Good Gentlewoman

Anne Leighton grew up during the volatile period of political intrigue and religious fervour that marked the end of the...

Johanna St. John (1631-1705) married her distant cousin, Sir Walter St. John, 3rd Baronet, around 1651. This marriage...

You could be forgiven for not knowing who Valezina Frohawk was. She did not leave any mark on the Lydiard Estate, the...

On a recent visit to Salisbury Cathedral I discovered this magnificent memorial. I took a step back, well several infact as...

If you think your family is quarrelsome, spare a thought for the Royal family. No, not the present one. I’m talking about...

The magnificent tomb of Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley stands against the south wall of the chancel in the church of St. Dunstan...

Set in a niche in the church of St Michael at Ewyas Harold is this magnificent effigy, a survivor from the late...

Now I may be stretching the St. John connection too far with this Good Gentlewoman, but I hope you will humour me. When...

In the summer of 1897, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire hosted a Fancy Dress Ball to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond...

In 1752 Mary Meredith married Laurence Shirley, 4th Earl Ferrers. Her parents must have been well pleased that their...

This week I am thrilled to announce the publication of my book The Ladies of Lydiard, which has been my work in progress for...

When war raged across England in the 17th century the St. John family, like so many others, were divided by the conflict....

There's no denying the Woodville women were a fine-looking lot. Elizabeth Woodville was said to have used her beauty and...

It's all very confusing! Some of the public family trees posted on the online genealogy website Ancestry are in a right...

Theresa Villiers was returned as MP for Chipping Barnet for the 5th time in the December 12, 2019 General Election. A former...

  Katharine Pleydell Bouverie Today Katharine Pleydell Bouverie’s work comes with an expensive price tag, which...

Have you seen The Favourite, the story of Queen Anne, her long-time favourite Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and the...

Sometimes the handwriting is almost illegible, the archaic language difficult to interpret, but I do love grappling with a...

Have you ever heard of the 17th century poet and dramatist Anne Wharton? No, neither had I. The only work published during...

How does Maryland, one of the Thirteen Colonies on the Eastern seaboard that came together to form the United States, have a...

Established in 1607 the Jamestown colony had been without suitable marriageable women for 12 years when the enterprising...

Earlier this month the future of a watercolour painting of the lost palace of Nonsuch by Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel was...

When it comes to family tombs, St Mary’s, Lydiard Park has the daddy of them all. The St John alabaster, black limestone...

“Welcome to my office,” said Joe as he led the Friends of Lydiard Park group from the visitor’s centre along a winding...

Lady Mary Kerr married Frederick St John in December 1788. She had just celebrated her 21st birthday and he was soon to turn...

The Lydiard Park estate came in to the possession of the St John family when Oliver St John married Margaret Beauchamp in...

From the 1770s, Strawberry Hill became famous for 'Works of Genius … by Persons of Rank and Gentlemen not artists'. Most...

Does this good gentlewoman, Lady Katherine Knollys, remind you of anyone? Her mother was Mary Boleyn and her father William...

It was the year 1615 and Sir John St John began commissioning a series of quite astounding monuments to immortalise his...

If you've ever wondered just how many royal connections the St John family has, I can tell you the answer - loads! But what...

Don't you just love the St John women - intelligent, feisty, and brave? From Anne St John, Countess of Rochester who...

Did you catch Jane, Lady Rochford in last night's episode of Wolf...

On February 3, 1537 five brothers, Sir James, Sir John, Oliver, Richard and Walter Fitzgerald, were taken from the Tower of...

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If you enjoyed reading about Anne Dudley, Countess of Warwick I'd now like to introduce you to her younger sister Margaret,...

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Keeping one's head in a crisis had a whole different connotation in the 16th century. And the more closely one was related...

Tudor fans this side of he pond are eagerly awaiting the launch of Wolf Hall, a major new BBC drama based on the Man Booker...

Chirk Castle has stood sentinel over the Welsh Marches for more than 700 years, one of a chain of 13th century fortresses...

There appears to have been some confusion concerning the portraits of the three Molesworth sisters in the Springhill...

There's nothing that excites me more than finding a family with multiple links to the St Johns of Lydiard Park - I know,...

Ashdown House was the subject of a recent talk at Swindon Central Library by best selling author of historical...

If the family stories handed down to you included the fate of two first cousins twice removed, beheaded by a tyrannical...

When Horace married Elizabeth they tied the knot 'at half past seven by owl light.' Now doesn't that sound magical - I shall...

At the end of the 17th century life continued to be pretty short and precarious whatever one's status. Medicine was still...

If you've ever been embarrassed by a spot of dad dancing or a dodgy jumper and slacks combo, spare a thought for Malet...

Well, it's all over - the hype, the excitement, the criticisms - as last Sunday evening saw the conclusion of The White...

So who did kill the Princes in the tower? Sunday's penultimate episode of The White Queen did a good job of considering all...

Joan Neville and I go back a long way. In fact, my love of history, stately homes and a predisposition to being nosey could...

Now more than half way through the ten part series and the success of The White Queen is no longer up for debate. You are...

This week's episode of The White Queen placed the scheming Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, centre stage with his daughters...

Second Neville sister Cecily was named for the least attractive female character in The White Queen BBC1 series, excepting...

During the 15th century the Church banned sex on every Sunday during Lent, and for pretty much half the rest of the year as...

In this week's episode of the White Queen (BBC1 9pm Sunday) St John sister Margaret Beaufort joins Warwick's rebellion...

Are you captivated by the new BBC1 historical drama The White Queen - or are you busy looking for zips, down-pipes and...

On this day in 1541 Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury was beheaded at the Tower of London. She was 67 years old and...

Elizabeth Felton was born on December 18, 1676 the only daughter of Betty and Sir Thomas Felton. One cannot help but wonder...

Sometimes it seems as if the 17th century St John family is related to just about everyone of any note ...or otherwise,...

When the remains of Richard III were found beneath Greyfriars Car Park, Leicester in September 2012 many had great and...

It has to be said that the St John men didn't make very good husbands, but that didn't stop them from trying! Frederick St...

The St John ladies of Lydiard Park certainly had a penchant for gardening.  From Johanna, famous for her herbal remedies,...

I'd like to say a huge thank you to my readers for their support during Good Gentlewoman's first year.  Actually, this blog...

According to librettist W.S. Gilbert - 'When constabulary duty's to be done, a policeman's lot is not a happy one.' The same...

Frederick St John's wife may have had a novel name and like that other Jane Eyre she too stood by her man through good times...

When the three St John Mildmay sisters married in the early nineteenth century, they each acquired a country residence...

Antonia Fraser, Judith Kazantzis and Rachel Billington are three sisters who have made their mark on the literary scene...

Sometimes the fleeting good gentlewoman passes almost without trace, leaving us to marvel at her wondrous ancestry and her...

If there was one attribute the Villiers family had in abundance it was - how can I put this - a tendency to be lewd and...

When it come to memorials, whether in stained glass, marble or oil painting, no family does it better than the St John...

In the 1660s the war torn medieval castle of Dromana high above the River Blackwater in County Waterford commanded stunning...

Lady Constance Lytton will be a name familiar to anyone who has studied the Votes for Women campaign waged between 1903 and...

Symbolist, sculptor and portrait painter George Frederic Watts is widely considered to be the greatest Victorian painter....

For those who really like a challenge, try following the intermarriages between the St John, Cromwell and Bernard...

Returning to our screens this weekend, Downton Abbey portraits an establishment where gentry and servants co-exist in a...

And just when you thought you had heard the last of the St John family at the court of Queen Anne - along...

You know how it is - you flip through the family photograph album and suddenly you come across that old snap, a woman...

Elizabeth Felton was a chip off the proverbial Villiers's block. The only daughter of James 3rd Earl of Suffolk and his...

Two first cousins named Barbara Villiers - born thirteen years apart and named after their grandmother Barbara St John....

This is the tale of yet another ambitious Villiers girl, and another Barbara to boot.  This Barbara was the eldest daughter...

William III is probably the last person one might expect to have a mistress.  In fact it has been suggested he was probably...

The Villiers family exploded onto the Royal scene in 1614 when George, later Duke of Buckingham, caught the roving eye of...

Today it seems incredible that the distinctive work of 'Curtain Master' William Larkin remained neglected and in question...

Maria Gunning must have been a tough act for Barbara St. John to follow. The five famous Gunning sisters were born in...

Who would live in a house like this? Well apart from Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII and other assorted monarchs, during the...

In which Anne fulfills a prophecy and saves a dynasty. Lady Johanna St John Anne St John was baptised at St Mary's...

When Charles I's coffin was opened during building work in St George's Chapel in 1813, Royal physician Sir Henry Halford...

It's tempting to ponder on how differently things might have panned out had Jane Seymour not been on the marriage market in...

Summer visitors to London still have plenty of time to catch The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned exhibition at Hampton...

When Sarah Whiting married Samuel Sparhawk on December 2, 1696 in Cambridge, Massachusetts the town was still a small...

Today's GG post takes a look at a less aristocratic but none the less interesting family and two women who lived an...

The St John family has several close connections with Royalty.  Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine had a whole nursery full...

In her book Cavalier - The Story of a 17th century Playboy - Dr Lucy Worsley describes the three Cavendish sisters as...

Most of what we know about Elizabeth Cromwell is based on propaganda written either by disaffected Parliamentarians or...

Sometimes it is only in death that we learn a little of the life of a Good Gentlewoman. Judith St John was born in c 1545...

Elizabeth Armistead's client list reads like a who's who of 18th century society.  The scurrilous Town and Country Magazine...

When Lady Johanna St John wrote her will in 1703 she left personal bequests to her son Henry and daughters Johanna Chute and...

Emma Whitbread was probably most men’s idea of the perfect wife.  When she wed Henry Beauchamp, 13th Baron St John of...

By 1762 the marriage between Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke and his wife Diana, eldest daughter of Charles, 2nd...

When William Cobbett visited Lydiard Tregoze on his fact finding tour of 1826 he observed that the estate had once been a...

It has to be said that the St John men didn't always make model husbands.  Those who married into the family were also...

Louisa St John was born c1744 just as building work on Lydiard House drew to a close.  The only surviving daughter of John,...

When Jane married Sir Henry Paulet St John in 1786 he got more than he bargained for – a fortune and a new...

It’s hardly surprising that two of Barbara Castlemaine’s three daughters went off the rails.  What is amusing is just...

Charles II’s mistress Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, wasn’t big on exclusivity.  She wasn’t what you’d call a...

When John met Lucy it wasn't her shy smile or her slender ankle that won his heart.  John Hutchinson, a 22 year old law...

While three St John sons famously gave their lives fighting for the Royalist cause during the English Civil Wars, another...