Dorothy, Lady Pakington

Lady Pakington, née Dorothy Coventry (1623-1679) (Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen)

Dorothy, Lady Pakington (née Coventry) (1623–1679) was an English friend and supporter of learned clergymen, and a writer of religious works.

Biography

Dorothy Coventry was the daughter of Sir Thomas Coventry and his second wife, Elizabeth (1583–1653), daughter of John Aldersey of Spurstow, Cheshire, and widow of William Pitchford. She married Sir John Pakington, 2nd Baronet (1621–1680), of Westwood, Worcestershire. The couple had at least three surviving children.

A fervent royalist, Dorothy Pakington wrote manuscript prayers, and shared in the circulation of religious and philosophical manuscripts in the group of clergymen around the king's chaplain Henry Hammond. The extent of her reputation is shown by the fact that contemporaries believed her the author of The Whole Duty of Man. Although George Ballard defended this attribution, modern scholars instead follow two nineteenth-century writers - Richard Barham and C. E. Doble - who attributed the work to Hammond's friend Richard Allestree.

External links

• Sara H. Mendelson, ‘Pakington , Dorothy, Lady Pakington (bap. 1623, d. 1679)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 4 March 2007. The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: "Pakington, Dorothy" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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