Mary Sidney - Family

Family

Mary Sidney was born at Tickenhill Palace, Bewdley in Worcestershire on 27 October 1561. She was one of four daughters of Sir Henry Sidney and Mary Dudley, the daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Mary was mainly brought up at Ludlow Castle, the seat of the President of the Welsh Marches, a role her father held until 1586. Like her brother, Sir Philip Sidney, she received a Calvinist education, which included classics, French, Italian, Hebrew, music and needlework.

Following the death of her youngest sister, Ambrosia Sidney in 1575, Mary was summoned to London to attend Queen Elizabeth I. In 1577, her mother's brother, Robert Dudley, helped Sir Henry Sidney to arrange her marriage to their close ally, Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, then in his mid-forties. As Countess of Pembroke, Mary was responsible for a number of estates including Ramsbury, Ivychurch (Alderbury, Wilts), Wilton House and Baynard's Castle, London where it is known that they entertained Queen Elizabeth to dinner. She bore Pembroke four children, the first of whom, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1580–1630) may be the young man described in Shakespeare's Sonnets. Their other surviving child, Philip, became the 4th Earl of Pembroke on his brother's death in 1630. These sons are the "Incomparable Pair" to whom William Shakespeare's First Folio is dedicated. At different times, both were patrons of the King's Men. Her daughter, Dorothy (born 1586 - died 1615 in Gravesend, Kent, ENG) married Sir Richard Devereaux Gilliam (born 1583 - died 1651 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA), the elder son of Walter, Viscount Hereford of Herefordshire, England.