Isabel Leigh

Isabel was the first child of Joyce Culpeper and Sir Ralph Leigh. She had two younger sisters and two younger brothers:

• Margaret Leigh (born c. 1500); married a man surnamed Rice.
• Joyce Leigh (born c. 1504); married John Stanney. May have had issue.
• John Leigh (born c. 1502); married Elizabeth, surname unknown. Had issue.
• Ralph Leigh (born c. 1498; died c. 1561); married Margaret Ireland. Had issue.

Ralph died c. 1509/1510 and Isabel's mother remarried to Lord Edmund Howard c. 1513/1515. They had six children.[1]

• Margaret Howard (c. 1515 – 10 Oct 1572); married Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle, son of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne and Lady Eleanor Grey. Had issue.
• Mary Howard (born after 1515); married Edmund Trafford.
• Henry Howard (born after 1515); married Anne Howard.
• Charles Howard (born after 1515).
• George Howard (c. 1519 – 1580).
• Catherine Howard (c. 1524 – 13 Feb 1542); married Henry VIII of England.

She married Sir Edward Bayntun or Baynton, of Bromham, Wiltshire, on 18 January 1531.[2] They had three children.

• Henry Baynton (b. c 1536). Married Anne Cavendish. Had issue.
• Francis Baynton (b. 1537)
• Anne Baynton (d. young)

After Edward's death in 1544, Isabel married Sir James Stumpe of Malmesbury, Wiltshire.[1] James had been her step-daughter Bridget's husband, and Isabel and James married after Bridget died in 1545. James died in 1563.

Isabel married Thomas Stafford about 1565.[3]

The leases of many manors such as Paddington, Temple Rockley, and Chisbury were given to Edward Baynton during his marriage to Isabel.[4] Some leases were given to Isabel after Edward Baynton's death, and they passed on to their son Henry.[4] On New Year's Day 1532, Isabel made a gift of a shirt to the King, following a gesture that had first been made by Edward's first wife Elizabeth.[4]

Isabel Baynton became one of Catherine Howard's Ladies of the Privy Chamber upon her marriage to Henry VIII.[4] Her husband Edward Baynton was Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to all of Henry VIII's later queens,[2] including Catherine Howard. When Queen Catherine was banished from court in 1541, Isabel was one of the four ladies-in-waiting she was allowed to take with her.[4] An account of the jewels that was taken following the Queen's arrest noted that she had given a "girdle of gold" to the Lady Baynton.[4]

For a short time, from April 1539, Isabel and Edward Baynton served as guardians in charge of the households of Mary I of England, and Elizabeth I.[5][4]

In 1550, Isabel obtained a lease for the dissolved monastery at Edington, Wiltshire with Edward Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings of Loughborough.[4] An interest in the manor of Faulston near Salisbury was declined by Isabel, but after her death in February 1573 the interest was taken up by her son Henry.[4]