[9] For centuries, historians, such as Agnes Strickland, and antiquarians alike have confused the grandfather, Lord Borough, with the grandson, Sir Edward, throwing the Scrope-Parr marriage negotiations into the mix for good measure.
The idea of twelve-year-old Catherine Parr being sent away to marry an aged lunatic was a wonderful story filled with drama[10] – but nonetheless was a myth.
Whatever the case, Edward was competent enough for his father to allow him the duties and responsibilities of part of his inheritance – he served as both a feoffee and a justice of peace.
[12] Life at Gainsborough, was under an overbearing father given to violent rages, and the memories of the recently deceased lunatic were prevalent.
Sir Edward's father ruled his family with an iron hand, requiring absolute obedience.
Some time after his marriage to Catherine, his father had another daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Owen, thrown out of the household and her children with his younger brother, Thomas, declared bastards.
Maud Parr traveled north in 1530 to see Catherine and it is most likely at her urging that the couple move out of the Old Hall after two years of marriage.
Sir Thomas was a steward to the manor of the soke of Kirton-in-Lindsey, a small town about ten miles above Gainsborough.
[14] Biographer Linda Porter has determined that the younger Sir Edward Burgh died in the spring of 1533.