The letters of Jane Lady Cornwallis Bacon offer the richly illuminating story of a loving mother and devoted friend. Cumulatively, they provide an unfolding, sometimes self-dramatizing narrative, one which details the expansive life of a privileged woman and her family throughout the turbulent years of the early to mid-17th century. Jane Lady Cornwallis Bacon was born about 1581, daughter of Hercules Meautys of West Ham, Essex, and Phillippa, daughter of Richard Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex. In 1608 she married Sir William Cornwallis, of Brome, Suffolk, who died in 1611 when their son Frederick was one year and three days old. In 1614 she married Nathaniel Bacon, of Culford, Suffolk, with whom she had three children, Anne, Nicholas, and Jane. For many years she looked after her own children and those of her relatives in the large and comfortable home at Culford, where she died in 1659. Complemented by extensive notes and 16 illustrations, "The Private Correspondence of Lady Jane Cornwallis Bacon, 1613-1644" constitutes a unique collection.
It brings to life the interests and concerns of a family living in England before the Civil War, and gives insight into the complex yet recognizable relationships for the first time and thereby form a major contribution to our knowledge of Jacobean and Stuart family life.