Catherine Howard her mother already had five children from her first husband, Ralph Leigh ( – 1509); she went on to have another six with Catherine's father, Catherine being about her mother's tenth child. With little to sustain the family, her father was often reduced to begging for handouts from his more affluent relatives. After Catherine's mother died in 1528, her father married twice more. In 1531 he was appointed Controller of Calais. He was dismissed from his post in 1539, and died in March 1539. Catherine was the third of Henry VIII's wives to have been a member of the English
Records of members of parliament of the United Kingdom following were all known to be disabled when serving as MPs: Sir Francis Bryan, MP for Buckinghamshire in 1529, 1539, 1542 and 1545, who lost an eye in a tournament in 1526. William Page, MP for Bridport in 1559, Oxford 1562–67, and Saltash 1571–81, who had a hand cut off in lieu of execution for distributing a political pamphlet in 1579. John Stubbs or Stubbe, MP for Great Yarmouth 1588–89, who also had right hand cut off in lieu of execution for publication of the same pamphlet as Page in 1579. Hugh Bethell, MP for East Riding of Yorkshire 1654–56