Anne Sadleir

File:Standon Lordship 3.png]]

File:British (English) School - Called 'Sir Ralph Sadleir (1507–1587), of Hackney, Standon and Buntingford' (but really his grandson - 283831 - National Trust.jpg)]]

On 13 September 1601 "at the age of fifteen" she married Ralph Sadleir (1579 – 1661) of Standon, Hertfordshire, with a dowry of £3,000.{{sfn|Burke|2004}} The marriage took place at Burghley House in Lincolnshire, where the bride's father, then Elizabeth I's Attorney General, "furnished the feast with all magnificence" and the "plate given by friends to the bride was above £800."{{sfn|Boyer|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lkEv6eccC44C&pg=293 293]}} Ralph was the eldest son, and heir, of the wealthy landowner, Sir Thomas Sadleir (c. 1536 – 1607), lord of the manor of Standon, and his second wife, Gertrude, daughter of Robert Markham, of Cotham, Nottinghamshire.{{sfn|Cassidy|1981}} Sir Henry Chauncy, writing thirty years after his death, says he delighted in hunting and hawking and the pleasures of country life; was famous for his noble table, his great hospitality to his neighbours, and his abundant charity to the poor.{{sfn|Chauncy|1826|p=[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433071366516&view=2up&seq=536 430]}} Standon Lordship, the grand manor house where the couple lived after their marriage, was built for Ralph's grandfather, Sir Ralph Sadleir (1507–1587).{{sfn|Heal|1943|pp=108–116}}

File:St Mary, Standon, Herts - geograph.org.uk - 361615.jpg

An autograph poem about her early life appears in the smallest of her commonplace books (R.13.74):

"Hunting-field gave me Birth
Ellsing Education
Standon brought Affliction
Which made Heaven my Meditation"

Her mother died in 1598 when she was thirteen and she was particularly close to her father.{{sfn|Burke|2004}} He visited Anne in 1603 when James VI of Scotland stayed two nights at Standon on his way to London to claim the English throne.{{sfn|Clutterbuck|1827|p=228}} He visited her again in 1616 following his dismissal from his post as Chief Justice of the King's Bench.{{sfn|Burke|2004}} In 1622 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and Anne was given leave to visit him as she was seen as a good influence on him.{{sfn|Hunt|2016|pp=206–207}}

Ralph Sadleir died on 12 February 1661 and was buried in the parish church at Standon.{{sfn|Stoney|1877|p=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924027961683/page/n263/mode/2up?view=theater 249]}} On his death the male line of the Sadleir family came to an end and the Standon estate passed to her "adopted deare son", Walter Aston (1609 – 1678) of Tixall, Staffordshire, son of Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar (1584–1639) and her late husband's sister, Gertrude.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{sfn|Heal|1943|pp=108, 111}}{{sfn|Cokayne|1910|pp=[https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo01coka/page/284/mode/2up?view=theater 285]–286}} Anne continued to live at Standon for the rest of her life.{{sfn|Burke|2004}} On 16 April 1661 Walter wrote to console his "most deare mother":{{sfn|James|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/jamescharlesw.chiefjusticecokehisfamilydescendantsatholkham/page/n42/mode/1up?view=theater 66]}}

"Pray be merry, itt is the best Physick, and I trust in God I shall many and many a time be merry with you at Standon; and if at any time my presence shall be necessary lett me but receave the least notice of itt, and itt shall he obeyed, for I can bee with you in three days. My wife and all myne present desire their duty."

Sadleir owned a large number of books as well as illuminated manuscripts, coins and curiosities.{{sfn|Hunt|2016|pp=205–236}} Several volumes of Sadleir's personal papers are held in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, including religious and autobiographical meditations (MS R.13.74) and letters from leading Anglican divines and other correspondents (MS R.5.5). She was a royalist and a fervent adherent of the Church of England; she continued to use the prayer book despite its proscription during the English Civil War and engaged in "vigorous epistolary disputes" with her Roman Catholic nephew, Herbert Aston,In 1660, she wrote to Aston, "this advantage I must tell you our Religion has over yours, we have the liberty to read all books as well as yours though you must read none of ours … and I have read most of all yours that I could get, and I thank allmighty god they have been so far from converting me, that they have more confirmed me in my own". Emmerson & McCaffrey 2023, pp. 38-39. and the New England puritan divine Roger Williams.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{sfn|James|1929|pp=[https://archive.org/details/jamescharlesw.chiefjusticecokehisfamilydescendantsatholkham/page/n35/mode/1up?view=theater 52]–63}} She made substantial bequests to the libraries at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Inner Temple, institutions attended by her father and by other members of her family.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}

Trinity College Library:

In 1649 and 1669 she presented Trinity with her letters and notebooks, her coins, and several illuminated manuscripts.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{cite web |title=Commonplace Books and the Apocalypse: Anne Sadleir's Manuscripts at Trinity |url=https://trinitycollegelibrarycambridge.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/commonplace-books-and-the-apocalypse-anne-sadleirs-manuscripts-at-trinity/ |website=Trinity College Library, Cambridge: Treasures from the Collection |access-date=21 January 2023 |date=5 July 2019}}

• Anne Sadleir, Collection of letters, drafts and other papers, R.5.5
• Anne Sadleir, Commonplace Book, R.5.6
• Anne Sadleir, Commonplace Book, R.13.74
• The Trinity Apocalypse, R.16.2

Trinity College Apocalypse - f1r.jpg|Trinity College Apocalypse, f001r

Trinity College Apocalypse - f7r - Revelation of St John - WGA.jpg|Trinity College Apocalypse, f007r

Trinity Apocalypse - Sealing of the Elect.jpg|Trinity College Apocalypse, f007r - The Sealing of the Elect

One of Anne's books, a jeweled devotional work, Thomas Cromwell's book of hours (C.30.9), was discovered in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2023 by researchers from Hever Castle.{{cite news |last1=Blackburn |first1=Jack |title=Thomas Cromwell's Book of Hours is found in Cambridge library |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/book-hours-thomas-cromwell-hans-holbein-cambridge-university-library-2023-mdfcnjmdj |access-date=21 August 2023 |work=The Times |date=8 June 2023}}{{sfn|Emmerson|McCaffrey|2023|pp=6–9}} The prayer book is depicted in Portrait of Thomas Cromwell {{Circa|1532}}–1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Inner Temple Library:

In 1662 the Inner Temple Library received:

• Two portraits, including Sir Edward Coke, 1552-1634. Attributed to Paul Van Somer.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{cite web |title=16th and 17th Century |url=https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/inner-temple/library-history/17th-century/ |website=Inner Temple Library |access-date=22 January 2023}}
• Thirteen manuscripts, including a sermon dedicated to Sadleir by Andrew Marvell, father of the poet, Petyt MSS 530/A–F and 531/A–G, and many books from her library.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{sfn|Davies|1972|pp=85–88}}

Anne Sadleir made her will on 18 May 1670.{{sfn|Hunt|2016|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6P5ADgAAQBAJ&pg=PT308 226]}} She died in late 1671 or early 1672 and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Standon.{{sfn|Burke|2004}}{{harvnb|James|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/jamescharlesw.chiefjusticecokehisfamilydescendantsatholkham/page/n42/mode/1up?view=theater 67]}}: "It may be assumed that she died between October 21, 1670, when it is on record that she presented Mr. John Wade as Vicar of Standon, and March 15, 1671, which is the earliest date in the Standon Register of Burials." There are magnificent tombs, with effigies, for her late husband's father and grandfather in the chancel, while for his wife there is only "a modest tablet" of black and white marble on the wall of the vestry with the following inscription:{{sfn|James|1929|p=[https://archive.org/details/jamescharlesw.chiefjusticecokehisfamilydescendantsatholkham/page/n42/mode/1up?view=theater 67]}}{{sfn|Stoney|1877|pp=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924027961683/page/n263/mode/2up?view=theater 248–249]}}

"Here lieth the body of Anne Coke, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Coke, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, by his first and best wife Bridget Paston, daughter and heir of John Paston, of Norfolk, Esq. At the age of fifteen she was married, in 1601, to Ralph Sadleir, of Standon, in Hertfordshire. She lived his wife 59 years and odd months. She survived him, and here lies in assured hope of a joyful resurrection".

Anne Sadleir was the inspiration behind M. R. James's ghost story "The Uncommon Prayer Book". M. R. James will have come across her papers, with their many virulent references to Oliver Cromwell, when he catalogued the manuscripts of Trinity College Cambridge.{{sfn|Hunt|2016|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6P5ADgAAQBAJ&q=Sadleir+James%27s+notice&pg=PT5 205–206, 224]}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Boyer |first1=Allen D. |title=Sir Edward Coke and the Elizabethan Age |date=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=9780804748094 |page=293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkEv6eccC44C&pg=293}}
• {{Cite ODNB |last=Burke |first=Victoria E. |title=Sadleir [née Coke], Anne (1585–1671/2), literary patron |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/68095}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Burton |first1=Edwin |title=Standon Lordship, Hertfordshire |url= |journal=Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society |date=1906 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=140–148}}
• {{cite book |last1=Cassidy |first1=Irene |editor1-last=Hasler |editor1-first=P. W. |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 |date=1981 |via=History of Parliament Online |chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/sadler-thomas-1536-1607 |chapter=Sadler, Thomas (c.1536-1607), of Standon, Herts.}}
• {{cite book |last1=Chauncy |first1=Henry |author1-link=Henry Chauncy |title=The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire |volume=1 |date=1826 |publisher=J. M. Mullinger |location=Bishops Stortford |pages=429–430 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433071366516&view=2up&seq=534}}
• {{cite book |last1=Clutterbuck |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Clutterbuck |title=The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford: Compiled from the Best Printed Authorities and Original Records Preserved in Public Repositories and Private Collections; Embellished with Views of the Most Curious Monuments of Antiquity and Illustrated with a Map of the County |volume=3 |date=1827 |publisher=Nichols and Bentley |location=London |oclc=62053799 |pages=28–29, 226–228}}
• {{cite book|last1=Cokayne |first1=G. E. |author1-link=George Edward Cokayne |title=The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom |volume=1 |year=1910 |publisher=St Catherine Press |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo01coka/page/284/mode/2up?view=theater |editor1=Gibbs, Vicary |editor1-link=Vicary Gibbs (St Albans MP) |pages=285–286}}
• {{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=James Conway |author1-link=James Conway Davies |title=Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple |volume=1: The Petyt Collection, MSS. 502-533 |date=1972 |publisher=Oxford University Press for the Masters of the Bench of the Inner Temple |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPEZAAAAMAAJ |location=London |isbn=9780197116333}}
• {{cite book |last1=Emmerson |first1=Owen |last2=McCaffrey |first2=Kate |title=Holbein's Hidden Gem: Rediscovering Thomas Cromwell's Lost Book |date=2023 |publisher=Jigsaw Design and Publishing for Hever Castle & Gardens |location=Exeter |oclc=1382684836}}
• {{cite book|last1=Harvey |first1=William |author1-link=William Harvey (officer of arms) |last2=Cooke |first2=Robert |author2-link=Robert Cooke (officer of arms) |last3=Owen |first3=George |author3-link=George Owen (herald) |editor=Blaydes, Frederic Augustus |title=The Visitations of Bedfordshire, Annis Domini 1566, 1582, and 1634, Made by William Harvey Robert Cooke and George Owen As Deputy for Richard St. George: Together with Additional Pedigrees Chiefly from Harleian Ms. 1531; and an Appendix Containing a List of Pedigrees Entered at the Visitation of 1669; Also Lists of Bedfordshire Knights and Gentry Taken from Lasdowne Ms. 887 |year=1884 |series=The Publications of the Harleian Society |volume=29 |location=London |publisher=Harleian Society |url=https://archive.org/stream/visitationsbedf00britgoog#page/n155/mode/2up |page=136 |oclc=866625909}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Heal |first1=Ambrose |author-link=Ambrose Heal |title=A Great Country House in 1623 |journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs |date=May 1943 |volume=82 |issue=482 |pages=108–116 |jstor=868565 }}
• {{cite book |author1-last=Hunt |author-first=Arnold |editor1-last=Burke |editor1-first=Victoria E. |editor2-last=Gibson |editor2-first=Jonathan |title=Early Modern Women's Manuscript Writing: Selected Papers from the Trinity/Trent Colloquium |chapter=The Books, Manuscripts and Literary Patronage of Mrs Anne Sadleir (1585–1670) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6P5ADgAAQBAJ&pg=PT5 |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |pages=205–236 |isbn=9781138257481}}
• {{cite book |last1=James |first1=Charles Warburton |title=Chief Justice Coke: His Family and Descendants at Holkham |date=1929 |publisher=Country Life Ltd |location=London |oclc=921453 |pages=50–68 |url=https://archive.org/details/jamescharlesw.chiefjusticecokehisfamilydescendantsatholkham/page/n34/mode/1up?view=theater}}
• {{Cite ODNB |last=Loomie |first=A. J. |title=Aston, Walter, Baron Aston of Forfar (1584–1639) |date=January 2008 |origyear=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/828}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Morris |editor1-first=John |title=The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers, Related by Themselves |series=1st series |volume=1 |date=1872 |publisher=Burns and Oates |location=London |pages=400–401 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k489AAAAYAAJ&pg=400}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Sadleir |first1=Thomas Ulick |author1-link=Thomas Sadleir |title=Sir Ralph Sadleir |url= |journal=Transactions of the East Hertfordshire Archaeological Society |date=1905 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=79–99}}
• {{cite book |last=Stoney |first=F. Sadleir |title=A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Right Honourable Sir Ralph Sadleir |year=1877 |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924027961683/page/n263/mode/2up?view=theater |oclc=3930522 |pages=248–249}}

{{refend}}

• [https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/trinity-college-prayer-book-belonged-to-thomas-cromwell-new-research-suggests Trinity College Prayer Book Belonged to Thomas Cromwell, New Research Suggests]
• [https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/uv/view.php?n=C.30.9#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-2924%2C-262%2C9646%2C5101 Thomas Cromwell's Book of Hours] Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge
• [https://trinitycollegelibrarycambridge.wordpress.com/2019/07/05/commonplace-books-and-the-apocalypse-anne-sadleirs-manuscripts-at-trinity/ Commonplace Books and the Apocalypse: Anne Sadleir’s Manuscripts at Trinity]
• [https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/R.16.2 The Trinity Apocalypse, R.16.2]
• [https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/inner-temple/library-history/17th-century/ Inner Temple Library, 16th and 17th Century]
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidrobarts/albums/72157623684826640 St Mary's Church, Standon, Hertfordshire] at Flickr
• [https://www.standonparishcouncil.gov.uk/ancient-monuments.html Ancient Monuments - Parish Church of St Mary]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadleir, Anne}}

Category:1585 births

Category:1670s deaths

Category:People from Suffolk (before 1974)

Anne