Jane Vigor

Jane Vigor (; other married names: Ward, Rondeau; baptised 20 February 1699 – 6 September 1783) was an English letter writer, best known for her "Letters from a Lady, who resided some years in Russia, to her Friend in England ...", written when she was the wife of two successive British residents (ambassadors) to the court of the Empress Anna of Russia. Her letters "offer a unique eyewitness account of imperial and expatriate society at Saint Petersburg" in the 1730s.

Family and early life Jane Vigor was born at Graffham in Sussex, England in early 1699, the daughter of Revd. George Goodwin and his wife, Elizabeth, née Sykes. George Goodwin was the rector of Graffham church, having been instituted as such in June 1698. Jane Goodwin was baptised at Graffham church on 20 February 1699.

When Jane was ten years old, George Goodwin moved to Methley in Yorkshire where he was instituted as rector of St Oswald's Church in March 1709, remaining there until his death in 1750.

On 20 November 1718, Jane Goodwin (aged 19) married Thomas Ward at Temple Church in the City of London. Ward was the son of Sir Edward Ward, the former Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and judge in the state trial of the pirate, William Kidd.

Following the death of her elder brother, Richard, in 1727, Jane inherited his share of their father's estate. George Goodwin appears to have come from a very wealthy family: writing in 1725, the Yorkshire diarist, John Hobson, describes a meeting with "Mr. Goodwin, minister of Medley (sic), who had lost £40,000 in the South Sea, and married his daughter to a Russian merchant, and had given her £14,000 to her portion".

Life in Russia Little is known about the early married life of Jane and Thomas Ward, until they arrived in St Petersburg at the end of July 1728, accompanied by his secretary Claudius Rondeau, shortly after Ward was appointed British consul-general. Ward was considered a "low-calibre" resident at the Russian court and his tenure there was short-lived, as he died suddenly in February 1731. to which he was appointed in September, ) They travelled over 550 miles through the region of Livonia and the Duchy of Courland (now part of Latvia) before reaching the port of Memel (now the Lithuanian city of Klaipėda) on the Baltic Sea.

On their arrival at Memel, they found that the port was full of Prussian officers and soldiers and the only accommodation available was in a crowded inn. The following day, Vigor found better accommodation in the home of a Mr. Meyer, a business contact. The next day, Jane Rondeau and Meyer were in conversation, when they discovered that the year before, Meyer's son had been travelling in Yorkshire, England when he fell ill with smallpox. By coincidence, he was given shelter and nursed back to health in the home of Revd. Goodwin of Methley, Jane's father. Jane later had a memorial plaque erected inside St Dunstan's to commemorate her husband and daughter. Jane and William Vigor were married at the non-conformist chapel at Somerset House (in the parish of St Mary le Strand) in Westminster on 4 May 1743. The priest who officiated at the wedding was the Revd. Thomas Newcomb, who was rector at both Stopham and at Barlavington (three miles east of Jane's birthplace).

After their marriage, Jane and William Vigor lived in London until 1749, when they settled at Taplow House, near Maidenhead. Although Vigor occasionally represented the London interests of his former employers, Prankard and Dickinson, the couple settled into a life of "genteel obscurity"

Her obituary by John Nichols in The Gentleman's Magazine described Jane as having "lived much in the world, and being well acquainted with books, her conversation was the delight of all who had the pleasure of knowing her" and that her loss was "severely felt by the neighbouring poor, amongst whom she was constantly searching after proper objects for the exertion of her charity and benevolence".

In 1784, after Jane's death the previous year, some more letters were found among her papers; these were published under the title "Eleven additional letters from Russia, in the reign of Peter II. By the late Mrs. Vigor. Never before published". The preface states that these letters were "found among her papers since her decease" and include a short biographical preface and some historical notes. These letters precede the originals chronologically and cover her earliest years at St Petersburg, during the reign of Peter II and were more personally revealing than those she had published during her lifetime.

In the picture, Jane is holding an example of her embroidery, while Ann is knotting silk thread with a shuttle. The seat covers were probably worked by Jane Vigor while still in St Petersburg, "adapting Russian materials to her English design and needle skills".