Anne Sadleir 1585-1672

Anne SADLEIR 1585-1672

Biographical Note

Born at Huntingfield Manor, Suffolk, daughter of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634). Lived at Standon Lordship in Hertfordshire following her marriage to Ralph Sadleir. A literary patron and supporter of the Church of England, she continued to use the Book of Common Prayer despite its proscription and corresponded with leading Anglican divines, including the puritan minister Roger Williams.

Books

Known to have been an owner of books as well as coins and curiosities. Gave manuscripts including commonplace books, letters and the Trinity Apocalypse to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1649 and 1660. A Book of Hours of Sarum use, printed in Paris on vellum in 1527 and given by her to Trinity in 1660, has been identified as the book depicted in Hans Holbein's famous portrait of Thomas Cromwell. One of her commonplace books at Trinity includes an account written by Anne of the life of her cousin, Elizabeth, Lady Capel: a rare example of a female-authored account of another seventeenth-century woman’s life. She bequeathed manuscripts and portraits to the Inner Temple in 1661, including a sermon dedicated to her by Andrew Marvell.

Sources

• Commonplace Books and the Apocalypse: Anne Sadleir’s Manuscripts at Trinity.
• Burke, Victoria E. "Sadleir [née Coke], Anne (1585–1671/2), literary patron." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Emmerson, Owen and Kate McCaffrey, Holbein's hidden gem: rediscovering Thomas Cromwell's lost book, Hever Castle, 2023.
• Hunt, A. The books, manuscripts and literary patronage of Mrs Anne Sadleir, Early modern women's manuscript writing, ed V. Burke and J. Gibson, 2004, 205-228.
• West, S. An architectural typology for the early modern country house library, 1660-1720, The Library 7th ser 14 (2013), 441-464, p.461.