Hildegardis Hyde
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Hildegardis Hyde was the first wife of Colonel Richard Townsend of Castletownshend and the mother of Mary Townsend, from whom this family descends. Her own parentage is unknown, and it is one of the more stubborn walls in this tree. She was a Hyde, but the claim that she belonged to the family of the Earl of Clarendon has been examined and rejected: it appears to be a conflation.
Research notes
First wife of Col. Richard Townsend of Castletownshend; mother of Mary Townsend (our line). A Hyde - but NOT, on the evidence, one of the royal Clarendon Hydes. The Townsend family history (Townshend, "An Officer of the Long Parliament") claims she was a niece of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, hence a cousin of Anne Hyde, mother of Queens Mary II and Anne; BUT this is a CONFLATION of two distinct Hyde families - the Cork Hydes of Castle Hyde (Spenser's Munster neighbours; genuinely kin-by-marriage in this tree, via Lucas of Youghal x Elizabeth Hyde of Castle Hyde) versus Clarendon's Hydes of Norbury/Dinton (the royal ones). A Cork colonel's wife was far likelier a Cork Hyde than a Wiltshire one, and the chronology fits Clarendon poorly. The royal/Clarendon kinship is therefore REJECTED as a surname conflation (see the book's "Stuart queens" note). Her exact Hyde family and father remain unestablished; the Ancestry hint "Nicholas Hyde of Dinton, c.1600-1634" is an unsourced member-tree guess (its record is for a son Robert Hyde) and is also rejected. SEPARATELY (and genuine): the collateral Mary Swayne, sister of Anne Swayne, DID marry Sir Nicholas Hyde, Lord Chief Justice, of the Clarendon Hydes (confirmed, Wikipedia/History of Parliament) - a real in-law marriage that brings no Hyde blood to my line and no royal kinship. RESOLVED June 2026: Col. Richard Townsend had two wives (Hildegardis Hyde AND Mary Kingston), but the Townsend record for Mary Townsend [111] names HER mother as "Hyde, Hildegardis" and her as his daughter (2nd generation) - so Hildegardis Hyde IS our direct ancestress (8x great-grandmother), NOT Mary Kingston. (The Clarendon/royal-Hyde conflation, above, still stands rejected - she is a Hyde, just not one of the royal ones.) Corrected June 2026.
Marriage: Col. Richard Townsend x Mary Hyde