Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Baroness Holland (1771–1845) was an English
political hostess and the wife of Whig politician Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
. With her husband, and after his death, she hosted political and literary gatherings at their home, Holland House.
, the only child of Richard Vassall, a planter in Jamaica
and Mary Clarke. She married Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet in 1786. He was more than 20 years older than she was. They had three children that survived infancy. As Lady Webster she spent much of the early 1790s travelling in Europe
, visiting France
, Germany
, Switzerland
and Italy
. She enjoyed the guidance and friendship of the Duchess of Devonshire
and politician Thomas Pelham
.
In 1794, Lady Webster met Whig politician Henry Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
in Naples
and they embarked on a love affair. In 1796 she gave birth to their son Charles Richard Fox
, and the following year she was divorced by Webster on the grounds of adultery. She married Holland two days after her divorce, on 6 July 1797. They lived together in Holland House in Kensington
, then just outside London, and for many years hosted the elite of Whig society. Visitors included Lord Grey
, George Tierney
, Samuel Rogers
, Walter Scott
, Ugo Foscolo
, Sydney Smith
and Richard Brinsley Sheridan
.
Lady Holland became known by her guests, and contemporary observers for her domineering nature, in contrast to her husband. In his journals, Sydney Smith, a friend of both Lord and Lady Holland, called her a "formidable woman". Actress Fanny Kemble
visited Holland house with her sister Adelaide Kemble
described what she called the "domineering rudeness" of Lady Holland. Lady Holland's rule extended not only to all of the guests at Holland House but to Lord Holland too. She dictated when he should go to bed, what he should wear and would have servants take him away from the table in his wheelchair when he was in the middle of telling a story.
Both Lord and Lady Holland were great admirers of Napoleon Bonaparte
. In 1815, Lady Holland commission a bronze bust of him from sculptor Antonio Canova
, which was placed in the garden at Holland House. After Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena
in 1815, Lady Holland sent him supplies of food and hundreds of books. Napoleon remembered Lady Holland in his will and following his death in 1821, his companions General Henri Gratien Bertrand
and the marquis de Montholon
arrived at Holland House, delivering a snuffbox. The gold snuffbox, which had been a gift to Napoleon from Pope Pius VI
, was bequeathed by Lady Holland to the British Museum
.
Lord Holland died on 22 October 1840. After his death, Lady Holland lived at 33 South Street, a property she had inherited from her mother. She continued to entertain, and it was here that the historian John Allen
died in 1843. In November of that year she moved to 9 Great Stanhope Street, a property she rented from Lord Palmerston.
Lady Holland died in 1845. By the end of her life, she had become estranged from her children.
In his Memoirs, diarist Charles Greville called Lady Holland "a social light which illuminated and adorned England, and even Europe, for half a century".
to the United Kingdom
. An unsuccessful attempt had been made in 1789 by the Marchioness of Bute who brought the plant from Spain, but failed to propagate it. Whilst in Madrid in 1804, Lady Holland was given either dahlia seeds or roots by botanist Antonio José Cavanilles
. She sent them back to England, to Lord Holland's librarian Mr Buonaiuti at Holland House, who successfully raised the plants. In 1824, Lord Holland sent his wife a note containing the following verse:
With Sir Godfrey Webster:
With Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
political hostess and the wife of Whig politician Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland PC was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century...
. With her husband, and after his death, she hosted political and literary gatherings at their home, Holland House.
Biography
Elizabeth Vassall was born in 1771 in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the only child of Richard Vassall, a planter 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...
and Mary Clarke. She married Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet in 1786. He was more than 20 years older than she was. They had three children that survived infancy. As Lady Webster she spent much of the early 1790s travelling in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, visiting France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. She enjoyed the guidance and friendship of the Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire , formerly Lady Georgiana Spencer, was the first wife of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, and mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Her father, the 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her niece was Lady Caroline Lamb...
and politician Thomas Pelham
Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester
Thomas Pelham, 2nd Earl of Chichester PC, PC , FRS , styled The Honourable Thomas Pelham from 1768 until 1783, The Right Honourable Thomas Pelham from 1783 to 1801, and then known as Lord Pelham until 1805, was a British Whig politician...
.
In 1794, Lady Webster met Whig politician Henry Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland PC was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century...
in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and they embarked on a love affair. In 1796 she gave birth to their son Charles Richard Fox
Charles Richard Fox
General Charles Richard Fox was a British army general, and later a politician.Fox was born at Brompton, the illegitimate son of Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, through a liaison with Lady Webster, whom Lord Holland would later marry.After some service in the Royal Navy, Fox entered...
, and the following year she was divorced by Webster on the grounds of adultery. She married Holland two days after her divorce, on 6 July 1797. They lived together in Holland House in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, then just outside London, and for many years hosted the elite of Whig society. Visitors included Lord Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...
, George Tierney
George Tierney
George Tierney PC was an English Whig politician.-Background and education:Born in Gibraltar, Tierney was the son of Thomas Tierney, a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living in Gibraltar as prize agent. He was sent to Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Law in 1784...
, Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron...
, Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
, Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
, Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith was an English writer and Anglican cleric. -Life:Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith and Maria Olier , who suffered from epilepsy...
and Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
.
Lady Holland became known by her guests, and contemporary observers for her domineering nature, in contrast to her husband. In his journals, Sydney Smith, a friend of both Lord and Lady Holland, called her a "formidable woman". Actress Fanny Kemble
Fanny Kemble
Frances Anne Kemble , was a famous British actress and author in the early and mid nineteenth century.-Youth and acting career:...
visited Holland house with her sister Adelaide Kemble
Adelaide Kemble
Adelaide Kemble was an English opera singer of the Victorian era, and a member of the Kemble family of actors. She was the younger sister of Fanny Kemble, the famous actress and anti-slavery activist...
described what she called the "domineering rudeness" of Lady Holland. Lady Holland's rule extended not only to all of the guests at Holland House but to Lord Holland too. She dictated when he should go to bed, what he should wear and would have servants take him away from the table in his wheelchair when he was in the middle of telling a story.
Both Lord and Lady Holland were great admirers of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. In 1815, Lady Holland commission a bronze bust of him from sculptor Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
, which was placed in the garden at Holland House. After Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena
Saint Helena
Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...
in 1815, Lady Holland sent him supplies of food and hundreds of books. Napoleon remembered Lady Holland in his will and following his death in 1821, his companions General Henri Gratien Bertrand
Henri Gratien, Comte Bertrand
Henri-Gatien, Comte Bertrand , French general, was born at Châteauroux, Indre as a member of a well-to-do bourgeois family....
and the marquis de Montholon
Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon
Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars. Serving throughout, he subsequently chose to go into exile on the British governed island of St Helena with the ex-emperor after Napoleon's second abdication.It has been alleged that he poisoned Napoleon.-Early...
arrived at Holland House, delivering a snuffbox. The gold snuffbox, which had been a gift to Napoleon from Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI , born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, was Pope from 1775 to 1799.-Early years:Braschi was born in Cesena...
, was bequeathed by Lady Holland to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
.
Lord Holland died on 22 October 1840. After his death, Lady Holland lived at 33 South Street, a property she had inherited from her mother. She continued to entertain, and it was here that the historian John Allen
John Allen (historian)
John Allen M.D. was a prominent eighteenth and nineteenth century political and historical writer, and Master of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich .-Early life:...
died in 1843. In November of that year she moved to 9 Great Stanhope Street, a property she rented from Lord Palmerston.
Lady Holland died in 1845. By the end of her life, she had become estranged from her children.
In his Memoirs, diarist Charles Greville called Lady Holland "a social light which illuminated and adorned England, and even Europe, for half a century".
Introduction of the dahlia
Lady Holland became known for permanently introducing the dahliaDahlia
Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous, perennial plants native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. There are at least 36 species of dahlia, some like D. imperialis up to 10 metres tall. Dahlia hybrids are commonly grown as garden plants...
to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. An unsuccessful attempt had been made in 1789 by the Marchioness of Bute who brought the plant from Spain, but failed to propagate it. Whilst in Madrid in 1804, Lady Holland was given either dahlia seeds or roots by botanist Antonio José Cavanilles
Antonio José Cavanilles
Antonio José Cavanilles was a leading Spanish taxonomic botanist of the 18th century. He named many plants, particularly from Oceania, his name is abbreviated as Cav...
. She sent them back to England, to Lord Holland's librarian Mr Buonaiuti at Holland House, who successfully raised the plants. In 1824, Lord Holland sent his wife a note containing the following verse:
"The dahlia you brought to our isle
Your praises for ever shall speak;
Mid gardens as sweet as your smile,
And in colour as bright as your cheek."
Issue
Lady Holland had 11 children, seven of whom survived infancy.With Sir Godfrey Webster:
- Godfrey Vassall Webster (1789–1836)
- a son who died young, born in 1790
- Henry Vassall Webster (1793–1847)
- Harriet Frances Webster (1794–1849), married Admiral Fleetwood Pellew, is buried with him in Florence's 'English' Cemetery.
- a son who died young, born in October 1795
With Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland:
- Charles Richard FoxCharles Richard FoxGeneral Charles Richard Fox was a British army general, and later a politician.Fox was born at Brompton, the illegitimate son of Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, through a liaison with Lady Webster, whom Lord Holland would later marry.After some service in the Royal Navy, Fox entered...
(6 November 1796 – 13 April 1873), army general and politician - Stephen Fox (1799–1800)
- Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron HollandHenry Fox, 4th Baron HollandHenry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, of Holland, 4th Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP was briefly a British Whig politician and later an ambassador....
(7 May 1802 – 18 December 1859), politician and ambassador - Mary Elizabeth Fox (1806–1891), married Thomas Powys, 3rd Baron LilfordThomas Powys, 3rd Baron LilfordThomas Atherton Powys, 3rd Baron Lilford , was a British peer and Whig politician.Lilford was the son of Thomas Powys, 2nd Baron Lilford, and Henrietta Maria Atherton of Atherton Hall. He succeeded his father as second Baron in 1825...
- Georgiana Anne Fox (1809–1819)
- a daughter, born and died on 24 June 1812