Mary CROOKENBERG [3215]

  General Notes:

Mary was wealthy woman, her dowry was 12,000pds. She is buried with her husband " under the pew where we alwaises sat together in the Chancell" a quote from Sir Joseph's will. Mary had other children who died young.
His wife died there in 1671, and her funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Littleton, who published it shortly after.

In the Chelsea Registers are various entries relating to the family, including that of Lady Alston, buried 7th February, 1671.

Mary wife of Joseph A. Chelsea Feb. 1671 (Fun. Ser. by A. Littleton, Wilford 708).
Musgrave Obituary
Pg 243 Alstoniana

Alston House Chelsea (Shrewsbury House)
A quadrangular Tudor house occupying a plot of land about 120 feet wide that fronted onto the western part of Cheyne Walk and ran back to Upper Cheyne Row; it was a large mansion, taxed on 50 hearths in 1662. An early 19th century account describes the building thus: "It was an irregular brick building forming three sides of a quadrangle" (actually probably originally all four sides). "The principal room was 120 feet in length, and was originally wainscotted with carved oak. One of the rooms was painted in imitation of marble, and appeared to have been originally an oratory. Certain curious portraits on panel which had ornamented the large rooms were destroyed some few years since". The house was said to have been pulled down entirely in 1813, but the Survey of London established in 1909 that part of the west and south ranges of the house survived then as 44-45 Cheyne Walk and contained 17th century panelling which they tentatively attributed to alterations for Sir Joseph Alston. The houses were, however, then in very poor condition and were later demolished. In the 19th century there was a timber yard on the main part of the site and in 1933 Sir Edwin Lutyens designed 42 Cheyne Walk for the site. This in turn was replaced by the present large block of mansion flats, known as Shrewsbury House, after the Second World War.

Descent: George Talbot (1468-1538), 4th Earl of Shrewsbury; to Francis Talbot (1500-60), 5th Earl of Shrewsbury; to George Talbot (1528-90), 6th Earl of Shrewsbury; to widow, Elizabeth ("Bess of Hardwicke") (d. 1607); to son, William Cavendish (1552-1626), 1st Earl of Devonshire; to widow, Elizabeth (d. 1643), Countess of Devonshire; sold after her death to Sir Joseph Alston (d. 1688), 1st bt.; to son, Sir Joseph Alston (d. 1688/9), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir Joseph Alston (c.1665-1716), 3rd bt., who sold 1694 to Robert Butler, who let the house as a school, after which date it was continuously let until demolished.
Ref: https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com

  Other Records

1. Joseph Alston = Mary Crockenberg: Marriage Register, 5 Nov 1639, St Mary Undershaft City of London.

Mary married Sir Joseph ALSTON Knt. Bart of Chelsea & Bradwell [2676] [MRIN: 1088], son of Edward ALSTON of Edwardstone [2673] and Margaret PENNING [2797], on 5 Nov 1639 in St Mary Undershaft LND. (Sir Joseph ALSTON Knt. Bart of Chelsea & Bradwell [2676] was born after 20 May 1604 in Edwardstone SFK, died in 1688 and was buried on 31 May 1688 in Chelsea Parish Church.)