Lady Susan Hamilton

Last updated

Lady Susan Hamilton
Lady Susan Hamilton (d. 1891), Daughter of Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton.jpg
Lady Susan Hamilton, by Francis Grant
Born
Hon. Susan Harriet Catherine Hamilton

9 June 1814
Château La Tour, Vevey, Switzerland[ citation needed ]
Died28 November 1889(1889-11-28) (aged 75)
Other namesLady Susan Opdebeck
Susan Pelham-Clinton, Duchess of Newcastle
Spouses
(m. 1832;div. 1850)
Jean Opdebeck
(m. 1870)
Children
Parent(s) Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton
Susan Euphemia Beckford
Relatives William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton (brother)

Lady Susan Harriet Catherine Hamilton (9 June 1814 28 November 1889) was a Scottish aristocrat. The daughter of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, and Susan Euphemia Beckford, she at once was a star of high society. An angelic child of great beauty and style, she attracted controversy after a high-profile divorce suit from the future Duke of Newcastle.

Contents

Marriage

She married Henry Pelham-Clinton, heir to the 4th Duke of Newcastle, on 27 November 1832 at Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire. She was afterwards known as the Countess of Lincoln, the Earl of Lincoln being the courtesy title held by the eldest son of the Duke of Newcastle.

They had five children: [1]

Divorce and later life

Lady Lincoln then lost interest in her husband and started a disastrous affair with Horatio Walpole. They eloped to escape her possessive and domineering husband when Susan was unwell. Despite the scandal her husband wanted her to return and William Gladstone volunteered to take letters to her asking for her to return. Gladstone found her, but gave up the task when he realised that she was pregnant. [3] She gave birth to an illegitimate son, also named Horatio. It was a short-lived affair ending sadly in embittered circumstances. Divorce proceedings were commenced by an outraged Duke, citing the co-respondent Walpole in a writ. She was certainly well-known to the brilliant divorce and Whiggish barrister Lord Brougham, whose correspondence in the National Archives cites her to Samuel Rogers in a number of letters at the time of the proceedings in the early 1850s.

I have letters from Lady Susan Hamilton, now at Venice, which show all the stories of Walpole having left her to be pure fabrications, as I always believed they would turn out to be,

he opined smugly with the ominous intent. How he came to be in possession of the letters is evidently due to Lady Susan's application to Brougham for client advice. Although Brougham did not think that she was personally in fear for her life from domestic violence, he did conclude the letter with

I rely for my view on the universal fear of violence which constrains all parties.

Brougham had represented Queen Caroline in the famous case of 1820 and he was now an old man, but it was clear she was frightened. In a similar vein Brougham showed how he was concerned for female safety later in March 1853,

Lady Susan Hamilton is on her way home. I saw the Duchess—her mother—to-day quite well.

In 1857 William Ewart Gladstone was attacked for speaking out against violation of women when he became embroiled in the court action for the Lincoln-Oxford case held in Chancery. Divorce proceedings frequently dragged on for years, so that Susan was unable to get remarried for a full decade afterwards. The unhappy Lady Susan married again, to an untitled Belgian, a commoner named Jean Alexis Opdebeck from the city of Mechelen at Naples on 6 December 1862. [4] Her ex-husband, by then the 5th Duke of Newcastle, had died in October 1864, aged 53, and was succeeded in the dukedom by their eldest son, Henry.

Lady Susan was one of those rescued by Gladstone's work for distressed womenfolk. The exact state of his involvement is mysterious, but it was clear that felt by the late 1880s that he had lost touch with the younger generation whose appetites far exceeded his own. On occasion he misunderstood his secretary devoted and loyal daughter Mary (Mrs Drew). Susan's fall from grace and tragic death had stirred great sympathy in the Grand Old Man. [5] An article in The Argus three days after her death blaming the Walpole family as typical — "obstinate", "irritating" behaviour as a well-known trait in the Walpole dynasty.

Related Research Articles

Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was a prominent Royalist commander during the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Lincoln</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England, most recently in 1572. The title was borne by the Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne from 1768 to 1988, until the dukedom became extinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Clinton</span> Hereditary title in the Peerage of England

Baron Clinton is a title in the Peerage of England. Created in 1298 for Sir John de Clinton, it is the seventh-oldest barony in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle</span> British politician

Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne,, styled Earl of Lincoln before 1851, was a British politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton</span> Scottish politician

Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, 7th Duke of Brandon KG PC FRS FSA was a Scottish politician and art collector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford</span> British courtier and politician (1718–1794)

Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, KG, PC, PC (Ire) of Ragley Hall, Arrow, in Warwickshire, was a British courtier and politician who, briefly, was Viceroy of Ireland where he had substantial estates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle</span>

Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, KG, PC was born in London, the second son of the 7th Earl of Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle</span> English nobleman

Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne was an English nobleman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle</span> British Army officer and politician

Major-General Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, known as Lord Thomas Pelham-Clinton until 1779 and as Earl of Lincoln from 1779 to 1794, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1794 when he succeeded to the peerage as Duke of Newcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle</span> English nobleman

Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne was an English nobleman, styled Lord Clinton until 1851 and Earl of Lincoln until he inherited the dukedom in 1864.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle</span> British nobleman and politician

Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne was a British nobleman and politician who played a leading part in British politics in the late 1820s and early 1830s. He was styled Lord Clinton from birth until 1794 and Earl of Lincoln between 1794 and 1795.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle</span> British peer and aviator

Henry Edward Hugh Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 9th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne,, styled Earl of Lincoln from 1928 to 1941, was a British peer and aviator.

Edward Miller Mundy was an English landowner and Tory politician who was MP for the Derbyshire constituency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle</span>

Henrietta "Harriet" Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne and Duchess of Newcastle-under-Lyne, was the wife of British statesman and prime minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (third creation)</span>

Horatio William Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, styled Lord Walpole between 1822 and 1858, was a British peer and Conservative politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Arthur Clinton</span> British politician (1840–1870)

Lord Arthur Pelham-Clinton, known as Lord Arthur Clinton, was an English aristocrat and Liberal Party politician. A member of Parliament (MP) for three years, he was notorious for involvement in the homosexual scandal and trial of Boulton and Park.

Susan Charlotte Catherine, Lady Adolphus Vane-Tempest, born Lady Susan Pelham-Clinton, was a British noblewoman and one of the mistresses of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom when he was Prince of Wales. Lady Susan was a bridesmaid to Victoria, Princess Royal, and two years later became the wife of Lord Adolphus Vane-Tempest. She took the Prince as her lover in about 1864 following her husband's death, and allegedly gave birth to his illegitimate child in 1871.

Pelham-Clinton is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Catherine Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, was the wife of Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon, and the mother of the 4th Duke. After the duke's death, she married General Staats Long Morris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton</span>

Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton, formerly Susan(na) Euphemia Beckford, was the wife of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, and the mother of the 11th Duke.

References

  1. "Biography of Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne (1811-1864)". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  2. Robert Aldrich, Garry Wotherspoon, "Who's who in gay and lesbian history: from antiquity to World War II", Routledge, 2001, ISBN   0-415-15982-2, p.66
  3. "Opdebeck [née Douglas-Hamilton], Lady Susan Harriet Catherine [other married name Susan Harriet Catherine Pelham-Clinton, countess of Lincoln] (1814–1889), figure of scandal" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39436 . Retrieved 27 August 2020.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. C 16/446/O28 1867 Cause number: 1867 O28. Opdebeeck v Duke of Hamilton. Bill, interrogatories.
  5. Matthew, Gladstone, vol.2, p.366; Shannon, Heroic Minister, p.486
Secondary sources