Isabella (Lawson) Chicheley (abt. 1642 - 1709)

Descendants

Biography

Isabella Lawson was the eldest daughter of John Lawson and his wife, Isabell Jefferson. Isabella grew up against the backdrop of the English Civil War on at least one occasion having to flee with her mother and sisters while her anabaptist, republican father served parliament both on land and at sea. ^[1] Even so when it was clear that the republican experiment had failed John Lawson threw in his lot with Monk and Montagu. He was vice-admiral of the fleet which went to Holland to receive Charles II as King ^[1] and on 29 May 1660 the new King arrived in London.

When her father was knighted on 24 September 1660 ^[2] it secured the family's place in the new society.

Samuel Pepys thought Isabella was pretty but proud. It appears that her father turned down William Berkeley ^[3] who had come seeking her hand and around 1664 she was married to Daniel Norton of Southwick in Hampshire, son of the MP, Richard Norton and his first wife, Anne Erle. Pepys says that her father provided her with a dowry of £6000 which he could not afford.^[3] With Daniel Isabella had, about 1666, a son, Richard, before her husband's early death. ^[4]

It was only about a year later that she married again. Her second husband was Sir John Chicheley, son of Thomas Chicheley and his wife, Sarah Russell.^[5] They were parents of 5 sons, 2 of whom died in John's lifetime, and 2 daughters.^[5]

John died on 20 March 1691 and was buried at St. Giles in the Fields, ^[5]Isabella died 29 November 1709.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, John (d.1665)
2. ↑ The Knights of England. A complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors, incorporating a complete list of knights bachelors dubbed in Ireland by Shaw, William Arthur, 1865-1943; Burtchaell, George Dames, 1853-1921 Page 231
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Diary of Samuel Pepys 6 July 1665. "...the rashness of Sir John Lawson, for breeding up his daughter so high and proud, refusing a man of great interest, Sir W. Barkeley, to match her with a melancholy fellow Colonell Norton's son, of no interest nor good nature nor generosity at all, giving her £6,000, when the other would have taken her with two; when he himself knew that he was not worth the money himself in all the world, he did give her that portion, and is since dead, and left his wife and two daughters beggars, and the other is gone away with £6,000 and no content in it, though the ill qualities of her father-in-law and husband, who, it seems, though a pretty woman, contracted for her as if he had been buying a horse; and, worst of all, is now of no use to serve the mother and two little sisters in any stead at Court, whereas the other might have done what he would for her: so here is an end of this family's pride....."
4. ↑ History of Parliament online 1690-1715: NORTON, Richard II (c.1666-1732), of Southwick, Hants
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3} History of Parliament online 1660-1690: CHICHELEY, Sir John (c.1640-91), of Southampton Square, Bloomsbury, Mdx