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The Right Honourable The Baroness Holland | |
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![]() Lady Caroline Fox as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1757–58 | |
Born | Lady Georgiana Carolina Lennox 27 March 1723 Richmond House, London, England |
Died | 24 July 1774 51) Holland House, London, England | (aged
Title | Baroness Holland, of Holland Lady Holland, of Foxley |
Spouse | |
Children | |
Parents |
Georgiana Carolina Fox, 1st Baroness Holland, of Holland (27 March 1723 – 24 July 1774), known as Lady Caroline Lennox before 1744 and as Lady Caroline Fox from 1744 to 1762, was the eldest of the Lennox sisters. [1]
The Lennox sisters were daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and Sarah Cadogan. Charles Lennox was the grandson of Charles II of England through the King's relationship with Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. In 1744, Lady Caroline eloped with Henry Fox, a politician who was 18 years her senior. Though her parents disapproved of the marriage, it proved a happy one. The couple had four sons, including the Whig politician Charles James Fox and the general Henry Edward Fox.
Their home, Holland House, Kensington, became a social and political gathering place.
Lady Caroline's favourite sister, Emily Lennox, married and went to live in Ireland in 1747. In 1750 and 1751, the Lennox sisters' parents died in quick succession, leaving three younger daughters, Louisa, Sarah, and Cecilia, aged eight, six, and one. The 2nd Duke of Richmond, in his will, remembered Lady Caroline's reckless elopement, passed over her and instructed that his three youngest daughters be entrusted to the care of their sister Emily and her husband, James FitzGerald, 20th Earl of Kildare.[ citation needed ] Lady Caroline resented this slight but hoped to redeem herself by presenting her younger sisters at court and helping them make good matches.[ citation needed ]
The Kildares' allegations that the Foxes were responsible for Lady Sarah Lennox's embarrassing rejection by the young King George III, as well as her disastrous marriage to Sir Charles Bunbury soon afterwards, provoked a quarrel between the sisters that was not healed until shortly before Lady Caroline's death.[ citation needed ]
On 3 May 1762, Caroline was created Baroness Holland of Holland in the Peerage of Great Britain. Her husband was created Baron Holland of Foxley less than a year later, on 17 April 1763. [2]
Caroline's two spoilt sons, especially the elder one Stephen, caused her much embarrassment and distress by gambling and falling into debt.
Lady Caroline was already plagued by a mysterious and painful illness when her husband, who had suffered a stroke, died on 1 July 1774. She followed him 23 days later and is buried at All Saints, Farley, Wiltshire.
Aristocrats , a six-part television drama based on Stella Tillyard's biography of Caroline and her sisters, first aired on BBC One in 1999. [3]
Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, known before 1747 as Lady Emily Lennox, from 1747 to 1761 as The Countess of Kildare and from 1761 to 1766 as The Marchioness of Kildare, was the second of the famous Lennox sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond.
Lady Sarah Lennox was the most notorious of the famous Lennox sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sarah Cadogan.
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, PC, of Holland House in Kensington and of Holland House in Kingsgate, Kent, was a leading British politician. He identified primarily with the Whig faction. He held the posts of Secretary at War, Southern Secretary and Paymaster of the Forces, from which latter post he enriched himself. Whilst widely tipped as a future Prime Minister, he never held that office. His third son was the Whig statesman Charles James Fox.
General Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox, 4th Duke of Aubigny, was a Scottish peer, soldier, politician, and Governor-general of British North America.
Field Marshal Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 3rd Duke of Lennox, 3rd Duke of Aubigny,, styled Earl of March until 1750, of Goodwood House in Sussex and of Richmond House in London, was a British Army officer and politician. He associated with the Rockingham Whigs and rose to hold the post of Southern Secretary for a brief period. He was noteworthy for his support for the colonists during the American Revolutionary War, his support for a policy of concession in Ireland and his advanced views on the issue of parliamentary reform. He went on to be a reforming Master-General of the Ordnance first in the Rockingham ministry and then in the ministry of William Pitt.
Baron Holland, of Holland in the County of Lincoln, and Baron Holland of Foxley, of Foxley in the County of Wiltshire, were two titles in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first barony was created on 7 March 1762 for Lady Caroline Fox, the daughter of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and the eldest of the famous Lennox sisters. The second barony was created on 17 April 1763 for her husband, the prominent Whig politician Henry Fox. Lord and Lady Holland were both succeeded by their eldest son, the second Baron. He had previously represented Salisbury in Parliament. On his early death in 1774 the titles passed to his only son, the third Baron. He was also an influential Whig politician and notably served as Lord Privy Seal from 1806 to 1806 in the Ministry of All the Talents. He was succeeded by his eldest legitimate son, the fourth Baron. He sat as Member of Parliament for Horsham. He had four daughters but no sons and on his death in 1859 the titles became extinct.
Lieutenant-General James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, PC (Ire), styled Lord Offaly until 1743 and known as The Earl of Kildare between 1743 and 1761 and as The Marquess of Kildare between 1761 and 1766, was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, soldier and politician.
Mary Stuart, Countess of Bute, 1st Baroness Mount Stuart was the wife of British nobleman John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who served as Prime Minister from 1762 to 1763.
Lady Louisa Conolly was an English-born Irish noblewoman. She was the third of the famous Lennox Sisters, and was notable among them for leading a wholly uncontroversial life filled with good works.
Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 2nd Duke of Aubigny, of Goodwood House near Chichester in Sussex, was a British nobleman and politician. He was the son of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, the youngest of the seven illegitimate sons of King Charles II. He was the most important of the early patrons of the game of cricket and did much to help its evolution from village cricket to first-class cricket.
Sarah Lennox, Duchess of Richmond, was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline from 1724 to 1737. She was the mother of the famous Lennox sisters.
An aristocrat is typically a member of landed social class with inherited titles, heraldry and privileges.
General Lord George Henry Lennox was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1790.
Stella Tillyard FRSL is an English author and historian, educated at Oxford and Harvard Universities and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1999 her bestselling book Aristocrats was made into a six-part series for BBC1/Masterpiece Theatre sold to over 20 countries. Winner of the Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Longman/History Today Prize and the Fawcett Prize, she has taught at Harvard; the University of California, Los Angeles; Birkbeck, London and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, London. She is a visiting professor in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Admiral Sir Thomas Foley GCB was a Royal Navy officer and "Hero of the Battle of the Nile".
Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland of Holland and 2nd Baron Holland of Foxley of Holland House in Kensington, Middlesex, was a British peer.
Colonel George Napier, styled "The Honourable", was a British Army officer, most notable for his marriage to Lady Sarah Lennox, and for his sons Charles James Napier, William Francis Patrick Napier and George Thomas Napier, all of whom were noted military officers, collectively referred to as "Wellington’s Colonels". He also served as Comptroller of Army Accounts in Ireland from 1799 until his death in 1804.
Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester PC was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
The Lennox sisters were four eighteenth-century British aristocrats, the daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701–1750) by his wife Lady Sarah Cadogan (1705–1751).
Elizabeth Catherine Hunter, Lady Clarke, best known as Kitty Hunter, was an English noblewoman. She was the daughter of Thomas Orby Hunter, a member of parliament and lord of the Admiralty. In 1762 Hunter eloped to mainland Europe with Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke, causing a scandal. A year later the couple returned to England and Pembroke reconciled with his wife. Hunter had a son by Pembroke, Augustus Retnuh Reebkomp, who was supported by the Pembroke family and became a naval officer. Hunter was the mistress of Augustus Hervey before marrying army officer Alured Clarke. When Clarke was knighted she became known as Lady Clarke.