1556. Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, was burnt for heresy at
Oxford, between Baliol college and St. Mary’s church.
A correspondent, LECTOR, communicates that there is against the south
wall of Camberwell church, an inscription commemorative of “Bartholomew
Scott, esq. justice of peace in the county of Surrey,” in which he is
said to have married “Margaret, the widow of the right reverend prelate
and martyr, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterburie.” Strype, (Life,
p. 418. b. iii. ch. xxviii.) says, that the name of Cranmer’s last wife
was Ann; and that she survived him, was living towards the latter end of
archbishop Parker’s time, and “for her subsistence enjoyed an abbey in
Nottinghamshire.” He does not seem very sanguine on this head, but gives
the passage on authority of “a very angry book, writ against the
execution of justice in England by cardinall Allen.” Fox, in his “Actes
and Monumentes,” says, that Cranmer’s wife was “a Dutchewoman, kynne to
the wyfe of Osiander;” and that Cranmer having “sold hys plate, and
payed all his debts, so that no man could ask him a grote,” left his
wife and children unprovided. The marriage of “Bartholomew Scott, esq.”
with Cranmer’s widow, was certainly an act of noble disinterestedness.
He is celebrated for his never-dying virtues, and described as a
“valiant, wise, and religious gentleman,” of “right worshipful and
ancient familie.”
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