Margaret Russell was born at Bedford House, Exeter, Devon, England, on 7 July 1560.[1]
Margaret was the youngest child of Francis Russell, second earl of Bedford, and Margaret, daughter of Sir John St John of Bletsoe.[1]
Her mother died in August 1562 after which Margaret lived for seven years with her aunt, Mrs Elmes of Lillford, Northamptonshire, and afterwards at Woburn.[1]
Lady Margaret married George Clifford, third earl of Cumberland, on 24 June 1577 at St Saviour's, Southwark.[1] George was her father's ward.[1] George's profligacy and infidelity led to their separation in 1600.[1]
Margaret and George had children:[1]
Described as having a ‘very well favoured face with sweet and quick gray eyes and a comely personage’ by her daughter, Margaret founded Beamsley Hospital, an almshouse for widows near Skipton in 1593.[1]
When her husband excluded their daughter Anne from his inheritance in favour of his brother Francis Clifford, fourth earl, Margaret collected amassed documentary evidence with the aid of the antiquary St Loe Kniveton which in 1607 undermined Earl Francis's pleas in the court of wards.[1]
Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, died aged fifty-five, on 24 May 1616, at Brougham Castle, Westmorland, and was buried on 7 July in Appleby church, where her daughter erected a monument to her with a lifelike effigy, attributed to Maximilian Colt.[1]
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