Eliza Courtney

Infobox Person
name = Eliza Courtney


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birth_date = birth date|1792|2|10
birth_place = Aix-en-Provence
death_date = death date and age|1859|5|2|1792|2|10
death_place = Norwood, Surrey
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nationality = English
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spouse = Lt. Col. Robert Ellice
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children = Georgiana Ellice,
Eliza Ellice,
Alexandra Ellice,
Robert Ellice,
Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Henry Ellice
parents = Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
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Eliza Courtney (1791/92 – 2 May 1859) was the "natural" daughter of the Whig politician and future Prime Minister Charles Grey by the society beauty Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She was raised by her paternal grandparents.

Upbringing

Eliza Courtney was born in France, in Aix-en-Provence on 20 February 1792. She was brought to Northumberland in northern England and adopted by her father's parents, her Grey grandparents. Unlike the "natural" children of her real mother's husband, the Duke of Devonshire, Eliza was spared being part of the Devonshire House set in London. Her mother, Georgiana, could not acknowledge her and saw her rarely; several anguish ridden poems from mother to daughter survive. Two are reproduced below:

:"And yet remote from public view:"A flower there is of timid hue,":"Beneath a sacred shade it grows,":"But sweet in native fragrance blows.":"From storms secure, from tempests free,":"But ah! too seldom seen by me.":"For scarce permitted to behold":"With longing eyes each grace unfold."

:"My bosom struggles with its pain":"And checks the wishes form'd in vain ;":"Yet when I perchance supremely blest,":"I hold the floweret to my breast,":"Enraptur'd watch its purple glow":"And blessings (all I have) bestow.":"The gentle fragrance soothes my care":"And fervent is my humble prayer":"That no dread evil may beset":"My sweet but hidden violet.":::::(December 1805) (copied from Lord Bessborough's "Georgiana", 1955, appendix IV)

:"Unhappy child of indiscretion,:"poor slumberer on a breast forlorn:"pledge of reproof of past transgression":"Dear tho' unfortunate to be born"

:"For thee a suppliant wish addressing":"To Heaven thy mother fain would dare":"But conscious blushes stain the blessing":"And sighs suppress my broken prayer"

:"But in spite of these my mind unshaken":"In present duty turns to thee":"Tho' long repented ne'er forgotten":"Thy days shall lov'd and guarded be"

:"And should th'ungenerous world upbraid thee":"for mine and for thy father's ill":"A nameless mother oft shall assist thee":"A hand unseen protect thee still"

:"And tho' to rank and wealth a stranger":"Thy life a humble course must run":"Soon shalt thou learn to fly the danger":"Which I too late have learnt to shun"

:"Meanwhile in these sequested vallies":"Here may'st thou live in safe content":"For innocence may smile at malice":"And thou-Oh ! Thou art innocent":::(copied from Foreman, 1998, page 267/8. From: "Verses copied by Lady Charlotte Cholomondeley in her common place book, circa 1816". Lady Charlotte (Seymour) was the mother-in-law of Eliza's daughter Georgiana).

The name Courtney was derived from her maternal grandmother's brother, William Poyntz, having married a co-heiress of the ancient Cornish family of "Courtney of Trethurfe" and "Courtney of Tremeer" in 1762.

Husband

In 1809 her quasi-sister but actual-aunt Lady Hannah Althea Grey (d.1832) married the MP and trader the Rt. Hon. Edward "Bear" Ellice (c.1783–1863). Five years later, on December 10, 1814 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Eliza married Lt. Col. Robert Ellice (1784–1856), a younger brother of her "brother-in-law" Edward Ellice. Their father was the Scots-born Alexander Ellice (1743–1805) of Bath, London and Montreal, a partner in the Schenectady, New York firm of Phyn, Ellice & Co.

In March 1814 Lord Broughton recorded meeting Eliza at dinner and described her as:::"the daughter of the late Duchess of Devonshire by Lord Grey, ... a fine girl, sensible and talkative, and easy mannered".

Robert Ellice had been promoted to the military rank of "ensign" on November 8, 1798; to the rank of Captain on May 4, 1801; to Major on May 12, 1808; to Lt. Colonel March 16, 1809; to Colonel August 12, 1819; to Major-General on July 22, 1830; to Lieutenant-General November 23, 1841; to Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot (the 2nd Warwickshire) on November 2, 1842; and to General on June 20, 1854. At some point he served in South America and was present at the capture of Buenos Aires.

Ellice was acting Governor-General of Malta for five-and-a-half months, from May 13 to October 27 of the year 1851.

In the 1856 Webster's he is listed as having a residence at 57 Park Street, Mayfair.

Children

(thought to have comprised two sons and three daughters)

Georgiana

Her daughter Georgiana (d. October 12, 1907) married on November 4, 1846 Hugh Horatio (May 15, 1821 – December 4, 1892), son of Lt. Col. Hugh Henry Seymour (1790–?) by his wife Charlotte, daughter of the 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley. (Lt. Col. Hugh Seymour was son of Admiral Hugh Seymour (1759–1801), who was fifth son of the first Marquess of Hertford). (A younger brother of Col. Hugh Seymour was Colonel Sir Horace Seymour (1791-1851), an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales).

Their grandson was the British Minister in Tehran (1936-1939) and British Ambassador to China (1942-1946), Sir Horace James Seymour, G.C.M.G., C.V.O. (1885-1978). One of Sir Horace's grandsons, James Seymour (1956–), is married to Anya Hindmarch (1968–).

Eliza

Another daughter, Eliza (1818 – 8 March 1899, Pelham house, Lewes), married Henry Bouverie William Brand (1814–1892) in 1838. After a distinguished speakership of the House of Commons he was created Viscount Hampden; later still he inherited from his brother the Barony of Dacre, as 23rd in line. Descendants (described in Wikipedia) include the present Lord Monk Bretton; Sarah, Duchess of York; and the late Viscount Hampden.

Alexandra

She married the Rev. H. Harvey. (see Bessaborough, 1955, appeandix IV, p.295).

Robert

Robert (1 Jan 1816 - 19 December 1858) the eldest son married Eglantine Charlotte Louisa (d. 18 April 1907) third daughter of Lt-General Robert Balfour of Balbirnie in March 1853.

In 1880 their son, the "Bear's" great-nephew, Major Edward Charles Ellice, D.S.O. (1917 or 1918), J.P., M.P. (1903-6, Liberal, St. Andrews Boroughs), (1858-1934) succeeded his first cousin once removed, Edward Ellice II, to the Ellice estate at Invergarry, Inverness-shire.In April 1889 he married another first cousin once removed, like him she was a descendant of Eliza Courtney, Margaret Georgiana (d.1929) (her brother was Viceroy of India and was created Marquess of Willingdon) daughter of Frederick Freeman Thomas by his wife Mabel, daughter of 1st Viscount Hampden.

Their fifth son, Russell (1902- ) succeded his father, his four elder brothers having perished young: three of them in the 1914-1918 war. (One was in the Cameron Highlanders (killed in action), one was in the Grenadier's (killed in action) and the third was lost on HMS Bulwark).

ir Charles

The younger son, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Henry Ellice, KCB (Florence, 1823 – 1888) followed his father into the 24th Regiment of Foot and was sometime quarter-master general and then adjutant-general. He married Louisa Caroline, a daughter of William Henry Lambton and a niece of the 1st Earl of Durham. Thom's "Upper Ten Thousand" for 1876 lists him as of Horningsheath, Bury St Edmunds. He was subject of Vanity Fair treatment, October 20, 1877.

Death

She died, a widow, in Norwood, Surrey, aged 67.

"Norwood in Surrey" in this case is either Upper Norwood; South Norwood; West Norwood; or Sydenham.

Biography

*"Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman, HarperCollins, London, 1998. ISBN 0-00-655016-9
*Brian Masters, "Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire", Hamish Hamilton, 1981.
*The Earl of Bessborough (editor), "Georgiana", John Murray, London, 1955.
*Anthony Brand, "Henry and Eliza", printed privately in Haywards Heath, 1980 (197 pages, paperback). Letters between her daughter and son-in-law.
*Peter Townend (ed), Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition, London 1970 (1978, 3rd impression).
*see the film The Duchess (film), 2008.

External

* [http://www.windeatt.f2s.com/poets/Kennicot_B.html Poem by Benjamin Kennicott, D.D. (1718-1783) ] describing the near death of Kelland Courtney's wife in 1743.
* [http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/spoyntz.html Link to note on Envoy Stephen Poyntz, PC]
* [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/miniature/05150133_e.html Eliza's brother-in-law] , the "Bear".
* [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/miniature/05150134_e.html Eliza's nephew-by-marriage] Edward Ellice (1810-1880), son of the "Bear". See [http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/ap/c/c136447k.jpgEdward Ellice II] .:* [http://www.portraits.gc.ca/009001-1100.5-f.html Edward Ellice's first wife]

Other

* "Phyn, Ellice and Company of Schenectady", by R. H. Fleming in "Contributions to Canadian Economics", Vol. 4, 1932 (1932), pp. 7-41.
* "The New Annual Army List and Militia List for 1854", the 17th annual volume, by Major Henry G. Hart, John Murray, Albermarle street, London, 1854.
* "Webster's Royal Red Book; or Court and Fashionable Register, for January, 1856", Webster & Co., 60 Piccadilly, London.
* "The Upper Ten Thousand, for 1876, A biographical handbook of all the titled and official classes of the Kingdom with their addresses", compiled and edited by Adam Bisset Thom, Kelly & Co., London. (First published 1875).
*"Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry", 1952, edited L. G. Pine, London, (sub. Ellice of Invergarry, page 744-745)

Ancestors

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1= 1. Eliza Courtney
2= 2. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
3= 3. Georgiana Spencer
4= 4. Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey
5= 5. Elizabeth Grey
6= 6. John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer
7= 7. Margaret Georgiana Poyntz
8= 8. Henry Grey, 1st Baronet
9= 9. Hannah Wood
10= 10. George Grey
11= 11. Elizabeth Ogle
12= 12. John Spencer
13= 13. Georgina Carolina Carteret
14= 14. Stephen Poyntz
15= 15. Anna Maria Mordaunt
16= 16. John Grey
18= 18. Thomas Wood
20= 20. George Grey
21= 21. Alice Clavering
22= 22. Nathaniel Ogle
23= 23. Elizabeth Newton
24= 24. Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland
25= 25. Anne Churchill
26= 26. John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville
27= 27. Frances Worsley
28= 28. William Poyntz
29= 29. Jane Monteage
30= 30. Lewis Mordaunt
31= 31. Mary Collyer

ome Ancestors