Elizabeth Chudleigh (c. 1720–1788) by Thomas Gainsborough Christie's Images Ltd. (2004)
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Chudleigh, Elizabeth [married namesElizabeth Hervey, countess of Bristol; Elizabeth Pierrepont, duchess of Kingston upon Hull] (c. 1720–1788), courtier and bigamist, was born probably at the family estate of Ashton, Devon. She was the younger daughter and youngest child of Colonel Thomas Chudleigh (...
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Kennedy, Thomas, ninth earl of Cassillis (1726–1775), smuggler and landowner, was born on 12 February 1726, the seventeenth child and second surviving son of Sir John Kennedy of Culzean, second baronet (d. 1742), and Jean Douglas (d. 1767), daughter of Andrew Douglas...
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Thomas Kennedy, ninth earl of Cassillis (1726–1775) by William Mosman, 1746 Culzean Castle collection; courtesy of The National Trust for Scotland
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Powderham [alias Exeter, Poydras, Tanner], John (d. 1318), impostor, was the son of an Exeter tanner who attained notoriety by treasonably claiming to be the rightful king of England in 1318. Records are meagre: on 20 July William Montagu, the king's steward, was ordered to take him (under the name of ...
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Michael J. Bennett
Simnel, Lambert (b. 1476/7, d. after 1534), impostor and claimant to the English throne, was born probably in Oxford, the son of Thomas Simnel, a carpenter, organ maker, or cobbler. His origins are obscure, even in official accounts; his mother is unknown and he may have been illegitimate. Nothing is known of his upbringing....
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Basil Morgan
Thom [Tom], John Nichols [alias Sir William Courtenay] (bap. 1799, d. 1838), impostor and lunatic, was baptized on 10 November 1799 at St Columb Major, Cornwall, the only son (he had one sister) of William Thom (or Tom), a small farmer and innkeeper, and his wife, ...
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Warbeck, Perkin [Pierrechon de Werbecque; alias Richard Plantagenet, duke of York] (c. 1474–1499), impostor and claimant to the English throne, was, according to the confession he made in 1497, born at Tournai in France, the son of John Osbek, comptroller of the town of ...
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Wilford [Wulford], Ralph (c. 1479–1499), impostor and claimant to the English throne, was the son of a cordwainer who lived at the Black Bull in Bishopsgate Street, London. He was encouraged by an Augustinian friar named Patrick to challenge Henry VII's possession of the throne by impersonating the imprisoned ...
