Grant Menzies

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Grant Menzies has posted three annotations/comments since 25 March 2018.

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About Maj. Francis Willoughby

Grant Menzies  •  Link

Thanks very much, San Diego Sarah, for posting this rich seam of information about my ancestor Francis Willoughby. Much of what I have is in print and laborious to transfer; since 2018 when I last visited this page, I’ve been under contract for four books, which as you may know eat up enormous amounts of time and energy. So thanks again for sharing this material on Francis with the group. (I have equally vast data on wife Margaret, née Locke of Wimbledon, and wish I had more time to review it fully.)

About Maj. Francis Willoughby

Grant Menzies  •  Link

Francis Willoughby's wife, an heiress born Margaret Locke of Wimbledon, was at their marriage the young widow of a London merchant called Daniel Taylor, and brought a great deal of furniture, hangings, carpets, etc. as her dower. Pepys probably liked these silk-fringed things. Francis and Margaret were my 10th great-grandparents and I have their inventories, though none of their finery, which was scattered a few centuries ago. One object of Margaret's that must have been in the Seething Lane house, a red velvet jewel trunk, made its way with Francis and Margaret to Massachusetts, and was handed down through descendants in Connecticut, last being listed in the mid-1700s.

About Maj. Francis Willoughby

Grant Menzies  •  Link

Maj. Francis Willoughby was my 10th great-grandfather, and from my papers I can add a few more facts. He was born in 1613 in Portsmouth, son of Col. William Willoughby (whose gravestone can be seen today in Portsmouth Cathedral). He served as selectman in Charlestown, MA from 1640-47, was a member of the colonial assembly for several sessions. He returned to England in 1651, was appointed Commissioner of the Navy at Portsmouth (as was his father before him), and was elected MP from Portsmouth to the protectorate parliament (1659). In 1658 he married a young wealthy widow, Margaret Taylor, née Locke (1634-1683), a great-granddaughter of Sir William Lok, mercer to King Henry VIII. They left for his estate in the Massachusetts Colony upon the restoration of the monarchy. There, Willoughby was appointed Deputy Governor. Interestingly, his daughter Susanna Willoughby married the son of a staunch royalist, the Boston businessman and judge, Simon Lynde, whose mother had had him presented to Charles I. Francis Willoughby died on April 3, 1671.