Dudley Knollys: Elizabethan Gender Identification
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2018
Originally Published In
Notes & Queries
Volume Number
65
Issue Number
1
Page Numbers
110–116
Abstract
RECENT investigation into the prominent Elizabethan family of Sir Francis Knollys and his wife Katherine Carey Knollys has shed new light on the identities of their children. Here, we present new information regarding the identification of the Knollys children, specifically of Dudley Knollys, born 9 May 1562, who lived less than two months and is represented as an infant effigy lying next to Katherine Carey Knollys on the Knollys funeral monument in St. Nicholas Church, Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. The proposal is that Dudley Knollys was female, not male, and in conjunction with new analysis confirms that Francis Knollys and Katherine Carey Knollys had an equal number of daughters and sons, as designated on both their Rotherfield Greys monument and Katherine’s Westminster Abbey plaque, although the monuments differ on whether the number was seven...
