Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother and me.

The 16th century woman who took over my life — the ‘other’ Katherine Champernowne

Welcome to the next note from Devon’s Tudor Time Traveller.

About 10 years ago, I first met a sixteenth century woman named Katherine Champernowne. Not the one you may have heard about who is also known as Kat Ashley, childhood governess to Queen Elizabeth I. The woman I mean had a rather famous son —Sir Walter Raleigh. It turns out the two Katherines were sisters. If that seems odd, you’ll find an article on my website outlining some of the research that proves the relationship.

Who was Kat Ashley?

Sir Walter Raleigh was a handsome and charismatic Elizabethan adventurer; a writer, soldier, privateer, poet, courtier, and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. He wasn’t always popular with everyone. Some say he was a pirate, some say he was a traitor. Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying he was a fascinating character.

I took this photograph of a stunning miniature by Nicholas Hilliard when it was on loan from the National Portrait Gallery for an excellent exhibition at the Holborne Museum, Bath, in 2023. Hilliard captured Walter in his prime and it is easy to see why Queen Elizabeth I liked having him around.

People remember Sir Walter Raleigh’s name to this day. His mother, however, is one of the many women of history — wives, daughters, mothers and sisters — whose stories have remained hidden. Yet it seemed to me that she must have had a strong influence on Sir Walter’s character. Women of Katherine’s class were usually responsible for their sons’ early years education. We recognise today how critically important those first steps are. As he studied his horn book at his mother’s knee, the foundations were laid down for lifelong learning and an enduring delight in reading. Sir Walter was said to carry a chest full of books with him everywhere he went, even on his longest sea voyages.

I soon discovered that another of Katherine’s sons was also well known as an Elizabethan explorer and soldier.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert depicted on a stamp issued in Newfoundland in 1933. (Image via Wikimedia Commons).

In addition to his other exploits, Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the author of a treatise on the search for the North West Passage and also an innovative blueprint for the education of the sons of noblemen and the gentry. Sir Walter and his half-brother were both seafarers although Queen Elizabeth I, who knew them both well, rightly recognised that Sir Humphrey was ‘a man noted of not good happ by sea’ — but that’s another story.

I was intrigued! The mother of such gifted sons with two very different husbands, must have been a remarkable woman. However, it proved incredibly difficult to research Katherine’s life. She has left a very light impression on the historical record. I can’t even confirm her date of birth with certainty. A few documents mention Katherine by name, giving me some milestones on her life’s journey. The record tells me much more about the men in her life. By joining the dots between connected lives and cross referencing carefully, I was able to discover more of Katherine’s story.

Katherine was one of the daughters of Sir Philip Champernowne and his wife Katherine Carew. The Champernownes hailed from Normandy, and over the generations they had built up substantial land holdings in the west of England and beyond. Related to some very powerful people, including Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter and cousin of King Henry VIII, they reached the peak of their influence in the sixteenth century. Katherine was likely brought up at their fortified manor house, known variously as Modbury Castle, Modbury Manor, or The Court House, in the small town of Modbury set amongst rolling Devon hills. Sadly, nothing now remains of the mansion which stood at the top of the town’s steep main street, next to St George’s Church.

Katherine joined a large family — six girls and two boys — but unlike some of her brothers and sisters, she was destined to remain in Devon. It was not unusual for girls to join another noble household in their early teens, to learn etiquette, manners and skills that would ensure they were a good prospect on the marriage market. Katherine may have spent some time with Katherine Courtenay, Countess of Devon, who lived in near royal estate at Tiverton Castle and at Colyton. Alternatively, she may have gone to her grandmother, also named Katherine, at Mohuns Ottery in East Devon.

Sir Philip Champernowne was an enlightened man and gave his daughters a humanist education equal to that of his sons. We have evidence of that from the career of Kat Ashley who was renowned for her book learning and proficiency in languages, including Latin. Another sister, Joan, who married Sir Anthony Denny, was described by David Starkey as ‘something of a Tudor blue-stocking.¹ So there’s every chance Sir Walter’s mother was well educated, perhaps joining lessons with her brother John, who was likely a few years older than her, or her younger brother, Arthur. She would have been well equipped to set her own children on the path to learning.

Katherine’s first husband Otho (Otes or Otys) Gilbert was the nephew and heir of John Gilbert of Compton, near the village of Marldon. The family had been there since the early 14th century and their fortified manor house is an impressive sight

Compton Castle is now in the care of the National Trust.

John Gilbert, the eldest surviving son of another Otho Gilbert who died in 1494, had no children of his own. His eldest brother, Thomas died in 1528. Under the terms of the first Otho’s will, it was Thomas’s son, Otho II, who stood to inherit the Gilbert lands and shipping interests. John’s will tells us that when he died in 1539 Sir Philip had not paid over the dowry agreed for Katherine’s marriage.

The settlement documents for Katherine and Otho’s marriage have not survived, and it’s hard to pinpoint the exact date. Katherine must have been quite young when they married, and Otho II only a few years older. A son, John, later Sir John Gilbert, was born on 13 January 1536.² He is the only one of nine children from Katherine’s two marriages for whom I can confirm a date of birth with absolute certainty.

Katherine’s Gilbert boys, John, Humphrey and Adrian all grew up to be talented men. A fourth boy named after his father is mentioned in Otho II’s will, but died in infancy. The will also mentions a daughter named Katherine, who may have been born before John. Another daughter, Elizabeth, is tentatively identified as ‘my niece Elizabeth Gilbert’ named in the will of Katherine’s sister, Elizabeth Cole alias Pollard.

Otho II and Katherine spent most of their time at a Tudor mansion house that stood in a favoured spot on the banks of the river Dart. Some sources suggest that Otho built a new house there but records show that John Gilbert had a house there years earlier. The Gilberts had held the land, and deep-water anchorage on the river for generations. Later the Tudor mansion was demolished, replaced by a Georgian House that became the holiday home of Agatha Christie.

The River Dart at Greenway

John Gilbert served the king as escheator, which meant he was responsible for administering the Crown’s feudal rights in Devon. He convened Inquisition Post Mortems, was a Justice of the Peace and was well respected amongst the Devon gentry. His nephew is not recorded as holding any appointments from the crown and was perhaps better known in death than in life. A month mind held for him in April 1547 caused a controversy. Richard Crispin, former Chaplain to the conservative minded Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, preached a sermon against the new protestant ideas that were taking hold after Henry VIII’s death. Katherine’s cousin, Sir Peter Carew instructed a scholar named Nichols to refute Crispin’s arguments. We might infer from Crispin’s involvement that the Gilbert’s were conservative in their religious views, whereas by this time, most of Katherine’s family espoused the Protestant faith.

Katherine’s second husband, Walter Raleigh senior, was definitely in favour of the changes to religion. Many of Sir Walter’s biographers agree that this marriage was a love match. Katherine left behind her grand home by the river Dart to live in a relatively modest farmhouse, now a private house known as Hayes Barton.

Hayes Barton, Near East Budleigh, Devon.

The date of their marriage has not been confirmed, but soon a daughter, Margaret, and two sons, Carew and his younger brother Walter, arrived. Katherine also became stepmother to Walter’s two sons from his first marriage to Joan Drake. John and George, were only around ten or twelve years older than their new stepmother. Walter senior’s daughter, Mary, from his second marriage to the daughter of a London merchant, completed the household.

The Raleighs were an established Devon family. After his father died Walter senior became a ward of Sir Nicholas Vaux, Sheriff of Northants, and courtier and favourite of the king. It seems he did not enjoy life at court. As soon as he reached the age of 21 and was released from the wardship, he returned to Devon, where he married Joan Drake. In the 1520s he was involved in Joan’s family’s shipping business. By the time he married Katherine he had his own ships. The Raleigh family home at Fardell, to the north of Ivybridge, Devon, was let out. Katherine’s husband preferred to play the part of farmer in the rented farmhouse which gave him easy access to his ships. East Budeigh previously had a harbour but the river Otter had silted up. So Walter senior ran his ships from nearby Exmouth.

In 1549, Katherine’s husband was caught up in the uprising known as the Prayer Book Rebellion and held prisoner in St Sidwell’s Church tower in Exeter for a month. In 1554 he helped Katherine’s cousin Sir Peter Carew escape after the failure of the Wyatt Rebellion against Queen Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain. After the plot unravelled, he collected Peter from Weymouth and ferried him to safety in France in one of his ships.

Throughout her life Katherine is but a fleeting presence in the historical record. However, she is unusual in that she lived to see her name in print. In the second edition of his Book of Martyrs published in 1570, Foxe describes how Katherine Raleigh — a woman of noble wit and godly ways — visited the poor Cornish woman, Agnes Prest in her prison cell. Agnes was burned at the stake on 15 August 1557, becoming Exeter’s one and only Protestant martyr in the time of Queen Mary. Foxe says that Katherine returned to her home at Hayes Barton near East Budleigh very much impressed and moved by the martyr’s deeply held faith. It does not seem too far a stretch to imagine that hearing his mother speaking of Agnes and her cruel death made an equally strong impression on young Walter. That in its turn may well have influenced Sir Walter Raleigh’s lifelong hatred of catholicism.

Katherine and Walter spent their twilight years in a house ‘close by the palace gate’ near Exeter Cathedral. Walter died in 1581 and was buried at nearby St Mary Major church. In the Exeter Tax Returns for 1585 Katherine tops the list for her part of the city as a wealthy woman in her own right.

Katherine lived well into her seventies, a long life for a woman of her time. On the 18th April 1594 she made her last will. It was one of the priceless records stored at the City Library which was completely destroyed in the second of two devastating bombing raids on the night of 4 May 1942. We are very fortunate that a nineteenth century scholar, T. N. Brushfield (1828 - 1910) left us a transcript of Katherine’s last wishes.

Katherine died soon after she made her will, and was buried alongside her second husband. St Mary Major is long gone, the site marked only by a simple cross on Cathedral Green.

Paying my respects at the site of St Mary Major church, Cathedral Green, Exeter.

My novel A Woman of Noble Wit was published in 2021.. No portraits of Katherine exist — the image on the cover was created specially for my book by artist, Daphne Patterson

With Katherine as my guide I’ve set out to explore more of Devon’s Tudor history and she leads me down many interesting research rabbit holes. In fact this sixteenth century woman has completely taken over my life. She has become my alter-ego. I bring her to life for audiences all over the west of England dressed in my trademark Tudor costumes. I’ve moved on to write about other ‘Daughters of Devon’, but Katherine remains with me.

My next book is about her namesake.

Queen Elizabeth’s Childhood Governess will be published in the summer of 2026.

1. Starkey, D., Elizabeth, The Struggle for the Crown, Harper, 2007 , p25

2. The IPM for his father dated 13 October 1547 states eldest son aged 11 and three quarters . Fine Roll 3rd and 4th Philip and Mary, No 41, confirms the actual date : ‘on 13 January last reached the age of 21 years.’