Lady Mary Abney
Encyclopedia
Mary, Lady Abney (1676 – 12 January 1750) inherited the Manor of Stoke Newington
in the early 18th century, which lies about five miles north of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London
. She had a great influence on the design and landscaping of Abney Park
which inspired many of Dr Isaac Watts'
poems and hymns.
, a small farming community, had been owned and managed directly by St Paul's Cathedral
until the early 17th century, after which they granted it to a succession of private Lords of the Manor.
In 1701, following the untimely death of Mary's brother, Thomas Gunston, the manor became her property; though at that date, since she had married Sir Thomas Abney
, it would formally have passed to her husband by the rights of marriage that applied at that time - until he died. Mary Abney's husband, Sir Thomas Abney (1640–1722) was a Lord Mayor of London for the first year of their marriage in 1700, and had business interests in the City of London. Sir Thomas, some thirty-six years senior to Mary, already leased a mansion on the magnificent Theobalds estate at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, when Mary Abney married him. However, the couple decided to live at both addresses, and split their lives between the villages of Cheshunt and Stoke Newington. Upon title to the Stoke Newington manor passing to Mary and Sir Thomas Abney, Mary (recently entitled to be called 'Lady' due to the knighthood of her husband by King William) was therefore able to begin to complete her deceased brother's new manor house at Abney Park, later known as 'Abney House', completing in a style that suited her taste and ideas.
Mary's less grand Abney House was chosen as the family's second home. Being closer to London than Theobalds, she frequently stayed there with her husband Thomas, her children, and house-guest Dr Isaac Watts
, and shared it with a series of well-to-do tenants who paid for various floors and parts of the house to keep it homely, warm, and constantly lived-in.
Abney House was always much enjoyed by their houseguest, Isaac Watts
, for he was granted sole use of an inspirationally designed study room - the roof-top turret or observatory room from which he could survey the heavens as well as the whole of Abney Park
, and for some distance northwards of the village, as far as Woodberry Downs.
At Abney Park, Lady Abney commissioned the first map and survey of the Manor of Stoke Newington, and with the assistance of Isaac Watts
, she is said to have planned much the planting and landscaping of Abney Park, which included two great elm avenues which became favourite walks of Watts, leading down to a secluded island heronry in the Hackney Brook where he found inspiration for his writings.
Following the death of her husband, Lady Abney became fully installed in her own right as the first female Lady of the Manor; one of only a few women elevated to such a position in early Eighteenth century English society. Some years after the death of her husband, in 1736, Lady Abney moved her household completely from her husband's mansion in Hertfordshire
, choosing to live full-time at the more modest Abney House surrounded by the many nonconformist and literary families for which the village of Stoke Newington was noted. Here her household continued to include her nonconformist chaplain Isaac Watts
as a long-term guest, as well as one of her three daughters, the unmarried Miss Elizabeth Abney.
Isaac Watts' association with Abney House and Theobalds, in his capacity as the family's long-term guest, became legendary. Initially he had only been invited to spend a week, and at first at Theobalds, but became part of the family. It is sometimes said that he wrote most of his well-known books and poems at Abney House, or in its parkland grounds (in which the island heronry of the Hackney Brook that bounded the estate, was his favourite retreat):
', after the 1830s), as was her husband Sir Thomas Abney and long-term houseguest Dr Isaac Watts
. Throughout the year when Sir Thomas held office as Lord Mayor, and Mary Abney was Lady Mayoress, they both had to practice occasional conformity to the Church of England, as required by law. Similarly, as Lady of the Manor, Mary Abney had to uphold the general conformity of the parish church of the Stoke Newington Manor.
Privately, as an Independent, she was close friend of the religious revivalist Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon
who formed her own independent religious group within the independent Methodist movement, despite her best efforts to compromise and work with the Anglican authorities. The Countess financed many revivalist causes, including the independent preacher Whitefield; and in her later years, she helped sponsor the visit to Britain of the African slavery abolitionist Olaudah Equiano
, following which he settled and married.
Lady Abney, who died before the non-denominational causes of slavery emancipation and missionary work overseas became central to evangelical revivalists, is mainly remembered as the sponsor of the first notable hymnologist, Isaac Watts
whose famous hymns include O God our help in ages past. Lady Abney's close association with Isaac Watts drew her into a circle of many independent religious thinkers of her day, notably Philip Doddridge
. As one of Watts' main benefactors from the early 18th century onwards, and probably his sole benefactor from 1734 until his death on 25 November 1748, Lady Mary Abney was the quiet eminence behind Watts work as a poet and scholar, enabling him to concentrate on the preparation of many learned books for both children and adults, which becomame standard texts in the New World as well as in Britain. Following Isaac Watts' death Lady Mary Abney built a memorial to Watts in Bunhill Fields
, which she co-financed with Sir John Hartopp.
.
The Manor of Stoke Newington, together with Abney House and Abney Park
, were inherited by one of Lady Abney's daughters, Elizabeth Abney (c1704-1782), who managed the estate, along with another at Tilford
in the parish of Farnham, Surrey. Elizabeth Abney died a spinster aged 78 on 20 August 1782 and in her will directed that her estates be sold and all proceeds be given to nonconformist charities.
Abney Park
was much used by Newington Academy for Girls
when that Quaker school was set up in 1824 in Fleetwood House, the immediate neighbour to Abney House. The opening of Abney Park Cemetery
gave a new use to Lady Mary's landscaped grounds.
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
in the early 18th century, which lies about five miles north of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She had a great influence on the design and landscaping of Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
which inspired many of Dr Isaac Watts'
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
poems and hymns.
Life at the Manor
The Manor of Stoke NewingtonStoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
, a small farming community, had been owned and managed directly by St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
until the early 17th century, after which they granted it to a succession of private Lords of the Manor.
In 1701, following the untimely death of Mary's brother, Thomas Gunston, the manor became her property; though at that date, since she had married Sir Thomas Abney
Thomas Abney
Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London.Abney was born in Willesley, which at the time was in Derbyshire but is now in Leicestershire. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School, where a house is named after him....
, it would formally have passed to her husband by the rights of marriage that applied at that time - until he died. Mary Abney's husband, Sir Thomas Abney (1640–1722) was a Lord Mayor of London for the first year of their marriage in 1700, and had business interests in the City of London. Sir Thomas, some thirty-six years senior to Mary, already leased a mansion on the magnificent Theobalds estate at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, when Mary Abney married him. However, the couple decided to live at both addresses, and split their lives between the villages of Cheshunt and Stoke Newington. Upon title to the Stoke Newington manor passing to Mary and Sir Thomas Abney, Mary (recently entitled to be called 'Lady' due to the knighthood of her husband by King William) was therefore able to begin to complete her deceased brother's new manor house at Abney Park, later known as 'Abney House', completing in a style that suited her taste and ideas.
Mary's less grand Abney House was chosen as the family's second home. Being closer to London than Theobalds, she frequently stayed there with her husband Thomas, her children, and house-guest Dr Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, and shared it with a series of well-to-do tenants who paid for various floors and parts of the house to keep it homely, warm, and constantly lived-in.
Abney House was always much enjoyed by their houseguest, Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, for he was granted sole use of an inspirationally designed study room - the roof-top turret or observatory room from which he could survey the heavens as well as the whole of Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
, and for some distance northwards of the village, as far as Woodberry Downs.
At Abney Park, Lady Abney commissioned the first map and survey of the Manor of Stoke Newington, and with the assistance of Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
, she is said to have planned much the planting and landscaping of Abney Park, which included two great elm avenues which became favourite walks of Watts, leading down to a secluded island heronry in the Hackney Brook where he found inspiration for his writings.
Following the death of her husband, Lady Abney became fully installed in her own right as the first female Lady of the Manor; one of only a few women elevated to such a position in early Eighteenth century English society. Some years after the death of her husband, in 1736, Lady Abney moved her household completely from her husband's mansion in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, choosing to live full-time at the more modest Abney House surrounded by the many nonconformist and literary families for which the village of Stoke Newington was noted. Here her household continued to include her nonconformist chaplain Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
as a long-term guest, as well as one of her three daughters, the unmarried Miss Elizabeth Abney.
Isaac Watts' association with Abney House and Theobalds, in his capacity as the family's long-term guest, became legendary. Initially he had only been invited to spend a week, and at first at Theobalds, but became part of the family. It is sometimes said that he wrote most of his well-known books and poems at Abney House, or in its parkland grounds (in which the island heronry of the Hackney Brook that bounded the estate, was his favourite retreat):
- Dr Watts' resided for thirty-six years at Abney Park as the guest of Sir Thomas Abney and there wrote most of his well-known Works, also his 'Psalms and Hymns' [Corporation of London, 1902].
Links to the 'Religious Revival'
Lady Abney was of an Independent religious faith (known as 'CongregationalCongregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
', after the 1830s), as was her husband Sir Thomas Abney and long-term houseguest Dr Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
. Throughout the year when Sir Thomas held office as Lord Mayor, and Mary Abney was Lady Mayoress, they both had to practice occasional conformity to the Church of England, as required by law. Similarly, as Lady of the Manor, Mary Abney had to uphold the general conformity of the parish church of the Stoke Newington Manor.
Privately, as an Independent, she was close friend of the religious revivalist Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon
Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon was an English religious leader who played a prominent part in the religious revival of the 18th century and the Methodist movement in England and Wales, and has left a Christian denomination in England and Sierra Leone.-Early life:Selina Hastings was born as Lady...
who formed her own independent religious group within the independent Methodist movement, despite her best efforts to compromise and work with the Anglican authorities. The Countess financed many revivalist causes, including the independent preacher Whitefield; and in her later years, she helped sponsor the visit to Britain of the African slavery abolitionist Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...
, following which he settled and married.
Lady Abney, who died before the non-denominational causes of slavery emancipation and missionary work overseas became central to evangelical revivalists, is mainly remembered as the sponsor of the first notable hymnologist, Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
whose famous hymns include O God our help in ages past. Lady Abney's close association with Isaac Watts drew her into a circle of many independent religious thinkers of her day, notably Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...
. As one of Watts' main benefactors from the early 18th century onwards, and probably his sole benefactor from 1734 until his death on 25 November 1748, Lady Mary Abney was the quiet eminence behind Watts work as a poet and scholar, enabling him to concentrate on the preparation of many learned books for both children and adults, which becomame standard texts in the New World as well as in Britain. Following Isaac Watts' death Lady Mary Abney built a memorial to Watts in Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....
, which she co-financed with Sir John Hartopp.
Death and Charity
Following Mary Abney's own death in 1750, at the age of 73, she was buried near her brother beneath the chancel of Old Stoke Newington Church (St Mary's Old Church]], which overlooks today's Clissold ParkClissold Park
Clissold Park is a community park in Stoke Newington within the London Borough of Hackney. Facilities include a children's playground, sports fields, a bowling green, tennis courts, a cafe and some animal attractions including terrapins in its lakes...
.
The Manor of Stoke Newington, together with Abney House and Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
, were inherited by one of Lady Abney's daughters, Elizabeth Abney (c1704-1782), who managed the estate, along with another at Tilford
Tilford
Tilford is a small village about two miles south of Farnham in Surrey, England. It lies within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty- History :The name "Tilford" is probably derived from "Tila's ford" or "Tilla's ford"....
in the parish of Farnham, Surrey. Elizabeth Abney died a spinster aged 78 on 20 August 1782 and in her will directed that her estates be sold and all proceeds be given to nonconformist charities.
Abney Park
Abney Park
The historic grounds of Abney Park are situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions...
was much used by Newington Academy for Girls
Newington Academy for Girls
The Newington Academy for Girls, also known as Newington College for Girls, was a Quaker school established in 1824 in Stoke Newington, then north of London. In a time when girls' educational opportunities were limited, it offered a wide range of subjects "on a plan in degree differing from any...
when that Quaker school was set up in 1824 in Fleetwood House, the immediate neighbour to Abney House. The opening of Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park Cemetery
Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, semi-public park arboretum, and...
gave a new use to Lady Mary's landscaped grounds.