Lady Elizabeth Cranfield of Middlesex

The Lady Elizabeth Viscountess Brackley, Daughter
and Heir of the Honorable JAMES Earl of MIDDLESEX, Wife to
the Right Honorable Sir JOHN EGERTON Knight of the HONORABLE
Order of the Bath Viscount Brackley Eldest Son and Heir apparent of
the Right Honorable JOHN Earl of BRIDGEWATER. She had
Borne one Son JOHN EGERTON who died in the Second
Year of his Age and one Daughter who dyed as soone as she was
Borne and both Lye interred together with their most excellent mother.
She was a Lady of a Noble Extraction and adorned with a Temper
of Mind equall to her Birth, her Person as Lovely as her Nature
having better provided for Her than Art for Otherwise Witt was
Quick and inocently Free without Affectation, her speech, whether
in the English or French tongue modestly Grave and gracefully Delightfull
She was an excellent Observer of wha* Noble or Vertuous Discreet or Pious
Civill or Obliging Her Closett the Privaye Chappell and Publique Church
did witness her Devout Decent and did by Discharge of her duty to Almighty
GOD Her constant and Passionate Affection to her Deare Husband (who
sorrowfully undergoes the great Affliction of her losse) placed her amongst the
Best of Wifes and her meeke and Affable Conversation whereby She was still most
esteemed by them that knew her best amonst the Best of Women
In the Morning of her Age, too bright to last long, She found even before
her Noone her Evening; for after a Short but Sharp Sickness
on Thursday the 3rd of March in her 22 Yeare in the Yeare of our Lord
GOD 1669 She Exchanged this Mortall Life for Immortality

Photo found here http://www.icknieldindagations.com/2021/03/

https://littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk/about/history/the-great-monument/
During the negotiations for the marriage of the second Earl’s heir, Lord Brackley, to Elizabeth Cranfield, daughter and heiress of James, second Earl of Middlesex, her uncle Lionel, who had succeeded his brother, challenged her future father-in-law to a duel. The King (Charles II) heard about it and put both men under house arrest to try to calm things down. The second Countess insisted on coming to London with her husband to share his detention at Black Rod’s house, but she was expecting her twelfth child. Tragically, the exertion was too much and she died. The Earl was heartbroken.

Elizabeth Cranfield’s Fate
Other correspondence suggests that Elizabeth Cranfield, the Earl’s future daughter-in- law, was under great emotional stress. He says, “She has put herself under my protection.” There are hints of an elopement, and both men were called before the Bar of the House of Lords, where Cranfield admitted that he might have been “over hasty”: There are references to sending for a horse and pistols, and the second Earl states that he has never seen a girl so determined to see the settlements for her dowry.

At the end of the letters is a list of the Manors, servants, horses, etc. necessary for the young couple’s estate. The final most poignant entry is the return of the dowry, which was extremely large, because Elizabeth Cranfield, Viscountess Brackley, had died in childbirth, and her baby son had died a year later. [NOTE her memorial gives her cause of death as a short sickness & her date of death as 3 March 1669 (modern calendar 3 March 1670, so the death of her son on 31 March 1670 was actually just a few weeks later]

Elizabeth Cranfield, Viscountess Brackley, was the catalyst for these memorials. Her own memorial is over the door into the Sanctuary from the Bridgwater Chapel.

From Wikitree
Elizabeth married John Egerton, son of John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater and his wife, Elizabeth Cavendish. [4] Their only child known to have survived birth was John, born on 11 January 1668.[4] Wikipedia give his date of death as 31 March 1670.[4]Peerage citing Cokayne gives Elizabeth's death as occurring on 3 March 1670 in childbirth.[1]
↑ 1.0 1.1 Thepeerage.com: Lady Elizabeth Cranfield Cites: G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 313.
↑ Wikipedia: James Cranfield, 2nd Earl of Middlesex
↑ History of Parliament online: WREY, Sir Chichester, 3rd Bt. (c.1628-68), of Trebeigh, St. Ive, Cornw
↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Wikipedia: John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater