A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Russel, (Lady Elizabeth)
RUSSEL (LADY ELIZABETH), third Daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, 1529,
Was equally happy with her two sisters in having the advantages of a learned and polite education, and in the progress she made in the languages.
She was married first to Sir Thomas Hobby, who was sent by queen Elizabeth, ambassador into France, where she accompanied him. He dying at Paris 1566, she brought home his corpse, which she deposited in the church of Bisham, in Berkshire, together with the remains of Sir Philip, his brother, in the same tomb, which she adorned with large inscriptions in Latin and English verse of her own composing. She had by Sir Thomas four children, Edward, Elizabeth, Anne, and Thomas Posthumus, who, according to the account she gives of him to her brother, lord treasurer Burleigh, by his excessive extravagance and want of duty gave her much uneasiness. From this letter it appears, she was a lady of great spirit and: sense, as well as an excellent economist.
Some years after the death of Sir Thomas, she married Lord John Russel, son and heir to the second earl of Bedford of that name; who, dying before his father in the year 1584, was buried in the abbey church at Westminster, where is a very noble monument erected to his memory, embellished with inscriptions in Greek, Latin and English, drawn up by his lady. She had by him one son, who died young; and two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth.
She translated from the French into English, a tract intituled, A Way of Reconciliation of a good and learned Man, touching the true Nature and Substance of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament, printed 1605; and dedicated to her daughter, Anne Herbert, wife to the Lord H. Herbert.
Where or when this worthy lady died we do not find. But by a letter she wrote to her nephew Cecil, without date, it seems to have been about the year 1597; she complains much of her bad health, and the infirmities of old age, being apprehensive of a sudden death; and concludes, "your lordship's owld awnt of compleat 68 years, that prays for your lordship's long life,
Poetical inscriptions and epitaphs were a favourite kind of composition with Lady Russel. She wrote epitaphs for her son, daughter, brother, sister, and a venerable old friend, in the Greek, Latin, and English tongues.