Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Armine, Mary
ARMINE or ARMYNE, Lady MARY (d. 1675–6), remarkable for her learning, piety, and benevolence, was the daughter of Henry Talbot, fourth son of George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, and second wife of Sir William Armyne, baronet, of Osgodby, Lincolnshire [q. v.]. Her first husband was Thomas Holcroft, Esq. Lady Mary's accomplishments included a good knowledge of French and Latin, and wide reading in divinity and history. Her business capacity is applauded at length by her biographer, and her personal beauty and activity, which characterised her old age no less remarkably than her youth, were frequently commented on by her contemporaries. She devoted her wealth to many charitable objects. At the time of the 'ejection of the two thousand' ministers' on the fatal Bartholomew day [1662] she gave 500l. to Mr. Edm. Calamy, to be distributed among the most indigent and necessitous families of them,' and the 'godly ministers' seldom appealed to her in vain for assistance in pecuniary difficulties. She took a similarly practical interest in the missionaries engaged in converting the Indians of North America. At home, she founded three hospitals, one at Barton Grange, in Yorkshire, and by her will left 40l. per annum to be applied to charitable purposes for ninety-nine years. She died 6 March 1675-6, over eighty years of age. Her portrait was painted by Cornelius Jansen, and is now at Welbeck. An elegy 'upon the much-lamented death of the truly honourable, very aged, and singularly pious lady, the Lady Mary Armine' was written by John Sheffield, afterwards Duke of Buckinghamshire.
[Samuel Clarke's Lives of sundry Eminent Persons in this Late Age (1683); Wilford's Lives of Eminent Persons; Granger's Biographical History, iv. 175.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.8
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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