Anna Matyushkina

Princess Anna Alekseevna Gagarina married Matyushkina(1722-1804), was a Russian courtier. She served as Maid of Honour to Empress Elizabeth I, State Lady to Catherine the Great, and Ober-Hoffmeisterin to Empress Maria Feodorvna She married in 1754 to count Dmitry Mikhailovich Matyushkin.

Biography Anna was the eldest sister of Matvey Alekseevich Gagarin and granddaughter of Prince Matvey Petrovich Gagarin on her father's side, and on her mother's, she was a granddaughter of Peter Shafirov, who served under Peter the Great as Vice-Chancellor. She had two other sisters who were Maids of Honour to Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseevna. In 1746, one of her sisters died from fever, and Elizabeth I called for Anna from Moscow to take her sister's place. Her remaining sister, Daria Alekseevna, married the fiancée of their deceased sister Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn.

At the end of 1748, Anna was with Catherine, Pytor, and Empress Elizabeth who was visiting Alexei Razumovsky in the village of Gostilitsy where he had purpose built a palace in order to house the Imperial family when they came to visit. About six o'clock in morning the foundation began to collapse, there had been several loud cracks heard over night, by morning sentries observed large stone slabs falling out from under the house and the house began to sink. Among the seriously wounded from this incident was Princess Gagarina. In her attempt to escape the house, she had passed through the small kitchen attached to her bedroom where a stove collapsed, killing three footmen who slept nearby and broke the divider, pushing Gagarina onto the bed where several bricks fell on her head, seriously wounding her and the maid who had tried to escape with her.

After the death of Catherine the Great, Paul I appointed her Ober-Hoffmeisterin in memory of her service to the court of his father. She was the first courtier to wear the insignia on the right side of her body. Due to her old age, she could not attend the coronation, regardless, she was granted the Order of Saint Catherine first class, and later send miniature portraits of himself and his wife for her to wear.

Family In Saint Petersburg, she owned a mansion located at 55 Bolshaya Morskaya Street and a property on Nevsky Prospect opposite the Chicherin House. Upon the death of her brother she also inherited the Trekhgornoye and Sennitsy estates near Moscow. She died on 3 May 1804, and is buried in the Nevsky Monastery near the Announciation Church. She and her husband had two children.

Sophia (1755-1796), served as a maid of honour to Catherine the Great, known for her beauty. Married the Polish immigrant Yuri Vielgorsky in 1788. She died three weeks after giving birth to her youngest child, leaving behind seven children, who were raised by their grandmother, Anna. Nicholas (1756-1775), who was brought up alongside Paul I, and accompanied him in masquerades. Buried in the Donskoy Monastery