Weddings 1 & 2
Here we look at what we know of the marriages of the 4 surviving daughters of 'Young' Sir John and his relict, Alice Brownlow. Two of the weddings appear in John Trigg's Belton Establishment accounts so far examined. These detail the preparations for weddings held at Belton. Lady Isabella Wentworth's letters narrate the negotiations between Alice and aspiring suitors for the young ladies. This page features Elizabeth & Alicia. A subsequent page covers Jane and then Eleanor. Sums are adjusted for inflation to 2021.
Elizabeth Brownlow (May18, 1681-1723, christened at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn May 30. Buried St. Martin's Churchyard, Stamford).
Elizabeth's armorial bookplate. Note the quartering within her crest displaying the paternal, Brownlow martlets surrounding the Red Hand of Ulster.
Image: Burleigh House Jonathan Myles-Lea
Elizabeth Brownlow
Elizabeth (Betty) was the eldest daughter and the first to marry - John Cecil, Lord Burghley on Tuesday, 19th September 1699 as his second wife. She became Elizabeth Cecil, Lady Burghley. He became 6th Earl of Exeter in 1700 and Elizabeth became Countess of Exeter. They had six sons and one daughter. She lived at Burghley House near Stamford.
The 5th Earl and his countess had died with £38,000 worth of unsettled debts (£8 million) and impoverished the estate for the next 30 years.
In 1697 Lord Burghley married an heiress with a dowry of £30,000, Annabella Grey, daughter of 1st Earl of Tankerville, only for her to die the summer of the following year. A letter of August 1698 reveals the market behind these marriages.
My Lord Burghley is to refund £10,000 of his lady’s portion (or my Lord of Exeter rather), if one can call that refunding that was never received (nor perhaps never would have been), several of the securities being so defective. When my Lord Burghley marries again, which I presume may not be long (for it is an evidence of a good wife when the husband makes such haste to be happy again), what portion he shall have with a wife will be all his own, except the £10,000 (to be refunded), which my Lord of Exeter is to have. Already they talk of a fair lady with £20,000; and then he will have £3,000 p.a. in possession, £7,000 p.a. in reversion and £10,000 in his purse.
A year later, Burghley duly married Elizabeth. The Belton parish record has,
John Cecill Lord Burligh & Miss Eliz: Brownlowe married September [undecipherable day]
No doubt Elizabeth's dowry of £10,000 (£2 million) and £1,200 (£238,000) pa helped somewhat. More money would come later. In 1688, she was reported very ill, but in 1700 gave birth at Belton to John Cecil, later 7th Earl of Exeter, who was christened at Belton on 11th August 1700.
The 6th Earl was described as a gentleman who never was yet in business, loves hawking, horse matches and other country sports. In 1705, he reconvened his father's drinking club, The Honourable Order of Little Bedlam in the Bull and Swan pub, Stamford. Each of the 27 members or more, were given an animal name, with Elizabeth's husband called Lyon. It included Alice's brother, Richard Sherard, named Mule. What Elizabeth and her mother made of all this is unknown. However, later records show that Alice and Elizabeth maintained close contact. From January 1701 to December 1702 (Julian) there were at least 12 interactions, either visits to Burghley or exchanges of letters.
The Earl, in poor health towards the end of his life, we find Eliz: Exeter (page 268) signing a receipt a month before his death.
Alice (Alicia) Brownlow (August 11, 1684 - Aug 22, 1727. christened on day of birth at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn. Died in London buried at Wroxton September 9)
Francis North 2nd Baron Guilford
Image: Wroxton Abbey now Wroxton College, a campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Alice or Alicia Brownlow
Thursday, 10 June 1703 - A treaty of marriage is concluded between the lord Guilford and a daughter of the late Sir John Brownlow
Thursday, 8 July 1703 - The lord Guildford is married to a daughter of the late Sir John Brownlow: her fortune 30,000l.
(Lutrell 1703, A brief historical relation of state affairs, from September 1678 to April 1714)
The second daughter married Francis North, 2nd Baron of Guilford around July 8, 1703 at Belton. Like Elizabeth, she was a second wife. Francis married his first wife Elizabeth Greville, daughter of Fulke Greville 5th Baron Brooke in 1694. She died in Childbed in 1699 aged 26 leaving no issue. Her death deeply affected Francis. His new wife, Alicia had three sons and a daughter. One would go on to become the 1st Earl Guilford. Her grandson, Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, became Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782. This family connection certainly aided Brownlow Cust M.P. with his barony in 1776. He was a friend of Frederick North.
Francis lived in Arlington Street, between 1698 and 1724. Introductions may have come via Alicia's uncle, William Brownlow, who lived in the same street. A cultured gentleman, Francis had done the grand tour. He acquired and recovered from smallpox in Minden, Germany, a disease that would later kill his sister-in-law Margaret in 1710.
The Wedding
With only a month for Belton wedding preparations, the first purchase was 8 whaleboane busks at 7d each, corset stays, during the first week of June, along with two ounces of yellow silk.
A length of wood, whalebone, steel or similar material inserted in the front of stays from C16 until the beginning of C19. The shape and length of busks varied with the fashion in stays; however, they were commonly twenty-five to thirty-eight centimetres long thicker at the breast and slimmer at waist level, sometimes decorated and easily removable. Their role was to maintain an erect carriage of the torso. (Baclawski 1995)
The busks ensured the ice cream cone-shaped silhouette that was popular throughout most of the 18th century.
Some of Trigg's payments for the weeks ending -
June ye18th: 1703
15 Letters to my Lady and Madam Jane 4s 9d Usually both Alice and Jane sent or received 1 or 2 letters at a time. This large letter number may be from wedding invitees or well-wishers. A further 10 letters arrived July 9th.
a pare of shooe buckells 6d Probably for a servant.
June ye 25th: 1703
359 Eggs, 113 pound of butter, 4 sheep & one lamb killed this week
July ye 2nd: 1703 page 57 of Trigg's accounts records procurements for the wedding feast,
pd. to the newark musick ff Ladys order £1 10s
133 pound of butter, 415 Eggs, 28 Ducks, 35 Chickins, Fish, a side of veale, green geese
6 Ladles, browne thread, a pare of shoos mending for Madam Brownlowe, 22 & 3/4 yards of lace, a present from Lady Earle
3 quarts of creame, 2 pound of Cherryes, 12 Lemons
3 gallons of East for Lady Guilfords weding cakes
one 59 stone Bullock, 4 Sheep waid 17 stone
We conclude that the wedding was during the week ending Friday July 2nd, rather than the following week that is usually quoted. Belton parish records has,
The Right Honourable Francis Lord Guilford & Miss Alice Brownlowe marriage July 1st Anno 1703 though the date is slightly indistinct.
Things had quietened down by the week after. Much less red meat was taken and more seafood, britt, sole, Flounders, Cockells and Shrimps. 6 Crabbs.
Wedding Cake
This day my Julia thou must make For Mistresse Bride, the wedding Cake: Knead but the Dow and it will be To paste of Almonds turn’d by thee: Or kisse it thou, but once or twice, And for the Bride-Cake ther’l be Spice. Herrick (1648)
With 3 gallons of yeast, the wedding cakes must have been numerous. This cake is similar to Rebecca Price's recipe from page 109 of the Compleat Cook, called The Countess of Rutlands Receipt for making the rare Banbury Cake, a sweet yeasted bread. Relevant as the bridegroom's home, Wroxton Abbey, is just 3 miles distant from Banbury and under their political control. This cake calls for a peck of flour (14 pounds), 2 pounds of butter, 10 eggs and a pint of Ale-yeast. Three gallons of yeast, i.e. 24 pints would dictate a 24 of these 'cakes'! The three extra strike of wheat bought each week in June would suffice, at 8 pecks to a strike. One Belton ingredient missing, sometimes used to scent the cake is ambergris – whale vomit. Lack of refrigeration meant that the cakes were covered in lard for preservation, sweetened to evolve into modern day icing. But here, the cakes have been made the week of the festivities.
Cakes distinguishes it from an alternative wedding treat, bride's pies. Robert May offers a C17 recipe on page 235. A large tart containing several distinct pies. Fillings included egg and dried fruit; prawns, cockles and oysters; cocks’ combs and lambs’ testicles; artichokes and stuffed larks. The pièce de résistance was a central compartment filled with live birds or a snake, which will seem strange to the beholders, which cut up the pie at the Table. This only for a wedding to pass away time.
Wroxton Abbey
Some of the honeymoon was at Belton, but by July 23rd the family moved to Burghley House, Elizabeth Cecil's home. From September 17th, Alice journeyed to Alicia's new home, Jacobean Wroxton Abbey with Trigg, but without her other daughters. A distance of 100 miles altogether.
September ye 17th: 1703
mending and Stuffing Mr Willis's Sadell att Northampton, to Mr Tongue the Caryer att Wroxton ff Ladys order, to Mr Frith which he pd for a Shooe for his horse
7 Letters to my Lady at Wroxton, Lord Guilfords porter for a Letter to madam Jane, My horse and Selfe from Wroxton to London
10 Horses, Coachmans and postillions Charges att Astrop well [a Northamptonshire spa from 1664]
The entourage at Astrop suggests either two 4-horse carriages or a 6-horse one. Alice said farewell to her daughter at Wroxton and travelled on to her rented apartment at Holland Park, London to meet up with her three remaining unmarried daughters.
Celia Fiennes visited Wroxton after the marriage, but before her own travels ended c1712. She describes it as having,
many good pictures in most roomes. There was a part new built all the new fashion way, which was design'd for the present Lord Gilford and Lady. The gardens are very good, the outhouses and Stables handsome.
Wroxton Abbey left.
Holland House, Kensington, south front, published September 1751 by Pierre Foudrinier. Alice's destination after dropping off Alicia, where she kept an apartment for her London visits. An E-shaped Jacobean house, it was fire bombed in WWII. Only the east wing & tower survives.