Name Mary Willoughby Fate Sold in 1573 Acquired 1536 | In service Listed from 1535 Name Mary Willoughby | |
Captured By the Scots in 1536
Recaptured in 1547 | ||
Mary Willoughby was a ship of the English Tudor navy. She appears in the navy lists from 1535, during the reign of Henry VIII. She was named after Maria Willoughby, a lady-in-waiting and close friend of Catherine of Aragon. The ship was taken by the Scots in 1536 and was included in the Royal Scots Navy, The English recaptured her in 1547. The ship was rebuilt in 1551, increasing in size from 140 bm to 160 bm.
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Scottish service
The Mary Willoughby was used by James V in his voyages to the Isles. The ship had major re-fit between November 1539 and June 1540, by Florence Cornetoun costing £2566-18s-8d Scots. Cardinal Beaton paid £6 for painting her in July 1541. In December 1542, the Mary Willoughby, the Salamander and the Lion blockaded a London merchant ship called the Antony of Bruges in a creek on the coast of Brittany. The Willoughby fired on the Anthony, and the crew abandoned ship. The French authority at "Poldavy Haven" accepted a Scottish warrant shown to them by its Captain, named Kerr.
War of the Rough Wooing
An English spy Thomas Forster saw the Mary Willoughby "coming in" at Leith in July 1545 with six other ships bringing wine, brass field guns and arquebuses from France. They had passed by the Irish seas. In March 1547 the Mary Willoughby and another Scottish ship, reportedly the Great Spaniard of 200 tons, were blockading the New Haven by Dieppe. William Patten believed that the Mary Willoughby was captured on the Forth near Blackness Castle by Edward Clinton on 15 September 1547.
Later English service
The armaments of the Mary Willoughby were listed in an inventory of 1 January 1548. The cannon included; a serpentine; 3 port pieces; 4 slings; a quarter sling; 9 double bases and 4 single bases; and a hagbut. Handarms included 12 bills, 7 moorish pikes, and three spears. There were 146 crew with 14 gunners. After re-construction in 1551, in August 1557 the ship was one of a fleet of 12 that unsuccessfully assaulted the town of Kirkwall on Orkney, landing troops and six field guns on Orkney to attack the castle of Kirkwall, St. Magnus Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace. Seven other ships of the fleet were royal, which included the New Bark, the Minion, Henry, Solomon, Bull, Tiger, Greyhound, and Gabriel. Veteran ships of the Kirkwall raid came to the aid of the Scottish Protestants at the Siege of Leith in January 1560, including the Willoughby, all under the command of Willam Winter.
The Mary Willoughby was sold in 1573.