Lady Katherine Talbot (1545-1596)

1st Cousin 14 times removed of Paul Borrow-Longain

Katherine Petre was born on the 28th April 1545 to Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall and his second wife Anne Browne. Katherine was the eldest daughter.

Music played a part in Petre family life. Sir William’s children were taught to play an instrument. Katherine was taught to play the virginals by Mary Persey, a gentlewoman in Lady Petre’s service.

Her brother, John, later Lord Petre 1st Baron of Writtle learned to play the lute. A number of educated men and women were employed by the Petre family to provide education to the children.

On the 18th August 1561, Katherine married Sir John Talbot of Grafton, the son of Sir John Talbot also of Grafton, Worcestershire, and of Albrighton, Shropshire who had died in 1555. As Sir William Petre’s ward, John Talbot and Katherine would have known each other for some years prior to marriage. Talbot had become a ward of Sir William after his father’s death.

Katherine and John Talbot’s wedding took place at Ingatestone Hall. Katherine’s bridal clothes cost her father a considerable sum, £170 in total. Sir William Petre’s accounts also show that musicians were hired to play for four whole days to celebrate the occasion.

During their marriage, Katherine gave birth to four surviving children. She had two daughters: Anne and Gertrude, and two sons: George Talbot, 9th Earl of Shrewsbury, a Catholic priest and John Talbot of Longford, Shropshire. Three of the children were believed to have been born in Essex at Ingatestone Hall.

Katherine’s husband became a well-known recusant; a Catholic who did not conform to the state’s Anglican faith. In 1580 he was arrested on account of he and Katherine being spotted with a Shropshire-born Catholic priest in Smithfield, London. A man named Sledd informed on Sir John and the priest, Blessed Robert Johnson. Whilst the accusation was that the priest was Sir John Talbot’s priest, Fr. Johnson was believed by some to be Katherine’s priest. Fr. Johnson was also arrested, subjected to inquisition and tortured. He was sentenced to a grisly death in 1582 with two other priests. All three priests were beatified as martyrs in the 1880s.

Katherine was parted from her husband on a number of occasions from 1580 onwards as Sir John Talbot spent periods of time imprisoned or confined due to recusancy. Both Katherine and her husband’s health suffered. Katherine died aged 50 on the 27th February 1596 at Albrighton, Shropshire at the Talbot’s family home.