Harriet Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (? - 1776) was the wife of the British statesman and Prime Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, KG, PC was a British Whig statesman, whose official life extended throughout the Whig supremacy of the 18th century. He is commonly known as the Duke of Newcastle.A protégé of Sir Robert Walpole, he served...

. She was the granddaughter of Sir Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin

Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin

Sir Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, KG, PC was a leading English politician of the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

 and the granddaughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

.
Until her marriage she was known as Lady Harriet Godolphin. Like her husband she was a devoted Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 and supporter of the Hanoverian succession. They married in April 1717. During the 1720s they became famous for throwing sumptous parties, a tradition that continued for several decades. These were attended even by her husband's political opponents.