A Guest Post by Sylvia Barbara Soberton
In my recent book Ladies-in-Waiting: Women Who Served Anne Boleyn, I explore the roles of women in Queen Anne’s household.
When Anne Joscelyn’s name first popped up in the 1532 New Year’s Gift list, I began a frantic search for this woman in primary sources. Who was she? Why hadn’t I heard about her before in connection with Anne Boleyn’s household? What kind of relationship did she share with the Queen?
Anne Joscelyn first drew my attention as Anne Boleyn’s lady-in-waiting because she was one of the five women “with the lady Anne” in the New Year’s gift list of 1532.[1] Initial research yielded promising results. “Anne Joscelyn” attended Anne Boleyn’s coronation during the four-day long festivities from 31 May to 1 June 1533; in July 1533, “Josselyn, the Queen’s servant” was sent on an errand to Belvoir Castle, where the Countess of Rutland was residing at the time.[2]
But the real eureka moment occurred when I stumbled upon a “Mrs Jaskyne” in the Cronickille of Anne Bulleyne written by William Latymer, one of Anne Boleyn’s chaplains. According to Latymer Mrs Jaskyne “attended the Queen’s Grace in her Privy Chamber”. Her husband, Mr Jaskyne, identified as “sergeant of her Majesty’s pantry”, fell “grievously sick at his house at Essex” when the court was passing through Woodstock in July and sent for his wife to come to him.
When Mrs Jaskyne was denied the licence to visit her sick husband, she related her case to one of Anne Boleyn’s chaplains “to solicit her cause to the Queen’s majesty”. The chaplain—Latymer did not identify him by name—interceded with Anne on the gentlewoman’s behalf during the divine service. Moved by this plea, Queen Anne “not only granted her licence to depart, to the comfort of her weak and sick husband, but also most bountifully commanded to be prepared for her sufficient furniture of house and other necessaries for her journey, and ten pounds in money toward the charge of her travail”.[3] Ten pounds was a large sum, equivalent to the yearly wage of a maid of honour.
In my book, I propose a theory that this “Mrs Jaskyne” from Latymer’s account was Anne Joscelyn, the woman who figures in Anne Boleyn’s household in 1532 and 1533. Anne Joscelyn’s surname was spelled variously as Jasselyne, Joscelyne and Jaskelyne. The identification of Mrs Jaskyne’s husband as sergeant of the Queen’s pantry points to the possibility that she may indeed have been Anne Joscelyn, whose husband, John, was recorded as gentleman of the King’s pantry in 1538 and sergeant of the pantry in 1546.[4]
The exact nature of Anne Boleyn’s relationship with Anne Joscelyn remains obscured by history. Little is known about her. We know that she was a daughter of Richard Grenville of Wotton Underwood and his wife, Joan, and that she married John Joscelyn. “Anne Josselyn the elder”, who may have been the same person who served Anne Boleyn, was appointed as chamberer in the household of Anne of Cleves in 1539.[5] An “Anne Josselyn” was present when Anne of Cleves signed the annulment settlement in July 1540.[6]
The elusive nature of Anne Joscelyn’s identity and her relationship with Anne Boleyn makes one thing clear: there is still a lot of archival research to be done on Anne Boleyn’s household. How many forgotten servants of Queen Anne are out there, yet to be identified, I wonder?
[1] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5, n. 686.
[2] Read more in my new book.
[3] William Latymer, Cronickille of Anne Bulleyne, pp. 52-53.
[4] Some sources state he was sergeant of the pantry since 1532 [LC2/2, f. 28v]. He was described as gentleman of the King’s pantry in 1538: Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2, n. 5, and as sergeant of the pantry in 1546/47: Ibid., Volume 21 Part 1, n. 148 (122).
[5] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 14 Part 2, n. 572, 4.
[6] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, n. 872, 3.
Book Blurb
The aspects of Anne Boleyn’s life and death are fiercely debated by historians, yet her ladies-in-waiting remain an understudied topic. Much emphasis is usually put on Anne’s relationships with the men in her life: her suitors, her royal husband, her father and brother and her putative lovers who were executed on 17 May 1536. By concentrating on a previously neglected area of Anne Boleyn’s female household, this book seeks to identify the women who served Anne and investigate what roles ladies-in-waiting played in this Queen’s household.
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Sir John Gates, a member of the Essex gentry was groom of the privy chamber to King Henry VIII. John was a distant relative of Sir Anthony Denny and married Denny’s sister. John’s sister Dorothy married Thomas Joscelyn in 1524. It’s possible Dorothy Joscelyn or John Gates obtained a position for Anne Joscelyn in Anne Boleyn’s household.
This is very cool! And yes indeed there are many questions to be answered about the ladies who served Anne, and those who may well have been her friends. Just as we really don’t know with any certainty who attended her in the Tower. Thank you for your research!!!