Bessborough papers

Henrietta Frances Spencer Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, was born on June 16, 1761, the younger daughter of John, Earl Spencer. In November of 1780 she married Frederick Ponsonby, viscount Duncannon; her dowry of L20,000 went toward Duncannon's L30,000 debt. Their first child, John William Ponsonby, was born on August 31, 1781. Despite their incompatibilities, and Henrietta's abortive elopement with Charles Wyndham, one of the King's friends, the couple had four children during the first seven years of their marriage; their only daughter, Caroline (later Lady Caroline Lamb), was born in 1785. Duncannon initiated divorce proceedings against his wife in 1789, prompted by her relationship with the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, but was persuaded by his father and brother-in-law to withdraw the bill from the House of Lords.

While visiting Italy in 1794, Henrietta began a lengthy relationship with Lord Granville Leveson-Gower. Their first child, Harriet Stewart, was born in August of 1800 and placed with foster parents.

Henrietta and her sister, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, remained close throughout their lives and frequently visited and traveled together until Henrietta's death in 1806. Georgiana spent many summers in residence at Manresa House in Roehampton, when she gardened and established a hostel for "unfortunate girls." In December of 1809, Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, recently named Secretary of War in Canning's cabinet, married Georgiana's daughter, Harriet Cavendish.

In 1812, Lady Bessborough escorted her daughter to Ireland in a successful effort to end Caroline's relationship with Lord Byron. She died in retirement in Florence in November, 1821.

Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was born on June 9, 1757, the eldest daughter of John, Earl Spencer. On June 5, 1774, she married William Cavendish, fifth Duke of Devonshire. She quickly became the hostess and center of the "Devonshire House Circle" of Whig aristocrats and a friend and partisan of Charles James Fox. She was the model for Sheridan's Lady Teazle in School for Scandal, set the fashions at court, and published The Slyph, a popular and notorious novel, anonymously in 1778. Her enthusiastic and effective canvassing in support of Fox in the hotly contested Westminster election of 1784 was widely lampooned in the popular press.

After several miscarriages, Georgiana bore the Duke three children, first two daughters and then, in 1790, a son and heir, William Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington. She was separated from the Duke in 1791 over her extravagant gambling debts and her pregnancy by Charles Grey, who had replaced the Duke of Dorset in her affections. Their daughter, Eliza Courtney, was born in February 1792 and raised by Grey's parents in Northumberland. Georgiana and her husband were reconciled, in part due to the influence of Lady Elizabeth Foster, Devonshire's mistress, and the three formed a household which included the children of both women by Devonshire.

Georgiana's health declined in the 1790s after a severe illness which affected her eyes, and she and her household lived more quietly at Devonshire and at Chatsworth, although she continued to be interested in political affairs and troubled by substantial debts. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire died at Devonshire House on March 30, 1806. The Duke of Devonshire married Lady Elizabeth Foster on October 19, 1809, despite the opposition of all of his children; he died two years later.

Lady Caroline Ponsonby Lamb was born November 13, 1785, the youngest daughter of Lord and Lady Bessborough. She married William Lamb, eldest son of Lord Melbourne, on June 3, 1805. Their only son William was born in August 1807.

In the spring of 1812 she met Lord Byron at Holland House. Byron was enjoying his new celebrity as the author of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," and the two began a four month affair, despite her opinion of him as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." The relationship scandalized her family, and in August her mother and her husband took her to Ireland in order to end the affair. Lamb began separation proceedings, but abandoned them the following year, though the couple continued to live apart.

In 1816, she published Glenarvon, a thinly disguised retelling of her relationship with Byron in novel form. It only served to renew the gossip, and her husband sent her from London to live primarily at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. The novel was translated into Italian in 1817; upon hearing that Byron had laughed over it with Madame de Staël, Lamb is said to have made a bonfire of Byron letters and keepsakes on the grounds at Brocket.

She published two more novels; Graham Hamilton (1822) and Ada Reis (1823). Her separation from Lamb became final in 1825, and she spent the remainder of her life in seclusion at Brocket Hall with her father-in-law and her invalid son George. She died at Melbourne House in the presence of her husband on January 26, 1828.