Barbara (Gamage) Sidney (1563 - 1621)

Born 1563 in Coity Castle, Glamorgan, Wales

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Sidney MP — married 23 Sep 1584 in St. Donat's Castle, Glamorgan, Wales

Descendants

Died 24 May 1621 at about age 58 in Penshurst, Kent, England

Barbara (Gamage) Sidney is Notable.

Biography

Barbara was born in 1563. Barbara Gamage ... She passed away in 1821. ^[1]

Mr. Gamage, a man of Norman descent and of large possessions in Glamorganshire. The offspring of this marriage, John Gamage, died young, leaving behind him Barbara, an only daughter, the heiress of all his estates. Barbara, it is said, was still more remarkable for her beauty than her riches, so that her hand was sought eagerly by numerous suiters, among whom was Philip Sidney's younger brother Robert, in whose behalf Raleigh was induced to interest himself with his cousin. To render success in negotiations more sure, Walsingham directed the guardian to send up Barbara to London forthwith, that she might be under the eye of her nearest relatives, [George Carey] the Lord Hunsdon and Mr. Raleigh." (citing Stradling Correspondence, pg. 23). Thus, Barbara Gamage, the granddaughter and heiress of Robert and Joan Gamage, is known to have been near related to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose mother Katherine was a daughter of Sir Philip Champernoun, of Modbury, Devon.

Robert Gamage's wife's maiden name is further attested in a pedigree prepared in 1608 by Robert and Joan's granddaughter, Barbara Gamage, Countess of Leicester, which pedigree identifies Robert's wife's name as "Joan Champernoun of Devonshire" (see Hannay et al. Domestic Politics and Family Absence (2005): 9). Vivian, Vis. of Devon 1531, 1564 & 1620 (1895): 162 confirms that Sir Philip Champernoun had a daughter named Joan, but states that Joan married Sir Anthony Denny [see DENNY 16], not Robert Gamage, Esq. Since the existence of Joan Champernoun, wife of Sir Anthony Denny, can be readily confirmed from other sources [see ODBN sub Sir Anthony Denny], it seems apparent that Sir Philip Champernoun had two daughters named Joan (or Jane), one who married Sir Anthony Denny, and the other who married Robert Gamage, Esq.

In 1595 Barbara was attended twice a day in her pregnancy by Dr Lancelot Browne. By the 1st of December she was "full of the measles" and the doctor stayed the night with her. She was delivered of a son, Robert, at 9pm. ^[2]

Sources

• Madeleine Gray, ‘Sidney , Barbara, countess of Leicester (c.1559–1621)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Sept 2017. This is a subscription site but access is free of charge to readers of British libraries whose library subscribes.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Sidney,_Countess_of_Leicester

• http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.history.medieval/2007-08/msg00052.html

1. ↑ First-hand information as remembered by Eric Daly, Monday, October 13, 2014. Replace this citation if there is another source.
2. ↑ John Bennell, ‘Browne, Lancelot (d. 1605)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Sept 2017. This is a subscription site but access is free of charge to readers of British libraries whose library subscribes.