CHAPTER VII
FAMILY LETTERS
The following letters carry on the story of the Shrewsburys in domestic and official detail for the next year. The second stepson of Bess was by this time not only a married man, but a member of Parliament and a courtier. He and his eldest stepbrother and brother-in-law, Henry Cavendish, represented their own county. His brother, Francis Talbot, the Earl’s heir, who was also at Court, had been entrusted with diplomatic duties, and had already managed to get into mischief. Neither he nor Gilbert, who survived him, ever took such an important social or official position as that achieved by their father and stepmother. But in youth they were about the Court, and they held their parents in proper awe. Their occasional letters imply a strong sense of family duty and kinship in little things as in great. The first letter touches on a purely domestic matter. It is curious that, seeing his wife was his stepmother’s eldest daughter, Gilbert should not have referred to the Countess for advice and approval.
“My Lord,—My brother told me of the letter your Lordship sent him for the putting away of Morgan and Marven; and said he rejoiced that your Lordship would so plainly direct and command him what to do, and he trusteth hereafter to please your Lordship in all his doings; whereunto, according to my duty, I prayed him to have care above all manner of things, and advised him to keep secret your Lordship’s directions.
“I have found out a sober maiden to wait on my wife, if it shall please your Lordship. She was servant unto Mrs. Southwell, now Lord Paget’s wife, who is an evil husband, and will not suffer any that waited on his wife before he married her to continue with her. As it behoves me, I have been very inquisitive of the woman, and have heard very well of her behaviour; and truly I do repose in her to be very modest and well given, and such a one as I trust your Lordship shall not mislike; but if it be so that she shall not be thought meet for my wife, she will willingly repair hither again. Her name is Marget Butler; she is almost twenty-seven years old. Mr. Bateman[[18]] hath known her long, and thinketh very well of her: she is not very beautiful, but very cleanly in doing of anything chiefly about a sick body, to dress anything fit for them. I humbly pray your Lordship to send me word whether I shall make shift to send her down presently, for she is very desirous not to spend her time idly. Thus, most humbly desiring your Lordship’s daily blessing, with my wonted and continual prayer for your Lordship’s preservation in all honour and health, long to continue, I end.
“At the Court this Monday, the 25th of May, 1573.
“Your Lordship’s most humble and obedient son,
“Gilbert Talbot.”
Photo by Richard Keene, Ltd., Derby, from the picture at Hardwick Hall
By permission of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire
GILBERT TALBOT, SEVENTH EARL OF SHREWSBURY
Page [100]
The next letter is largely given up to gossip, and places the Earl of Leicester, who constantly writes wise and appreciative letters to the Shrewsburys, in the gay, vivid light in which he is best known to posterity. It is exhaustive, and touches on all the reports the writer can gather as to public criticism of Shrewsbury as gaoler, besides making allusion to the Earl’s financial difficulties.