Elizabeth Roper (d. 1658) was a member of the household of Anne of Denmark. She married Robert Mansell, a glass-making entrepreneur and became involved in his business. She was noted for her business activities as a "capitalist" by the historian Alice Clark. Also called Anne Roper in some sources, and after her marriage, Elizabeth Mansell or Lady Mansell.

Career

She was probably a daughter of Christopher Roper, 2nd Baron Teynham (died 1622), and Catherine Seborne, of Lynsted Lodge,

Lynsted Lynsted is a village in Lynsted with Kingsdown civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The village is situated south of the A2 road between Faversham and Sittingbourne and the nearest M2 junction is Faversham three miles east. Lyns ...

, (or a daughter of John Roper, 1st Baron Teynham (died 1618) and Elizabeth Parke). John Roper was the first man of note in Kent to proclaim James VI and I King after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, an event known as the Union of the Crowns. The monument to Christopher Roper and his wife at Lynsted Church was made by the sculptor

Epiphanius Evesham Epiphanius Evesham ( fl. 1570 – c. 1623) was a British sculptor. He was born in Wellington, Herefordshire, a twin, and the youngest of fourteen siblings. His parents were William Evesham of Burghope Hall and his wife, Jane Haworthe, daughter ...

. Elizabeth Roper was appointed a Maid of Honour to the queen in 1604, her companions were Anne Carey,

Mary Gargrave Mary Gargrave (1576 – c. 1640) was a courtier to Anne of Denmark. Mary Gargrave was a daughter of Sir Cotton Gargrave (1540–1588) and his second wife Anne Waterton. They had houses at Kinsley, Hemsworth, and Nostell Priory, near Wakefield. ...

(b. 1576),

Mary Middlemore Mary Middlemore (died 1618) was a Courtier and Maid of Honour to Anne of Denmark, subject of poems, and treasure hunter. Family background Mary Middlemore was the eldest daughter of Henry Middlemore of Enfield, a groom of the privy chamber to Qu ...

Elizabeth Harcourt Elizabeth Harcourt (fl. c. 1590–1610), Courtier to Anne of Denmark. She was a daughter of Sir Walter Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt and Ellenhall, and Dorothy Robinson, who was Harcourt's step-sister and daughter of William Robinson of Drayton ...

, and

Mary Woodhouse Mary Woodhouse (d. 1656), musician and correspondent of Constantijn Huygens, was the daughter of Henry Woodhouse (MP) of Hickling and Waxham, and Anne Bacon, daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon. (Some sources say she was a daughter of the Woodhouse fa ...

. A letter of the Earl of Worcester describing the queen's household in 1604 mentions that "Roper, the sixth aid of honouris determined but not etcome". These positions at court were established by a household ordinance of 20 July 1603, with places for six maids of honour, a mother of the maids (Katherine Bridges), and four chamberers.

Rowland Whyte Rowland Whyte (died after 1626) was an Elizabethan official and businessman, whose letters provide important evidence about the latter stages of the life of Queen Elizabeth I and the transition to the rule of James I. The letters were first publish ...

mentioned the maids of honour and others dancing at Hampton Court in the presence chamber of Anne of Denmark, with a French visitor, the

Count of Vaudémont The title Count of Vaudémont was granted to Gérard 1st of Vaudémont in 1070, after he supported the succession of his brother, Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine to the Duchy of Lorraine. Counts of Vaudémont served as vassals of the Dukes of Lorr ...

. On 20 August 1613 Anne of Denmark was received at

Wells, Somerset Wells () is a cathedral city and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, located on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, south-east of Weston-super-Mare, south-west of Bath and south of Bristol. Although the population recorde ...

during a progress to Bath. The mayor William Bull hosted a dinner for members of her household including the four maids of honour. Elizabeth Roper married Sir Robert Mansell in March 1617 with a feast at

Denmark House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace (" ...

paid for by the queen. John Chamberlain wrote Mansell had married "his old mistress Roper, one of the Queen's ancient maids of honour". Edward Sherburn noted that the king gave Mansell £10,000 when he married Mrs Roper. She was usually known as "Lady Mansell". They had no children.

James Howell James Howell (c. 1594 – 1666) was a 17th-century Anglo-Welsh historian and writer who is in many ways a representative figure of his age. The son of a Welsh clergyman, he was for much of his life in the shadow of his elder brother Thomas How ...

noted in 1621 that Mansell's marriage to Roper had made him a kinsman to Sir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador in Venice. Mansell had been Treasurer of the Navy since 1604, appointed by Earl of Nottingham, in the place of Fulke Greville. The Earl was married to Elizabeth Stewart, a Scottish former lady in waiting of Anne of Denmark. Mansell had become involved in

glass-making Glass production involves two main methods – the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers. It has been done in a variety of ways during the history of glass. Glass container ...

in 1611, and in 1618 bought out the interests of Sir Edward Zouch of Woking who was married to Roper's old colleague in the queen's household,

Dorothea Silking Dorothy Silking ( fl. 1608-1640), was a Danish courtier, one of the chamberers in the household of Anne of Denmark. Career Records of the royal household refer to her as "Mistress Dorothy", or "Dorothy Silkin" or "Silken", or "Selken". She was from ...

. Mansell's interests included a glass-house in Scotland. Elizabeth Mansell made business decisions, especially when Mansell was on business abroad. In response to a report on the quality of their glass by

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

, Lady Mansell switched from using Scottish coal in their London glass-houses to Newcastle coal. She complained to the Privy Council that a rival patent-holder, Sir William Clavell of Smedmore, had enticed some of their expert workmen to leave their glasshouses and go to work in Scotland. She thwarted such attempts to damage the business while her husband was abroad or at sea. At the funeral of Anne of Denmark, "Lady Maunsell" walked in procession with the ladies of the Privy Chamber. In 1621 Elizabeth Mansell petitioned King James against other glass-makers encroaching on their patent, and claimed they tried to take advantage, thinking her "a weak woman unable to follow the business". In 1623 three glass-making artificiers petitioned the Privy Council that she should reverse a pay-cut that meant that they could not support their families. She died in 1658 and was buried at St Alfege Church, Greenwich, on 19 November 1658.Daniel Lysons, ''The Environs of London: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent'', vol. 4 (London, 1796), p. 475.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roper, ELizabeth 1658 deaths British maids of honour Ladies of the Bedchamber English courtiers 17th-century English businesspeople Court of James VI and I Household of Anne of Denmark 17th-century English businesswomen People from Lynsted