(Thomas Wolsey became an advisor to Henry VII and to his son King Henry VIII.)

"Thomas Wolsey was given a grant of one of the houses forfeited by the attainder of Sir Richard Empson.  The house lay at Bridewell.  In a grant dated 10 Jan 1510, it was called "La Maison Curiale, with twelve gardens and orchards between the Thames and St. Bride's gardens in Fleetstreet."  Here Wolsey lived in a 'noncanonical' marriage with a woman called Joan Larke.  The edict that priests, regardless of their functions or the character of their work, should remain celibate had not been wholeheartedly accepted in England.  Hence the rule of celibacy was not uncommonly honored in the breach and the offense forgiven by regular fines,  which, in some places, constituted a source of episcopal revenues.

"There is no indication that Wolsey was married but once.  Although records are obscure, the woman he married appears to have been the daughter of one Peter Larke, 'gentleman of Huntingdonshire.'  In 1463, memberes of a Larke family were associated with the town of Thetford, not far from Ipswich, and a man named Peter larke was twice mayor of that town.  He is described as a farmer and a grazier and as the grandfather of Joan Larke.  A kinsman of
Joan's father was Thomas Larke, who became 'surveyor of the King's works' and later was Wolsey's confessor.  Erasmus said tdhat of all the men he had known in England, Larke was the most cultured and sincere; and the Latin secretary to the King wrote that he was omnipotent with the Cardinal.'

"Obviously the connections of the marriage were good, and the union was in its odd way respectable.  Wolsey seems to have remained faithful to his wife and later to have given her in marriage as a father might - even fixing upon her a dowry - when she was wed publicly and formally to George Legh of Adlington, a wealthy landowner in the county of Cheshire.

"Two children were born from Wolsey's marriage with Joan Larke.  One, a daughter named Dorothy, was later consiged to a nunnery in the fashion of the day; but the son was given all the emolumenets of affection any lavish and preoccupied father might bestow upon his heir in lieu of companionship.  He was known as Thomas Wynter; and he was spoken of sometimes by his
father and by others as Wolsey's son.

"When the boy was scarcely ten years old he was given the revenues of a parish.  The scandalous way in which Wolsy managed to make the Church provide this comfortable, if not ruinous, allowance afforded his enemies with some of their best reasons for their final vituperative attack."(p. 87/88)

The above was submitted by Wilford W. Whitaker.                                                 Frank Mitchell

Sources:
1.  Encyclopedia International, Grolier, 1963 edition: Vol. 19, pg 440-441.