Theophila Berkeley, who married Sir Robert Coke. Theophila was educated "under the sole direction of her mother", and was later said to be fluent in French, Italian, Latin and Greek.
Elizabeth and her husband circulated between Berkeley residences including New Park, Gloucestershire, Claverdon, Warwickshire, and Caludon Castle, near Coventry. However, Sir Thomas was financially imprudent and ran up enormous debts. In a crisis of 1606–7, Elizabeth took over the management of his affairs ; and in 1609 Sir Thomas signed a contract handing over all responsibility for household management to Elizabeth and the Berkeley family steward, John Smyth of Nibley. When Sir Thomas died in 1611, she paid off the many outstanding debts. In 1618 she bought the estate of Cranford, Middlesex for the sum of £7,000 from the co-heirs of Sir Richard Aston. In February 1622, she remarried Sir Thomas Chamberlain, a Justice of the King's Bench. When he died on 17 September 1625, her second husband bequeathed a generous £10,000 to her son from her first marriage. Elizabeth died on 23 April 1635 and was buried on 25 April in Cranford parish church. Her white marble effigy, depicting her in her shroud, is by Nicholas Stone.
Learning and patronage
Carey's mother was educated and a noted patron of the arts, and passed these traits on to her daughter. Carey was tutored by Henry Stanford. In 1594, aged 18, she is known to have translated two of Petrarch's sonnets from Italian into English. In the same year, Thomas Nashe dedicated The Terrors of the Night to her, praising her "sharpe Wit" and "religious piety". Peter Erondelle's French primer and book of manners, The French Garden, was also dedicated to her, and it has been suggested that she served as the model for the character of "Lady Rimellaine" in the book. In 1610, she was patron of Philemon Holland's translation from the Latin of William Camden's Britannia. She appears to have considered contributing £20, and perhaps £40, towards the volume; and in a commendatory poem Thomas Muriell praised her as the "rare Phoenix cause of this translation". However, shortly before publication, she seems to have become dissatisfied with the quality of Holland's work and withdrew her support: the published book does not mention her patronage, although she is mentioned in the next edition of 1637. She is also listed among the many dedicatees of Camden's Annales. She donated volumes in Latin, Greek, French, Italian and English to Coventry school and city library. In later life, John Smyth described her living at Cranford, "amongst her thousands of books".
