Anne, Lady Twysden

Introduction

Anne, Lady Twysden (née Finch) is known as a writer from a single book of devotions, an edited copy of which was made for her son, Sir Roger Twysden, after her death (TwA 1). Her original manuscript, sometimes known as the ‘Jennings-Bramley MS’, is currently unknown but was in existence at least until 1849, when it was cited by J.M. Kemble in his edition of Roger Twysden's Certaine considerations upon the government of England. Otherwise, apart from two letters by her (TwA 2-3), no other manuscripts by her, devotional or otherwise, are known at present. References to her occasionally occur, however, among the partly dispersed Twysden family papers, the main collections of which are in the British Library (Add. MSS 34147-34178) and in the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone.

Peter Beal