Lady Helen Windebank – wife of 3C11 – (1596-1657)

Richard’s (second?) wife Lady Helen (aka Ellyn) Windebank had significant connections of her own. She was born in Hurst, Berkshire, her parents were Thomas Windebank and Lady Frances Windebank, Helen had five siblings. Her mother’s maiden name was Dymoke and she was directly descended from Sir Henry Percy, better-known as Hotspur in Shakespearean drama. Her sister Mildred was the great-grandmother of George Washington.

Thomas Windebank

Frances Dymoke (Windebank)

She married the Rev Richard Denton and they had five children together, He appears to have had an earlier wife with whom he had John, Richard, Sarah and Daniel, all born in Yorkshire. With Lady Helen they had Timothy, Nathaniel and Samuel, born at Bolton Priory, Lancashire; Phebe (or Phoebe) born either in Coley, Yorkshire or in Stringston, Somerset; and a second John in Hempstead, New York.

As we saw above, she and Rev Richard Denton migrated to Connecticut, and then to Hempstead, New York in New Netherland. He later became dissatisfied with his church situation and they moved to Virginia, back to Hempstead and then back to England where later they both died.

The marriage register at St Saviour, Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral), London, records the marriage by license on 16 November 1611/2 of Richard Denton to Helen Windebanke. But, this cannot be our Richard and Helen, as this is too early for that Richard Denton to have married – at eight years old. The Helen Windebanke who married in 1611 must have married some other Richard Denton.

Our Richard and Helen were married a St Saviour, Southwark, but in 1623.

When Richard received a bequest and Helen became ill, the couple moved back to England. Helen died in Dorset in 1657, Richard in Essex in 1663.