| Notes |
- <!--[[Category:Bigod-2 Descendants]] [[Category:Bigod-1 Descendants]] [[Category:Bohun-7 Descendants]] [[Category:Clare-651 Descendants]]
[[Category: Say-76 Descendants]] {{Magna Carta}} <center><br/>{{#profile:Prefix}} {{#profile:RealName}} {{#profile:LastNameAtBirth}} is a descendant of<br/>[[Bohun-7|Henry de Bohun]] and other Magna Carta surety barons</center><br/>
Also [[Bigod-2|Roger le Bigod]], [[Bigod-1|Hugh le Bigod]], [[Clare-651|Richard de Clare]], [[Say-76|Geoffrey de Say]]
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==Biography=='''Cecily Wilford''' was the daughter of [[Wilsford-4|Sir Thomas Wilford]], who lived at Hartridge in the parish of Cranbrook in Kent, and his second wife [[Whetenhall-3|Rose Whetenhall]]. Her date and place of birth are unknown.
Her half-brother was Sir James Wilford and her full brother was Sir Thomas Wilford, who during the persecution of Protestants in England under Queen Mary had been an exile in Zürich, where he knew the widowed Edwin Sandys.
When Mary died and it was safe for Protestants to return, Sandys reached London on 15 Jan 1559, the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and on 19 Feb 1559, in defiance of the law at the time which forbade priests to marry, married Cecily. Technically, therefore, it was not a marriage, with Cecily having no rights as a wife and any children being illegitimate. However, the situation was presumably regularised later. Sir John Bourne, an outspoken critic of "priests’ whores," was still sufficiently impressed by Cecily to describe her as "fair, well nurtured, sober and demure."
Together, they had seven sons and two daughters: Samuel, Edwin, Miles, Margaret, William Thomas, Anne, Henry, and George. Their home was Edwardes Hall at Woodham Ferrers in Essex, which was rebuilt and renamed Edwins Hall. There she lived during her long widowhood after Edwin's death in 1588, sharing the house with her son Miles and being looked after by her granddaughter Bridget.
In her will dated 17 Jan 1611 and proved on 12 Feb 1611 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, she left a Geneva Bible to each of her two daughters and set aside £200 for her funeral and monument. She was buried in the parish church at Woodham Ferrers, where she is shown on her monument in widow’s weeds in a bower of roses. The inscription notes that::"She led a most Christian and holy life, carefully educated her children, wisely governed her family, charitably relieved the poor, and was a true mirror of a Christian matron.... she lived a pure maid twenty-four years; a chaste and loving wife twenty-nine years; a true widow twenty-two years to her last" and died on 5 Feb1611 "at the rising of the sun."
== Sources ==
<references /> * [https://archive.org/stream/visitationofkent00camd#page/148/mode/2up/search/sandys The Visitation of Kent 1619 Page 148: Sandys] * Richardson, Douglas: "Plantagenet Ancestry"', 2nd edn. (2011), 3 vols, [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kjme027UeagC&pg=PA171 Volume 1, page 171], Barne 17.* Richardson, Douglas. "Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families", 5 Vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol I, page 261, Cecily Wilsford.
*Emerson, Kathy Lynn. "A Who’s Who of Tudor Women" *Collinson, Patrick. “Sandys, Edwin (1519?–1588)” in “Oxford Dictionary of National Biography”, 23 September 2004 https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/24649* Information on Wilford family pedigree. The Virginia Historical Society magazine on history and biography, Volume XXIX, Published in 1922. Page 232. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c997/0e6e8f36eb34385feb10b4f73b62d87cbb49.pdf
Author: Elizabeth Viney
Author: Beth Losiewicz
Author: Kay Wilson
Author: Beth Losiewicz
Author: Kay Wilson
Author: Paula Staunton
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My Family History
Abt 1534 - 1611 (77 years)
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