Francis Throckmorton

Sir Francis Throckmorton (155410 July 1584) was a conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England in the Throckmorton Plot. Early Life He was the son of Sir John Throckmorton, Queen Mary's principal legal counsel, who was himself the seventh out of eight sons of Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court, and Margery Puttenham, daughter of Robert Puttenham and sister of George Puttenham. He was a nephew of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, one of Elizabeth's diplomats, who had held the post of Chief Justice of Chester but was removed in 1579, a year before his death. His paternal grandmother, Hon. Katherine Vaux, daughter of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden, was the paternal aunt of the Protestant queen consort of King Henry VIII, Catherine Parr. In 1567, Throckmorton was betrothed to Anne Sutton, heir to the manors of Sedgely, Himley and Swinford in Staffordshire, and daughter of Sir Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and Katherine Brydges, who had been one of Queen Mary the I's Gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber, herself the daughter of John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos, who was Lieutenant of the Tower of London during the reign of Mary I. The year following the betrothal, Anne, who would have been about 11 or 12, went to Ripford in Worcestershire to be brought up by Throckmorton's mother, Margery. The marriage bond is dated July 1571, though no parish register entry survives. The couple had a son, John, who is mentioned in his grandmother Margery's will of 1591.