Mary Mildmay

Mary was the daughter and eventual sole heiress of Sir Anthony Mildmay (d. 1617), of Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire, and Grace Sherington (1552–1620), who was daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Sherington (alias Sharington) (c. 1518-1581) of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. Mary built an imposing monument to her parents at Apethorpe Church in 1621, the sculpture attributed to Maximilian Colt. On 15 February 1598/99 Mary married Francis Fane, and he became the Earl of Westmorland.

Mary collated and transcribed her mother's medical works. Grace had dedicated her 'Spiritual Meditations' to Mary. Mary wrote a 'Book of Advices to the Children' for her sons Francis and Mildmay. She also wrote letters of advice to Francis. Other letters include a group of business letters sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and four letters to her daughter Grace Fane, Countess of Home.

On 6 May 1639 Mary wrote a letter to Secretary Windebank advising against sending an army to Scotland in the first Bishop's War. The letter has sometimes been attributed to her daughter-in-law, Mary Vere. Gerald Morton published the original text.

Writing to her daughter Rachel Fane on 9 January 1640, Mary, now dowager countess, called herself an old hen, her daughter Katherine a chick, and praised Mary Vere, "the olde hen left at home, with her best chick, my daughter of Westmorland hath proved a good Christmas woman & has made on, & allowed of much mirth".

Mary and Francis had seven sons and six daughters:

Sons

1. Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland (24 January 1602 – 12 February 1666), a poet and Member of Parliament.
2. Thomas Fane, died in infancy
3. Sir Francis Fane (c. 1611–1681?) of Fulbeck, third but second surviving son. He was a Royalist governor of Doncaster, and afterwards of Lincoln Castle. He was the great-grandfather of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland.
4. Anthony Fane (1613–1643), a colonel in the Parliamentary army, who suffered a shot wound to the cheek at the siege of Farnham Castle on 9 December 1642 and died at his home in Kingston upon Thames early the following year.
5. Col. George Fane (c. 1616 – April 1663), fifth but fourth surviving son. A Royalist officer and later Member of Parliament.
6. William Fane
7. Robert Fane

Daughters

• Grace Fane (d. 1633) married James Home, 2nd Earl of Home, (d. 1633).
• Mary Fane (1606-1634) married, after 18 May 1625, Dutton Gerard, 3rd Baron Gerard (1613-1640), grandson of Thomas Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard
• Elizabeth Fane, married Sir John Cope, 3rd Baronet, and afterward William Cope, by whom she was grandmother of Sir John Cope
• Rachel Fane (1614-1681), wife of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath (1593-1654), of Tawstock Court, Devon. The marriage was without progeny, whereupon the earldom became extinct. Her lifesize marble statue survives in Tawstock Church.
• Catherine Fane.