A Compendious NARRATION OF THE Most Examplar LIFE OF THE Right Honourable and Most Virtuous Lady Mary Late Countess of Shrewsbury Faithfully Collected out of the Writings of a most Learned and Worthy Person who attended her many Years By a Gentleman who by reason of his long acquaintance and much conversation with her can testifie the truth of all that is here related Printed in the Year 1677. Her Birth and younger years IT was in the year of our Lord 1599. on the 4th of October that this our Island and particularly the City of Westminster was honoured by the birth of this Lady truly Noble by all Titles It was in the house of her great Uncle by the half-bloud Sr. Thomas Parry Chancellor of the Dutchy that she first began her course of mortality which she so holily past over and it fell out to be in a room which had been formerly a Chappel dedicated to God in honour of the most blessed Virgin Mary his Mother and on the Feast of the glorious Patriark St. Francis a proper time and place for the birth of a person so much addicted to passe her time in the house of God and so true an Imitatresse of the vertues of that great Queen of Heaven and that humble Saint And as this happy creature whose life I am now exposing to publick view was far from giving trouble to others throughout the whole course of her life so also did she give none to my Lady her mother in her very birth who though she had suffered hard labours of all the rest of her children and of some of them dangerous yet in bringing her into the world seemed as it were exempt by particular dispensation from that common curse layd by God upon the whole sex Her descent was very Noble on all sides her father was Sir Francis Fortescu of Salden Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath a Gentleman of a very ancient knightly Family he being an heir of Sr. John Fortescu of the Privy Council to Queen Elizabeth and King James and descended lineally through a race of noble Auncestors many of whom had served their Princes in eminent charges both Military and Civil and were allyed by their marriages to several of the Nobility in the 15th generation from Sr. Richard Fortescu Knight who came into England with the Norman conquest Her Mother the Lady Grace Fortescu as eminent for her virtue as her birth was of the most illustrious Family of the Mannors Earls of Rutland and Lord Roos she being grandchild to Thomas Niece unto Henry and Aunt to John all Earls of that place To this advantage of bloud God had added that of so amiable and sweet a disposition and of so solid and lively wit and judgment that she was grateful to all persons and very capable of any knowledge which her sex is wont to possess this she made appear in her perfect and easy learning even of those ornamental qualities which took up the least of her thoughts and in which according to the fashion of other Ladies of condition in those times she was in her younger years brought up Though after her being married out of her great modesty and almost continual application of her self to employments of a higher strain she never but in just and unavoidable occasions spent any time in things of that nature But it is not my business here to play the Herald and to blazon her extraction or to dwell upon those inferiour transitory advantages of flesh and bloud my aym is to paint out the ornaments of her minde and to shew how near she was allied by her vertues to those Princes of heaven the constant attendants on the Throne of God Of those great virtues which were so eminently practised by her in her riper age she gave many auspicious prognosticks even from her infancy her love thereof and inclination to all actions of piety growing up in her with her years and even preventing them No child could be more exactly dutiful to her parents in compliance with whom she applyed her self with that zealous diligence and success to the gaining of a perfect knowledge and understanding of all the mysteries and articles of her faith and duties of a Christian as also of the grounds of all the Ceremonies used in the Holy Church that she was capable in her very childhood of declaring and explaining them to others and even then gave so great a testimony of so unusual a maturity of judgement both in her comportment and all her actions that she was thought fit and actually had leave of judicious and learned Ghostly Fathers to receive the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar before she was yet arrived to ten years of age And finally she grew to that degree of Christian perfection even before she could write young woman that she had an ardent desire to give over the world as soon in a manner as she was entred into it and dedicate her self to God by imbracing a religious life for love of him But her parents neither giving way rashly to those desires of hers nor daring expresly to oppose them in regard of their great piety caused the case to be consulted with Learned Religious men And upon the casting up of all circumstances wherein her delicacy of constitution and continyency in point of health had a great part they advised her to satisfy her self with leading a virtuous life in the way of a secular calling whereupon she knowing that obedience in some cases is better then sacrifice and weighing this truth in her wise heart that no body since he is a party is fit to be a Judge in his own ways applied her self to walk as perfectly as she could in that state to which her parents both spiritual and temporal advised her And in consequence to these counsels and advise she was bestowed by her friends in Marriage at the age of 16. upon that Noble Person John Tallbot then Esquire and afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury Nephew and Heyr to that most Saintlike and Learned Lord George Earl of Shrewsbury who resolving to live wholly to God even in the world as to all mens admiration he did disposed his Nephew in Marriage to this Lady and setled his whole Estate upon them and theirs And in that condition she lived most happily and holily as will hereafter appear above nineteen years The manner how she daily and constantly spent her whole time after she was married WHen once this Lady was setled in the state of Marriage she did so order and frame the course of her life that living here upon earth her conversation might be truly said to be in heaven Of this not only all her days but even hours and moments were convincing testimonies As soon as she rose in the morning which was Winter and Summer at an early hour before she thought of her dresse the first and chief business of worldly Ladies or spent any the least time in that or any employment or discourse
in that quintessence of this divine virtue humbleness of heart which still moved her to undervalue her self and to expresse to her ghostly Directour so much affliction of minde for her want of worth to merit those many blessings God had bestowed on her both spiritual and temporal upon account as she would frequently urge even with abundance of tears of her many sins and imperfections insomuch that he was forced for her comfort to use many perswasive discourses and reasons which her life and practise rendred abundantly convincing that she looked upon her few imperfections with magnifying glasses for no great sins ever stained her pure soul and not through Opticks which made a true discovery of them But as this true humility of hers would not permit her to take any notice of her own virtues but kept her heart still fixed on the consideration of her own unworthiness And so great did her own small faults appear in her own sight that the very reflection on any the least imperfection filled her eyes with tears and her heart with sorrow so on the other side no body was an higher magnifyer and esteemer of the virtues of others and principally when they shined in persons of High degree and would often bewail her self for not imitating such patterns and particularly she honoured and frequently celebrated in her Discourse that remarkable example of great Ladies for piety who truly trampled upon the pride and vanity of this world the Countesse of Arundel of the Lord D'Acres Family by birth betwixt whom and her self there had passed many Testimonies of mutual kindness And also that most excellent Lord the immediate Predecessor and Uncle of her Husband George Earle of Shrewsbury of whose great perfections she was many years an eye-witness upon whose death she forthwith repaired to her ghostly Father not with a heart filled with joy according to the usual strain of worldly Ladies for the honour that was thereby descended to her but full of a deep sense of her own unworthiness to succeed so Saintlike a person in so eminent a degree and therefore earnestly begged the assistance of his prayers that she might not soyle that honour by her sins but in some small measure at least imitate so good a president Neither was she less eminent in that high virtue preferable before sacrifice Obedience in imitation of our Blessed Saviour and divine Master who for us was made obedient to the death of the crosse and who though above all laws was for our sakes content to subject himself to humane Ordinations And she did not only practise this virtue in so high a manner as hath been already related in never having been guilty of any mortal breach of his holy Commandments but also by a most exact submission to all the Pastors and Prelates of his holy Catholick Church to whom he hath committed the cure of souls and those particularly to whom by virtue of that authority she had committed the regulation of her own conscience and spiritual concerns with whom she frequently consulted about those matters and never failed in a strict observance of their advises and directions And as to the duty of her own calling and most punctual compliance with the obedience due from a wife to a husband I may affirm without being contradicted by any one that knew her and her own constant family exceeded 60. persons that the fault would lye at the mens door if all marriages were not happy if all wife 's did but imitate her example For as she was most prudent in offering in an humble manner such advises upon just occasion as she judged conducing to my Lord her husbands advantage so did she ever with all cheerfulness submit to his determination And if he were at any time indisposed in health she not only expressed the tenderness of a most affectionate wife in her sense of his infirmity and her sollicitous providing of all remedies for his recovery but ever performed all the duties of a servant in his attendance All which he hath with much gratitude frequently acknowledged affirming that during the speace of above nineteen years wherein she lived his wife she never gave him the least cause of disgust but that he received much constant content from her agreeable and complasant conversation and much benefit from her frequent prudent and pious counsels and most of all from her exemplar practises And I am sure no person whatsoever whether domestick or other whether of the same Religion or a different had any difficulty to believe him For so high was the esteem of her virtues amongst all that every ones mouth was full of her praises And one Noble person though of a different Religion who made a condoling Visit to my Lord after her death speaking in the general language used by all when she was the Theme of the discourse said to him that he had no just cause to grieve for one who lived like a Saint upon earth and now shined like an Angel in heaven Her last sickness and Death AS her whole life was spent totally in a manner in successive acts of piety and devotion so did it please Almighty God in recompence of her virtue to grant her a most happy and Christian-like conclusion of it Her very last employments before she was consined to her dying Chamber and bed was a whole night to wit that of Christmasse spent according to her custome in acts of devotion she then joyning like a dutiful childe with her holy Mother the Catholick Church in celebrating the birth of the Saviour of the world and having then with her wonted pious preparation received the holy Eucharist Immediately after so many hours spent in such exercises going to retire to her rest she found her self seised with a most unusual coldness and with so violent an heart sickness that she concluded it to be mortal yet nevertheless as she had all her life shewed her self in a most exemplar manner a truly loving wife so would she now give dying Testimonies of it For neither would she quit my Lords chamber and Bed which she conceived her self about to quit for good and all nor yet give him any disturbance in it but with all patience suppressed the complaint of her sickness in silence not permitting any the least noise to be made by speech or otherwise or her bed to be warmed or any act of indulgence to be used to her self that might tend to the disquieting of him whom some indisposition had caused to retire sooner but lay quietly full of pains and as full of acts of confirmity to the divine will till he awaked then imparting to him the dangerous condition wherein she conceived her self and with that tenderness that became so truly indulgent and affectionate a parent recommending her children to his favour and care she desired in compliance with that obligation which lay upon her to make use of those means which God hath appointed for the preservation of health that Phisitians might be
sent for which my Lord being struck to the heart with that sad Good morrow she had given him did not fail to do with all diligence as knowing too well how much it concerned him to preserve so great a treasure And though she had by my Lords care the constant attendance of two or three of the ablest Doctors then in Oxford London being at too great a distance and that they at the beginning seemed hopeful of her recovery and failed not in the application of all those Remedies their Art could suggest yet it pleased God to render their endeavours ineffectual for the violence of her sickness encreased so fast upon her that according to her own opinion who by his Divine permission had taken a righter measure of her own Infirmity then they had it proved the means of freeing her within a few days of all the cares that attend a transitory life Her pains were extream seasing her in the most sensible part the prime seat of life her heart and her patience was equal for she was never heard to complain of or lament her condition but whensoever she was asked concerning it her only answer was as it pleased God upon whom her heart was wholly fixed and in continuall applications of her self to him and in fervent prayers to implore his mercy and grace the whole time of her sickness was spent On the last day whereof being the feast of the Holy Innocents she received Extream Unction with admirable devotion being so present to her self as to answer exactly to the Lytanies and to reach out her own hands to be annointed The next day being the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury that famous Martyr and Champion of the Church a day that was ever wont to be spent by her in a manner totally in devotion about six of the Clock in the morning just precisely at the conclusion of those devout prayers called the Recommendation of the soul used by the Catholick Church in the last Agonies of her children did this great Servant of God end this mortal life giving up her soul to him whom she ever loved served and obeyed with her whole heart as hath been I suppose sufficiently evidenced by many most remarkable and undeniable testimonies And I think I may without difficulty gain credit when I shall tell you how universal a consort of Lamentation there was in all that Family at the approach of her death when every one was considering how great a loss they were to undergoe not any but sensibly shared in this affliction seeing no children could have a more tender or careful Mother no servants a more Indulgent or charitable Mistress nor no Husband a more affectionate and obedient Wife After her Death it appeared evidently to those who had the ordering of her body for buriall that she had not only made a righter judgment of her danger then her Physitians but also of the quality of her Infirmity which shewed it self by the great evacuation of bloud at her mouth to have been an Imposthume she having several times some years before intimated that she conceived that there was one gathering about or near her heart where she felt her greatest torment She lived 36 years 2 months and 26 days and her Corps were with all convenient decency carried to Albrington in Shropshire a Town belonging to the now Earles of Shrewsbury and the usuall place of Sepulture of that branch of that family unto which that Earldome hath been descended these four last generations and there it was interred in a Church dedicated to God in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury upon whose Feast she died and laid in the self-same Vault with that of the late most Learned and holy George Earl of Shrewsbury formerly mentioned whose virtues she did so effectually imitate She left behinde her 4 Sons and 3 Daughters having buried 2 Sons during her life to wit the Lord George Tallbot who died in his youthful age and inherited the heroicall spirit of his great Name but left no issue behinde him Francis the second Son Earl after his Father a Gentleman generally esteemed by all worthy persons and as much lamented by all such who hath left issue Charles the present hopeful Earl and one other Son and a Daughter the picture both in her face and humour of her Father Edward the third Son kill'd in the late Civill Wars in the service of his King at the Battle of York and Gilbert the fourth and youngest Son still living Her 3 Daughters were the Lady Frances the Lady Katherine and the Lady Mary all were most praise-worthy for their excellent dispositions and virtuous comportments the two first dyed in their young age without issue the Lady Mary is still living and hath issue one Son by her first husband the grandchild by the Fathers side of Thomas Lord Arundell of Wardour and Count Imperial and by the Mothers of the Lord Viscount Montacute and both Sons and Daughters by her second husband the brother and heir apparent of James Lord Studly and Earl of Castle-haven Gods holy Name be blessed for having given her the Grace to leade so holy a life and make so happy an end and may we by his grace and favour through the mercies of Christ profit by the example of her virtues FINIS