 Robert died in December 1544.There was no issue from the marriage, which had been arranged locally, probably initially to protect the Barley patrimony and to mitigate the impact of wardship on the Barley estate should Robert succeed his father as an underage heir.The traditional story that Robert and Bess met in London while in the service of a "Lady Zouche" is based on oral history, which can only be dated to the late seventeenth century (some eighty years after Bess's death).