Buried – The Lady Ellinor Roberts Widd

When war raged across England in the 17th century the St. John family, like so many others, were divided by the conflict. Sir John St. John 1st Baronet, lost three sons to the Royalist cause while his two younger boys fought on the Parliamentarian side. His sister Lucy St. John watched her son Allen Apsley join his Cavalier cousins in battle while her daughter Lucy supported her regicide husband John Hutchinson.*

And yet another of those sisters portrayed on the St. John polyptych had to reconcile her Royalist background with the  sympathies of a Parliamentarian; William Roberts, a friend of Oliver Cromwell and her son in law.

When Jane’s husband Robert Atye died in 1612 he left his family well provided for. Following the death of his son Arthur his daughter Eleanor (spelling varies) became a wealthy heiress and a desirable marriage prospect.

Eleanor was about 16 years old when she married her near neighbour in Willesden, William Roberts in 1624, the year in which he was knighted by James I at Greenwich. The newly weds moved into Neasden House, the Roberts family home built by Thomas Roberts in the reign of Henry VIII. During William and Eleanor’s occupancy it became one of the largest houses in Willesden. It needed to be as the babies soon began to arrive, some sources say as many as 15.

A son, Edmund Roberts was baptised at St Mary’s, Willesden on July 23, 1625. After that they arrived at fairly regular intervals – William 1628, Mary 1629, John 1631, Jane 1634, Frances 1634/5, William 1637, Elizabeth 1639, Eleanor 1641, Edward (date of birth unknown). And during the Civil War Eleanor took three sons to St. Mary’s, Willesden to be baptised – Thomas on July 6, 1645, Francis on November 29, 1646 and Richard on April 9, 1648.

Sir William Roberts served on various commissions under Charles I but he soon revealed his Parliamentarian credentials. In 1644 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Middlesex and ordered to muster 300 trained men to suppress an uprising at Windsor.

Roberts was one of 135 nominated commissioners chosen to attend the trial of Charles I but it is unlikely he took an active role, unlike Lucy St. John’s son in law, John Hutchinson who was among those that signed the King’s death warrant.

A powerful character, Sir William dominated the parish of Willesden. He even conducted marriages at his house and took charge of the parish registers during the Interregnum, his signature frequently appearing within the pages.

Sir William’s post war career proved equally busy and very lucrative. He was first appointed as one of the contractors who arranged for the sale of episcopal land. By 1652 his role was extended to include the sale of crown and royalist land. Raised to the peerage in 1658, Lord Roberts took his seat in Cromwell’s ‘upper house.’

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Roberts managed to hang on to his wealth. He died on September 19, 1662 and was buried at St. Mary’s Church, Willesden.

So, as usual plenty of information can be found about Sir William, but what about Eleanor. Yes, it’s the same old story – I can’t even find a will as yet, although I’m convinced she must have left one.

Soon after her husband’s death Eleanor and her eldest son Sir William Roberts 1st Baronet ended up in a battle in the Court of Chancery. William challenged his mother’s right to sell 120 acres of land in Willesden and Hendon to Edward Nelthorpe. She meanwhile counter claimed that William was treating as his own land in Willesden, Kilburn and Hampstead that should have gone to a younger son, Edward.

There is one other intriguing reference to Eleanor. In an attempt to calm the religious turmoil that continued following the Restoration, Charles II issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence in 1672. This was an attempt to allow greater religious freedom for Catholics and non-conformists. Lady Eleanor Roberts of Willesden is recorded as requesting a licence for a non-conformist minister to serve at St. Mary’s, Willesden.

Eleanor died in 1678 and was buried at St. Mary’s, Willesden on November 22.

*And if you find the St. John family and the 17th century fascinating (and quite frankly, who wouldn’t) then you are sure to enjoy the Lydiard Chronicles, a series of three historical novels by Elizabeth St. John – The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided and Written in their Stars, with the companion Counterpoint series, Theo, Earl of Suffolk, Barbara, Lady Villiers and Henry, the King’s Cavalier.

Novels by Elizabeth St. John

 

 

Entry of a marriage ‘approved’ by William Roberts in 1653.

 

St. Mary’s, Willesden.

The St. John polyptych

Eleanor’s mother Jane St. John, third from right.

Charlotte Calvert, Lady Baltimore

How does Maryland, one of the Thirteen Colonies on the Eastern seaboard that came together to form the United States, have a connection with the St John family from Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire?

Lady Charlotte Lee was born on March 13, 1678 (Old Style) at St James’s Park at the house acquired for her parents by her grandfather Charles II. Her mother was Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, Charles’s favourite daughter by his mistress Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine. Her father was Edward Henry Lee, 1^st Earl of Lichfield. Charlotte, who was the eldest of some 20 children, was born when her mother was fourteen years old and her father fifteen.

Many online sources describe this portrait as being of Lady Charlotte, but it is more reliably believed to be that of her grandmother Barbara Villiers, Countess Castlemaine.

In 1699 Charlotte married Benedict Leonard Calvert. It was his great grandfather, George Calvert, who founded Maryland as a safe haven for persecuted English Catholics in 1632. Cecil Calvert, 2^nd Baron Baltimore (Benedict’s grandfather) was granted a Charter for the new colony to be named Maryland in honour of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.

However, the Calvert’s lost their Maryland inheritance in 1688 when it became a Royal Colony following the events of the Glorious Revolution and the accession to the English throne of William and Mary.

Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore

Within a year of their marriage Charlotte had given birth to the first of at least six children, including a set of twins. In these still turbulent religious times Charlotte’s father, the Catholic Earl of Lichfield, had endeavoured to steer his daughter along a purely Protestant path. However, after the birth of her first son in 1699 Charlotte converted to Catholicism.

Charlotte and Benedict separated in 1705 after an unhappy and abusive marriage. Salacious rumours circulated citing his cruelty and their mutual infidelities. It was said Charlotte had born a child in 1706 by her lover Colonel Robert Fielding, who was at the time bigamously married to Charlotte’s grandmother Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine.

In 1711 Benedict’s petition to Parliament for a divorce from Charlotte failed. He died four years later having only months before succeeded to the title of 4^th Baron Baltimore on the death of his father. Having claimed her title of Lady Baltimore, Charlotte quickly remarried.

Her second husband was the entrepreneurial Christopher Crowe who held a diplomatic post in Italy while also acting as an agent acquiring works of art for the English nobility.

The couple married in Geneva in August 1715 but made their home at Woodford Hall, a property set in parkland with surrounding woods and farmland on the edge of Epping Forest. Charlotte had four children by her second marriage – Christopher, Catherine, Charlotte and George.

In a post nuptial agreement drawn up in 1719 Christopher declared the property in trust for his lifetime and after that to his wife the Rt Hon. Charlotte, Lady Baltimore for her lifetime but sadly Charlotte would only live another two years. She died at the age of 42, some sources say from rheumatism, others from arthritis.

In the 19^th century Woodford Hall was the childhood home of poet and political activist and arts and crafts legend, William Morris. Demolished at the beginning of the 20^th century the Woodford Parish Memorial Hall in Woodford High Road stands on the original site, next to St Mary’s Church where Charlotte was buried in 1721.

Washington Monument Mt. Vernon, Baltimore – From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

The Maryland Colony was restored to the Calvert family’s control by George I, and Charlotte’s eldest son Charles inherited the title to Maryland aged just fifteen, on the death of his father and grandfather. He held the office of Proprietary Governor from 1732-1733.

In 1727 Charles appointed his younger brother Benedict Leonard Calvert (Charlotte’s second son) Governor, an office he held until 1731. Leonardtown is named in his honour.

Charlotte’s third son, Edward Henry Calvert held the office of Commissary General and President of the Council of Maryland and the Calvert/Maryland continued through to the next generation (more to follow).

The three surviving daughters of Sir John St John 1st Baronet and his wife Anne Leighton kneel at the feel of their parents’ memorial.

But, have you worked out the St John, Lydiard Tregoze connection? Well actually there are two! On her maternal side Charlotte was the granddaughter of Barbara Villiers, Countess Castlemaine who in turn was the granddaughter of Barbara St John (d1672) of Lydiard Tregoze. Charlotte’s father, Edward Henry Lee, was the grandson of Anne St John (1614-1696). Anne was Barbara’s niece, the daughter of her brother Sir John St John 1^st Baronet. A portrait of Barbara hangs in the State Bedroom in Lydiard House. Barbara also appears on the St John Polyptych in St Mary’s Church and Anne is one of the kneeling figures on her parent’s tomb. Both memorials were commissioned by Sir John.

The six St John sisters.

 

Elizabeth St John – Puritan pioneer

This week saw the screening on British TV of Jamestown, a series set in 17th century Virginia portraying what life was like for the early colonialists.  Established in 1607 the Jamestown colony had been without suitable marriageable women for 12 years when the enterprising Virginia Company began recruiting. Dr James Horn, president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation and adviser on the series says the women who volunteered for this scheme had a sense of idealism and optimism and came largely from the middle and lower middle classes.

The colonisation of Lynn, more than 600 miles north along the eastern seaboard, began soon after the settlement of Jamestown.

Local tribal leader Wenepoykin, renamed Sagamore George by the English, headed the Rumney Marsh Indians who lived on the borders of the marsh in Lynn and Saugus, Massachusetts.  Conflict between the indigenous Native Americans and the English settlers was a very real threat when Rev. Samuel Whiting and his wife, Elizabeth St John arrived in 1636.

Elizabeth St John was a pious, serious young woman, about as different from her licentious cousin Barbara, Countess Castlemaine as it was possible to be.

Born in Bletsoe, Bedfordshire in 1605, Elizabeth was the daughter of Oliver St John and his first wife Sarah Bulkeley.

The 17^th century St John’s were united by family associations but divided by political allegiance.  While the junior branch at Lydiard Tregoze stood firmly for the Royalist cause, the senior Bletsoe branch was Parliamentarian and Puritan.

Elizabeth’s elder brother was the celebrated lawyer Oliver St John who challenged the illegal Ship Money tax imposed by Charles I and later served as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.  Oliver was a staunch supporter of Oliver Cromwell and eventually married into the Lord Protector’s family – twice; firstly to an aunt, Johanna Altham and secondly to a cousin, Elizabeth Cromwell.

Raised in the well heeled St John family Bletsoe home, Elizabeth received a comprehensive education and developed an interest in public affairs.  Her biographer William Whiting writes that she was a fit companion of scholars and statesman. Elizabeth almost sounds too good to be true as William eulogises – ‘Beautiful in person and of cultivated mind, heroic but gentle, learned but modest …fearless of personal danger but of sensitive delicacy towards others, too high spirited to submit to the dictation of British prelates but too sincere a believer in the Prince of peace to provoke or endure controversy which could be honourably avoided, this noble woman gave her heart to her godly husband and her life to aid him in the ministry of the gospel.”

But there can be no denying that Elizabeth was made of stern stuff.

It is not known how or where Elizabeth first met Samuel Whiting.  Before taking a ministry in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, Samuel had been chaplain to Sir Nathaniel Bacon and Sir Roger Townsend.

Elizabeth married the young widower in Boston, Lincolnshire on August 6, 1629.  The Puritan Pastor had already gained a reputation for his outspoken views and had been twice prosecuted for nonconformity. Influential New England Puritan Pastor Cotton Mather wrote about Samuel that ‘his design was not to please but to profit; to bring forth, not high things, but fit things.’

These were difficult times and the Whitings were among around 20,000 colonists who left England for America during 1630-1640 seeking religious tolerance and with a vision of creating a new and better society.

Whiting forfeited his property in England declaring – “I am going into the wilderness to sacrifice unto the Lord and I will not leave a hoof behind me.”

Elizabeth turned her back on the good life and with her husband, her step daughter Dorothy and her own little son Samuel, to embark upon the unknown. The small family left England in early April 1636 arriving at Boston, New England on May 26 after a tortuous journey.

“I would much rather have undergone six weeks imprisonment for a good cause than six weeks of such terrible sea sickness,” the Rev. Whiting said.

Samuel and Elizabeth remained in Boston for six months before moving north up the eastern seaboard to Saugus where Samuel was inducted on November 8, 1636.

Alonzo Lewis and James R. Newhall describe the area in a History of Lynn published in 1890 as then having a ‘bold and rocky shore, consisting of craggy and precipitous cliffs, interspersed with numerous bays, coves, and beaches, which furnish a pleasing and picturesque variety. Above these rise little verdant mounds and lofty, barren rocks, and high hills, clothed with woods of evergreen.’ Five miles from Salem in the northeast and nine miles from Boston in the southwest, the area contained 9360 acres with a boundary line measuring thirty four miles.

The Saugus territory was later renamed Lynn after Kings Lynn in Norfolk with which the Whiting family had an association.

Elizabeth’s life in Lynn was far removed from the affluent childhood she spent in Bedfordshire.   Among her many duties as Pastor’s wife she instructed the youth of the parish, helped her husband with his writings and ran his domestic affairs. William Whiting, a descendant of the couple, wrote in his memoir of the Rev Samuel Whiting published in 1873 that  Elizabeth’s days were ‘filled with many cares of her family, her parishioners, her guests, and even of the wild savages with whose presence she was not unfamiliar and to whom she gave hospitable shelter.’

And Lynn parishioner Obadiah Turner wrote in his diary that ‘Elizabeth was a godlie woman and did much to cheer and help her husband.  By her learning she was able to give much instruction to the damsels of the parish, and they did all love her as she was a tender mother.’

The couple had six children.  Two died young but sons Samuel, Joseph and John became ministers themselves and their daughter Elizabeth married a minister.

Elizabeth died on March 3, 1677 aged 72.  Samuel died two years later.  They are both buried at the Old Western Burial Ground in Lynn.

Read more about the cemetery on  http://heartoflynn.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/old-western-burial-ground.html

The Lost Palace of Nonsuch

Earlier this month the future of a watercolour painting of the lost palace of Nonsuch by Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel was saved from export and secured for the nation.

The rare painting, now on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, was acquired with support from the National Heritage Fund and the Art Fund, ensuring that it remains in the UK.

Painted by Hoefnagel in 1568, the palace of Nonsuch was a monument to Tudor excesses, although by then it had temporarily passed out of royal ownership.

Work began on the palace in 1538 as Henry VIII celebrated the birth of his son Edward and the forthcoming 30^th anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Built in the Franco-Italian style it became one of the most important buildings of the English Renaissance.

Henry did a proper Tudor job on the Manor of Cuddington near Ewell in Surrey. He purchased the estate from Richard and Elizabeth Codington and then demolished the church and village to build his new palace. He called it Nonsuch Palace as there was no such palace to equal it.

Some 500 workman from across Europe were employed on the site where work began on April 22, 1538. However, it was still unfinished at the time of Henry’s death in 1547 and apparently the king only visited a handful of times while his son Edward showed little interest in the palace built to celebrate his birth.

Then in 1557 the palace passed out of royal ownership altogether when Henry’s daughter Mary sold it to Henry Fitzalan, the 12^th Earl of Arundel. Henry got the builders in to finish the job and it is believed it was he who commissioned Hoefnagel to paint his picture.

In 1592 Elizabeth I purchased the former family pile and was a much more frequent visitor. In fact it was here in 1585 that she signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with the Dutch rebels fighting against Spanish rule.

The palace passed into the possession of the next two Queens when James I gave it to his wife Anne of Denmark and his son Charles I gave it to his wife Henrietta Maria.

So how come that a mere forty years later Nonsuch was no more, razed to the ground, the only evidence of its existence a bump in the landscape.

Who could possibly be responsible for this wanton act of destruction? Go on, guess?

Following the death of his mother Henrietta Maria in 1669 Charles II gave Nonsuch to his troublesome mistress Barbara Castlemaine, granddaughter of Barbara St John and Sir Edward Villiers.

You might have thought she would be thrilled to inherit Henry VIII’s palace that had no such equal. But no, not our Babs.

The corrupt countess found the property a drain on her finances, so after she had stripped it and sold everything of value, she applied for permission to knock it down and then sold the fabric of the building, all to offset her gambling debts.

While Barbara Castlemaine may have engineered the destruction of Nonsuch Palace, its good to know that the Hoefnagel painting has been saved for future generations to enjoy.

Coventry v St John

When it comes to family tombs, St Mary’s, Lydiard Park has the daddy of them all.

The St John alabaster, black limestone and clunch ‘bedstead’ tomb, a monument to Anne Leighton, first wife of Sir John St John 1^st Bart was commissioned by Sir John some thirteen years before his death. In style and quality the tomb has been compared to work by Nicholas Stone, a leading 17^th century sculptor. It was made in London and transported to Lydiard Tregoze in sections where it was reassembled in St Mary’s Church.

During a recent visit to Croome Court I discovered a Coventry family tomb with similarities and a family connection to the St John one.

In 1751 George William 6^th Earl of Coventry, inherited Croome Court and one of the first things he did was demolish the medieval church which he considered to be too close to the house for his grand design.

He did, however, strip the church of much of its interior masonry and timbers which were reused in the new build on the hill. He also transferred the bodies of a few ancestors and had them reinterred in a vault beneath the church. He re-installed some magnificent memorials in the new church of St Mary Magdalene, consecrated on June 29, 1763.

One of the memorials that moved up the hill was that of Mary Craven, the wife of Thomas Coventry, 2^nd Baron Coventry of Aylesborough.

Mary was baptised at the Church of St Antholin in the City of London, on October 17,1602 the daughter of Sir William Craven and Elizabeth Whitmore and immediately we have a family connection to the St John memorial.

Mary’s mother Elizabeth Whitmore was the elder sister of Margaret Whitmore, second wife of Sir John St John, whose effigy lies on his right hand side.

And if you want another local connection, Mary Craven was the sister of Sir William Craven who built Ashdown House for Elizabeth of Bohemia and is the subject of Nicola Cornick’s time slip novel, House of Shadows.

Mary was a wealthy woman in her own right and a most suitable wife for the 2^nd Baron. The couple were married at St Andrew Undershaft, (a church which now stands in the shadow of the ‘Gherkin’ in the City of London) on April 2, 1627. A son and heir, George Coventry 3^rd Baron Coventry of Aylesborough was born in 1628 followed by a second son Thomas who later became the 1^st Earl. Two daughters died in infancy and a third son, depicted on the monument in Mary’s arms, died at birth.

Mary died on October 18, 1634 ‘in her 29^th year.’ She is depicted on the monument dressed in sumptuous bedclothes, reclining on a bed, a baby in her arms. Two children kneel at Mary’s feet, possibly her two sons, who would have been aged 6 and 5 at her death.

The Latin inscription on Mary’s monument translated reads:

In Memory of

That most illustrious Lady Maria, devoted wife of Thomas Coventry, eldest son of Thomas Baron Coventry of Allesborough, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. A truly most admirable woman, upon whom God lavished beauty, and what is rarer in her sex, virtue, her loveliness surpassing any woman’s, her generosity surpassing any man’s, of unblemished reputation and purity of life, with a lively mind, strong judgment, an easy eloquence and pleasant speech, calmly in control of her feelings, and finally not just a wise but a calm mistress of all these gifts. A fertile mother of four children, she arrived at the last fatal confinement, bringing forth a son, against nature, rather to death than to life, so that even while trying to share out her life, she lost it, and herself yielded to fate, a short time after her child, amid general lamentation.

Anne Leighton also holds her last and 13^th child in her arms on the St John monument, but we know this child, a son named Henry, lived to adulthood. Anne lies alongside her husband and his second wife Margaret Whitmore. At her head kneel Anne’s five surviving sons and at her feet her three surviving daughters. Two sons and two daughters who died young are depicted at the base of the monument.

The inscription reads: 

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Leighton, Knight, by his wife Elizabeth of the Knowles family and of the kindred of Queen Elizabeth, as blessed in character as in connection. She lived for thirty seven years, endowed with noble gifts of mind, body, and manner, a rare example of virtue and piety; she was the mother of thirteen surviving children; in the end, long worn down by the painful agonies of her last confinement and at last overcome, she fled to heaven on the 19th September, 1638.

The date is incorrectly recorded and should read 1628.

The Coventry tomb is big and bold, but I have to say the St John one is more finely carved and superior, even with an error in the inscription. Well I would, wouldn’t I?

The Coventry monument

 

Mary Craven and child

The St John tomb

Margaret Whitmore, Mary Craven’s aunt

The Bedstead Tomb

It was the year 1615 and Sir John St John began commissioning a series of quite astounding monuments to immortalise his family in the parish church of St Mary’s, Lydiard Tregoze.

St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze

The first memorial was the quite extraordinary polyptych complete with a pedigree painted on the outer panels. Next came the remodelling of the south chapel in 1633 followed by the Bedstead Tomb, a monument to his first wife Anne who died in 1628 and their thirteen children, and his second Margaret Whitmore, Lady Grobham, who still had four years to run on her clock.

Sir John himself would die in 1648 at his Battersea home, but not before three sons perished fighting for the Royalists in the English Civil War.

Skip 300 years or so and by 1977 ‘the Bedstead tomb’ was in desperate need of restoration and repair. For some time the magnificent memorial made of alabaster, black carboniferous limestone and clunch, a hard, compact grey chalk, had been supported by a cradle of scaffolding and awaiting attention by conservator John Green.

Sir John St John 1st Bt

In style and quality the tomb has been compared to work by Nicholas Stone, a leading 17^th century sculptor. It was made in London and transported to Lydiard Tregoze in sections where it was reassembled in St Mary’s Church.

Anne Leighton

By the 1970s the monument was in a sorry state with rising damp and water damage to the plinth and the entablature. Part of the structure had already collapsed, including the heraldic cartouche which had fallen and smashed into pieces on the church floor while figures on the upper canopy were also in a perilous condition.

John Green set to work on the monument with his assistant Michael Bayley. First it was completely dismantled, then cleaned, repaired and a damp proof membrane was inserted.

Margaret Whitmore, Lady Grobham

The monument measures approximately 4 metres long, 2 metres wide and stands nearly 4.5 metres tall. The tremendous weight of the monument required considerable support beneath the church floor and during the restoration work a pile of 17^th century bricks was discovered to be doing just this.

The historical and architectural importance of St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze was recognised in Simon Jenkin’s book ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches,’ published in 1999. Sir Simon said of St. Mary’s: “Were the South Chapel to be removed lock, stock and barrel to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, it would cause a sensation.”

Lady Anne Clifford

Don’t you just love the St John women – intelligent, feisty, and brave? From Anne St John, Countess of Rochester who juggled her estates, protecting her family fortunes during the English Civil War, to Anne Douglas, Lady Dalkeith who laid her life on the line to protect baby Princess Henrietta Maria, the 17th century St John women showed their mettle.

And here is the story of another, earlier, Anne – Anne Clifford, whose ancestry can be traced back to two St John women on both the maternal and paternal sides of her family.

In 2013 a lost portrait of Anne was discovered in a private European collection and purchased by the National Portrait Gallery – but the story of Anne is far from lost and her name appears in scholarly works and books by eminent historians such as Professor R.T. Spence and Lady Antonia Fraser.

Anne Clifford

Anne was born on January 30, 1590 at Skipton Castle, Yorkshire, the Clifford family seat. As the third child and only daughter of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, and his wife the former Lady Margaret Russell, Anne’s future was pretty much mapped out for her.

However with the death of her two elder brothers Anne became heiress to the title Baroness Clifford suo jure and extensive land and property in the north of England – but claiming her inheritance would be far from plain sailing.

The death of their two sons coupled with the de rigueur bad behaviour of the 3rd Earl, saw Anne’s parents drift apart and for much of her childhood the couple lived separately. Anne grew up with her mother’s family at the great Russell owned mansions Chenies in Buckinghamshire and North Hall in Northaw and was at the very centre of court life. When the Queen died in 1603 thirteen year old Anne wrote in her diary:

‘When the corpse of Queen Elizabeth had continued at Whitehall as long as the Council had thought fit, it was carried from thence with great solemnity to Westminster, the Lords and Ladies going on foot to attend it, my mother and my aunt of Warwick being mourners, but I was not allowed to be one, because I was not high enough, which did not trouble me then, but yet I stood in the church at Westminster to see the solemnity performed.’

 Surrounded by her intellectual relatives and all the big names on the 17th century arts scene, Anne grew up well educated.Throughout her lifetime she was a great reader with Chaucer a particular favourite. Anne could also be found swotting up on Turkish history and there was nothing she enjoyed more than being read to.

But then in 1605 her father died and Anne’s long battle to secure her inheritance began.

In his will George Clifford left his daughter a useful £15,000 portion but the extensive estates in the north he bequeathed to his brother Francis.

Anne’s mother, Lady Margaret, rapidly took up the legal cudgels on behalf of her 15 year old daughter and secured occupancy of the Skipton properties, although Francis retained possession of these and the rest of the estates. It would take more than 40 years of litigation and the death of Francis and his son Henry, before Anne could claim her rightful inheritance.

Before that she weathered two pretty unhappy marriages. The first to Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset in 1609 who was dubbed ‘one of the 17th century’s most accomplished gamblers and wastrels.’ The couple had five children, three sons who died young and two daughters.

Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset

Dorset was openly unfaithful to his wife and even brought his mistress, Lady Penistone, to live at the family home of Knole House.

Even worse, Dorset involved himself in Anne’s inheritance battle, complicating the situation and winding up Anne at the same time. In 1615 the couple were told they could either have the Skipton and Westmorland estates or the £15,000 portion but not both. Dorset’s interference led to all the estates going to Francis and his male heirs while Anne received £17,000 in compensation which Dorset promptly snaffled.

Despite an injection of wealth on the death of Dorset in 1624 life didn’t get any easier.

The first thing Anne did was to buy from the crown the wardships of her two daughters Margaret and Isabella before securing her own future with a marriage to Charles I’s Lord Chamberlain, Philip Herbert, Earl of Mongomery and Pembroke in 1630.

Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery and Pembroke

Now in her forties Anne was not prepared to stand for any nonsense and as soon as he started with the ‘I want Skipton Castle …’ malarkey she left him to it. Taking her younger daughter Isabella with her, Anne divided her time between Pembroke’s Wiltshire homes until the outbreak of the Civil War, by which time he had moved across to the Parliamentarian side and needed her to guard his treasures at his London home, Baynard’s Castle.

Following Pembroke’s death in 1649 Anne spent her last years doing – well, exactly what she wanted to. She restored numerous castles on her estates between which she progressed with royal like splendour. She built properties and almshouses for her retainers and commissioned works of art and monuments. A generous friend she bought books in bulk, mainly of a devotional nature, to give as presents.

Lady Anne Clifford in later life

Anne died on March 22, 1676 in Brougham Castle aged 86 – one of the wealthiest noblewomen of her time – and was interred in St Lawrence Church, Appleby.

Anne Clifford’s monument in St Lawrence Church, Appleby.

The recently recovered portrait was painted by William Larkin in about 1616 when Anne was 26/28. Anne’s description of herself – ‘The colour of mine eyes was black like my father’s and the form and aspect of them was quicke and lively like my mother’s. The hair of my head was brown and very thick … with a peak of hair on my forehead and a dimple in my chin’ was one of the contributory factors when it came to identifying the portrait.

On her paternal side Anne’s 3x great grandmother was Anne St John, the daughter of Sir John St John and Alice Bradslaugh. Sir John was the elder son of Oliver St John and Margaret Beauchamp and headed the senior, Bletsoe branch of the St John family. He was half brother to Margaret Beaufort and therefore uncle to Henry VII.

On her maternal side Anne’s grandmother was Margaret St John, the daughter of Sir John St John and Margaret Waldegrave. This Sir John was the grandson of Sir John and Alice – I know, it’s tricky keeping tabs on everyone.

The Great Picture tells of Lady Anne’s family history and was commissioned by her in 1646. It hung in Appleby Castle for more than 300 years and today is on show at Abbot Hall Art Gallery.Visit the website to learn more about the picture.

In 1615 St John St John 1st Baronet of Lydiard House, Wiltshire commissioned something very similar to commemorate his family history. The polyptych in St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze, will be open on the weekend of July 25 and 26 to celebrate its 400th anniversary.

St John polyptych

For more about the history of Lydiard House see Status, Scandal and Subterfuge.

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

If you enjoyed reading about Anne Dudley, Countess of Warwick I’d now like to introduce you to her younger sister Margaret, who is just as interesting!

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

Margaret was born on July 7, 1560 at Bedford House, Exeter. Her mother, the former Margaret St John died at Woburn from smallpox when Margaret was about a year old. The little girl was placed in the care of her mother’s younger sister Alice, wife of Edmund Elmes and spent the next seven years at their Manor House in Lilford, Northamptonshire.

An Elizabethan childhood was short and before she was 10 years old Margaret went to join her sister Anne as a Maid of Honour at the Queen’s court.

Margaret married a distant St John cousin, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, on June 24 1577 at St Mary Overies, Southwark in a double wedding with George’s sister Frances to Philip, Lord Wharton in the presence of the Queen.

George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland

It hadn’t been exactly love at first sight for the teenage Margaret, but I suppose on paper it made good sense. The couple had two sons, Francis and Robert, and a daughter Anne (the subject of a soon-to-be-published blog post) but sadly the boys died young and the Ear sought solace in the ladies of the court.

Lady Anne Clifford

Margaret wasn’t prepared to hang around and be humiliated so taking her daughter she upped and left the Clifford home, spending time at her brother’s estate in Cookham and with her widowed sister Anne in her property at Austin Friars. the former priory made even more famous by Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s right hand man.

Like all the women in her family (I like to think it’s those St John genes) Margaret had a love of learning. She was described as a pious, even zealous puritan and well read with a keen interest in alchemy and science. She distilled her own medicines (as did Lady Johanna St John from Lydiard House) and invested in lead mining on the Clifford estates at Craven, experimenting in the smelting of iron with coal.

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

The entry for Margaret in the Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell – Vol 1 reads as follows:

‘This Margaret Russell, Countess of Cumberland, was endowed with many perfections of mind and body. The was naturally of a high spirit, though she tempered it well by grace; having a very well favoured face, with sweet and quick grey eyes, and of a comely personage. She was of a graceful behaviour, which she increased the more by being civil and courteous to all ranks of people. She had a discerning spirit, both into the disposition of human creatures and natural causes, and into the affairs of the world. She had a great, sharp, natural wit so as there were few worthy sciences but she had some insight into them; for though she had no language but that her own yet were there few books of worth translated into English but she read them … She was dearly beloved by those of her friends and acquaintance that had excellent wits and were worthy and good; so as towards her latter end she would often say, that the kindness of her friends towards her had been one of the most comfortable parts of her life, and particularly of her husband’s two sisters. She was also very happy in the dear love and affection of her eldest and excellent sister, Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick (who being almost thirteen years older than herself, was a kind of mother to her), as well as in that of their middle sister, Countess of Bath for these three sisters in those times were the most remarkable ladies for their greatness and goodness of any three sisters in the kingdom.’

Margaret famously fought her daughter’s corner when George Clifford left his estates to his brother Francis. A tenacious family historian Margaret produced documentary evidence to undermine Francis’s claims to the Clifford estates in the north. Although Margaret’s findings proved insufficient to retain her daughter’s inheritance at the time they later came in good use when Anne Clifford took on the battle.

Anne Clifford’s memorial to mother Margaret, Countess of Cumberland in St Lawrence’s Church, Appleby.

Mother and daughter enjoyed a close relationship. Following Margaret’s death at Brougham Castle on May 24, 1616, her grieving daughter erected a memorial – the Countess Pillar at the gateway to the castle where she last parted from her mother on April 2, 1616.

The Countess Pillar

The Beautiful Lady Craven

Ashdown House was the subject of a recent talk at Swindon Central Library by best selling author of historical romances Nicola Cornick. The former hunting lodge on the Berkshire and Oxfordshire borders was built in 1662 by the fabulously wealthy William Craven for the exiled Elizabeth of Bohemia, sister of Charles I.

Elizabeth of Bohemia

The Purbeck stone floor in the entrance hall at Ashdown made from stone quarried in Swindon was just one of the local connections Nicola revealed. And even more interesting were a couple of St John family ones as well.

In 1714, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, politically adrift following the death of Queen Anne, holed up at Ashdown House where he plotted and planned to restore James II’s Catholic son to the English throne.

Among the Craven ladies Nicola mentioned was the colourful, self styled ‘beautiful’ Lady Craven.

Elizabeth Berkeley married William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, on May 30, 1767 at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. Elizabeth would later describe her husband as fond and stupid while she was beautiful and clever. The marriage, which had begun happily enough, eventually failed after thirteen years and seven children. In her memoirs Elizabeth blamed the breakdown on her husband’s affair, but it might not have been quite so one sided as that.

The beautiful Lady Craven

The gutter press of the day delighted in the antics of the indiscreet Lady Craven. And in 1773 literary hostess Mrs Frances Boscawen wrote to that other literary lady, Mrs Mary Delany – “we talk much of Lady Craven and have a variety of stories which I shall not employ my pen to string for you…”

In 1780 Craven settled £1,500 a year upon his troublesome wife, sending her on her way. Taking her youngest son Richard Keppel Craven with her, Elizabeth set up home in a house at Versailles.

An intrepid traveller and prolific writer, Elizabeth’s oeuvre consisted of “sonnets, rebuses, charades, epilogues, and songs, and besides, not a few plays” according to a contemporary. Elizabeth numbered lexicographer Samuel Johnson among her devotees who described her as “the beautiful, gay, and fascinating, Lady Craven.”

William Craven died in 1791 leaving Elizabeth free to marry her longtime amour, also recently widowed, Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Bayreuth, a cousin of George III. Elizabeth and Alexander moved to England where they lived in some style at properties in Hammersmith and Berkshire.

Following Alexander’s death in 1806, Elizabeth returned to the continent. She died at her home, Craven Villa in Posillipo, Naples in 1828. She is buried in the English Cemetery at Naples.

And that all important St John connection? Elizabeth’s daughter Arabella Craven, born in 1774, married General Hon. Frederick St. John, second son of Frederick St John 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, and Lady Diana Spencer. Today Ashdown House is owned by the National Trust and Nicola is a member of the team of volunteers who undertake guided tours of the property.

Elizabeth Countess of Portsmouth

If the family stories handed down to you included the fate of two first cousins twice removed, beheaded by a tyrannical King, you could be forgiven for being a bit anti-monarchist. Add into the sticky mix a great grandfather who was possibly the illegitimate son of the same red bearded, big cod piece wearing bully and a great great grandmother whose maiden name was Boleyn – well its enough to turn a good gentlewoman a bit, how shall we say, republican!

Elizabeth Howard – a miniature from the studio of John Hoskins the elder. Courtesy of Ham House, Surrey

Elizabeth Howard was the only surviving child of William Howard and his wife Ann. It was William who could trace his lineage through his mother Katherine Carey, the daughter of Henry Carey who was the son of Mary Boleyn and, rumour has it, Henry VIII.

William’s father, Charles 1st Earl of Nottingham was the grandson of the powerful Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and first cousin to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s second and fifth wives.

Elizabeth Howard was born on January 19, 1603 at Arundel House, the London Howard family home – “a large and old built house, with a spacious yard for stabling towards the Strand, and with a gate to enclose it, where there was a porter’s lodge, and as large a garden towards the Thames near St Clement Danes.” (British History Online.)

Elizabeth divided her time between her father’s London home and Bletchingley Palace, a manor house given to the family by Queen Elizabeth and once belonging to her father’s fourth wife the unattractive, so say, but extremely fortunate Anne of Cleves.

The year 1603 was a momentous one. A year in which the old Tudor Queen Elizabeth died and James VI of Scotland added the English crown to his portfolio.

Elizabeth Howard by Anthony van Dyck

In 1620 Elizabeth married John Mordaunt, who had his own monarchical problems. John was the son of Henry Mordaunt, imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Whether the Crown ever had a case against Henry remains up for debate. He was eventually released after a year in the fortress prison, during which time his son was removed from the family home and made a ward of the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott.

Fortunately the handsome young Mordaunt heir had caught the eye of King James who had a weakness for a comely pair of male legs. In 1616 he made John a Knight of the Bath as part of the celebrations of the investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales and on March 9, 1628 Charles himself created John 1st Earl of Peterborough. So everything was hunky dory on the royal front then?

However as an impending civil war loomed on the horizon, Elizabeth made no bones about whose side she was on, and it wasn’t the King’s.

Elizabeth and John had three surviving children, sons Henry and John and a daughter Elizabeth.

John died in 1642. Elizabeth outlived him by almost 30 years. She died at their Drayton home in Northamptonshire in 1671. Her body was interred in the churchyard at Chelsea Old Church alongside her father and grandmother Katherine Carey.

So I know you are waiting for the great St John reveal. Well the first connection is straightforward. Elizabeth’s mother was Ann St John of Bletsoe, the daughter of John 2nd Baron St John of Bletsoe and Catherine Dormer from the senior branch of the family descended from Margaret Beauchamp’s elder son John.

 

Anne Leighton

But there is another …

Remember Elizabeth’s father William Howard traced his ancestry back to Henry Carey, the son of Mary Boleyn, and possibly Henry VIII. Well Mary had a daughter Catherine who may also have been the daughter of Henry VIII. Catherine Carey married Francis Knollys by whom she had a daughter named Elizabeth. Elizabeth Knollys married Sir Thomas Leighton and their daughter Anne married Sir John St John 1st Baronet, whose magnificent alabaster memorial stands in St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze.

Fascinating, isn’t it!