Margaret de la Herne
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About
Margaret, wife of Shane Cam the sixth Earl, is a countess whose very surname the authorities cannot agree on - and one annalist, magnificently, says she was a butcher's daughter. She is recorded here as CP prints her, with every doubt attached.
Research notes
~ MARGARET 'DE LA HERNE' (so the 'Earls of Kildare'; E.M. Boyle 1885: 'her surname is doubtful - Delaherne or Bassett'; O'Clery says 'da. of a Butcher'); wife of John 6th Earl; mother of Thomas 7th Earl (our line). Her PERSON as wife/mother is CP-documented (✓); her SURNAME and parentage are ~/unknown - no ancestry claimed. Source: Cokayne, Complete Peerage (1st edn), 'Kildare' pp.368-73, photographed and read 6 Aug 2026; contested rungs note-only, not hardened. ||CP AUDIT 26 Oct 2026|| CP VII p.225 attaches the name to the 6th Earl John (I99829): Lodge 'Margaret de la Herne'; the old pedigrees 'a daughter of Basset'; E.M. Boyle quotes O'Clery 'daughter of a butcher' and O'Ferrall 'daughter of Lord Bourchier'. She is thus grandmother, not mother, of Thomas 7th Earl - John Cam (whose wife is unknown) inserted between. Source: Complete Peerage 2nd edn vol. VII (1929), 'Kildare' pp.219-232, read 26 Oct 2026 (archive.org djvu text).