Description
Our Inspiration
A striking 1-strand necklace of silver and white 11-12mm baroque pearls set between etched gold plated tubes.
Margaret Herbert née Smith
Margaret was the daughter of Sir Thomas Smith, Master of Requests, of Parson’s Green, Fulham. Margaret married Thomas Cary on 13th July 1626, Thomas was a Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I. He died on 9th April 1634 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
In 1639, the Verney Letters record that Margaret was married again, this time to Edward Herbert, who was knighted in 1641. During the Long Parliament, in which Ralph Verney and his father also served, Sir Edward Herbert was Attorney General under King Charles I, and prepared the impeachment of various members of parliament as instructed by King Charles I.
He continued to serve the King in Oxford, until 1645, when he was dismissed, for declining the post of Lord Keeper, someone who is charged with physical custody of the King’s Great Seal.
He went into exile in Paris, where in 1652 Charles II appointed him Lord Keeper, he resigned the following year and died in Paris in 1657. Margaret and Sir Edward Herbert had 3 sons.
Two different artists have been suggested for this portrait:
The portrait was originally listed by the Courtauld Institute* in 1957 as Mrs Herbert , wife of Colonel Herbert by an artist of the English School . It was exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh in 1982, attributed to John Michael Wright (1617-1694), an English artist.
It has not so far been possible to find out how the attribution to John Michael Wright was made. However, there is reason to conclude that the identification of the sitter as being the wife of Colonel Herbert is incorrect.
The Verney Memoirs identify the portrait as being by Vandyck, the sitter being Margaret, wife of Sir Edward Herbert (1591-1657). As Margaret’s father, Sir Thomas, was a friend of Sir Edmund Verney the Standard Bearer it seems perfectly possibly that a portrait of his daughter might find its way to Claydon
*The Courtauld Institute, located in central London is an internationally renowned centre for the teaching and research of art history as well as being a major public gallery.
