Biography of Henry Wood 1st Baronet 1597-1671
In or before 1597 [his father] Thomas Wood (age 31) and [his mother] Susanna Cranmer were married.
On or before 17 Oct 1597 Henry Wood 1st Baronet was born to Thomas Wood (age 32) and Susanna Cranmer. He was baptised on 17 Oct 1597 at Hackney.
Around 1630 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 32) and Anne Webb were married.
Around 1643 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 45) was appointed Clerk of the Spicery.
In 1644 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 46) accompanied the Queen (age 34), Henrietta Maria, to France, as Treasurer to her Household, an office he retained till his death.
On 16 Apr 1644 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 46) was knighted at Oxford, Oxfordshire [Map].
In May 1649 [his father] Thomas Wood (age 84) died.
On 15 Jun 1649 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 51) was fined £273 for having been a Royalist.
In Nov 1651 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 54) and Mary Gardiner (age 24) were married at Paris [Map]. The difference in their ages was 29 years.
Evelyn's Diary. 17 Nov 1651. I went to congratulate the marriage of [his wife] Mrs. Gardner (age 24), maid of honor, lately married to that odd person, Sir Henry Wood (age 54): but riches do many things.
Around 1657 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 59) was created 1st Baronet Wood.
There is no mention of this creation in Dugdale's Catalogue, but it is stated in the Family of Chester, of Chicheley, by R. E. Chester Waters (where there is a good account of the family of Wood), that Charles II created him a Baronet at the time when he had nothing but titles of honour to bestow. The date of his creation is unknown for his patent was never enrolled, but Sir Thomas Bond, the Comptroller of Queen Henrietta's Household, was made a Baronet 9 Oct. 1658, and it is not likely that the Queen's Treasurer, who had precedence of the Comptroller, would be passed over in the distribution of honours. Sir Henry's name does not occur in any list of Baronets which I have seen, but there is no doubt about his creation, for he is constantly styled Baronet in Royal Warrants after 1660, and is so described on his father's monument, and in his own will.
Around 1660 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 62) was appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth.
In 1661 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 63) was elected MP Hythe which seat he held until his death in 1671.
In 1661 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 63) was in attendance on Queen Catharine (age 22) on her voyage from Lisbon, and was subsequently a member of her Council.
In or after 1661 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 63) was appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth.
In or after 1661 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 63) was appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth.
In 1663 [his daughter] Mary Wood Duchess Southampton was born to Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 65) and [his wife] Mary Gardiner (age 35).
Pepy's Diary. 26 Oct 1663. Thence to Westminster Hall [Map] with Creed, and spent the morning walking there, where, it being Terme time, I met several persons, and talked with them, among others James Pearce Surgeon, who tells me that the Queen (age 24) is in a way to be pretty well again, but that her delirium in her head continues still; that she talks idle, not by fits, but always, which in some lasts a week after so high a fever, in some more, and in some for ever; that this morning she talked mightily that she was brought to bed, and that she wondered that she should be delivered without pain and without spueing or being sicke, and that she was troubled that her boy was but an ugly boy. But the King (age 33) being by, said, "No, it is a very pretty boy".-"Nay", says she, "if it be like you it is a fine boy indeed, and I would be very well pleased with it". The other day she talked mightily of Sir H. Wood's (age 66) [his wife] lady's (age 36) great belly, and said if she should miscarry he would never get another, and that she never saw such a man as this Sir H. Wood in her life, and seeing of Dr. Pridgeon, she said, "Nay, Doctor, you need not scratch your head, there is hair little enough already in the place". But methinks it was not handsome for the weaknesses of Princes to be talked of thus.
On 17 Mar 1665 [his wife] Mary Gardiner (age 38) died of smallpox. On 01 Apr 1665 she was buried at Westminster Abbey [Map].
Pepy's Diary. 19 Sep 1666. Thence to White Hall, with Sir W. Batten (age 65) and Sir W. Pen (age 45), to Wilkes's; and there did hear the many profane stories of Sir Henry Wood (age 68) damning the parsons for so much spending the wine at the sacrament, cursing that ever they took the cup to themselves, and then another story that he valued not all the world's curses, for two pence he shall get at any time the prayers of some poor body that is worth a 1000 of all their curses; Lord Norwich drawing a tooth at a health. Another time, he and Pinchbacke and Dr. Goffe, now a religious man, Pinchbacke did begin a frolick to drink out of a glass with a toad in it that he had taken up going out to shit, he did it without harm. Goffe, who knew sacke would kill the toad, called for sacke; and when he saw it dead, says he, "I will have a quick toad, and will not drink from a dead toad".1 By that means, no other being to be found, he escaped the health.
Note 1. "They swallow their own contradictions as easily as a hector can drink a frog in a glass of wine".-Benlivoglio and Urania, book v., p. 92, 3rd edit. B.
On 25 May 1671 Henry Wood 1st Baronet (age 73) died without male issue. Baronet Wood extinct. On 31 May 1671 he was buried at Ufford, Suffolk. His daughter [his daughter] Mary Wood Duchess Southampton (age 8) was his heir. In view of the great wealth she was to inherit she was betrothed to Charles Fitzroy 1st Duke Southampton 2nd Duke Cleveland (age 8), an illegitmate son of King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 40) and Barbara Villiers 1st Duchess of Cleveland (age 30). On her father's death she went to live with Barbara Villiers 1st Duchess of Cleveland (age 30). They, Mary Wood Duchess Southampton (age 8) and Charles Fitzroy 1st Duke Southampton 2nd Duke Cleveland (age 8) married 1679 but she died a year later from smallpox.
