The Young Heir

Abstract

Sir nicholas throckmorton left a young family of six sons and only one daughter, all of them under age. Of these the most important to our story are the second son Arthur and his sister Elizabeth, who became famous as Lady Ralegh. While Sir Nicholas and his wife were in France, their children were in other people’s care. In May 1561 Francis Goldsmith, who had charge of them, expressed the opinion that ‘they cannot, being well brought up, degenerate utterly from their fathers, whose service towards England I delight rather to consider than to report the same to you’.¹