Isabella Twysden ( Saunders; 1605–1657) was an English diarist. She lived at Royden Hall in

East Peckham East Peckham is a village and civil parish in Kent, England on the River Medway. The parish covers the main village as well as Hale Street and Beltring. History The Domesday entry for East and West Peckham reads:- :'' The Archbishop himse ...

Life

She was born in 1605 and her mother was Elizabeth Blount. Her father was Sir Nicholas Saunders of Nonsuch who had been knighted in 1603. She was the youngest of his three daughters. They lived at Ewell in Surrey. Her father had been imprisoned as a Catholic but he had converted to the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and became a member of parliament. Her mother remained and was known to be still a Catholic. After the

Gunpowder plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against James VI and I, King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of English ...

was discovered in 1605, Nicholas Saunders sat on a committee to advise on ways of stopping further Catholic plots. In 1633 she took a job as a Lady in Waiting to

Anne Twysden Lady Anne Twysden ( Finch; 28 February 1574 – 14 October 1638) was an English writer. She was the mother of several notable children but she is known principally for one book, the original of which is lost. Early life Twysden was born in Lond ...

who is known as a writer. She had houses in East Peckham and in London. Her son was Sir Roger Twysden. In 1635, Isabella marriedMarie-Louise Coolahan, ‘Twysden, Anne, Lady Twysden (1574–1638)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200

/ref> Sir Roger Twysden who was about seven years older than her. Her husband was to be punished for his outspoken opinions. He was imprisoned and his estates were sequestered and allegedly mismanaged. His cousin was Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Aylesford, Heneage Finch, the Solicitor General, but he still spent a long time away despite Isabella's efforts. She began her extant diary in January 1645.

Death and legacy

She died in 1657 at their small house in Westminster, but her body was transported back to East Peckham for burial. She and her husband had three sons and three daughters. A memorial erected by her son in 1689 was placed in St Michael's Church in East Peckham to her and her husband. Twysden is noted in history for her diary which was offered for sale by

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in 1892. It was purchased by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

where it still resides. It was published in 1939. The diary gives a short account of the family occasions in her life and the news of recent executions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twysden, Isabella 1605 births 1657 deaths 17th-century English diarists 17th-century English women writers Wives of knights