Harington, Anne, Baroness Harington (1554 -1620)

Anne Kelway, daughter of Robert Kelway of Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire, married in 1580 John Harington (1532-1613), who was created Baron Harington, of Exton, Rutland, in July 1603 at the coronation of James I. The union produced five children, including Lucy [Russell], Countess of Bedford After her husband’s death Anne created a parish library at All Saints’ Church at Oakham in Rutland in 1616, donating 115 volumes, almost exclusively in theology, for use by the local clergy. Each of the books bears a printed gift-plate with the words “Ex dono Dominæ Annæ Haringtonæ Baronissæ” – one of the earliest examples of a woman’s donation plate. Anne, together with her daughter Lucy, also in 1616, donated 218 volumes to Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, with which the Harington family had close ties. In 1980 the books from Oakham were transferred to the University of Nottingham.