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Providence and posterity: a letter from Lord Mountnorris to his daughter, 1642

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Patrick Little
Patrick Little*
Affiliation:
History of Parliament, London
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Extract

The political career of Sir Francis Annesley, Lord Mountnorris, is well known to historians. A first-generation settler, he held plantation lands in Ulster and Munster; as vice-treasurer of Ireland he became a rival of the Boyle faction in the Dublin administration in the early 1630s; and after a spectacular fall from grace in 1635 he became one of Lord Deputy Wentworth’s bitterest enemies and spoke against him at his trial in 1641. Yet, unlike his rival, the first earl of Cork, there is little information about Mountnorris’s personal attitudes, his religious views or his family life, other than what can be gleaned from official sources, and from the (mainly hostile) comments of contemporaries. The discovery, therefore, of a cache of family papers in the Public Record Office at Kew provides a unique opportunity to flesh out the bones of his political career. It also allows a comparison between the Annesleys and the Boyles, whose extensive archive has moulded our view of the New English in general. Perhaps the most interesting of these documents is Mountnorris’s letter to his daughter, Beatrice Zouche, dated 5 February 1641[/2], in which he outlines how he expects her to order her day with prayer and meditation and domestic concerns appropriate for a godly matron. This letter reveals a great deal about Mountnorris’s own religious beliefs and his attitudes to his children, and provides some important clues about the mindset of the New English in Ireland.

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Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 128 , November 2001 , pp. 556 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2001

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References

1 Kearney, H. F., Strafford in Ireland, 1633-41 (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1989), pp 11–14, 35-41, 70-72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wedgwood, C. V., Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafford, 1593-1641: a revaluation (London, 1962), pp 196–202.Google Scholar

2 The Annesley material is contained in unsorted boxes classified as P.R.O., C 108/18,146,187-9,225-6.

3 P.R.O., C 108/189, part 2, envelope ‘Correspondence 2’.

4 Cal. S.P. dom., 1637, p. 252.

5 Mountnorris to Beatrice Annesley, 20 Oct. 1636 (P.R.O., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’). Annesley and Zouche had become acquainted on the Continent, where both were on grand tours.

6 G.E.C. Peerage, s.v. Zouche; see also Cal. S.P. dom., 1625-6, pp 87,160,281,484, 502; ibid., 1627-8, p. 29.

7 Cal. S.P. dom., 1636-7, p. 149. The Annesleys were quick to claim a connexion with the Cecils: in January 1638 Mountnorris was staying at Hatfield (Mountnorris to Zouche, 17 Jan. 1638 (P.R.O., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’)); and in 1639 Arthur Annesley was recommended to Wentworth by Salisbury’s friend, the earl of Pembroke (Pembroke to Wentworth, 9 Mar. 1639 (Sheffield Central Library, Strafford MS 18 (182))). The ‘powerful hand’ which presented Mountnorris’s petitions to the king in April 1637 may have been Salisbury’s (Sir John Coke to Wentworth, 6 Apr. 1637 (ibid., MS 17 (14))).

8 £1, 900 p.a., according to a letter from Mountnorris to Zouche, 17 Jan. 1638 (P.R.O., C 108/188, part 1,‘Correspondence 2’); the ‘debts of James Zouche’, [c. 1640] (ibid., ‘Bills’), gives the figure as £1, 600 p.a.

9 Zouche to Beatrice Annesley, 31 Oct. 1636 (ibid., part 2, ‘Correspondence’). For his debts see Mountnorris to Zouche, 17 Jan. 1638 (ibid., part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’).

10 For the indenture and counterpart see ibid., C 108/18. Beatrice’s £2,000 portion was matched by jointure lands centred on Odiham in Hampshire.

11 Cal. S.P. dom., 1637, p. 252.

12 P.R.O., C 54/3112/4; Mountnorris to Zouche, 17 Jan. 1638 (ibid., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’).

13 Notably the first earl of Cork, whose efforts to preserve the inheritance of the earl of Kildare seem to have been out of proportion to the value of the estate: see Canny, Nicholas, The upstart earl: a study of the social and mental world of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, 1566-1643 (Cambridge, 1982), pp 49–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Mountnorris to Zouche, 17 Jan. 1638 (P.R.O., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’). See also Ohlmeyer, J. H., Civil War and Restoration in the three Stuart kingdoms: the career of Randal MacDonnell, marquis of Antrim, 1609-1683 (Cambridge, 1993), pp 60–62.Google Scholar

15 On these occasions, and again in 1639, Mountnorris took goods worth £291 (records of household stuff taken 24 Jan., 26 Feb. 1638 and 1639 (P.R.O., C 108/189, part 1, ‘Bills’)); he also took deeds and evidences, including an Antrim’s bond for £2,000 (ibid., C 2/CHASI/Z1/16).

16 P.R.O., C 2/CHAS I/Zl/16.

17 Declaration by James Zouche, 10 Feb. 1638 (ibid., C 108/188, part 2, ‘Bonds’).

18 Cal. S.P. dom., 1637-8, p. 451.

19 Ibid., p. 396.

20 Ibid., p. 451.

21 P.R.O., PC2/49, f. 97r.

22 Mountnorris to Beatrice Zouche, 8 Dec. 1638 (ibid., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’).

23 Ibid., C2/CHASI/Zl/16.

24 Ibid.

25 Report of commissioners of the great seal in case of Edward Zouche, 6 Oct. 1657 (ibid., C 108/187,part l,unfol.).

26 Inventories of Sir Edward Zouche (at Bramshill and Woking, Sept. and Oct. 1634) and of James Zouche (at Woking, 11 Dec. 1643); cf. Lord Zouche’s inventory of Bramshill (14 Sept. 1607) which included a Bible and at least eight prayer-books in the ‘wainscotted dining roome’ (ibid.).

27 See P.R.O., C 108/187, part 2, ‘Bills’.

28 Ibid., IND: 1 17004 (Institution books, series A, vol. v), p. 76 (of second pagination); Cal. S.P. dom., 1637-8, p. 16.

29 Foster, Joseph, Alumni Oxonienses … 1500-1714 (4 vols, Oxford, 1891-2), ii, 489.Google Scholar

30 Will dated 9 Nov. 1642, inventory dated 11 Dec. 1643 (P.R.O.,C 108/187, part 1).

31 The works of William Laud, ed. Scott, William and Bliss, James (7 vols, Oxford, 1847-60), iv, 288-9; vi, 302, 372, 378, 530-31; vii, 80, 165-6.Google Scholar

32 The records of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn: Admissions, A.D. 1420-1893 (2 vols, London, 1896), i, 206Google Scholar; P.R.O., C 2/CHASI/Z1/16. For the puritan flavour of Lincoln’s Inn during this period see Peacey, J. T., ‘Led by the hand: manucaptors and patronage at Lincoln’s Inn in the seventeenth century’ in Legal History, xviii (1997), pp 26–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 Lincoln’s Inn Admissions, i, 222; licence to travel, Arthur and Robert Annesley, Feb. 1634 (P.R.O., SO 3/10, unfol); Arthur Annesley to Beatrice Annesley, 26 May 1636 (ibid, C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence 2’).

34 Order of Arthur Annesley, Sir Robert King, Sir Robert Meredith, John Moore and Michael Jones, 24 June 1647 (Bodl., MS Carte 21, f. 241).

35 For a contemporary parallel see Eales, Jacqueline, Puritans and Roundheads: the Harleys of Brampton Bryan and the outbreak of the English Civil War (Cambridge, 1990), pp 49–52.Google Scholar

36 Bayly, Lewis, The practice of piety (London, 1640 ed.)Google Scholar. First published in 1612, this work ran to 38 editions by 1642: see Heal, Felicity and Holmes, Clive, The gentry of England and Wales, 1500-1700 (London, 1994), pp 360-63.Google Scholar

37 Perkins, William, Works (3 vols, London, 1612-13)Google Scholar; Cole, Nathanael, The godly mans assurance (London, 1615)Google Scholar. For the use of works by both Perkins and Cole by Lady Brilliana Harley (another godly lady with Irish connexions) see Eales, Puritans & Roundheads, pp 49, 51. For the wider context of nonconformist prayer see Gillespie, Raymond, ‘“Into another intensity”: prayer in Irish nonconformity, 1650-1700’ in Herlihy, Kevin (ed.), The religion of Irish Dissent, 1650-1800 (Dublin, 1996), pp 41, 44-5.Google Scholar

38 Bayly, Practice of piety, p. 323 et seq., p. 446 et seq.

39 Mountnorris’s views would have been considered mainstream in the pre-Laudian Church of Ireland, but much had changed since 1634: see Ford, Alan, ‘The Church of Ireland, 1558-1634: a puritan church?’ in Ford, Alan, McGuire, James and Milne, Kenneth (eds), As by law established: the Church of Ireland since the Reformation (Dublin, 1995), pp 52-68.Google Scholar

40 Canny, Upstart earl, chs 4-5.

41 Ibid., pp 16, 27.

42 See, for example, Morrice, Thomas, ‘Memoirs of the life and death of the earl of Orrery’ in A collection of state letters of the … first earl of Orrery (London, 1742), pp 3–5 (of first pagination).Google Scholar

43 Gillespie, Raymond, Devoted people: belief and religion in early modern Ireland (Manchester, 1997), p. 12.Google Scholar

44 ‘Form for the government of the first earl of Cork’s family [at Stalbridge]’ (B.L., Add. MS 19832, f.22r).

45 Jerome, Stephen, Irelands jubilee, or Joyes lo-paean for Prince Charles his welcome home (Dublin, 1624), p. 141.Google Scholar

46 Canny, Upstart earl, p. 19.

47 Ibid., p. 32.

48 See Cole, Nathanael, The Christian mans walke (London, 1624), pp 467-8.Google Scholar

49 Beatrice Zouche to Lord Cottington, n.d. [1644] (P.R.O., C 108/188, part 1, ‘Correspondence’).

50 ‘The true state of things between the Lord Viscount Valentia and his son’ (ibid., ‘Correspondence 2’). (Mountnorris succeeded as Viscount Valentia in May 1642.)

51 Valentia to John Lloyd, 17 Feb. 1651 (ibid.). Cf. 2 Sam. 1: 26 (David’s lament for Jonathan).

I should like to thank Dr Alan Ford for his comments on a draft of this article; Dr Andrew Thrush, who alerted me to the presence of the Annesley material in P.R.O., C 108; and Dr Paul Hunneyball for wide-ranging discussion of early modern piety.