Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Georgiana's Grandchildren

When Georgiana died in 1806 only one of her three (four, including her illegitimate daughter Eliza Courtney) children were married.  Georgiana lived to see her eldest daughter, Little G, marry and begin having children.  Little G would end up bearing twelve children, all who would survive until adulthood.  Quite amazing, especially when one considers how difficult it had been for her mother to have children.  Georgiana got to play the proud grandmother to Little G's first four children but was never to meet her other sixteen grandchildren.

Little G's Boundless fertility made up for her brother's lack of any offspring; Hart never married.  Harryo, the middle child, would have four children with her husband.  Her illegitimate daughter, Eliza Courtney married well and had four surviving children.  Let's meet some of them.

George Howard (1802-1864) followed in his uncle's footsteps and was more interested in his books and achievements than settling down to married life.

Lady Georgiana Howard (1804-1860) married a hunk.

Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard (1806-1868) was born shortly after her grandmother's death and seems to of inherited many of her grandmother's qualities.  She was a society hostess and BFF to Queen Victoria, serving as one of her Mistresses of the Robes.

Lady Blanche Georgiana Howard (1812- 1840) would follow in her grandmother's footsteps by marrying a future Duke of Devonshire.  Sadly though, she didn't live to become a Duchess of Devonshire for her husband received the title after her death.  Her uncle Hart outlived her.

Lady Elizabeth Dorothy Anne Howard (1816-1891) married the son of Earl Grey, Georgiana's former lover.

Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (1815-1891) became a famous politician whose career spanned over half a century.  Not too surprising, when you consider his lineage. 

Eliza Ellice (1818-1899) despite being descended from an illegitimate child found herself a peeress as the Viscountess Hampden of Glynde.

Sir Charles Henry Ellice (1823-1888) was a successful army general.

7 comments:

  1. Lady Georgiana Howard married our hunk, lucky!
    So glad you posted this! I've always wanted to know what came of her family; so little is posted about her on wikipedia so it seemed so hard to find out about her family.

    Funny how she is so much like her relative, Princess Di, that would surely make a great post.

    Bad marriage
    used for kids
    sad endings
    loved fashion
    were famous
    popular
    pretty
    only loved their kids
    had lovers
    I'm sure they also had MUCH more in common.

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  2. HUNK, woof wooof!

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  3. I'm jealous of Ly Georgiana Howard now =p!

    Really interesting post - and I finally watched the Young Victoria, where I think Ly Eliz was portrayed, yesterday too!

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  4. I need a family tree here! It made my head spin. But I do learn so very much here and you make it fun :o)

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  5. What an interesting post--I loved reading Georgiana's bio. What a gal! Just think what she could have accomplished if she had been born in more modern times.

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  6. @Duchess, that wikipedia article is different every time I look at it. It also has the wrong portraits for Eliza and Harriet...sigh

    @nightmusic, I'm sorry, I didn't lay it out very well. It was more just a grand slam of grandchildren, like a family reunion!

    @JaneGS, one can only wonder what path she would have taken!

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  7. Oh, no! Don't apologize! I'm sure even family members had to have a map sometimes to keep the family ties straight :o)

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