her first husband, Lady Dacre was the mother of:
Lord Dacre was convicted of the murder of a gamekeeper and hanged as a common criminal at Tyburn in 1541. The family was stripped of its lands and titles by Henry VIII.
In the following years, Mary battled to have the properties restored on behalf of her children, and on her ascension in 1558 Elizabeth restored the title of Baron Dacre to Mary's second son Gregory, her eldest son Thomas having died at age 15 on 25 August 1553.
Lady Dacre married twice after her first husband's death and had several other children about whom little is known. Her second marriage was to John Wooton or Wotton of St. Clere's manor in North Tuddenham, Norfolk,, whom she wed some time before 18 May 1546. After his death, she married Francis Thursby of Congham in Norfolk. He was the son of Thomas Thursby of Ashwicken, and the grandson of Thomas Thursby, thrice Mayor of King's Lynn, and is reported to have had six additional children.
Lady Dacre took part in the funeral procession of Mary I on 14 December 1558.
A petition made by her son Gregory, Lord Dacre, to Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, mentions that Lady Dacre had in 1559 three living sons and three daughters by her third husband, Francis Thursby of Congham. The author references an MS. petition by her son Gregory, Lord Dacre to Queen Elizabeth I in 1559.
Mary's death date is unclear, with sources giving the earliest possible date as 18 December 1565 and the latest as sometime in 1576.