ABSTRACT
In 1632 when Alice Wandesford was six years old she travelled to Dublin with her mother and her two younger brothers. The family were going to join Alice's father, Christopher Wandesford, who had been appointed Master of the Rolls in the administration of the new Irish lord deputy, Sir Thomas Wentworth. By the time she arrived in Ireland, Alice could read the Psalms, but while in Dublin she was tutored more formally along with the lord deputy's two daughters in Dublin Castle: ‘learning those qualities with them which my father ordered, namelie, – the French language, to write and speake the same; singing; danceing; plaieing on the lute and theorboe'. Wandesford was also taught ‘such other accomplishments of working silkes, gummework, sweetmeats, and other sutable huswifery, as by my mother's virtuous provision and caire, she brought me up in what was fitt for her qualitie and my father's childe'. 1 The priorities of Thornton's education are clear. First, she learnt to read religious texts and then she was taught social and domestic skills that would equip her to be an attractive and competent marriage partner.
