Lucar in 1525, at the age of 15, entitled Curious Calligraphy. This, he claimed, was the first English essay on that subject, and this claim has been repeated elsewhere. However, the work is not extant and Curious Calligraphy is nowhere else cited. The term 'calligraphy' itself appears anachronistic for English usage of that date. Ballard, in his 1752 Memoir of Elizabeth Lucar, does not mention an essay but described her as 'a curious calligrapher'. It is possible that Carvalho, reading the line of her epitaph 'She wrought all Needle workes that women exercise', interpreted it to mean 'she wrote (of) all needle workes'. The duality of meaning of 'wrought' and 'wrote' has been recognized elsewhere, but in either sense, that line may only mean that she herself delineated the patterns which she afterwards rendered in needlework. The line 'Three manner hands could she write, them faire all' does however indicate that she could write beautifully in three different scripts. Reformist connections Elizabeth Lucar's date of death is noted (as an interpolation) in the Calendar of the 15th-century Book of Hours known as The Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours. A closely similar text is annotated into the Calendar of a 1535 printed copy of William Marshall's Prymer (which incorporated English texts of the Psalms translated from Martin Bucer's Latin, disguised by being printed parallel with the Vulgate Latin). The textual identity of the inscriptions in these two calendars indicates that they belonged to someone deeply interested in Reformation psalm-readings to whom Elizabeth was well-known. Elizabeth's father Paul Withypoll's patronage of religious art is illustrated by the Withypool Triptych, a devotional painting of the Virgin and child with Saints Catherine and Ursula, including a portrait of Paul Withypoll. An attendant female figure is shown playing the lute. This masterpiece was commissioned by Paul from the Italian artist Antonio Solario and completed in 1514. Family Elizabeth was the daughter of Paul Withypoll (c.1485–1547), Master Merchant Taylor, Alderman and M.P. for London and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Curzon of Brightwell, Suffolk. Paul was the third son of John Withypoll of Bristol and his wife Alyson, daughter and heiress of John à Gaunt of Cardiff; that John Withypoll of Bristol was the son of Robert Withypoll of Wythipool in Shropshire, origin of the surname. Elizabeth was the sister (possibly the only sibling?) of Edmund Withypoll, M.P., who, after their father had purchased the site of the