Magdalen Herbert

Magdalen Herbert born Magdalen Newport; Magdalen, Lady Danvers (1561 – buried 1 July 1627) was an English estate manager and patron. She was a patron to John Donne and the mother of poet George Herbert. She is seen as the head of an early English literary family.[1]

Magdalen Herbert
Born1561 (1561)
England
Died1 July 1627 (aged 65–66) (burial)
Children10

Life

She was born in 1561, she was the daughter of Sir Richard Newport of High Ercall, Shropshire.[2] Her maternal grandfather Sir Thomas Bromley was the executor of Henry VIII.[2]

She married Richard Herbert, Lord of Cherbury at her family home in Eyton on Severn near Wroxeter, Shropshire, in 1581. He was the eldest son of Edward Herbert who was a member of a collateral branch of the family of the Earls of Pembroke.[2]

Their eldest son, Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury was born on 3 March 1583 at Eyton on Severn. Subsequent children were Elizabeth, Margaret, Richard, William, Charles, the poet George Herbert (born 3 April 1593), Henry (born 1594), Frances, and Thomas (born posthumously 1597).[3] By 1593 they had moved to Black Hall, a large, low house in a valley overlooked by Montgomery Castle. Magdalen is seen as the head of an early English literary family.[1]

Her husband died in 1596 and for the next thirteen years she was the estate manager.[2]

She had a tomb erected in Montgomery church, where her husband was buried, in 1600. The tomb has effigies of Richard and herself and it includes maquettes of eight of their children. Her husband's heraldic symbols and his armour are included but his wife's heraldry and her dress are also are on prominent display. The tomb also includes a cadaver to show that death happens and a painting of a naked woman and the figure of Time are also included in the design.[2]

After her husband's death she had a close (possibly passionate) relationship with the poet John Donne which lasted up to her death.[4] Donne wrote a poem, "Ascension: To the Lady Magdalen Herbert", addressed to her.[5]

In about March 1609 she remarried to the much younger Sir John Danvers (c.1585-1655) of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, and Chelsea, London. They had no children in their marriage.[6]

She managed her own death.[2] Her funeral took place on 1 July 1627 and John Donne, by then ordained and Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, made the funeral oration.[1]

Danvers, a politician who later became known as one of the signatories of the death warrant of King Charles I, survived Magdalen and, after remarrying and having a family, died in 1655.[6]

References
  1. POWERS-BECK, JEFFREY (1998). ""Proudly Mounted on the Oceans Backe": The Myth and Emblematical Method of Thomas Herbert (with transcription)". English Literary Renaissance. 28 (2): 247–266. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6757.1998.tb01129.x. ISSN 0013-8312. JSTOR 43447577. S2CID 144799445.
  2. Malcolmson, Cristina (2019-05-09), "Herbert [née Newport, second married name Lady Danvers], Magdalen (d. 1627), estate manager and patron", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112761, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 2021-11-24
  3. Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900, volume 26, p.173; article on Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, by Sidney Lee.
  4. Ward, Frances (2011-07-01). "'Her of your name … ': John Donne and Magdalen Herbert". Theology. 114 (4): 269–278. doi:10.1177/0040571X11405133. ISSN 0040-571X. S2CID 170380987.
  5. "John Donne. 1896. The Poems of John Donne". www.bartleby.com. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  6. History of Parliament online article by Alan Davidson and Rosemary Sgroi.
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