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Penelope (Rich) Clifton (bef. 1592 - 1613)

Penelope Clifton formerly Rich
Born before in London, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married about Dec 1612 (to 26 Oct 1613) [location unknown]
Mother of
Died after age 21 [location unknown]
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jason Clark private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 27 Mar 2016
This page has been accessed 853 times.
European Aristocracy
Penelope Rich was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

Penelope Rich was daughter of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, [1] and his wife, Penelope Devereux.[2] She was baptised at St Clement Danes in Westminster on the 30th of March 1592. [3]

By a marriage settlement dated December 1612, and a dowry of £5,000 she married Sir Gervase Clifton, [2] son of George Clifton of Clifton-on-Trent, and his wife, Winifred Thorold. [1] They were parents of a son, Gervase, [4] before Penelope died on the 26th of October 1613. [1] She was buried at Clifton in Nottinghamshire. [2]

Research note

Without firm sourcing Thepeeerage.com names Penelope as Lady Penelope Blount, daughter of Charles Blount Earl of Devonshire. [5] Thepeerage cites Wikipedia which as of 5 June 2023 says Penelope Rich, daughter of Richard Rich, Earl of Warwick. [6]

Lady Penelope's mother, Penelope Devereux, admitted to a relationship with Blount whilst still married to Lord Rich. [7]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 History of Parliament online 1604-1629: CLIFTON, Sir Gervase, 1st Bt. (1587-1666), of Clifton-on-Trent, Notts
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Warwick, Earl of (E, 1618 - 1759) Cracroft's Peerage
  3. Westminster, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials (St Clement Danes Baptisms 30 Mar 1592 Penelope Riche ye daughter of ye H Lord Riche)
  4. Jacks, Leonard. The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families (W. and A.S. Bradshaw, Nottingham, 1881) Page 38
  5. The Peerage: Lady Penelope Rich, F, #477520, d. 26 October 1613 [1]
  6. Wikipedia: Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet
  7. Wikipedia: Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick




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Comments: 1

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While I am not an expert in this family, and just stumbled across this profile, I think -- at first glance -- we have multiple problems with this profile and family group. In no particular order:
  • This woman who m. Clifton is actually Penelope Blount not Penelope Rich. The scandal is well documented.
  • She and ~4 of her Blount siblings were merely "alias Rich" as her mother, Penelope Devereux, was for some time cuckolding her husband with her lover Blount; but she (and those ~4 full siblings) were not biologically fathered by Rich despite for years being legally and socially called Riches.
  • She has ~4 half-siblings presumably fathered by Rich.
  • Rich who is presently connected as this profile's father is in fact merely her mother's ex-husband.
  • The mother, Penelope Devereux remarried (which was illegal) after divorce for adultery (which was illegal) without permission of church (which was illegal) or crown (which was illegal), to her lover Blount, father of some of her children. The remarriage was kept secret for a while.
  • It may be the case the affected children presently LNAB'd on WikiTree as Rich, should be changed to Blount and the Rich profiles merged away. Alternately, perhaps they should remain LNAB Rich but be given the alternate/other/present last name Blount too. Or this make be a good use of the nickname field (as with aristocratic titles to enter a custom "Alias Rich" or similar, as per the court records?

Thus, I think:

  1. The presently connected father (Rich) is false.
  2. The presently published biography is misleading.
  3. The LNAB Rich, is paradoxically historically correct while being genealogically false; as her mother's adultery was known in their lifetimes (but not at the birth and naming of the daughter).
  4. This combination of problems above is especially confusing to readers and viewers of pedigree connections (who often don't see the prose biography) and I suggest the profile manager or a special project team fix it. If nobody wants to I can help, but I don't have much time.
  5. This may be a policy problem meriting escalation to G2G for review and decisioning? Option 1) Her LNAB should be changed from Rich to Blount, to correctly place her in her biological father's family tree, rather than wrongly connecting her to her mother's ex-husband who divorced for this exact reason... even though that would also be historically inaccurate as she was not Last Name At Birth Blount... but this is probably the least-bad option, and something must be done; Option 2) Her LNAB should remain Rich as it was in history, but then the Other Name should be Blount (and the married surname of course Clifton) but she should be disconnected from Rich and connected to Blount, despite keeping the LNAB Rich. This presumably requires a policy exception approval from G2G or TBD project leader?
  6. I expect this has come up before with notables in medieval England and other places. Overt adultery and complex covert bastardry later revealed was relatively common with courtiers; and for WikiTree "euro aristo" profiles with this type of court cases, executed relatives, super-wealthy inheritances etc there should be plenty of written records and no need for argument over historical facts-- only what to do about it here. If we don't already have a policy or rule dealing with Exceptions-To-The-Rule, this is a canonical example around which to build and implement a new policy so we don't need to reinvent the wheel hundreds of times for other family groups with similar scandals.
  7. This profile should probably be project protected. She is easily confused for her mother as they validly have the same name twice.
  8. The mother's profile should probably be project protected for multiple different reasons, to include the naming problems, but also the Essex Rebellion, and distinctly her involvement or proximity to the Shakespeare authorship controversy stuff. Which can cause edit wars and online vitriol.
posted by Isaac Taylor
edited by Isaac Taylor

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