Jo Williamson is the daughter of John and Johane, Liz Cromwell’s sister.
The story so far…
Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2)
In 1527, the cousins mix at Liz’s funeral. Alice Wellyfed and Jo plait Grace Cromwell’s hair. Jo and her family move into Austin Friars.
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)
Johane’s daughter must be brought into the family business. Her curious backstitch is hard to imitate, so she can sew up the messages going north.
On All Soul’s Day, she asks Cromwell to petition the cardinal to get Liz out of Purgatory.
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
In Lent, Jo comes to Cromwell to ask what they should paint on the Easter eggs. He notices she has the same watchful face he has. “Not only your children are your children.” After Cromwell and Johane have agreed to stop their “folly”, Jo comes with a request from her mother:
‘My mother sends a message: tell your uncle, for a present, I’d like a drinking cup made of the shell of a griffin’s egg. It’s a lion with the head and wings of a bird; it’s died out now, so you can’t get them any more.’
When Henry Wyatt comes, she knows all his stories, but loves to hear them anyway.
Week 14: Devil's Spit / A Painter’s Eye
Jo is one of the Cromwell women in charge of Elizabeth Barton.
Barton: “Will you come with me, mistress? Where I am going?”
Jo: “Nobody will come with you. I do not think you have the sense of it, Dame Eliza. You are going to the Tower, and I am going home to my dinner.”
A chip off her uncle’s block.
Week 16: The Map of Christendom (Part 1)
Alice Wellyfed admires Cromwell’s treasure: “For a handful of these I would, myself, overthrow any queen in Christendom.” Jo Williamson: “I would as soon have it in export licences.
Alice is marrying Thomas Rotherham. Jo is marrying John ap Rice.
When the king visits, “The little brides Alice and Jo he whirls up into the air as if they were butterflies, and kisses them on the mouth, saying he wishes he had known them when he was a boy.”
When he is gone, Jo sneers: “You would have bedded him for a handful of garnets.”
Alice: “Well, you for export licences!”