Joan fought the marriage for seven years; she did not forgive her son and took him to court again after he inherited Longleat House.

Her parents were Lady Joan (born Tyllesworth) and Sir Rowland Hayward, the first Lord Mayor of London.

[4] The dispute over the marriage was resolved in 1601 by Daniel Donne, the Dean of the Court of Arches, who ruled against her claim.

When her husband John died in 1604, Longleat passed into the hands of her enemy Maria Thynne.

[3] She was a patron of the arts; John Maynard dedicated his satirical music titled The XII Wonders of the World to her in 1611.