Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/417

Rh people in England, but in Holland also, whence many came for her advice.

In 1656, she married Sir Francis Halket, by whom she had four children, of whom only one survived. This union, which proved a happy one, lasted fourteen years, and she remained a widow for the last twenty-eight of her life, universally beloved and respected for her learning and virtue. She was a loyalist, and a sufferer in the cause of Charles I.

Lady Anna left twenty-one volumes, and thirty-six stiched books, of her writings; some in folio, some in quarto, of which, a volume of Meditations, taken from her numerous MSS. were printed at Edinburgh, 1761. Female Worthies.

to a large fortune on the death of her brother, George, Earl of Huntingdon, which she employed in the exercise of widely extended christian charity. Mr. Congreve has drawn her character, under the name of Aspasia, in the 42d number of the Tatler. He praises her there for superior beauty, grace, and elegance of manners; for unaffected wisdom and virtue; for strict economy and active benevolence; and all that exalts and ornaments a character.

She lived principally at Ledstone house, in Yorkshire, which she rendered convenient for the sake of her servants, and elegant in order to employ the neighbouring poor. Her public charities, during her life and by bequest, were more numerous than those of any other English woman. In private aid to her relations, friends, or