Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram (died 1657) was an English aristocrat. Anne Stanley was a daughter of

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, KG (1561 – 29 September 1642) was an English nobleman and politician. Stanley inherited a prominent social position that was both dangerous and unstable, as his mother was heir to Queen Elizabeth I un ...

, and

Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby Elizabeth Stanley (née de Vere), Countess of Derby, Lord of Mann (2 July 1575 – 10 March 1627), was an English noblewoman and the eldest daughter of the Elizabethan courtier and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. She was the Lord of M ...

. On 20 July 1615, she married Sir Henry Portman (1596–1621) of

Orchard Portman Orchard Portman is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The village has a population of 150. The parish includes the hamlet of Thurlbear and the nearby Thurlbear ...

, Somerset, a Member of Parliament and Keeper of Roche Forest. The couple had no children. In November 1621,

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

wrote to Anne's mother, proposing Sir Robert Kerr as a second husband for Anne, arguing that his position in court as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber made up for his lack of wealth. Anne married Kerr. He became the Earl of Ancram in 1633. Kerr lived in exile in Amsterdam during the Civil War. His royal pension was stopped by the Commonwealth. Lady Ancram petitioned Parliament for funds in both September 1653 and again in 1654, seeking support for her six surviving children. She received £5 weekly. According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, £5 in 1633 would be the equivalent of £1,158.33 in 2020 ($1,600.41 USD). Robert Kerr died in Amsterdam in 1654. Anne died in February 1657 and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. There is no monument.

Family

Her children with Robert Kerr included: *Vere Kerr (c. 1622-1708), who married Henry Wilkinson. The

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...

has a manuscript recipe book (V.a.612) connected with the family and according to the title, compiled in part by Anne's eldest daughter. *

Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancram Charles Kerr, 2nd Earl of Ancram (1624 – September 1690) was a Scottish peer and a member of the English House of Commons.Lodge (1847)p. 305/ref> Biography Charles was born on 6 August 1624 at Richmond, Surrey to Anne daughter of William Sta ...

(1624-1690) *Elizabeth Kerr, who married Colonel Nathaniel Rich. *Henrietta Maria Kerr (d. 1647), buried at Westminster Abbey. *Stanley Kerr Anne (nee Stanley) Kerr, Countess of Ancram, can easily be confused with her contemporary, Anne Kerr, Countess of Lothian. The

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end ...

Knowsley Hall Knowsley Hall is a stately home near Liverpool in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. It is the ancestral home of the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. The hall is surrounded by of parkland, which contains the Knowsley ...

had a version of her portrait wearing a black dress with red sleeves, ornamented with silver sprigs, dated 1638 and attributed (in the nineteenth century) to

Gerrit van Honthorst Gerard van Honthorst (Dutch: ''Gerrit van Honthorst''; 4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname ''Gherardo delle Notti' ...

.''Catalogue of the first special exhibition of national portraits ending with the reign of king James the Second on loan to the South Kensington museum'', vol. 2 (London, 1866), p. 90 no. 529: George Scharf, ''A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Knowsley Hall'' (London, 1875), pp. 82-3 no. 145
Sketch of the portrait dated 1839, National Portrait Gallery

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ancram, Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram 1657 deaths Stanley family Daughters of British earls 17th-century English nobility 17th-century English women Anglo-Scots Burials at Westminster Abbey