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Mary, Lady Bankes ( ' Hawtry'''; c. 1598 – 11 April 1661) was a Cavalier who defended Corfe Castle from a three-year siege during the English Civil War from 1643 to 1645. She was married to Sir John Bankes, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Attorney-General of King Charles I.
Together Sir John and Mary had four sons and seven daughters:
On 28 June, 500-600 parliamentary troops began their first siege of Corfe. Mary and her small group defended the Upper Ward and by heaving stones and hot embers from the battlements, managed to repel the assailants, killing and wounding over 100 men in August.[1] John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 3 (London, 1837) pp.308-309. In 1646, one of her officers, Colonel Pitman, betrayed her by leading a party of Parliamentarians into the castle via a sally gate. The Parliamentarians under the command of a Colonel Bingham reversed their jackets and were mistaken for Royalists. As a result, she was forced to surrender the castle. However, because she showed such courage she was allowed to keep the keys of the castle, which are now held at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset. The castle was slighting the same year it was captured by the orders of the House of Commons.
It is recorded that her sons Ralph and Jerome bought the manor of Eastcourt on her behalf. Upon her death, the manor passed to her daughter Joanna Borlase, who in her turn passed it on to her daughters and co-heirs.[2] A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 (London, 1924) pp.200-205.
To the memory of Mary, Lady Bankes, the only daughter of Ralph Hawtery, of Riselip, in the county of Middlesex, esq., the wife and widow of Sir John Bankes, knight, late Lord Chief Justice of His Majesty's court of Common Pleas, and of the Privy Council of His Majesty King Charles I of blessed memory, who having had the honour to have borne with a constancy and courage above her sex, a noble proportion of the late calamities, and the restitution of the government, with great peace of mind laid down her most desired life the 11th day of April 1661. Sir Ralph Bankes her son and heir hath dedicated this.
Lady Bankes Primary School is named after her in Ruislip Manor.
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