Regency Personalities Series-John Ponsonby 4th Earl of Bessborough

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John William Ponsonby 4th Earl of Bessborough
531 August 1781 – 16 May 1847

John William Ponsonby

John Ponsonby 4th Earl of Bessborough was the eldest son of Frederick Ponsonby, 3rd Earl of Bessborough, and Lady Henrietta Frances, daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer. Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby and William Ponsonby, 1st Baron de Mauley, were his younger brothers, while Lady Caroline Lamb was his younger sister. Ponsonby’s mother was Lord Granville’s lover prior to his marriage to Lady Harriet Cavendish, the Countess of Bessborough’s niece. Lord Granville fathered two illegitimate children through her: Harriette Stewart and George Stewart. Lord Bessborough was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford.

He was First Commissioner of Woods and Forests under Lord Grey (1831–1834) and served under Lord Melbourne in that office (1835-1841), briefly as Home Secretary (1834), and as Lord Privy Seal (1835–1839). Later, he served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under Lord John Russell from 1846 until his death on 16 May 1847. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1831 and in 1834, ten years before he succeeded his father, he was created Baron Duncannon, of Bessborough in the County of Kilkenny. He was Lord Lieutenant of Kilkenny from November 1838 until his death.

His political career was hampered by a noted stammer, which made him a very reluctant public speaker: as Lord Duncannon he was unkindly nicknamed “Dumbcannon”. In private on the other hand he was a valued colleague, due largely to his ability to keep his head in a crisis. He was one of the so-called Committee of Four who drafted the Reform Act 1832.

John Ponsonby married Lady Maria Fane, daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and Sarah Anne Child, on 16 November 1805 at Berkeley Square, London. They had eight sons and three daughters. The youngest daughter, Emily Charlotte Mary, remained unmarried but she wrote a number of novels which were published without attribution. The Countess of Bessborough died in March 1834, aged 46. Lord Bessborough survived her by thirteen years and died in May 1847, aged 65. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, John, and subsequently by his younger sons Frederick and Walter. Bessborough Gardens in London is named after Lord Bessborough.

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Regency Personalities Series-John Parker 1st Earl of Morley

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John Parker 1st Earl of Morley
3 May 1772 – 14 March 1840

John Parker

John Parker 1st Earl of Morley was the only son of John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon, and his second wife the Honourable Theresa Robinson, daughter of Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham. His mother died when he was three years old and his father when he was fifteen. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford.

Morley took his seat in the House of Lords on his 21st birthday in 1793. He was an active member of the House of Lords, initially supporting government policies until the death of William Pitt the Younger in 1806. After Pitt’s death he supported George Canning, with whom he corresponded on political matters for many years. In 1815, he was created Viscount Boringdon, of North Molton in the County of Devon, and Earl of Morley, in the County of Devon. After Canning’s death in 1827 he began to support the Whigs, and voted for the Great Reform Act of 1832. Apart from his involvement in national politics, Morley was also a great benefactor to public works in his home county of Devon and was a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Lord Morley married, firstly, Lady Augusta Fane, second daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, in 1804. They had one son, who died young, and were divorced in 1809.

He married, secondly, Frances Talbot, daughter of Thomas Talbot, in 1809. They had one son and one daughter. Lord Morley died at his seat of Saltram House in March 1840, aged 67, and was succeeded in his titles by his only son Edmund. Lady Morley died in 1857.

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Regency Personalities Series-Sarah Fane Countess of Westmorland

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Sarah Fane Countess of Westmorland
28 August 1764 – 9 November 1793

Sarah Anne Child

Sarah Fane Countess of Westmorland was the only child of Robert Child, the owner of Osterley Park and principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co. She married John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland on 20 May 1782 at Gretna Green after they eloped together. Her parents were dissatisfied with the match, her father wanted her to marry a commoner who would take the Child name (Sarah Anne being an only child), but Sarah Anne told her mother, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Her father cut her out of his will, leaving his house and fortune to Sarah Anne’s second son or eldest daughter, instead of the Westmorland heir.

Sarah Anne and the earl’s surviving children were:

• John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland (1784–1859)
• Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785–1867), married George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jerseyin 1804 (A Patroness of Amacks).
• Lady Augusta Fane (1786–1871), m. 1. John Parker, Lord Boringdon (later 1st Earl of Morley) in 1804, divorced 1809; m. 2 also in 1809 Sir Arthur Paget (1771–1840), son of the 1st Earl of Uxbridge.
• Lady Maria Fane (1787–1834), m. 1805 John Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, later 4th Earl of Bessborough.
• Lady Charlotte Fane (1793–1822)

As only one son survived, most of Child’s fortune eventually went to his eldest granddaughter, Lady Sarah Sophia (The famous Patroness of Almacks).

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Regency Personalities Series-Sarah Villiers Countess of Jersey

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Sarah Villiers Countess of Jersey, Patroness of Almacks
4 March 1785 – 26 January 1867

Sarah Sophia Child Villiers

Sarah Villiers Countess of Jersey was an English noblewoman, the eldest daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, and Sarah Anne Child. Her mother was the only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co. Under the terms of his will, the Countess of Jersey was the primary legatee, and she not only inherited Osterley Park but became senior partner of the bank. Her husband, George Villiers, added the surname Child by royal licence.

Lady Jersey married George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, on 23 May 1804, in the drawing room of her house in Berkeley Square. Her husband’s mother, Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey (also Lady Jersey), was one of the more notorious mistresses of King George IV when he was Prince of Wales. Her sister Maria married John Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon, later the 4th Earl of Bessborough, a brother of Lady Caroline Lamb. Her own affairs, though conducted discreetly, were said to be numerous: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, was thought to be one of her lovers. When asked why he had never fought a duel to preserve his wife’s reputation, Lord Jersey dryly replied that this would require him to fight every man in London.

Lady Jersey was one of the patronesses of Almack’s and a leader of the ton during the Regency era. She was immortalized as Zenobia in Disraeli’s novel Endymion. Caroline Lamb ridiculed her in Glenarvon: in revenge Lady Jersey had her barred from Almack’s, the ultimate social disgrace. This, however, was unusual since she was notable for acts of kindness and generosity; and she was eventually persuaded to remove the ban.

In politics she was a Tory, although she lacked the passion for politics shown by her cousin Harriet Arbuthnot. On hearing that the Duke of Wellington had fallen from power in 1830, she burst into tears in public. She reportedly “moved heaven and earth” against the Reform Act 1832.

Lady Jersey was known by the nickname Silence; the nickname was ironic since, famously, she almost never stopped talking.

She is a recurring character in the Regency novels of Georgette Heyer, where she is presented as eccentric and unpredictable, but highly intelligent and observant, and capable of kindness and generosity.
She died at No. 38, Berkeley Square, Middlesex now London.

Lady Jersey had seven children by George Child Villiers:

• George Child Villiers, 6th Earl of Jersey (1808–59)
• The Honourable Augustus John Villiers (1810–47), married Georgiana Elphinstone, daughter of George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith.
• The Honourable Frederick William Child Villiers (1815–71), married Elizabeth Maria van Reede, daughter of the 7th or 8th Earl of Athlone.
• The Honourable Francis John Robert Child Villiers (1819–62).
• Lady Sarah Frederica Caroline Child Villiers (1822–1853), married Nicholas Paul (Miklós Pál), 9th Prince Esterházy (1817–94).
• Lady Clementina Augusta Wellington Child Villiers (1824–58).
• Lady Adela Corisande Maria Child Villiers (1828–60), married Lt.-Col. Charles Parke Ibbetson, and had one daughter Adele.

She outlived not only her husband, but six of her seven children.

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Regency Personalities Series-George Villiers 4th Earl of Jersey

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

George Villiers 4th Earl of Jersey
9 June 1735 – 22 August 1805

George Villers

George Villers was Between 1756 and his father’s death in 1769 continuously in the House of Commons as MP for, in turn, Tamworth in Staffordshire, Aldborough in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Dover in Kent. In 69 he inherited his father’s title and went into Lords. He followed the political lead of the duke of Grafton in both the Commons and Lords. He was a lord of the Admiralty from 1761 to 1763 and was sworn of the privy council in 1765. Lord chamberlain from 1765 to 1769, on his elevation to the peerage he was made a gentleman of the bedchamber to George III and thereafter held various court posts until 1800.
He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1787.

The 4th Earl of Jersey was the son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey and Lady Anne Egerton, the daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater and his first wife, Lady Elizabeth Churchill, a daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife Sarah Jennings.

Lord Jersey married Frances Twysden, at her stepfather’s house in the parish of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields on 26 March 1770. Lady Jersey, who was seventeen years younger than her husband, became in 1793 after she had turned 40 and was more than once a grandmother, one of the more notorious mistresses of George IV when he was still Prince of Wales.

Lord and Lady Jersey had ten children:

• Lady Charlotte Anne Villiers, married Lord William Russell in 1789,
• Anne Barbara Frances Villiers, married William Henry Lambton and had issue, including John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham; married secondly Hon. Charles Wyndham, son of Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont.
• George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, married Sarah Sophia Fane daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland and Sarah Anne Child, only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co.
• Lady Caroline Elizabeth Villiers, married firstly Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and had issue. She divorced him in the Scottish courts in 1809 and married secondly, George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll.
• Lady Georgiana Villiers
• Lady Sarah Villiers, married Charles Nathaniel Bayley
• Hon. William Augustus Henry Villiers
• Lady Elizabeth Villiers
• Lady Frances Elizabeth Villiers, married John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, in 1803.
• Lady Harriet Villiers, married Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford in 1806

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Regency Personalities Series-George Child Villiers 5th Earl of Jersey

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

George Child Villiers 5th Earl of Jersey
19 August 1773 – 3 October 1859

George Child Villiers

George Child Villiers 5th Earl of Jersey

Styled Viscount Villiers from birth, he was the son of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, by his wife Frances Twysden, daughter of the Right Reverend Philip Twysden, Bishop of Raphoe. He attended Harrow and obtained a Masters of Arts degree from St John’s College, Cambridge. He was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales in 1795.

Lord Jersey succeeded in the earldom on the death of his father in 1805 and took his seat in the House of Lords. He served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household under the Duke of Wellington in 1830 and was sworn of the Privy Council. He was Lord Chamberlain for a second time under Sir Robert Peel in 1834 to 1835. He again held office under Peel as Master of the Horse from 1841 to 1846, and again briefly under Lord Derby in 1852. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford.

Lord Jersey married Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, in 1804. She was the eldest grandchild and heiress of Robert Child, principal shareholder of the banking firm Child & Co. Lord Jersey added the surname Child to the Villiers surname by royal license in 1819. Lady Jersey was one of the great hostesses of English society, a leader of the Ton during the Regency era and the reign of George IV, and a patroness of Almack’s.

Lord Jersey was an ardent fox hunter and a breeder and trainer of horses, owning two Epsom Derby winners, in Mameluke (1827) and Bay Middleton (1836) as well as other notable thoroughbreds such as Glencoe. His wife’s numerous love affairs never troubled him: asked why he had never fought a duel in her honour, he replied that he could hardly fight every man in London.

Lord and Lady Jersey had seven children:

• George Child Villiers, 6th Earl of Jersey, married Julia Peel, daughter of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, Bt.
• The Hon. Augustus John Villiers , married Georgiana Elphinstone, daughter of George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith and Hester Maria (“Queeny”) Thrale.
• The Hon. Frederick William Child Villiers, married Elizabeth Maria van Reede, daughter of the 7th Earl of Athlone on 12 July 1842.
• The Hon. Francis John Robert Child Villiers.
• Lady Sarah Frederica Caroline Child Villiers, married Nicholas Paul (Miklós Pál), 9th Prince Esterhazy.
• Lady Clementina Augusta Wellington Child Villiers.
• Lady Adela Corisande Maria Child Villiers , married Lt.-Col. Charles Parke Ibbetson.

Lord Jersey died on 3 October 1859, aged 86, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George. The Countess of Jersey died in January 1867, aged 81.

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Regency Personalities Series-John Fane 10th Earl of Westmorland

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

John Fane 10th Earl of Westmorland
1 June 1759 – 15 December 1841

John Fane

Fane was styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774. He was a British Tory politician, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal.

Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland, and Augusta, daughter of Lord Montague Bertie. He succeeded in the earldom on the death of his father in 1774.

In 1789 Westmorland was appointed Joint Postmaster General by William Pitt the Younger and sworn of the Privy Council. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1789 to 1794. From 1795 to 1798 he was Master of the Horse. Then made him Lord Privy Seal, a position he would hold under five prime Ministers for the next 35 years, except between 1806 and 1807 when Lord Grenville was in office.

Westmorland was also Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire between 1828 and 1841. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1793.

Lord Westmorland married Sarah Anne Child, the only daughter and heiress of wealthy banker, Robert Child, against her father’s wishes, at Gretna Green in 1782. Child consequently cut his daughter and her sons and their descendants out of his will, and made his daughter’s daughters his heirs to prevent the Fanes from benefitting from this elopement.

Sarah Anne Child

Their eldest daughter, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785–1867), made testamentary heiress of her maternal grandfather, married George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey; her husband assumed the additional surname of Child.

They had one son and four daughters:

• John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland.
• Lady Sarah Sophia Fane who married in 1804 George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey and became heiress to the Child fortune.
• Lady Augusta Fane, who married firstly in 1804 (divorced 1809) Lord Boringdon, later Earl of Morley, and in 1809 Arthur Paget, a younger brother of Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey.
• Lady Maria Fane who in 1805 married Viscount Duncannon, later 4th Earl of Bessborough.
• Lady Charlotte Fane.

The Countess of Westmorland died relatively young in 1793, aged only 29, from undisclosed causes.

Lord Westmorland married secondly Jane, daughter of Richard Huck-Saunders, in 1800. After some years of marriage, they later separated and she lived at Brympton d’Evercy. By his second wife, he had three sons and two daughters, of whom only the eldest child Lady Georgiana Fane outlived both parents.

• Lady (Cicely Jane) Georgina Fane.
• Hon. Charles Saunders John Fane.
• Hon. Col. Henry Sutton Fane.
• Hon. Montagu Augustus Villiers Fane.
• Lady Evelina Fane.

Lord Westmorland died in December 1841, aged 82. The Countess of Westmorland died in 1857.

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