Sir William Stafford

Sir William Stafford, of Chebsey, in Staffordshire, was an Essex landowner and the second husband of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn. Born around 1508 to Sir Humphrey Stafford and Margaret Fogge, he was the second son in a family related to the Dukes of Buckingham and the Earls of Wiltshire. His military service included accompanying Henry VIII to France in 1532. Stafford married Mary Boleyn in 1534 and, upon discovery of the marriage, they were banished from court. The couple lived at Chebsey and later at Rochford Hall in Essex. Following Mary’s death in 1543, Stafford was knighted in Scotland in 1545 and became an MP for Hastings. He remarried Dorothy Stafford in 1545. During Mary I’s reign, Stafford fled to Geneva where he died in 1556.