Elizabeth Roper
Elizabeth Roper, Courtier to Anne of Denmark and glass-making entrepreneur.
Also called Anne Roper.
She was probably a daughter of Christopher Roper, 2nd Baron Teynham, and Catherine Seborne, of Lynsted Lodge, Lynsted, or a daughter of John Roper, 1st Baron Teynham.
Roper was appointed a Maid of Honour to the queen in 1604, her companions were Anne Carey, Mary Gargrave, Mary Middlemore, Elizabeth Harcourt, and Mary Woodhouse.
Roper married Sir Robert Mansell in March 1617 with a feast at Denmark House paid for by the queen. John Chamberlain wrote Mansell had married "his old mistress Roper one of the Queen's ancient maids of honour". Edward Sherburn noted that the king gave Mansell £10,000 when he married Mrs Roper. She was usually known as "Lady Mansell". They had no children.
James Howell noted in 1621 that Mansell's marriage to Roper had made him a kinsman to Sir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador in Venice.
Mansell had become involved in glass-making in 1611, and in 1618 bought out the interests of Sir Edward Zouch of Woking who was married to Roper's old colleague in the queen's household, Dorothea Silking. Roper made business decisions, especially when Mansell was on business abroad. In response to a report on the quality of their glass by Inigo Jones, Roper switched from using Scottish coal in their London glass-houses to Newcastle coal.
In 1621 Roper petitioned King James against other glass-makers encroaching on their patent, and claimed they tried to take advantage, thinking her "a weak woman unable to follow the business". In 1623 three glass-making artificiers petitioned the Privy Council that she should reverse a pay-cut that meant that they could not support their families.
She died in 1658 and was buried at St Alfege Church, Greenwich, on 19 November 1658.
