John Davies (poet) - Family

Family

Davies' wife, Eleanor Touchet (married in March 1609), was the daughter of the first Earl of Castlehaven. She was one the most prolific women writing in early seventeenth-century England, but there was a history of insanity in her family, and she had developed a devotion to prophecy based on scriptural anagrams.

During the marriage, Eleanor published several fanatical books of prophecy, a manuscript for one of which her husband had burned. Davies was exasperated by his wife's excesses and once addressed her, "I pray you weep not while I am alive, and I will give you leave to laugh when I am dead". But she is said to have accurately foretold the date of his death and wore mourning clothes for the three years leading up to the predicted time: as the date approached – three days before – she "gave him pass to take his long sleep".

Davies had three children by his marriage. His only son to survive infancy was deaf and dumb but his daughter married Ferdinando Hastings and became Countess of Huntingdon. It is thought by many that his wife Eleanor may have been one of Davies's biggest problems in getting a job. On 28 July 1625 she was working on a commentary of the book of Daniel and believed she heard the voice of the prophet. Following this experience she wrote about it and took it to the Archbishop of Canterbury. When Davies found and burned her writing she predicted he would die within three years and went into mourning. In November 1626 Davies was appointed to high office in England. In early December, following Davies' new appointment, Eleanor started weeping during a dinner with friends. When asked why, she explained it was in anticipation of Davies' funeral. Davies was found in his home, dead of apoplexy on the morning of 8 December. In 1633, Eleanor was brought before the high commission in England on charges relating to her religious anagram practices. During a fruitless examination of her under oath, one of the commissioners devised an anagram of his own: Dame Eleanor Davys - never so mad a ladye. She was sent to prison, and afterwards remarried, but was deserted by her new husband and buried next to Davies on her death in 1652. She continued to make prophesies until her death.