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Cavendish
English ducal House of Devonshire

The family is directly descended from the chief justice, Sir John Cavendish, who was beheaded (1381) at Bury St Edmunds by Jack Straw's followers, and from Sir William Cavendish of Cavendish, Suffolk (c.1505-1557), a brother of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's biographer. His third wife Elizabeth, the celebrated Bess of Hardwick (1518-1608), afterwards Countess of Shrewsbury, brought Chatsworth into the family, and William, their second son, was made Earl of Devonshire (1618).