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Rachel Bourchier, Countess of Bath ( Fane; 28 January 1613 – 11 November 1680), wife of
Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath
Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (1587 – 16 August 1654) of Tawstock in Devon, was an English peer who held the office of Lord Privy Seal and was a large landowner in Ireland in Limerick and Armagh counties, and in England in Devon, Som ...
(1587-1654), was an English noblewoman and writer, best known for her activities 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 ...
.
Origins
She was born at
Mereworth Castle
Mereworth Castle is a grade I listed Neo-Palladian country house in Mereworth, Kent, England. This source attributes the plasterwork to Francesco Bagutti, but Giovanni Bagutti would appear to be more likely.
History
Originally the site of ...
in Kent, the fifth daughter of
Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland
Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1 February 158023 March 1629), (styled Sir Francis Fane between 1603 and 1624) of Mereworth in Kent and of Apethorpe in Northamptonshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Comm ...
by his wife
Mary Mildmay
Mary Fane, Countess of Westmorland ( Mildmay; c. 1582 – 9 April 1640) continued her mother Grace Mildmay's interest in physic and was a significant author of spiritual guidance and writer of letters.
Family background
Mary was the daughter an ...
, a daughter of Sir
Anthony Mildmay
Sir Anthony Mildmay (died 1617) of Apethorpe Palace, Northamptonshire, served as a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire from 1584 to 1586 and as English ambassador in Paris in 1597.
Origins
Mildmay was the eldest son of Sir Walter Mildmay ( ...
of
Apethorpe Hall
Apethorpe Palace (pronounced ''Ap-thorp'', formerly known as "Apethorpe Hall", "Apethorpe House", "Apthorp Park" or "Apthorp Palace" ) in the parish of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, England, is a Grade I listed country house dating back to the ...
in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, where Rachel grew up. Rachel's brother,
Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland
Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland (24 January 1602 – 12 February 1666), styled Lord le Despenser between 1624 and 1628, was an English nobleman, politician and writer.
Life
One of seven sons of Francis Fane by his wife Mary Mildmay, g ...
, a poet and dramatist, was close to King
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
, who became a godfather to Fane's son in 1635. Another of Rachel's brothers was Colonel
George Fane
Colonel George Fane (c. 1616 – April 1663) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1663. He was Lord of the Manor of Hunningham. He fought in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.
...
, who also supported the Royalist cause.
Youth and writing
In her youth, Rachel Fane wrote
masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque ...
s for performance at family entertainments. One of these was her "May Masque" of 1627, possibly a Christmas or twelfth night masque, another is known as the "Wishing Chair Entertainment".
The "May masque" includes pastoral elements which would have been dramatised with props from the Apethorpe estate farms. These masques were either performed in the Long Gallery at Apethorpe, or the older Great Hall.
Around the time her masques were performed, Rachel Fane made a translation of a section of the French romance,
Amadis de Gaul, which survives with some of her other notebooks at the
Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone.
Marriages
First marriage
On 13 December 1638, at the age of 25, in the church of
St Bartholomew the Great in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
, she married the 50 year-old
Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath
Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (1587 – 16 August 1654) of Tawstock in Devon, was an English peer who held the office of Lord Privy Seal and was a large landowner in Ireland in Limerick and Armagh counties, and in England in Devon, Som ...
(1587-1654) of
Tawstock Court in Devon. By 1642 during the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
he was active in the Royalist cause, and wrote to his wife from York and London about the progress of the War. In December 1642 the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
ordered Thomas Browne to return the horses he had commandeered from the countess on behalf of
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, KB, PC (; 11 January 1591 – 14 September 1646) was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the 17th century. With the start of the Civil War in 1642, he became the first Captain ...
, the Parliamentary commander.
She bore him no children, although in 1663 she became the guardian of her nephew,
Sir Henry Fane (d.1706), the only child of her brother George Fane.
Following Bourchier's death in 1654, Rachel commissioned a striking monument in his memory, which survives in the south aisle chapel of St Peter's Church, Tawstock. Opinions vary as to its artistic merit, with
Hoskins
Hoskins is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Allen Hoskins (1920–1980), American child actor who played Farina in the Our Gang series
* Andrew Hoskins (born 1975), Canadian rower
* Anthony Hoskins (1828–1901), Royal Navy a ...
(1954) calling it "massive and ugly", while J. H. Marland deemed it "almost unequalled in singularity and absurdity". It is constructed in black and white marble, with four dogs supporting a
sarcophogus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
on their shoulders with a black obelisk at each corner.
Second marriage
Six months after the earl's death, she married
Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex
Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex (1625 – 26 October 1674) was an English peer, styled Hon. Lionel Cranfield from 1640 until 1651.
Cranfield succeeded his brother James as Earl of Middlesex in 1651. Around 1655, he married Rachel, daugh ...
(1625-1674), who was 12 years her junior, a
Gentleman of the Bedchamber
Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the royal household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Household; the term being fir ...
to King
Charles II. The marriage was not a happy one and the couple lived apart from 1661 onwards. After Cranfield's death in 1674, Rachel did not remarry.
Monuments
The life-size white marble statue of Rachel Fane, sculpted by Balthasar Burman (son of
Thomas Burman
Thomas Burman (1618–1674) was a 17th century English sculptor based in London.
Life
Born in London in 1618 of Jewish parentage he was indentured as a bound apprentice to mason and sculptor Edward Marshall in 1633. He began working indep ...
), which survives in St Peter's Church, Tawstock, is a copy of the statue of
Mary Cavendish (1556–1632) the wife of
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, 7th Earl of Waterford, 13th Baron Talbot, KG (20 November 1552 – 8 May 1616), styled Lord Talbot from 1582 to 1590, was a peer in the peerage of England. He also held the subsidiary titles of 16th Baron ...
,
sculpted in 1671 by Thomas Burman at the cost of her nephew
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne, KG, KB, PC (25 December 1676) was an English courtier and supporter of the arts. He was a renowned horse breeder, as well as being patron of the playwright Ben Jonson, and the intellectual gr ...
(1592-1676), which stands in a niche on the ''Shrewsbury Tower'' of the Second Court (which she partly financed) of
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
.
Sir
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
painted two portraits of Rachel, one prior to her first marriage, which survives, and another in 1641, for which she paid him £20, of which only an engraving survives, by Pierre Lombart. A miniature of the countess by
David des Granges
David des Granges (baptised 1611, d. in or before c.1672) was an Anglo-French miniature painter.
Life
The son of Samson de Granges and his wife Marie Bouvier, he was baptised twice on 24 March 1611, at the French church on Threadneedle Street, a ...
is held by the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...
.
In a 1670 work by Sir
Kenelm Digby
Sir Kenelm Digby (11 July 1603 – 11 June 1665) was an English courtier and diplomat. He was also a highly reputed natural philosopher, astrologer and known as a leading Roman Catholic intellectual and Blackloist. For his versatility, he is d ...
, a recipe for
syllabub
Syllabub is a sweet dish made by curdling sweet cream or milk with an acid such as wine or cider. It was a popular British confection from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Early recipes for syllabub are for a drink of cider with milk. By the 1 ...
appears, attributed to the countess.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourchier, Rachel
1613 births
1680 deaths
17th-century English writers
17th-century English women writers
17th-century English nobility
Daughters of British earls
Bath
People of the English Civil War