Maternal Admonition as Devotional Practice: Letters of Mary Fane, Countess of Westmorland

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 See Charlton, especially Chapter 7, “Mothers as Educators.” 2 On Grace Sherington, Lady Mildmay, see Kelly, Hellwarth, Pollock, Martin, and Warnicke. This family's tradition of spiritual advice-writing may have its roots in a set of renowned English family letters, since Frances Manners Abergavenny's mother was Eleanor Paston, niece of John and Margaret Paston, whose family letters are critical for 15th-century social history. 3 Francis Fane's creation as Earl of Westmorland took place in 1624. This was the title's second creation after the first had been forfeit in 1571 as a consequence for the Rising of the North. 4 See Bowden, who cites Gotch on the renovations and additions at Apethorpe. 5 On this form of mother's legacy writing in manuscript texts, see Hrach. 6 Although his precise birth year is unknown, Francis was probably in his mid-teens in 1618 and in his late 20s in 1631. 7 Smith adds that “This subtlety is probably lost on PDE [Present-Day English] speakers, and explains why the distinction between WILL and SHALL in expressing future time is dying out” (138). 8 Bowden observes a contrast between “the formality of the letters of Lady Mary Fane, countess of Westmorland to her son in the advice book (Folger MS Va.180, fol.13v) [and] the informality and warmth of her letter to daughter Rachel sent privately to her in 1639 [Centre for Kentish Studies U269 C 268]” (175, footnote 7). 9 The English translations of Augustine and Bernard that Fane most likely read were Thomas Rogers's Augustine and an early Jacobean Bernard, both intended for a lay, godly audience.