Frances Walsingham, Countess of Essex Frances Walsingham, Countess of Essex Frances Walsingham, Dowager Countess of Essex and Countess of Clanricarde (1567 – 17 February 1633) was an English noblewoman. The daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, she became the wife of Sir Philip Sidney at age 16. Her second husband was The 2nd Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favourite, with whom she had five children. Shortly after his execution in 1601, she married her lover, The 4th Earl of Clanricarde, and went to live in Ireland. She was the only surviving child of Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State for Queen
Thomas Walsingham (literary patron) landowner in Kent, and grandson to Sir Edmund Walsingham, courtier to Henry VIII and later Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He was first cousin once removed to Sir Francis Walsingham, Ambassador to France and head of secret intelligence. In November 1589, on the death of his older brother, Edmund, Thomas Walsingham inherited the manor of Scadbury, Kent; the first-born brother, Guldeford, had predeceased their father and the estate had passed in turn to the second son, Edmund, before descending to Thomas. The inheritance came as Thomas's debts were mounting but it was not in time to prevent a short