DRURY, Lady Anne

1572 - 1624

Anne Bacon was born in 1572, eldest daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon (c.1543-1624) and Anne Butts (died 1610) and was a sister of Nathaniel Bacon, a talented painter. She married on 30 January 1592 Sir Robert Drury (January 1575–2 April 1615) of Hawstead and Hardwick, and they lived in Hawstead Place near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Her husband was often away at court or on foreign campaigns and she turned to religion for comfort while she was living in Suffolk and as a Puritan was influenced in meditation and prayer by Joseph Hall, her chaplain and spiritual director at Hawstead. In 1610, her 15-year-old daughter, Elizabeth died leaving Lady Drury childless, Anne was a friend of the poet John Donne and his 'Anniversaries' commemorate her daughter. She created a painted bedroom closet for meditation and study and entertaining close friends at Hawstead Place, near Bury St Edmunds, the painted panelling was removed to Hardwick House, Suffolk. It is now in Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich. The decoration consists of a series of forty emblems including Latin phrases. Lady Anne Drury died at Hardwick House on 5 June 1624 and buried in All Saints' Church, Hawstead.

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Works by This Artist