Soon after the death of her first husband John Sacheverell at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Jane was abducted by Henry Willoughby of Wollaton and forcibly married to his brother Richard.

[2][3] John was killed on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, fighting alongside Richard III in the last charge on Henry Tudor.

Her petition to Parliament records that she was menaced by Richard Willoughby, younger brother of her abductor, who '[did] his pleasure with her as his own will without that she well consent and be agreeable' [spelling modernised].

[7] She was still the prioress at the time the priory was dissolved in 1536, and was still alive on 10 February 1537, when she received her first instalment of her pension of 20 marks.

It sought an order that Jane be returned to Morley within six days of the order being made, that the Willoughbys be remanded without bail and tried for the alleged felonies of ravishment and robbery at the next session of the King's Bench, that they receive a felon's sentence if found guilty, and that Jane's right to sue for trespass, false imprisonment, robbery and rape also be preserved.

As well as the remedies for Jane, the petition asks for the King as advised by Parliament to "[avoid and eschew] hereafter ... all such ravishment, robbery and riotous dealing of widows and other women" [spelling modernised].

In Jane's case, the difficulty of the legal process was one of the reasons why a remedy was sought from Parliament, rather than the much slower course of seeking justice in the law courts.

[2][10] It is highly likely that Jane's case, and the plea in her petition for her abductors to be treated as felons, led to a change in the law in 1487.