First marriage

First, to an unknown woman by whom he had one daughter:

• • Elizabeth Kytson, the first wife of Edmund Croftes (d. 14 February 1558) of West Stow Hall, Little Saxham, Suffolk, son and heir of Sir John Croftes (d. 28 January 1558), who was in the service of Mary Tudor. Elizabeth Kitson bore Edmund Croftes two sons:
    • Thomas Croftes
    • Henry Croftes

After Elizabeth's death Edmund Croftes remarried to Eleanor Burgh, the daughter of Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh, by whom he had a son, John Croftes of Wangford, West Suffolk, who died without issue, and two daughters, Margaret and Alice.^[9]

Second marriage

Secondly, Thomas Kitson married Margaret Donnington (d. 12 January 1561^{[citation needed]}), the only child and sole heiress of John Donnington (d.1544) of Stoke Newington, a member of the Worshipful Company of Salters,^[11][12] by his wife Elizabeth Pye, by whom he had a son born posthumously and four daughters:^[3]

• • Sir Thomas Kitson (1540–1603), who married firstly Jane Paget, the daughter of William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, by whom he had no issue, and secondly Elizabeth Cornwallis, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Cornwallis (d.1604), by whom he had a son who died as an infant and two daughters, Margaret, who married Sir Charles Cavendish (November 1553 – 4 April 1617) (son of Sir William Cavendish by his wife Bess of Hardwick) by whom she had no issue,^[13] and Mary, who married Thomas Darcy, 3rd Baron Darcy of Chiche.^[14]
  • Katherine Kitson, who married Sir John Spencer (1524 – 8 November 1586) of Althorpe, Northamptonshire, and Wormleighton, Warwickshire,^[15] by whom she had four sons and six daughters including:
    • John Spencer, MP, ancestor of the Earls Spencer and the Dukes of Marlborough.
    • Thomas Spencer
    • William Spencer
    • Richard Spencer^[16]
    • Elizabeth Spencer, who in 1574 married George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
    • Anne Spencer, who in 1575 married William Stanley, 3rd Baron Monteagle (c. 1529 – 1581), and in 1592 Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset
    • Alice Spencer, who in 1579 married Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (c. 1559 – 1594). The three Spencer sisters were 'Phyllis, Charillis, and sweet Amaryllis' in the poet Edmund Spenser's Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1595).^[17]
  • Dorothy Kitson (1531–1577), who married firstly Sir Thomas Pakington (died 2 June 1571) of Hampton Lovett, Worcestershire, by whom she had four sons, Sir John, Henry, Robert and Thomas, and three daughters, Margaret, Katherine and Mary,^[16] and secondly Thomas Tasburgh (c. 1554 – c. 1602) of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire, by whom she had no issue.^[18][19]

• • Frances Kitson, who married firstly on 11 December 1548^[20] her step-brother John Bourchier, Lord FitzWarin (who predeceased his father), eldest son of John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath, by whom she had a son, William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath, and secondly she married William Barnaby of Great Saxham, Suffolk.^[16] Her monument with recumbent effigy exists in the south chancel aisle built by her father-in-law and step-father^{[21][lower-alpha 1]} in Tawstock Church, Devon, next to the Bourchier seat of Tawstock Court, and is covered by the earliest six-columned canopy in Devon.^[22]
  • Anne Kitson, who married, as his first wife, Sir William Spring of Pakenham, Suffolk.^[23]

Following his death, Kitson's widow secured two further advantageous marriages which further enhanced the wealth and prestige of the family.