Elizabeth Roper

John Roper was the first man of note in Kent to proclaim James VI and I King after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, an event known as the Union of the Crowns.

[5][6] A letter of the Earl of Worcester describing the queen's household in 1604 mentions that "Roper, the sixth [maid of honour] is determined but not [yet] come".

[9] Rowland Whyte mentioned the maids of honour and others dancing at Hampton Court in the presence chamber of Anne of Denmark, with a French visitor, the Count of Vaudémont.

[17] 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.

[19] 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.

[21] She complained to the Privy Council that a rival patent-holder, Sir William Clavell of Smedmore, had enticed some of their expert workmen to leave their glasshouses and go to work in Scotland.

[23] In 1621 Elizabeth Mansell 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".