Elizabeth, Countess of Home was the wife of William Home, 8th Earl of Home

William Home, 8th Earl of Home

Lieutenant General Sir William Home, 8th Earl of Home was the eighth holder of the title of Earl of Home.-Military career:...

. She had been born in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 to William Gibbons, a wealthy West Indies merchant and his wife of Vere

Vere

Vere may refer to:People with the given name Vere:* Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland grandson to Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury* Vere Fane, 5th Earl of Westmorland* Vere Fane, 14th Earl of Westmorland...

. She first married James Lawes, son of Nicholas Lawes

Nicholas Lawes

Sir Nicholas Lawes was Governor of Jamaica from 1718 to 1722.He was a British knight.In his capacity as Governor during the Golden Age of Piracy he tried many pirates, among them "Calico Jack" Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Robert Deal, & Charles Vane...

, the island's governor. She inherited a great fortune on her James' death in 1734. Moving to England, she remarried to the Earl of Home in 1742, though soon after the marriage he left her (he died in 1761). Neither marriage produced any children.

In 1775 Elizabeth, now in her 60s and popularly known as the 'Queen of Hell', she commissioned James Wyatt

James Wyatt

James Wyatt RA , was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.-Early classical career:...

 and then Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...

 to create a town house in London for her at 20 Portman Square. This became known as Home House

Home House

Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square, London. James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been sacked and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed house on her death in 1784 to her nephew William Gale, who in...

.

Sources

• Home House
• Lesley Lewis, 'Elizabeth, Countess of Home, and Her House in Portman Square', in The Burlington Magazine
  The Burlington Magazine
  The Burlington Magazine is a monthly academic journal that covers the fine and decorative arts. It is the longest running art journal in the English language and it is a charitable organisation since 1986. It was established in 1903 by a group of art historians and connoisseurs which included Roger...
  
  , Vol. 109, No. 773 (Aug., 1967), pp. 443–451+453