Anne Hankford


Anne Hankford was the first wife of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. She was the great-grandmother of Anne Boleyn.
She was a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Richard Hankford of Annery, Monkleigh, Devon, feudal baron of Bampton by his second wife Lady Anne Montagu, a daughter of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury. Her paternal grandparents were Richard Hankford and Thomasine de Stapeldon. Her maternal grandparents were John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and Maud Francis, daughter of Sir Adam Francis, Lord Mayor of London.
She married Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond before 1450. He was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond and Joan de Beauchamp. They had two daughters:
Anne died on 13 November 1485, in the same month of the restoration of the estates and title of Ormonde to her husband by King Henry VII's first Parliament. Thomas Butler and his brothers had been declared traitors by King Edward IV, who had had statutes made against them at Westminster. After her death, Thomas Butler married Lora Berkeley, daughter of Sir Edward Berkeley, by whom he had a daughter who died young. In 1509, he was appointed Queen Catherine of Aragon's first Lord Chamberlain.