♀Katharyne (surname unknown)

Katharyne (living in 1614) was the wife of Edmond Yorke, a yeoman of Cotton End, near Northampton, England, and the mother of Dorothy, the first wife of Thomas Dudley^W, later governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W. She was the tenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her daughter Dorothy Yorke.

Her husband’s will

Her family name and her dates are not recorded. She is known from the will of her husband, made on 18 November 1614 and proved the following April. It names his wife Katharyne, his eldest son Nathaniel, his second son Bartholomew and a son Joseph, whom he made executor with his wife. The printed abstract spells her name both Katharyne and Katherine. The will left Katharyne the residue of his goods jointly with Joseph, and it gave her the say over when the grandchildren’s legacies were paid: Samuel Dudley, Abigail Greene and Anne Dudley were to have their money and silver spoons at twenty-one “or before if my wif shall thinke fytt”. The bowls left to the eldest son and to “my daughter Dudley” and “my daughter Greene” were to be handed over only after her death.

“My daughter Dudley” is identified as Dorothy, the wife of Thomas Dudley, through her children Samuel and Anne and through Thomas Dudley’s place among the overseers of the will. The will does not say whether Katharyne was the mother of all his children.

The same series of Northampton wills holds the nuncupative will^W of a Katherine Yorke, “late of Northampton, widow”, declared about 21 June 1633 and proved on 24 August 1633, in which she left all her goods to John Marston, a Northampton baker, in consideration of what she owed him. Whether she was the same woman is not established.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her daughter Dorothy and Dorothy’s son Samuel Dudley (1608–1683). According to the published family history and genealogical dictionary, one runs through Samuel’s son Stephen Dudley to Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844); the other through Samuel’s daughter Dorothy Dudley to Anna Smith. Nathaniel Dudley and Anna Smith married, and the two lines meet again in their daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839).