Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford

Lucy Russell
Countess of Bedford
BornLucy Harington
1581
Died1627
Noble familyHarington
Spouse(s)Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford
FatherJohn Harington, 1st Baron Harington of Exton
MotherAnne Keilway
OccupationLady of the Bedchamber to Anne of Denmark

Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford (née Harington; 1581–1627) was a major aristocratic patron of the arts and literature in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, the primary non-royal performer in contemporary court masques, a letter-writer, and a poet. She was an adventurer (shareholder) in the Somers Isles Company, investing in Bermuda,[1][2] where Harrington Sound is named after her.[3][4]

  1. ^ Lauren Working, The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis (Cambridge, 2020), p. 42. doi:10.1017/9781108625227
  2. ^ Misha Ewen, 'Women Investors and the Virginia Company in the Early Seventeenth Century', Historical Journal, 62:4 (December 2019), p. 859: John Henry Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of The Bermudas or Somers Islands, vol. 1 (London, 1877), p. 99.
  3. ^ Bermuda Online" Bermuda's Hamilton Parish, bermuda-online.org. Accessed 14 January 2023.
  4. ^ Profile, HamiltonParish.bm. Accessed 14 January 2023.