Mary Fitton - Life After Court

Life After Court

Mary did not seem as abashed by the business as her father, who considered it to be social ruin. Knollys tried to woo her once again, but Mary was firm. She had an affair with the married Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Leveson, who left her £100 after his death in 1605 (his wife had to be committed to the care of her father).

After this she had an affair with Captain Wiliam Polwhele and bore a son that was presumably his. Her mother was scandalized, writing to her other, married, daughter, "such shame as never had a Cheshire woman, worse now than ever. Write no more to me of her." Even after marriage to the father of her child, her mother referred to him as "a very knave". When Polwhele died in 1610, Mary had a son and daughter to take care of.

She married again, to a Pembrokeshire captain named Lougher. He died in 1636. She died in 1647 and was buried in Gawsworth, leaving a little Welsh property to her daughter who had married and had children herself.