Walter Devereaux, Earl of Essex, by whom she had Robert, Earl of Essex, the far-famed favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and a son, Richard Knollys, (brother and heir to William Knollys, created Earl of Banbury,) m. Joan, dau. of John Higham, co. Suffolk, and had issue, Francis Knollys, of Standford-in-the-Vale, co. Berks, m. Alice, sister and co-heir of Sir Wm. Beecher, Knt., clerk to privy council, and dying 4 Aug. 1640, left issue a dau., Dorothy, who, as already mentioned, m. Lieut.-Gen. Wm. Byam. Lieut.-Gen. William Byam dying at Antigua, (will proved there 1670-1,) left, by Dorothy, his wife, among other issue, two sons, Willoughby and Edward. In this way the Byam family became divided into two distinct branches, Willoughby being the ancestor of the present Byams of “Cedar Hill,” and Edward that of “Pensive Hall,” or “Martin Byam’s,” and a dau., Mary, m. to Col. George Needham, of the island of Jamaica, the son of Sir Robert Needham, first Viscount Kilmoray, and by whom she was ancestress of the present Gen. Needham, of that island, and of the Lords Seaford and Howard de Walden. Edward Byam, youngest son of Lieut.-Gen. Byam, was governor of the Leeward Islands,[80] 1715, and president of the council of Antigua in 1707, born at Surinam, 1663-4, and m. 1st, Mary, dau. of Samuel Winthorpe, and granddau. of John Winthorpe, first governor of New England, and of Groton Hall, co. Suffolk; 2ndly, Lydia, dau., of William Thomas, aunt of Sir George Thomas, and relict of Samuel Martin, of Green Castle, Antigua, (ancestor of the present Sir Henry and Sir Byam Martin.) Col. Edward Byam is described by Oldmixon, in his “British Empire in America,” as a man of the best head and fortune in British America; and also as the most popular man in the Leeward Islands. He commanded, in the attack upon the island Guadaloupe, on the breaking out of the war of succession, in the reign of Queen Anne, a regiment raised by himself in Antigua, and a part of the Enniskillen, or 27th regt. of the line. At the head of this force, he attacked and carried in gallant style the port called “Les petits Habitans,” and obliged the enemy to retire. He is honourably mentioned in the London Gazette, No. 3912, from May 6th to May 10th, and also in the “Annals of the Reign of Queen Anne.” By his first wife, Mary, he had one son and one dau.—viz., Edward, m. Walthian Devonshire, and died at Antigua, 29 May, 1745. Mary, born 13 Oct. 1690, m. Col. Thomas Williams, of the Old Road, Antigua.