To read the letters of the long dead is to summon up a veritable army of apparitions; to be bombarded with the complexities and particularities of countless comfortable lives lived outside the spotlight of history1
Amanda Vickery
As readers and people interested in history, we are familiar with the infamous stories of characters throughout English history – Winston Churchill, Henry VIII and his six wives, William the Conqueror and other characters whose lives have been repeatedly explored by historians and writers. Whilst these stories give us an incredible tale of infidelity and lust, of duty and command, they do have the tendency to insinuate that those stories are the only one’s worth telling (it is also interesting that they are all stories of male characters). Country house historians have also tended to steer towards the dramatic, unusual or controversial. Whilst stories of hidden romance, upstairs and downstairs relationships and abandoned mothers may turn the page and give the reader the much longed-for twinge of melodrama, it can eclipse the everyday stories throughout history.
Ruth Larsen in her PhD thesis about women in the country house brought to my attention that many of the popular biographies of female country house owners focus on the controversial lives of women who were famous or infamous during the eighteenth and nineteenth century such as the Duchess of Devonshire or the Lennox sisters.2
What I want to do, and indeed what Larsen did for Yorkshire country house owners, is to look at the stories of the ordinary country house owner, the ladies who have had little or no coverage in modern biographies, who perhaps didn’t do anything scandalous or notable but who achieved great things. I want to tell these stories because the fact they didn’t scandalise the gentry of the time does not mean their stories aren’t worth reading. I think that the fact these women achieved what they did in their lifetimes, dealt with the tragedy that hit them and did it all whilst maintaining the decorum and expectations of the society of the time actually makes them more admirable.
Amanda Vickery in her book The Gentleman’s Daughter, stated that ‘the determination of authors to claim that the single turning point in gender history conveniently occurred in the period of their own book means that chronological inconsistencies continue to abound’.3 Bearing this in mind, it is my task within this book to look at the historical changes that were happening during the nineteenth century, to identify key historian’s thoughts about the period and to provide context to our characters. It is not the intention of this book to talk in depth about topics such as gender status in the period, economic or political changes, childbirth and upbringing or any other broader topic, but to give some background information to lend context to the times that these women were living in.
The purpose of this book is to bring to light the stories of three incredible women who completed a range of domestic and business expectations during their lives and to introduce you to three women who succeeded and flourished within their marriage. These stories challenge pre-conceived views that women of the period were restricted, confined and at the liberty of their husbands, and instead show that whilst marriage in some circumstances could be restrictive, it could also enable women to achieve status and respect as an individual as well as one half of a couple. This, it can be argued, is because of the men they chose to marry – ‘chose’ being the key word. None of these women were forced into a marriage but chose their spouse – yes, they would probably have been encouraged to choose from a particular pool of eligible young men because as Vickery says, ‘if young people met only suitable companions, they would assuredly make a suitable, free choice.’4
Some may argue that the reason these women were able to choose the right men was due to economic freedom; a woman born to poverty may not be able to make such a positive match because she is not privy to the advancements of an elite woman. However, I cannot completely agree with that. Certainly, there are different stations and backgrounds in life throughout history, and within the eighteenth and nineteenth century especially, but there was nothing to stop a middle- or working-class woman from procuring a good match and establishing herself successfully within her own home in the same way, if on a smaller scale, than our elite women.
The women I have chosen for this study have come to my attention through my work within country houses but also because, as I have read around the subject, their stories have jumped out at me. Stories such as that of Harriet Cavendish, who was raised in a dysfunctional family and eventually married her aunt’s lover – to great success. If that sentence does not get you intrigued in her character, I do not know what will. It certainly intrigued me and I have had the opportunity to explore her life and learn more about a remarkable woman who entertained Parisian society alongside her husband, proving she could succeed in politics as well as raising a family, which incidentally included her aunt’s illegitimate children.
I came across Mary Isham’s story when I was working at Lamport Hall; when conducting tours of the house I would find myself referring back to architectural changes and garden landscaping made by Mary Isham. It intrigued me because up to that point I had believed it was the husbands who would have been responsible for large projects such as architectural changes to the Hall. As I read more into her story, I discovered a true matriarch who moved Lamport from an outdated and eclectic country house into a true nineteenth-century stately home which exuded the status of the Isham family. Her story was not without its trials however, she suffered the loss of her daughter, husband, eldest son and youngest granddaughter within her lifetime, and lived long enough to see her younger son replace many of the changes she had made.
Architectural triumph in the face of tragedy was a common motif in the life of Elizabeth Manners, 5th Duchess of Rutland, who endured the loss of three of her children, two sons in infancy and one daughter in early childhood as well as professional loss from a fire which saw almost all of the hard work she had put into renovating her home, Belvoir Castle, destroyed. Despite the loss of children and the ruination of her hard work, in the last years of her life she worked endlessly to rebuild Belvoir Castle into the palatial stately home we see today, as well as implementing the Capability Brown designed landscapes. Her story is truly one of endurance through tragedy and achieving success in its midst.
So, whilst these women may not have had public affairs, they didn’t run off with inappropriate men or have illegitimate children, they did live incredible lives and leave behind legacies which are still tangible today.
Below is a brief outline of some of the key facts, dates and information about each of the women in this study. I have done this as a reference so that the text itself does not become too tied down in reiterating dates and information and instead allows the stories to be brought forward.
| Born | 1788 at Elm Park, Armagh, Ireland |
| Married | Sir Justinian Isham, 8th Baronet |
| Lived | Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire |
| Children | One daughter and two sons |
| Died | 26 January 1878 |
| Born | 29 August 1785, at Devonshire House, London |
| Married | Granville Leveson Gower, 1st Earl Granville |
| Lived | London, Country House locations in UK & The British Embassy in Paris |
| Children | Two daughters and three sons |
| Died | 25 November 1862 |
| Born | 13 November 1780, at Castle Howard, Yorkshire |
| Married | John Henry Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland |
| Lived | Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire |
| Children | Ten children, five daughters, five sons |
| Died | 29 November 1825 |
For the purpose of keeping things understandable in this study I will be referring to my women by their maiden name up to the point of their marriage and then I will refer to them by their married surname. In the chapter about their marriage I will refer to them by their full married title once and should one of my women succeed to a title during their lifetime (for example Harriet becomes Countess Granville later in life) then I will mention their full title at the time I mention their succession. Otherwise they will be referred to as ‘Harriet Leveson Gower’ or simply ‘Harriet’.
A full list of persons mentioned in this book can be seen in the index on page 151.