Richard Sackville 3rd Earl of Dorset

  General Notes:

Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset (18 March 1589, Charterhouse, London - 28 March 1624, Dorset House, London) was the son of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset.

Born at Charterhouse, London, Sackville was styled Lord Buckhurst from 1608 until 1609, when he succeeded his father as Earl of Dorset and inherited the family home of Knole House.

During the years, 1612-24, Sackville served as a Lord Lieutenant of Sussex.

Richard Sackville is perhaps best remembered as the first husband of Lady Anne Clifford; they married on 27 February 1609. Their marriage was not a success; partisans of the Earl tended to blame Lady Anne's powerful personality, while partisans of the Countess pointed to the Earl's repeated infidelities, not to mention his extravagance and indebtedness - "one of the seventeenth century's most accomplished gamblers and wastrels".

Rumour noted later by the curious antiquary John Aubrey had it that one of Richard Sackville's "Concubines" was Venetia Stanley. She was said to have had children by him and he settled upon her an annuity of £500 p.a. Among the Earl's other mistresses was Martha Penistone, the wife of Sir Thomas Penistone one of the Earl's retinue.

At the time of their marriage, Lady Anne had been in a long-running legal contest over her inheritance rights; in 1617, the 3rd Earl signed away her claim on contested ancestral lands to James I, in return for a cash payment, which the Earl used to pay off his gambling debts.

The 3rd Earl and Lady Anne had five children between 1615 and 1624; unfortunately none of their three sons, born in 1616, 1618, and 1621, survived their father. Their two daughters, Isabella (born 6 October 1622, died 22 August 1719) and Margaret (born posthumously on 2 July 1624, died May 1676), were longer lived. Margaret became the wife of John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet.

The 3rd Earl died without a male heir on Easter Sunday of 1624 at Dorset House, London, and was succeeded by his younger brother Edward Sackville. The 3rd Earl was buried on 7 April 1624 at St. Michael's Parish Church in Withyham, Sussex.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Address: Knole House, Knole, Kent.

• Address: Buckhurst Park, Withyham, Sussex.

Richard married Lady Anne Clifford Baroness Clifford, daughter of George Clifford 3rd Earl of Cumberland and Margaret Russell Countess of Cumberland, on 25 Feb 1609.⁶⁸ (Lady Anne Clifford Baroness Clifford was born on 30 Jan 1590, died in 1675 ⁶⁸ and was buried in Appleby, Westmoreland.)