SACKVILLE, Robert (1561-1609)

In April 1608 Robert Sackville inherited the earldom of Dorset, together with large estates, mostly in Sussex. He may already have been in poor health; certainly he fell seriously ill the following summer, to the extent that his eldest son, Richard^* (subsequently 3rd earl of Dorset), feared for his life. As he was still under age, Richard approached Henry, prince of Wales, to sue for his wardship. However, Richard, ‘loth it should thought, that he had any conceit of the shortness of his father’s days’, decided not to pursue the matter.19 HP Commons, 1604-29, vi. 134; T. Birch, Life of Henry Prince of Wales (1760), 139. Dorset seems to have made a partial recovery but his health remained poor; in December 1608 he wrote that it was likely that he would ‘happen to die … by reason of long sickness’.20 SP14/38/65.

Dorset had been separated from his second wife since May 1607. Later that year, she complained to the Council that he had refused to pay her maintenance, which Dorset denied; she lobbied the king so vehemently that James locked himself in his bedchamber to avoid her.21 Ibid.; HMC Hatfield, xix. 341-2, 361-2. In November 1608 the king tried to effect a marital reconciliation or, at least, determine who was to blame for the breach.22 SO3/4, unfol. (8 Nov. 1608). In response, Dorset put forward a series of options to settle matters. First, ‘notwithstanding her evil desert and bad disposition’, he offered to resume cohabitation with his wife. If this was not acceptable, he suggested returning to her the property she held before their marriage, estimated to be worth £1,400-£1,600 p.a. However, he made this offer conditional on her abandoning all rights to his estate after his death. If this was also unacceptable, he was willing to return half the property she had brought to the marriage. Together with certain other sources of revenue at her disposal this would, he thought, give her a total income of over £1,200, with the expectation of more to follow on his death. If the countess refused to accept any of his offers, Dorset proposed that she seek remedy in the law courts. When pressed to increase his offer the earl claimed he could not afford to do so, arguing that his estate was diminished by his mother’s jointure and other charges, and that he needed to provide for his children.23 SP14/38/65-6, 68; 14/43/8.

On 31 Jan. 1609 Dorset wrote to Robert Cecil^*, 1st earl of Salisbury, asking that the hearing of a dispute between himself and Sir John Leveson^‡, concerning the inheritance of the wife of the earl’s younger son (Edward Sackville^*, subsequently 4th earl of Dorset), should be deferred, both because of his own ill health and that of his principal lawyer, Sir Francis Bacon^* (later Viscount St Alban).24 HMC Hatfield, xxi. 11-12. Ten days later he drew up his will, in which he requested that he be buried ‘without any blacks or great solemnity of funeral but … as other persons are of meaner sort’. This was because he thought that the usual form of funeral conducted for noblemen was ‘only good for the heralds and drapers’. He stated that he could not ‘without great grief and sorrow inconsolable … remember’ his present wife, whom he left only a life interest in the jewels, plate and household stuff she had owned at the time of her marriage, plus five rings. He also left £1,000 to build ‘an hospital or college’ for the poor in East Grinstead in Sussex, to which he also assigned rents worth £330 a year.25 PROB 11/113, ff. 181v-5.

Dorset died at his house in London on 27 Feb. 1609, two days after his son and heir, Richard, married Lady Anne Clifford, an act which prevented Richard’s marriage from being sold by the crown. He had been earl for less a year, during which time the first Jacobean Parliament had been prorogued. Consequently, he never sat in the House of Lords. He was buried, in accordance with his wishes, in the church of Withyham, the traditional burial place for the Sackville family. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard, who tried three times without success to secure statutory confirmation of the East Grinstead foundation: its future was, nevertheless, secured by a charter of incorporation granted in 1631.26 Chamberlain Letters, i. 287; Sutton, 74; PROB 11/143, f. 210; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 102.