Lady Elizabeth Delaval (c. 1648 – 1717) was a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

ist and Jacobite agent, whose self-reflective writings 'shed light on the upbringing and marriage arrangements of a girl belonging to a prominent

royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

family.'

Life

Elizabeth Delaval was the only daughter of

James Livingston, 1st Earl of Newburgh James Livingston, 1st Earl of Newburgh (c. 1622 – 4 December 1670) was a Scottish peer who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1661 to 1670. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Livingston was the only son of Sir ...

, a Scottish peer and member of the House of Commons, and his first wife, Catherine. In 1649, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

the family left

Bagshot Bagshot is a town in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. In the past, Bagshot served as an important staging post between London, Southampton and the West Country, evidenced by the original c ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

for

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. The following year, on the death of her mother, Elizabeth was taken into the care of her father's sister and raised by her in

Nocton Nocton is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the B1202 road, south-east from Lincoln city centre. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 819. To the east o ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. In 1662, aged 14, Elizabeth was made a maid of the

privy chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, ...

. On 10 July 1670, she married Robert Delaval, the son of

Sir Ralph Delaval, 1st Baronet Sir Ralph Delaval, 1st Baronet (13 October 1622 – 29 August 1691) of Seaton Delaval, Northumberland was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1685. Delaval was the son of Robert De ...

. Affected by her precarious position as a woman, whose fate was largely in the hands of her father and aunt, and by religious troubles, Deleval's ''Meditations'' reflect:

a worldly crisis that is interwoven with her attempts to achieve an improved spiritual state using prayer and meditation.

Delaval's memoirs cover the years 1663 and 1672, from her teenage years to her early twenties. They alternate between the religiously focused (including meditations and prayers), and the personal (including commentary on her family relationships and romantic courtships). Providing insights into both her daily life, and the politics of her time, Delaval's writings have been studied by scholars in the fields of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

, Jacobite history, and

literary studies Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

. Delaval's writings stopped shortly after her marriage, but demonstrate her unhappiness within it. She describes how 'miserably' she has 'failed in the performance of this last new duty’ as a wife. Nevertheless, the marriage lasted until Robert Delaval's death in 1682. Elizabeth Delaval remarried in 1686. Her second husband was Henry Hatcher, with whom, in 1688, she was involved 'in a plot to hide documents to be sent to James II in a ‘pewter pot’ with a false bottom', known as the pewter pot conspiracy. Elizabeth was sought as a conspirator, and fled to France. She and Henry were employed by the court at

St Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...

, and - a Jacobite agent - she appears to have travelled between Paris and London during the 1690s. In the years following the death of James II, she petitioned a number of times to return to England, but was denied. Even when she asked to return to England as a widow in 1713, she appears to have been refused. She died in France, still in exile, in 1717.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delaval, Elizabeth 1640s births 1717 deaths Year of birth uncertain 17th-century English memoirists 17th-century English women writers 18th-century English people 18th-century English women English Jacobites Daughters of Scottish earls British women memoirists English people of Scottish descent English expatriates in France English exiles