Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Carrick


Elizabeth Howard, English aristocrat and courtier.
She was a daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey.
She was a maid of honour and lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth, as was her sister Frances Howard, Countess of Kildare.
She married Sir Robert Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk, on 17 April 1583. He was the son of Sir Thomas Southwell and his second wife Mary Mansell, a daughter of Sir Rice Mansell.
Sir Thomas Southwell had a daughter with his third wife Nazareth Newton, another Elizabeth Southwell, who was a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth. She was a mistress of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and mother of Walter Devereux, who married Sir Barentine Moleyns or Molyns of Clapcot.
After Robert Southwell's death in November 1598 Elizabeth Howard was left "a rich widow", and there was a rumour she would marry Sir William Woodhouse of Waxham, a cousin of her fellow courtier Lady Walsingham.
She became a lady of the Privy Chamber to Anne of Denmark in 1603. Her daughter, Elizabeth Southwell, was also a maid of honour to Anna of Denmark. After 1608 her daughters Frances and Katherine were gentlewomen of the Privy Chamber. A "Mrs Southwell", who made an unsuccessful trip to meet the queen in Scotland in May 1603, mentioned in the letters of Captain John Skinner from Berwick-upon-Tweed, was Anne Southwell, an author, the wife of a Sir Thomas Southwell.
In October 1604 she married Sir John Stewart, Master of Orkney, a son of Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, at Chelsea. He became Lord Kinclaven in 1607, and Earl of Carrick in 1628.
She died in 1646 and was buried at Greenwich.
Christopher Sutton, rector of Woodrising dedicated his Disce Mori and Disce Vivere to Lady Southwell, and his Godly Meditations on the Most Holy Sacrament to her daughters Frances and Katherine.
Portraits of Elizabeth Howard, her mother Catherine Carey, and her daughter Elizabeth Southwell were included in a sale at Cowdray Park in 2011.

Family

Her children included;