Lady Mary Howard
A sad and spooky story
In the last issue you may have read about Sir John Fitz, a violent drunkard who terrorised the people of Tavistock around the beginning of the 17th century. In 1596 John came of age and moved into Fitzford House with his wife Bridget, and their baby daughter Mary. In 1605, when Mary was only nine years old, her father died and she became heiress to his valuable estates. As a minor, under the rules of the Court of Wards and Liveries, the Earl of Northumberland bought her wardship for £465. Mary was taken from her mother and control passed to the Earl. His brother Sir Allan Percy, married Mary in 1608; she was twelve and he was thirty-one. He died of a chill in 1611, leaving Mary a widow while still in her mid-teens. Both beautiful and wealthy, Mary was seen as a very attractive match. The Earl of Suffolk planned to obtain her for his son, Sir Thomas Howard, but she ran away with Thomas Darcy, who unfortunately died shortly after they married. Mary was then married, for the third time before her sixteenth birthday, to Sir Charles Howard, another of the Earl’s sons. Lady Mary gave birth to two daughters before Sir Charles died in 1622: Elizabeth, who died very young, and Mary.
Lady Mary became part of the court circle of the Queen, Henrietta Maria. The Duke of Buckingham encouraged her to marry one of his dependents, Sir Richard Grenville, so he had access to Mary’s great wealth. However, before her marriage, she secretly put her property and income in trust so that she could control it herself. Sir Richard was furious; he had anticipated an entitled and indulgent lifestyle, funded by his wife. Their son, Richard, was born at Fitzford in 1630 but the couple’s animosity worsened, with Sir Richard restricting her to a small portion of the house and installing his aunt as housekeeper. He seized control of Mary’s assets and she fled from Fitzford, taking refuge in London with the family of the Earl of Suffolk, the elder brother of her late husband. Legal proceedings ensued and her pre-nuptial arrangement was reinstated. Sir Richard’s reactions were so aggressive that he was imprisoned. Mary filed for divorce but also gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Grenville. She reverted to her previous name and lived in London for several years. She had another son, George Howard, whose father was probably the Earl of Suffolk.
Lady Howard was intelligent, but also proud and embittered. Elizabeth Grenville tried to mend her relationship with her mother, but Mary hated her, associating her with Sir Richard. It is said that Mary broke Elizabeth’s arm when she slammed a heavy door into her. The last years of her life were spent at Fitzford with George, but he died in 1671. Grief-stricken, Mary died a month later - an eventful but unhappy life had come to an end.
Perhaps it was rumours of Lady Howard’s evil deeds, including suspicions surrounding the deaths of her husbands, that led to reports describing sightings of her ghostly figure. One variation of the legend depicts her riding from Fitzford House to Okehampton Castle on a coach made from the bones of her dead husbands, driven by a headless coachman. A huge black dog accompanies her, with red eyes and ferocious fangs. It plucks a blade of grass from the grounds of the castle and takes it back to Fitzford, and will only allow her to rest in peace once every single blade of grass has been removed, one at a time.
Tavistock Museum
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