Anne St John was an English aristocrat and courtier.
She was a daughter of John St John, 2nd Baron St John of Bletso and Katherine Dormer, a daughter of William Dormer of Wing, Buckinghamshire.
She married William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham in 1597, and was known as "Lady Effingham". He was a son of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey.
Her daughter's birth in January 1603 was unexpected, according to John Chamberlain.[1] Elizabeth Howard (1603–1671) married Lord Mordaunt in 1621.[2]
In January 1605 she performed in the court masque, The Masque of Blackness as Psychrote. She was probably a stand-in for her mother-in-law, Margaret Howard, Countess of Nottingham, who was unwell.[3]
Her husband died in 1615. Her properties included Donnington Castle, to which the goldsmith and financier Peter Vanlore also had a claim.[4]
Lady Anne Clifford, a relation, mentions visiting her at the home of Elizabeth Darcy, Lady Lumley on 4 January 1616.[5] There was discussion in 1619 that Lady Effingham might marry Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex.[6]
Anne, Lady Effingham died in June 1638 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
References edit
- ^ Mary Anne Everett Green, CSP. Domestic, 1601-1603, p. 285.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 489: CSP. Domestic, 1619-1623, p. 233.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 489: Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark: A Cultural Biography (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 92-3, 101: Memorials of Affairs of State from the papers of Ralph Winwood, vol. 2 (London, 1725), pp. 39-40.
- ^ Walter Money, The First and Second Battles of Newbury and the Siege of Donnington Castle (London, 1884), pp. 270-1.
- ^ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 26.
- ^ CSP Domestic, 1619-1623, p. 11.