Letter from John Fitzherbet to Elizabeth Talbot (née Hardwick) Countess of Shrewsbury

This letter to the Countess of Shrewsbury is a plea from John Fitzherbert to intervene on his behalf regarding a debt which Lord Wensley wishes John to repay and which he cannot. Fearing for the lives of his children if he is imprisoned, he asks for the Countess's help in the matter. There is one side of writing, the reverse is addressed to "the right honourbale and good lady Countess of Shrewsbury".

Elizabeth Talbot, nee Hardwick (?1527-1608) Countess of Shrewsbury, or 'Bess of Hardwick', was the daughter and coheiress of John Harwick of Derbyshire and Elizabeth Leake. She married Robert Barlow as a teenager, and upon his death shortly after, he left her, and her heirs, his successors. In 1549 she married Sir William Cavendish and the couple bought the Chatsworth estate. Before his death in 1557, Bess had six children with Cavendish, her second son William would found the Devonshire Earldom, later Dukedom. Bess went on to marry Sir William St. Loe in 1559 who was Captain of the Guard for Queen Elizabeth I, and the marriage appears to have been a happy one, until he died in 1565. In 1568 Bess remarried for the fourth and final time to George Talbot, Sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, granting Bess the title of Countess of Shrewsbury. In December 1568 Elizabeth I gave custodianship of Mary Queen of Scots to the Shrewsburys, which caused many martial issues for the couple and led to their estrangement. Shrewsbury was relieved of his charge of the Scottish Queen in 1584, but the discord between Bess and George continued until his death in 1590. After the death of Shrewsbury she set out to build New Hardwick Hall, adding to her list of building works including the Elizabethan mansion at Chatsworth, Oldcoates. Worksop and Bolsover, and her ancestral seat Old Hardwick Hall. In her later years, she retired to Hardwick, living in grand wealth and splendour until her death in 1608. She was buried at All Saints Church in Derby.

Principal Source: Elizabeth Goldring, 'Talbot, Elizabeth [Bess of Hardwick], countess of Shrewsbury,(1527?-1608)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). By permisiion of Oxford University Press.