Mary Matthew (c. 1516–1602) was a 16th-century English woman who was the first woman in England to be granted her own Coat of Arms.
Biography.
Matthew was born about 1516 in Colchester, Essex. Her father was Thomas Matthew of Colchester. Her mother was a daughter of John Bardefeld and had married firstly to Thomas Wesden of Lincolnshire and secondly to Mathew's father.
By 1540, Matthew was married to Thomas Langton, Citizen and Skinner of London. They had five children. After her husband died, in 1552 she remarried to Andrew Judde, a merchant and the Lord Mayor of London, and they had a daughter. Judde died in 1558.
Matthew became the first woman to be granted her own Coat of Arms in 1558. Heraldry was traditionally "a masculine practice" and "there are far more examples of women using their father’s or husband’s arms than being granted their own." These women were known as heraldic heiresses.
Matthew died in 1602 in Latton, Essex.