Ancestral Trails 2016 » Georgiana SPENCER (1757-1806)

Persoonlijke gegevens Georgiana SPENCER 

• Zij is geboren op 7 juni 1757 in Althorpe, Daventry, Northamptonshire.
• Titel: Duchess of Devonshire
• Zij is overleden in het jaar 1806 in Devonshire House, Piccadilly, Westminster, Middlesex, zij was toen 48 jaar oud.
• Een kind van John SPENCER en Margaret Georgiana POYNTZ

Gezin van Georgiana SPENCER

(1) Zij is getrouwd met William CAVENDISH.

Zij zijn getrouwd in het jaar 1774 te Wimbledon, Barnes, Surrey, zij was toen 16 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

1. William George Spencer CAVENDISH  1790-1858
2. Georgiana Dorothy CAVENDISH  1783-1858 
3. Harriet Elizabeth CAVENDISH  1785-1862 

(2) Zij is getrouwd met Charles GREY.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 7 juni 1774 te Holy Trinity &, St Peter, Wimbledon, Surrey, zij was toen 17 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

1. Eliza COURTENAY  1792-1859

Notities over Georgiana SPENCER

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer 7 June 1757 - 30 March 1806) was an English socialite, style icon, author, and activist. Of noble birth from the Spencer family, married into the Cavendish family, she was the first wife of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, and the mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire.

As the Duchess of Devonshire, she garnered much attention and fame in society during her lifetime. With a preeminent position in the peerage of England, the duchess was famous for her beauty, charisma, and leading fashion and style; political campaigning; emotionally and psychologically conflicting marital arrangements and love affairs; and socializing and gambling.

She was the great-great-great-grand-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. Their lives, centuries apart, have been compared in tragedy in contemporary time.

Early life and family
The duchess was born Miss Georgiana Spencer, on 7 June 1757, as the first child of John Spencer (later Earl Spencer) and his wife, Georgiana (née Poyntz, later Countess Spencer), at the Spencer family home, Althorp. After her daughter's birth, her mother wrote that "I will own I feel so partial to my Dear little Gee, that I think I never shall love another so well". Two younger siblings followed: Henrietta and George. (The daughter of her sister Henrietta, Lady Caroline Lamb, would become a writer and lover of Lord Byron). Mr John Spencer, great-grandson of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, came from a wealthy English noble family. He built a Spencer family residence at St. James's, London and raised his children there. The parents raised Georgiana and her siblings in a happy marriage which bears no record of there ever having been any extramarital affairs - a rarity in the era. Meanwhile, Georgiana grew to be close to her mother who was said to favour Georgiana over her other children.

When her father assumed the title of Viscount Spencer in 1761, she became The Honourable Georgiana Spencer. In 1765, her father became Earl Spencer and she Lady Georgiana Spencer.

Marriage and children
On her seventeenth birthday, 7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to society's most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire (aged 25). The wedding took place at Wimbledon Parish Church. It was a small ceremony attended only by her parents, her maternal grandmother (Lady Cowper), one of her prospective brothers-in-law, and soon-to-be sister-in-law (the Duchess of Portland). Her parents were emotionally reluctant to let their daughter go, but she was wed to one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the land. Her father, who had always shown affection to his children, wrote to her, "My Dearest Georgiana, I did not know till lately how much I loved you; I miss you more every day and every hour." Mother and daughter continued to correspond throughout their lives and many of their letters survive.

From the beginning of the marriage, the Duke of Devonshire proved to be an emotionally reserved man who was quite unlike the duchess's father and who did not meet the emotional needs of the duchess. The spouses also had little in common. He would seldom be at her side and would spend nights at Brook's playing cards. The duke continued with adulterous behaviour throughout their married life and discord followed pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or failure to produce a male child as heir.

Before their marriage, the duke had fathered an illegitimate daughter, Charlotte Williams, born from a dalliance with a former milliner, Charlotte Spencer (of no relation to the House of Spencer). This was unknown to the duchess until years after her marriage to the duke. After the death of the child's mother, she was compelled to raise Charlotte herself. The duchess of Devonshire was "very pleased" with Charlotte, although her own mother, now Countess Spencer, expressed disapproval: "I hope you have not talk'd of her to people." The duchess replied, "She is the best humored little thing you ever saw."

In 1782, while on a retreat from London with the duke, the duchess met Lady Elizabeth Foster (widely known as "Bess") in the City of Bath. She became close friends with Lady Elizabeth who had become destitute after separating from her husband and three sons. Given the bond that developed between the two women (and the difficult position her new friend was in), with the Duke's acquiescence, the duchess agreed to having Lady Elizabeth live with them. When the Duke began a sexual relationship with Lady Elizabeth, a ménage à trois (love triangle) was established and it was arranged that Lady Elizabeth live with them permanently. While it was common for male members of the upper class to have mistresses, it was not common or generally acceptable for a mistress to live so openly with a married couple. Furthermore, the duchess had become emotionally dependent on Lady Elizabeth whom she believed to be her best friend. Having no alternative, she became complacent over the matter. The arrangement among the three is more commonly referred to as a ménage à trois, but, while the relationship between the duke and Lady Elizabeth was obviously sexual, there is no concrete evidence of anything beyond emotional dependence, and a particular and open affection, on the part of the duchess, towards Lady Elizabeth. In one of her letters, the Duchess of Devonshire wrote to Lady Elizabeth, "My dear Bess, Do you hear the voice of my heart crying to you? Do you feel what it is for me to be separated from you?" Nevertheless, Lady Elizabeth Foster herself was said to actually envy her and wished for her position. (Evidence Lady Elizabeth shared a love for her either way was proven at her death years later when a locket, containing a strand of the duchess' hair, was found around her neck, as well as a bracelet also containing hair of the duchess on a table beside her deathbed). Lady Elizabeth was reported to have insinuated her way into the marriage by taking advantage of the duchess's friendship and love and having "engineered her way" into a sexual relationship with the duke. Lady Elizabeth engaged in well documented sexual relations with other men while she was in the "love triangle" with the duke and duchess. Among their contemporaries, the relationship between the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth Foster was the subject of speculation which has continued beyond their time. The love triangle itself was a notorious topic; it was an irregular arrangement in a high-profile marriage. Lady Elizabeth's affair with the Duke resulted in two illegitimate children: a daughter, Caroline Rosalie St Jules, and a son, Augustus Clifford.

Despite her unhappiness with her detached and philandering husband and volatile marriage, the duchess, as per the custom of the day, was not socially permitted to take a lover without first having produced an heir. The first successful pregnancy resulted in the birth of Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish on 12 July 1783. Called "Little G", she would become the Countess of Carlisle and have issue of her own. The duchess had developed a strong mothering sentiment since raising Charlotte, and she insisted on nursing her own children (contrary to the aristocratic custom of having a wet nurse). On 29 August 1785, a second successful pregnancy resulted in another daughter: Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, called "Harryo", who would become Countess Granville and also have children of her own. Finally, on 21 May 1790, the duchess gave birth to a male heir to the dukedom: William George Spencer Cavendish, who took the title of Marquess of Hartington at birth, and was called "Hart". He would never marry and became known as "the bachelor duke". With the birth of the Marquess of Hartington, the duchess was able to take a lover. While there is no evidence of when the duchess began her affair with Charles Grey (later Earl Grey), she did become pregnant by him in 1791. Sent off to France, the duchess believed she would die in childbirth. In this spirit, she wrote a letter to her recently born son stating, "As soon as you are old enough to understand this letter it will be given to you. It contains the only present I can make you--my blessing, written in my blood...Alas, I am gone before you could know me, but I lov'd you, I nurs'd you nine months at my breast. I love you dearly." On 20 February 1792, Eliza Courtney was born without complications to mother and child, and the duchess was forced to give away the illegitimate daughter to Grey's family. The duchess would later be given the opportunity to pay visits to her illegitimate daughter, providing her with presents and affection, and Eliza would grow up to marry Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Ellice and bear a daughter named Georgiana as well.

While in exile in France in the early 1790s, the Duchess of Devonshire suffered from isolation and felt her separation from her children. To her eldest, she wrote, "Your letter dated the 1st of Nov was delightful to me tho' it made me very melancholy my Dearest Child. This year has been the most painful of my life. . . when I do return to you, never leave you I hope again--it will be too great a happiness for me Dear Dear Georgiana & it will have been purchased by many days of regret - indeed ev'ry hour I pass away from you, I regret you; if I amuse myself or see anything I admire I long to share the happiness with you - if on the contrary I am out of spirits I wish for your presence which alone would do me good." In order to return to England and her children, she conceded to her husband's hypocritical demands and denounced her love for Charles Grey. Records of her exile in France were subsequently erased from the family records. However, the children of the duke and duchess had at one point been informed as to the reason of her absence during that period of their lives.

Throughout her marriage, while the Duchess of Devonshire coped with the marital arrangements on the surface, she nevertheless suffered emotional and psychological distress. She sought further personal consolation from a "dissipated existence" in passions (socializing, fashion, politics, writing), addictions (gambling, drinking, and drugs), and affairs (with a number of men, not just Grey, possibly including the bachelor Duke of Dorset).

Later life and death
Her absence from English society and exile in France had isolated the duchess and was a low point for her in every respect; she returned to England a "changed woman". The duke began suffering from gout, and she spent her time at his side nursing him. With also a new miscarriage, this circumstance with her husband brought about a softening and closeness between the spouses. She took a positive interest in science; took up writing again (producing two more works); and she even continued her activism into politics while trying to rebuild the Whig party (to no avail before its end). The duchess also came to meet and become friends with the wife of her former lover, Charles Grey. In 1796, the Duchess of Devonshire succumbed to illness in one eye; the treatment of the doctors resulted in a scarring of her face. However, "Those scars released her from her fears. All the inhibitions about whether she was beautiful enough or whether she was up to the job left her." In her late 30s, the duchess was able to regain preeminence and enjoyment in open society though her personal life would continue to be marred by degrees of unhappiness, debt, and decline in health.

During her early 40s, the Duchess of Devonshire devoted her time to the coming out of her eldest daughter, Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish. The debutante was presented in 1800, and the duchess saw her daughter wed the heir apparent of Earl Carlisle, Lord Morph, in 1801; it was the first and only time the Duchess of Devonshire saw one of her issue marry.

Her health continued to decline well into her 40s and her addiction to gambling continued. She once reached out to her mother, begging for a sum of a hundred pounds and also complained to her of jaundice. While her mother at first believed her daughter was just ill from her gambling, Countess Spencer, as well as those around the duchess, soon came to realize she was truly sick. She was thought to be suffering from an abscess on her liver.

Georgiana Cavendish, 5th Duchess of Devonshire died on 30 March 1806, at 3:30, at the age of 48. She was surrounded by her husband, the 5th Duke of Devonshire; her mother, Countess Spencer; her sister, Countess of Bessborough; her eldest daughter, Lady Morph (who was eight months pregnant); and Lady Elizabeth Foster. They were all said to have been inconsolable over her death. For the first time, the duke showed moving emotion towards his late wife, as a contemporary wrote, "The Duke has been most deeply affected and has shown more feeling than anyone thought possible--indeed every individual in the family are in a dreadful state of affliction." The late duchess's eldest daughter furthermore poured out her feelings, "Oh my beloved, my adored departed mother, are you indeed forever parted from me--Shall I see no more that angelic countenance or that blessed voice--You whom I loved with such tenderness, you who were the . . . best of mothers, Adieu--I wanted to strew violets over her dying bed as she strewed sweets over my life but they would not let me." Her distant cousin, Charles James Fox, for whom she had triumphantly campaigned, was noted to have cried. The Prince of Wales himself lamented, "The best natured and the best bred woman in England is gone." Thousands of the people of London congregated at Piccadily, where the Cavendish home in the city was located, to mourn her. She was buried at the family vault at All Saints Parish Church (now Derby Cathedral) in Derby.
SOURCE: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgiana_Cavendish,_Duchess_of_Devonshire

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