• Skip to content
  • Websites in the network
  • Herts Memories
  • Herts Past Policing
  • Our Dacorum
  • Our Hatfield
  • Our Hertford and Ware
  • Our Oxhey
  • Our Stevenage
  • Our Welwyn Garden City
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind
  • Herts Memories
  • Herts Past Policing
  • Our Dacorum
  • Our Hatfield
  • Our Hertford and Ware
  • Our Oxhey
  • Our Stevenage
  • Our Welwyn Garden City
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind
 
  • Log in
  • Contact us
Herts Memories
Herts Memories
Gateway to Hertfordshire's community archive network
  • Home
  • About us
  • Herts history
  • Advice and Resources
  • Noticeboard
  • Blog
  • Get involved
  • Follow us on Twitter
You are here: Home>Herts history>People>Nobility>The Duchess of Marlborough

The Duchess of Marlborough

Sarah Churchill, first Duchess of Marlborough, spent as much of her life as she could in her favourite house: Holywell Hill in St Albans.  She counted among her friends another local woman, Lady Mary Cowper, Lady in Waiting to the Princess of Wales, and she wrote frankly and wittily to her.
There follows in this section unabridged transcriptions of these letters sent by Sarah to Lady Mary and her husband, Lord Cowper.  They sit in a red, bound letter book in the Panshanger collection in Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies and, while  they have been referred to in various articles and books, this is the first publication in full. To make them more accessible they have been annotated, to help make sense of the context in which they were written. The quirky punctuation and spelling have also been made a little easier to read, but the letters are reproduced in full and have been faithfully transcribed.  Where the words are so difficult to read that it is impossible to be sure, an informed guess has been made, but this is clearly indicated in the text.
To a large extent, biographical information comes first from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; the parliamentary references can be found in either the History of Parliamentary Online or British History Online.  With a view to making them “live”, there is input from contemporary diaries, newspapers and commentators.
The letters give a snapshot of Sarah, dating from 1709 to 1721.  It is hoped that they will give a flavour of the thoughts and feelings of a rich and powerful woman in the first half of the eighteenth century, when party politics and a credit economy were in their infancy, and she was engaged in both.

  • A Force of Nature on the Page
    A Force of Nature on the Page
    The letters of the Duchess of Marlborough
  • From Antwerp
    From Antwerp
    October the 2nd o:s: 1713
  • From Frankfurt
    From Frankfurt
    6 June 1713
  • Sarah and her Architects
    Sarah and her Architects
    A clash of personalities   Sarah Churchill was involved in two large building projects, both of which were as a result of ...
  • Sarah and Politics
    Sarah and Politics
    Politics* Political activity lay deep in Sarah’s heart.  She was a passionate Whig and as a woman had no direct authority ...
  • Sarah at (the) Play
    Sarah at (the) Play
    The Duchess of Marlborough and the Italian Opera
  • Sarah Churchill and her Finances
    Sarah Churchill and her Finances
    The business letters of the Duchess of Marlborough
  • Sarah experiences sexism at the Bank?
    Sarah experiences sexism at the Bank?
    April the 16th 1711
  • Sarah has a rival for the Queen’s favour.
    Sarah has a rival for the Queen’s favour.
    Undated but is most likely to be 1709 or 1710 I had taken leave Following the formation of the new Tory government ...
  • Sarah in charge
    Sarah in charge
    October 15, Windsor castle
  • Sarah is suspicious.
    Sarah is suspicious.
    Dealings with her devioius agent
  • Sarah's Loans to the Government
    Sarah's Loans to the Government
    31st May (1708 or before)
  • Sarah's thoughts on buying land
    Sarah's thoughts on buying land
    Monday at noon Nov 22nd 1714
  • Sarah’s opinions on the coming elections.
    Sarah’s opinions on the coming elections.
    Believed 1715 as much as he can.  I think nothing is more just and reasonable than to contribute towards the ...
  • The Duchess and her friends
    The Duchess and her friends
    Letters from the Duchess of Marlborough
  • The Jacobites threaten the money markets
    The Jacobites threaten the money markets
    London, 1st October 1715
  • The Marlboroughs out of the Country
    The Marlboroughs out of the Country
    Letters Home
  • The Tallys are found
    The Tallys are found
    Friday 1714
Nobility
  • A daughter marries
  • A Family Dispute
  • A Politician in Fear for his Freedom
  • Adela Capel of Cassiobury House
  • Countess Cowper
  • Lady Dacre (1817 to 1896)
  • Lord Capel of Ware was taken prisoner at The Siege of Colchester
  • Lord Desborough
  • Lord Desborough
  • Lord Sanderson of Ayot
  • Managing one's servants
  • Sarah and Politics
  • Shocking death of Viscount Melbourne - 1848
  • Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville — the Red-Cloaked Knight
  • Sir George Faudel-Phillips (Bart) - 1840 to 1922
  • Sir Thomas Pope of Tittenhanger
  • Talking treaties - Queen Anne Style
  • The Life of Sir Marmaduke Rawdon
  • The Lord Chancellor's Natural Children: Part I
  • The Mysterious Case of the Lawyer and the Heiress
  • The Observations of Sir Charles Cornwallis
  • The Old Palace
  • The Wicked Lady - a Song
  • Earl Cowper's privateering ventures
  • The Duchess of Marlborough
What's new
  • The Green Dragon Public House, Churchgate
    In the heart of the Churchgate Conservation Area of Cheshunt stands the Green Dragon pub, a timber-framed building that goes ...
  • Looking for information on Radwell Rectory and boarding school Baldock
    Search for more information in my father, Ernest Mynors Wallis, known as John Mynors Wallis in the 1921 Census, who ...
More new pages
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Accessibility
  • Copyright
Designed and built by Community Sites

Copyright Hertfordshire County Council. All rights reserved.

Heritage Lottery Fund (opens in new window) Hertfordshire County Council (opens in new window)