Lady Dionysis Williamson c. 1610-1684
Dionysis was a formidable and wealthy woman.
She was the 4th. daughter and 10th. child of William Hale, Sheriff of Hertfordshire, of Kings Waldon in Hertfordshire and his wife Rose Bond.
Her father and her grandfather Richard Hale were London grocers. They made money by wholesale dealing of spices and other goods from abroad and selling them in Great Britain.
The family bought property both within London and the home counties, especially Hertfordshire.
William and Richard's wills leave the new family base of the manor of Kings Waldon to their respective heirs and legacies to other children. Richard actually listed 11 grandchildren in his will.
Richard was granted permission by James I to found a Grammar School in Hertford, which opened in 1617 and is still educating children today. Richard gave an endowment of £800 to be invested for the provision of the school's income. Other family members the school and continued the endowment.
By the time William came to write his will in September 1632 his family had reduced. His daughters Alicia and Ann had married John Minn and Charles Hoskins. Dionysis was still unmarried and Winefreda had died in 1616. Sons Bernard, William, Rowland and John are mentioned, but not George, Thomas and Richard. It is possible that Thomas went to America.
Dionysis' father died in 1634 and at the age of about 37, she finally married on 5th. May 1647 at St. Bartholomew-the-Less in the City of London. She became the second wife of the well known Royalist, Sir Thomas Williamson, Baronet of East Markham in Nottinghamshire, the widower of Jane Hussey and father of 2 sons and a daughter. The marriage took place two years before the excitation of Charles I.
Sir Thomas died in 1657, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell. The majority of his estate was left as bequests which were listed in an unpublished indenture, however he left Dionysis his coach and four horses.
Dionysis lived as an extremely wealthy widow for 30 years. After the Great Fire of London she donated significant sums to the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, £2,001, £1 more than the Lord Mayor, St. Mary-le-Bow, £2,000, and St. Dunstan-in-the-East, the Hale family church in London, £4,000.
She is noted as Lady of the Manor of Hales Hall in Norfolk by 1666, having bought it from William Humberstone, who's father bought the property from James Hobart about 30 years earlier. At the time of her death, the Hall was occupied by Anne Philipes Widdow, Dionysis' main residence was a house she had recently had built nearby, although today it's location is unknown.
She attended Holy Trinity in Loddon and had a pew in the north aisle, near to where she is buried. Her own chaplain led her funeral service and she was carried to her grave by clergymen.
Her tomb inscription reads,
'Here Lyeth the body of Dionis Williamson
Widow of Sr Thomas Williamson of great Markham
in the county of Nottingham Kt and Baronett
the 4th Daughter and Tenth Child of William
Hale of Kings-waldon in the County of Hertford Esq.
And of his Wife the Daughter of Sr George Bond of London
who died the 24th of January 1684
in the 74th Year of her age'