Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Ann, Lady Fanshawe

1625–1680

Introduction

Ann, Lady Fanshawe, the royalist, well-travelled wife of the diplomat and writer Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608-66), wrote her Memoirs a decade after his death, largely as a posthumous memorial to him, addressed to her most dear and only surviving son, Richard. Not published until 1829, the Memoirs survive in two recorded manuscripts (FaA 1-2). Since the principal manuscript is written by an amanuensis, with her occasional additions, it may be based on an earlier draft by her (especially since she herself describes it as Transcrib'd), but its incompleteness (it ends with the words … the King shut up the …) might just as well signify that this was the only full text produced by her and remained unfinished. Otherwise only later transcripts of this manuscript have been recorded (not given entries here) including one written in 1766 by Lady Ann's great granddaughter Charlotte Colman; a copy of that transcript made in 1786 and used for Nicolas's edition in 1829; and a transcript apparently made in 1876 which was item 27 in the catalogue for an exhibition of the manuscripts of Harry A. Walton at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, from 23 June to 15 September 1973.

One other manuscript associated with Lady Ann is her household recipe book (*FaA 3). Begun as early as 1651, after her temporary return to London from her travels on the continent, the recipes were largely entered, probably under her auspices, by one Joseph Averie, and the collection was continued for many years by herself and no doubt other members of her household. In 1678, two years before her death, Lady Ann gave the book to her daughter Katherine, who made her own additions to it at least up to 1707.

Other miscellaneous documents associated with Lady Ann survive in the National Archives, Kew, and elsewhere. Facsimiles of one signed by her in 1666 and of an autograph letter signed by her in 1668 appear in the 1907 edition of the Memoirs, facing pp. 576 and 584.

Prose

The Memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe

First published as Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, wife of the Right Hon. Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart,...Written by herself, ed. Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (London, 1829). Edited also as The Memoirs of Ann Lady Fanshawe, wife of the Right Honble. Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart., ed. Herbert Charles Fanshawe (London & New York, 1907), and in The Memoirs of Anne, Lady Halkett and Ann, Lady Fanshawe, ed. John Loftis (Oxford, 1979), pp. 89-192.

*FaA 1
Autograph

Copy, in the neat italic hand of an amanuensis, with Lady Fanshawe's autograph corrections, deletions and revisions, as well as two prayers in her hand (ff. 1v, 121r-22v), and her inscription (f. 1r) Transcrib'd this present May 1676 Ann ffanshawe, with tipped-in slips of paper in a later hand transcribing heavily deleted passages, incomplete, breaking off at St Stephen's Day [in January] 1671[/2], vii + 124 tall folio leaves, in contemporary red leather gilt.

1676

Bookplate of John Fanshawe, of Parsloes, Dagenham, Essex, either the father (d.1689) or the son (d.1699). Owned in 1907 by Evelyn John Fanshawe, of Parsloes. Sotheby's, 29 July 1924, lot 322.

Edited from this MS in the edition of 1907 (including facsimiles of the first page of the MS and the cover) and in Loftis.

FaA 2

Copy, in the hand of Lady Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739-1829), in contemporary green morocco.

1785

Presented by the Ladies of Llangollen to Sarah Tighe. Quaritch, 1 May 2007.

Miscellaneous

Household receipt book

Unpublished.

*FaA 3
Autograph

A folio recipe book, with medical, culinary and other receipts, in several hands, including frequently the rounded hand of an amanuensis who entitles it (f. 3r) Mrs. Fanshawes Booke of Receipts of Physickes Salues, Waters, Cordialls, Preserues and Cookery written the eleuenth day of December 1651 by Me Joseph Auerie, also inscribed (f. 1r) These ffor MS: ffanshaw, and some receipts possibly in Lady Ann's own hand; inscribed by her daughter Katherine (f. 2r) K: ffanshawe. Giuen mee by my Mother March 23th, 1678 and (against receipts) My Mother A ffanshawe, some later entries by Katherine and others dated as late as 1707, 267 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary olive morocco gilt with traces of a clasp.

c.1651-1707

Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 6 April 1995, lot 192.

Facsimiles of ff. 2r and 126r in David B. Goldstein, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England (Cambridge, 2013), 156, 162.

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