Winifred, Lady Strickland (1645–1725) was a member of the Jacobite court in exile.

Life

Winifred, the daughter of Sir Christopher Trentham and Winifred Biddulph, was baptized at

Rocester Rocester is a village and civil parish in the East Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. Its name is spelt ''Rowcestre'' in the Domesday Book. It is located on the Derbyshire border. Geography The village is about north of Utto ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, on 19 May 1645.Edward Corp, "Strickland ée Trentham Winifred, Lady Strickland (1645–1725)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', (Oxford, 2004). She married the widower

Sir Thomas Strickland ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part o ...

, of

Sizergh Castle Sizergh Castle is a stately home with garden and estate at Helsington in Cumbria, England, about south of Kendal. Located in Historic counties of England, historic Westmorland, the castle is a Grade I listed building. While remaining the hom ...

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

, in 1674. Sir Thomas already had two daughters from his previous marriage. Together the couple had five sons, including

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, a future bishop of Namur. Lady Strickland was present at the birth of

James, prince of Wales James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs or the King over the Water by Jacobites, was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until ...

, in June 1688 and was appointed his under-governess. Her husband became a member of the

Privy Council of England The Privy Council of England, also known as His (or Her) Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (), was a body of advisers to the List of English monarchs, sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House ...

in July. In the wake of the Dutch invasion, she was among the servants who secretly accompanied

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena (; ) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James VII and II. A devout Catholic, Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was t ...

and the prince of Wales to France in December 1688. Sir Thomas and Lady Strickland remained courtiers at the royal court in exile at St Germain-en-Laye, Winifred now responsible for the prince's upbringing. They resigned from court and retired to

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

in 1692 for health reasons. After Sir Thomas's death in 1694, Winifred returned to court and resumed her task as the prince's governess until he reached the age of seven. She then returned to England until 1700, recovering the family's property and consolidating its finances. On return to St Germain-en-Laye she was appointed

Woman of the Bedchamber In the Royal Household of the United Kingdom the term Woman of the Bedchamber is used to describe a woman (usually a daughter of a peer) attending either a queen regnant or queen consort, in the role of lady-in-waiting. Historically the term 'Gen ...

to the exiled queen. She was an early patron of the portraitist Alexis Simon Belle, and acquired an important collection of portraits of the Jacobite court. After the queen's death in 1718, she retired to the Poor Clare convent in Rouen, where her husband and her eldest son were buried. She died there on 17 April 1725 and was buried with them.

References

{{Authority control 1645 births 1725 deaths English Jacobites People from Rocester English art patrons Wives of knights