Killigrew, Thomas (1612 -1683)

The dramatist Thomas Killigrew was the son of Sir Robert Killigrew, the courtier, and Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Woodhouse. He was made a page to Charles I in 1633 and remained loyal to the royal cause during the Civil War. He married, firstly, 29 June 1636, Cecilia Crofts, daughter of Sir John Crofts of Saxsam in Suffolk. On the death of his first wife on 1 January 1638, he married secondly, Charlotte de Hesse, a Dutch woman, on 28 January 1655. He was envoy to Venice but was dismissed at the request of the Venetian government. At the Restoration he received a licence to keep a company of actors, and was made licensed jester to Charles II, with a fee out of the wardrobe, according to Pepys.