Mary Cheke


Mary Cheke, Lady Cheke was an English lady of the privy chamber to Elizabeth I, as well as a courtier poet, and epigrammatist.

Biography

Born Mary Hill in Hampshire, c. 1532. Her father was Richard Hill, of Hartley Wintney; he had served as Sergeant of the Wine Cellar to Henry VIII. After her father's death, her mother remarried Sir John Mason.
On May 11, 1547, she married Sir John Cheke of Mottistone Manor, an English classical scholar and statesman. They had at least three children, the sons, Henry, John, and Edward. After Mary Tudor became Queen in 1554, Mary Cheke's husband left England. From Calais, he requested of Sir John Harrington to look after his wife. John Cheke died in 1557. Late in the next year, 1558, Mary Cheke married Henry Macwilliam of Stambourne Hall, a royal pensioner, but retained the surname Cheke.
Cheke is remembered as an important attendant to Elizabeth I, and for a "witty poetic exchange" at her court. In the late 1590s, Harrington wrote an epigram with negative connotations regarding women in the Bible, and Cheke wrote back a lyrically-clever counter-epigram, "Erat quaedam mulier ".
Cheke died 30 November 1616.

Selected works