Thomas Cromwell’s illegitimate daughter Jane

Thomas Cromwell and his daughter Grace
 in "Wolf Hall"

Thomas Cromwell’s two known daughters, Anne and Grace, died from the fatal infectious fever called “the sweating sickness” that swept through England in 1528. However, in his History of the Lives and Actions of Thomas Cromwell, written c. 1761, Arthur Collins made a reference to Thomas Cromwell’s son Gregory “and a daughter Jane”.[1] In her recent biography of Thomas Cromwell, historian Tracy Borman wrote this about Jane:

“Little is known about her, except that she married William Hough of Leighton in Wirral, Cheshire, sometime between 1535 and 1540. Girls were often married as young as twelve years old, but even if the latter date for Jane’s marriage is accepted, she must have been conceived while Cromwell’s wife was still alive. Jane’s husband, a staunch Catholic, was the son of Richard Hough, who was Cromwell’s agent in Cheshire from 1534 to 1540. It is therefore likely that Cromwell arranged their marriage, which was a good one for a girl of Jane’s obscure origins. But he would arguably have performed this favour for any loyal servant, and there is little other than the girl’s surname to suggest that she might have been his daughter.” [2]

There’s also a curious reference to a daughter in a letter to Cromwell from his colleague, Richard Southwell, in 1537. Southwell wrote that “I saw a child of my Lady your daughter’s at a nunnery in Yorkshire”. [3] Sadly, nothing more is known about her. 

Sources:

[1] Michael Everett, The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, p. 197.

[2] Tracy Borman, Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant, Kindle edition.

[3] Michael Everett, The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, p. 197.