No. 43. MISTRESS HERBERT.
Elizabethan dress. Ruff. Jewelled hat. Auburn hair. Inscription—‘Richard
Herbert of Blackhall’s wife, being daughter to Newport of Arcole.’
DIED 1627.
By Zucchero.
HE cannot do better in giving an account of this most remarkable and exemplary woman than to quote the words of her distinguished son, Edward, tenth Lord Herbert of Cherbury: ‘My mother, Magdalen, was the fourth daughter of Sir Richard Newport, by his wife, Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Bromley, one of the Privy Council, and Executor of King Henry the Eighth. She married Richard Herbert, grandson of Sir Richard Herbert of Blackhall, County Montgomery, Knight, and surviving her husband, gave rare testimonies of an incomparable piety to God and love to her children. She was most assiduous and devout in her daily, both private and public, prayers, and so careful to provide for her posterity, that though it were in her power to give her estate, which was very great, to whom she would, yet she continued long unmarried, and so provident for them, that after she had bestowed all her daughters with sufficient portions upon very good neighbouring families she delivered up her estate and care of her housekeeping to her eldest son Francis. She had for many years kept hospitality with that plenty and order as exceeded all, either of her county or town, for besides abundance of provision and good cheer for guests, which her son Sir Francis continued, she used ever after dinner to distribute with her own hands to the poor, who resorted to her in great numbers. Alms in money she gave also, more or less, as she thought they needed it. After my mother had lived most virtuously and lovingly with her husband for many years (who died in 1597), she after his death erected a fair monument for him in Montgomery Church, brought up her children carefully, and put them in good courses for making their fortunes, and briefly was that woman Dr. Donne has described in his funeral sermon.’
Speaking of his father Lord Herbert says: ‘He was black-haired, and bearded, of a manly but somewhat stern look, but withal very handsome; compact in his limbs, and of a great courage.’ His grandfather was also distinguished for the same quality, and was noted to be a great enemy to the outlaws and thieves of his time, who appeared in great numbers in the mountains of Montgomeryshire. Lord Herbert also commends his grandfather’s extreme hospitality, which caused it to be an ordinary saying, if any one saw a fowl rise in the country at that time—‘Fly where thou wilt, thou wilt light at Blackhall.’
Mistress Herbert had seven sons, of whom the eldest was the aforementioned Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and three daughters. She seems to have merited her son’s encomiums. Izaak Walton says of her: ‘She was a person of superior abilities, and was highly esteemed for her great and harmless wit, cheerful gaiety, and obliging behaviour, which gained her a friendship with most of any eminent birth or learning in the University of Oxford, where she resided four years during the time of her widowhood, in order to superintend the education of her children, who were all young at the time of their father’s death. When she had provided for them she took to her second husband, Sir John Danvers, Knight, brother and heir to Henry, Earl of Danby, who highly valued both her person and most excellent endowments of mind. It was Magdalen Newport, Mrs. Herbert, and Dame Danvers, who inspired those favourite lines of Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s, so often quoted—