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| Portrait of the Lady Scarborough |
Frances Lumley-Saunderson was born around the year 1700 as
the second daughter of the first earl of Orkney, George Hamilton, and his wife
Elizabeth (who was a possible mistress of William III). There are no records of
her early education, which implies she received her education from home.
Remaining at home also brought her directly into the realm of British politics
and court life due to the important positions her parents held in the court of
William III, Queen Anne, and King George I. It is possible this is where she
met her husband, Thomas Lumley-Saunderson, the son of Richard Lumley, earl of
Scarborough, whom she married on 27 June 1724. The hyphenated surname occurred after
Lumley inherited the estates of his cousin, James Saunderson, earl of Castleton,
upon his death in 1723. In 1740, Lumley succeeded his brother Richard, who died
childless, and became the third earl of Scarborough, an honor that extended to
his wife. Lord Scarborough served as an envoy to Portugal between 1722 and 1725
and in 1724, threw a lavish party in honor of the birthday of the Prince of
Wales, the future George II. The party included, “foreign Ministers, nobility
of Portugal and other persons of distinction… there was a concert of vocal and instrumental
music, at which were a great appearance of ladies…” (Milner, 181). This ball
that went on until morning is a fine example of the earl’s extravagant spending
habits that would leave Lady Scarborough scrambling after his death.
Despite the
enormous party thrown for the future George II, Scarborough eventually sided
with Frederick, Prince of Wales. His close connections with the prince can be
seen by Scarborough’s appointment as treasurer of Frederick’s household in 1738,
a post he held until Frederick’s death in 1751, and his wife’s appointment to
Lady of the Bedchamber for Princess Augusta in 1745. Yet, it appears that Lady Frances’s
family had closer ties to Frederick and Augusta than Lord Scarborough’s. As
previously noted, Lady Scarborough’s parents had been close with George I. Lady
Frances also has a legal connection with the royal family when Frances’s
sister, Anne, whose husbands became a member of Frederick’s household in 1744, had
allowed Frederick to lease her home at Cliveden.
Unfortunately,
Lady Scarborough’s connections to the Prince of Wales ceased to matter after
his death in 1751. Not only did Lord and Lady Scarborough lose favor, they lost
opportunities for their children, three daughters and two sons, as well. As
shown, Scarborough was a spendthrift whose habits did not help the family’s
situation after the death of Frederick. Scarborough lost money during the South
Sea Bubble in the 1740s but was also shafted in his brother’s will and only received
a lump sum of £20,000. The youngest brother, James, received the Durham and
Sussex Lumley estates and an annual income of £6,000. Scarborough died in 1752 and
left his family to struggle.
Lady Scarborough
understood the importance of royal patronage in order to provide a stable
future and good marriages for her daughters, Anne (Lady of the Bedchamber for
Princess Amelia) and Frances. His husband’s connection with Frederick put her
at a distinct disadvantage with the king and decided the best way to regain
favor was through her son-in-law, Peter Ludlow, who married Frances in 1753.
Ludlow had been a supporter of the king and his ministers, which would place
him on the king’s good side. Immediately after Ludlow’s marriage to her
daughter, Lady Scarborough began requesting Ludlow be promoted to an Irish
earldom. Her appeals mostly affected Thomas Pelham-Holmes, the duke of
Newcastle, to whom she sent approximately nineteen letters all of which concerned
Ludlow’s lack of title. In one letter dated 29 June 1754, she thanks Newcastle
for his previous letter in which he implied she would soon see the accomplishment
of her desire. She ends her grateful letter with the endorsement, “Hopes it won’t
be long before some Irish peers are created” (Milner, 183). In social contexts,
she chose to ignore her husband’s connection with Frederick and painted the
late Lord Scarborough as a man of unwavering loyalty to the crown. Lady
Scarborough’s constant pestering for Ludlow’s appointment was what appeared to
be the best way to reinforce the family’s reputation. The rank of the husband
would extend to the wife and then the entire Scarborough family. While she
appeared to be only helping her son-in-law and ignoring the status of her
daughters, in reality Lady Scarborough’s campaign for Ludlow would retrieve status
for her daughters as well as the Scarborough family name.
When Ludlow
was elevated to an Irish barony in 1755, Lady Scarborough was not satisfied. In
another letter to Newcastle in January on 1758 she writes, “I all along
declined accepting of his being made a baron only, as that I think has not been
refused to almost anybody that has asked for it” (Namier, 62). In her eyes, and
the eyes of Princess Amelia, the title of Irish baroness resulted in a loss of
status for her daughter. In that same letter, Lady Scarborough recounts how the
Princess asked her, “why [she] would let her [daughter] loose her rank,” to
which Lady Scarborough responded that “the Duke of Newcastle could best have
answer’d that question” (Milner, 187). Two years later on 3 October 1760,
Ludlow was finally made an Irish earl.
After this
major accomplishment, Lady Scarborough appears to have withdrawn herself from
political and court life and she passed away on 27 December 1772. Her will
bequeathed a fortune of £8,000 to 9,000 and requested her final resting place
be with her husband in Saxby church, Lincolnshire. Her intimate knowledge of British
politics and patronage that she gained from an early age helped her navigate the
patronage system and her incessant straightforwardness eventually allowed her
to get what she wanted. Lady Scarborough is another example of a strong-willed
eighteenth century aristocratic woman who was not afraid to fight for what she believed
was due to her.
Sources:
Brooke, John and Lewis Bernstein Namier. The House of Commons: 1754-1790. London:
Boydell and Brewer, 1985. https://books.google.com/books?id=Taw7DVGrbRcC&dq=Ludlow,+Peter,+1st+Earl+Ludlow&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Chalus, E. H.. “Saunderson, Frances
Lumley- , countess of Scarbrough (c.1700–1772).” E. H. Chalus In Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford:
OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/68364
(accessed May 31, 2015).
Collins, Arthur. The peerage of England: containing a
genealogical and historical account of all the peers of England. 4th edn, 7
vols. London: H. Woodfall, 1768. https://books.google.com/books?id=uWZUAAAAcAAJ&vq=Scarbrough&dq=Frances+Lady+Scarborough+Princess+Augusta&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
Milner, Edith. Records
of the Lumleys of Lumley Castle. London: George Bell, 1904. https://books.google.com/books?id=1NMKAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
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