Mary Fiennes, Baroness Dacre

Mary Fiennes, Baroness Dacre (1524 – after 1565) was the daughter of George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny by his third wife, Lady Mary Stafford, youngest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham.

Life

In 1536 she married Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre (c. 1515–1541). Both Lord and Lady Dacre were among the party appointed to meet Anne of Cleves and welcome her to England. In 1558, Mary Neville Fiennes, Lady Dacre, assisted at the funeral of Mary I. and on her ascension in 1558 Elizabeth restored the title of Baron Dacre to Mary's second son Gregory, her eldest son Thomas having died at age 15 on 25 August 1553.

A petition made by her son Gregory, Lord Dacre, to Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, mentions that Lady Dacre had in 1559 three living sons and three daughters by her third husband, Francis Thursby of Congham. The author references an MS. petition by her son Gregory, Lord Dacre to Queen Elizabeth I in 1559.

Mary's death date is unclear, with sources giving the earliest possible date as 18 December 1565 and the latest as sometime in 1576.

Ancestry