Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

Portrait of Margaret Clifford, 1585

Margaret Clifford (née Russell), Countess of Cumberland (7 July 1560 – 24 May 1616) was an English noblewoman and maid of honor to Elizabeth I. Lady Margaret was born in Exeter, England to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and Margaret St John.

On 24 June 1577 she married George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland the son of Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland and Anne Dacre. Her sister, Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, was married to Ambrose Dudley, brother of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Anne too was a great literary patron and a close friend to Queen Elizabeth I, attending her on her death bed.

In 1593, Lady Margaret Russell founded Beamsley Hospital, an almshouse for local widows.

The tomb of the Countess is at St Lawrence's Church, Appleby along with that of her daughter, Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford.

Children

• Sir Robert Clifford (21 September 1585 – 24 May 1591)
• Francis Clifford (1584 – 8 December 1589)
• Lady Anne Clifford (30 January 1590 – 22 March 1676) married Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset

See also

• Countess Pillar
• Beamsley Hospital

References

• Bell, J. Belle Assemblée: Or, Court and Fashionable Magazine; Containing Interesting and Original Literature, and Records of the Beau-monde. Ser. 3, vol. 8, J. Bell, 1828. (p. 238) googlebooks Retrieved September 11, 2008
• Walpole, Horace, and Thomas Park. A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland; With Lists of Their Works. London: Printed for J. Scott, 1806. googlebooks Retrieved August 31, 2008
• Russell family Accessed August 31, 2008
• Lady Margaret Russell Accessed August 31, 2008
• Clifford family Accessed August 31, 2008

External links

• The Correspondence of Margaret Clifford, in EMLO