Polity, written by Mr. Richard Hooker; against an uncharitable “Letter of certain English Protestants (as they call themselves) craving resolution in some matters of doctrine,”’ London, 1603, 4to; reprinted in vol. ii. of Hanbury's edition of Hooker's ‘Works,’ ii. 449–568. 2. ‘A modest and reasonable Examination of some things in vse in the Church of England, sundrie times heretofore misliked, and now lately, in a Booke called the (Plea of the Innocents) and an Assertion for true and Christian Church Policy,’ London, 1604, 4to. 3. ‘A briefe Answer vnto certaine Reasons by way of an Apologie deliuered to the Right Reuerend Father in God, the L. Bishop of Lincolne, by Mr. Iohn Bvrges,’ London, 1606, 4to.
[Carter's Univ. of Cambridge, pp. 180, 233; Richardson's Athenæ Cantab. MS. p. 46; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 41, 101; Horne's Cat. of Library of Queens' Coll. Camb. p. 98; Cooper's MS. Collections for Athenæ Cantab.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
COVENTRY, ANNE, Countess of Coventry (1673–1763), religious writer, born in 1673, was the daughter of Henry Somerset, third marquis and first duke of Beaufort, by Mary, daughter of Arthur, lord Capel, and widow of Henry, lord Beauclerk. Before 1700 she married Thomas, second earl of Coventry, by whom she was the mother of Thomas, third earl. Her husband died in 1710 and her son on 28 Jan. 1712. She took up her permanent residence at her late husband's house at Snitterfield, Warwickshire, in 1726, and died there 14 Jan. 1763, aged 90, after a widowhood of fifty-three years. She was buried with her father at Badminton. The countess was renowned for her charity and piety. In 1707 appeared in duodecimo ‘The Right Honourable Anne, Countess of Coventry's Meditations and Reflections, Moral and Divine.’ A frontispiece by Berchet represents the authoress at prayer. Perfect copies of this volume are now very rare. The countess's friend, Richard Jago, vicar of Snitterfield, preached a biographical sermon after her death, which was printed at Oxford in 1763 under the title of ‘The Nature of a Christian's Happiness in Death.’
Another Anne, Countess of Coventry (1690–1788), born in 1690, was daughter of Sir Streynsham Masters of Codnor Castle, Derbyshire, and became the second wife of Gilbert, fourth earl of Coventry, shortly before his death in 1719. In 1725 she married Edward Pytts of Kyre, Worcestershire, by whom she had five daughters. She died on 21 March 1788, aged 98. This lady was the plaintiff in an important lawsuit which she brought against William, fifth earl of Coventry, a distant relative of the fourth earl, to compel him to give effect to a defectively executed settlement made on her first marriage. The suit, heard 18 May 1724, was decided in her favour. A full report was appended by Richard Francis to his ‘Maxims of Equity,’ 1728.
[Chambers's Worcestershire Biography, 322, 590; Gent. Mag. 1763, p. 277, 1788, pt. i. 277; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COVENTRY, FRANCIS (d. 1680), Franciscan. [See Davenport, Christopher.]
COVENTRY, FRANCIS (d. 1759?), miscellaneous writer, a native of Cambridgeshire, was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1748 and M.A. 1752. He is the author of ‘Penshurst, a poem, inscribed to William Perry, esq., and the Hon. Mrs. Elizabeth Perry,’ 1750, 4to, reprinted in vol. iv. of ‘Dodsley's Miscellanies;’ and of the fifteenth number of the ‘World,’ 12 April, 1753, containing ‘Strictures on the Absurd Novelties introduced in Gardening.’ He also wrote a satirical romance, ‘Pompey the Little, or the Adventures of a Lapdog,’ 1751 (5th ed. 1773), which Lady Mary Wortley Montagu preferred to ‘Peregrine Pickle.’ Several characters were intended for ladies well known in contemporary society. He was appointed by his relative, the Earl of Coventry, to the perpetual curacy of Edgware, and died of small-pox at Whitchurch about 1759.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 569; Cole's Athenæ.]
COVENTRY, HENRY (1619–1686), secretary of state, the third son by the second marriage of Thomas, first lord Coventry [q. v.], brother of Sir William Coventry [q. v.], uncle of Sir John Coventry [q. v.], and brother-in-law of Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of Shaftesbury [q. v.], after studying at All Souls College, Oxford, graduated in both arts and law. In the civil wars he adhered to the king's party, and accompanied Charles II in his exile, during part of which time he was employed as royalist agent in Germany and Denmark, in company with Lord Wentworth, until the concert was dissolved by a violent quarrel, leading apparently to a duel (Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, ii. 332; 6 April 1654). The notices of him at this date are very confused; Henry, his elder brother Francis, and his younger brother William being all attached to the exiled court and all commonly spoken of as Mr. Coventry. Before the Restoration Francis had ceased to take any active part
