There was a son from the union, Robert, styled Viscount Hereford, who was born on 5 November 1636 and died of plague a month later. Essex, who had given the birth date as a deadline beyond which he would have disowned the child, grudgingly acknowledged him as his own; however, the father was widely suspected by the Court to be Elizabeth's alleged lover, Sir Thomas Uvedale (from the alleged prompting of William Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Robert's brother-in-law who leased part of Essex House in London, and expected to inherit if Robert had no issue). Elizabeth, through her funeral oration (years later) by her second husband Sir Thomas Higgons vigorously denied this.