John Danvers - Marriages and Family

Marriages and Family

In 1608 he married Magdalen Herbert, widow of Richard Herbert, and mother of ten children, including George Herbert the poet, and Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. She died in 1627. On 10 July 1628, a year after the death of his first wife, Danvers, then aged 40, married Elizabeth (b. 1604), daughter of the late Ambrose Dauntsey, and granddaughter of Sir John Dauntsey. He lost his second wife, by whom he had several children, on 9 July 1636. Danvers married a third time at Chelsea, on 6 January 1649, his wife being Grace Hewett, and he had by her a son, John (b. 10 August 1650).

His family by his second wife consisted of Henry (b. 5 December 1633), who inherited much of his uncle Henry's property, and died before his father in November 1654, when Thomas Fuller is stated to have preached the funeral sermon; Charles, who died in infancy; Elizabeth (b. 1 May 1629), who married Robert Danvers, self-styled Viscount Purbeck; and Mary, who died in infancy.

Danvers' elder brothers were Charles Danvers and Henry Danvers. His brother Henry, who became Lord Danby was a royalist, and died early in 1644; he left his property to his sister Lady Catherine Gargrave, wife of Sir Richard Gargrave, High Sheriff of Yorkshire. Still in pecuniary difficulties, Danvers resisted this disposition of his brother's property, and his influence with the parliamentary majority led the House of Commons to pass a resolution declaring that he had been deprived of his brother's estate 'for his affection and adhering to the parliament' (14 June 1644), and that Danvers's eldest son Henry was entitled to the property. The son Henry bequeathed the estate in his power to his niece Ann (his sister Elizabeth's daughter), who married Sir Henry Lee 3rd Baron of the Lee Baronets of Ditchley in 1655, and had a daughter, Eleanor, wife of James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon. Lord Abingdon thus ultimately came into possession of the property at Chelsea.