Sisters

In personal beauty, the superiority of the Powderham Courtenays over most families in the kingdom is well known. The present family, have incomparably fine persons. From Lady Honeywood to Miss Louisa Courtenay (married in 1805 to Lord Edward Somerset) the ladies have reigned unrivalled.

(Richard Polwhele, The history of Cornwall, 1806)

William’s parents, lady and lord Courtenay, had 13 daughters:

• Amelia 1777-1789
• Anne 1774-1835. Known as lady Valentia from 1793, and as lady Mountnorris from 1816.
• Caroline 1775-1851
• Charlotte 1764-1844
• Eleanor 1772-1789
• Elizabeth 1766-1815
• Frances 1763-1838. Known as lady Honywood from 1781, and later as lady Frances Honywood du Genevray. See: Isabella Courtenay and her niece; Lady Honywood’s Memorial.
• Harriet 1771-1836. Known as lady Carteret from 1826.
• Isabella 1765-1783. See: Isabella Courtenay and her niece.
• Louisa 1781-1823
• Lucy 1770-1821. Known as lady Lisburne from 1820.
• Matilda 1778-1848
• Sophia 1780-1845

In 1831, long after his death, their father was recognised by the UK’s House of Lords as earl of Devon de jure. His seven surviving daughters assumed the rank and title of earl’s daughters and became known as: lady Anne Mountnorris, lady Caroline Morland, lady Charlotte Giffard, lady Frances Honywood [du Genevray], lady Harriet Carteret, lady Matilda Locke, lady Sophia Foy.

All 13 sisters were alive at the same time for little more than one year, from Louisa’s birth in December 1781 to Isabella’s death in March 1783. The eldest, Frances, had married in December 1778 before Sophia’s birth and become a mother before Louisa was born.

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BIRTHS

• 1763 Frances: born 13 January at Eyford and baptised 4 February at Upper Slaughter (Gloucestershire, England).
• 1764 Charlotte: born 14 February at Powderham and baptised there 4 April (Devon, England).
• 1765 Isabella: born 20 June at Powderham and baptised there 9 July (Devon, England).
• 1766 Elizabeth: born 2 September at Ford and baptised 8 September at Wolborough (Devon, England).
  • 1768 William, their brother, born 30 July at Powderham.
• 1770 Lucy: born 13 June at Powderham and baptised there 16 July (Devon, England).
• 1771 Harriet: born 7 September at Powderham and baptised there on the same day (Devon, England).
• 1772 Eleanora: born at Powderham and baptised there privately 23 November then publicly 6 December (Devon, England).
• 1774 Anne: born 2 February at Powderham and baptised there 16 March (Devon, England).
• 1775 Caroline-Eustatia: born 26 March at Powderham and baptised there 26 April (Devon, England).
• 1777 Amelia: born 5 June at Powderham and baptised there 3 or 6 July (Devon, England).
• 1778 Matilda-Jane: born 6 July at Powderham and baptised there 24 August (Devon, England).
• 1780 Sophia: born 25 January at Powderham and baptised there 30 March (Devon, England).
• 1781 Louisa-Augusta: born 25 December at Powderham and baptised there 24 January 1782 (Devon, England).
  • 1782 Frances, their mother, died 25 March at Grosvenor-square in London.
  • 1788 William, their father, died 14 December 1788 at Grosvenor-square in London.

One source from 1895 suggests that there were fifteen siblings in all. Vivian’s Visitations of the county of Devon adds (on page 295, after Louisa Augusta) a Mary who was supposedly baptised on 26 February 1784 at Powderham. There is no such baptism in the parish register. The only entry for that day is a burial: ‘Hon. Miss Mary Courtenay’ who was not a sister of William but his aunt (according to Vivian she was buried on 13 February 1783 at Powderham but there is no such burial in the register). On 22 November 1783 Mary Courtenay altered her will at her sister Lucy’s house in Shropshire; the will was proved by Lucy and her husband John Cotes on 16 February 1784 in London.

Of course William’s parents may have had other children outside of their marriage; his father has been named as a parent of Mary Ann Vane who it seems may have been born in 1784. It was not uncommon to name ‘illegitimate’ children in a will but none are mentioned in this case, nor does William himself seem to have acknowledged the existence of any half-siblings. For some reason William’s father did unseal his will in 1767 but then resealed it without making any alteration; perhaps he had considered adding some relevant codicil then changed his mind.

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MARRIAGES

Four of the sisters became and remained widows: Caroline, Charlotte, Matilda and Sophia. Frances was also widowed but married for a second time. Three of the sisters did not marry: Amelia, Eleanor and Isabella.

• 1779 Frances married her cousin John Honywood (1757-1806) at Powderham on 13 December; the ceremony, performed by their cousin Thomas Clack, was witnessed by her father and William Beard, one of the churchwardens. She later married Louis Léon comte du Genevray (see marginal note dated 9 June 1834 on last page of probate copy of her father’s will: ‘lady Frances Honywood du Genevray’.)
• 1788 Elizabeth married lord Charles Henry Somerset (1767-1831). The couple eloped on 22 May 1788 for a Gretna Green marriage in Scotland. They were then married by special licence with parental consent on 8 June 1788 at Hillingdon (Middlesex, England); the ceremony, performed by Edward Christopher Dowdeswell, was witnessed by Edmund Estcourt and Henry Bingham. After Elizabeth’s death (1815) lord Charles married lady Mary Poulett in 1821. In 1787 it was suggested that lord Charles and lord Paget, friends from schooldays together at Eton, enjoyed sexual activity with each other. In 1824 a placard appeared in Cape Town announcing that lord Charles had been detecting ‘buggering Dr Barry’. James Barry was the name of the persona adopted by Margaret Bulkeley in order to pursue medical studies in Edinburgh; Dr Barry arrived in Cape Town after Elizabeth’s death but was doctor to some of her daughters.
• 1788 Charlotte married Thomas Giffard (1764-1823) by special licence on 23 June 1788 at the Courtenays’ London house in Grosvenor Square (Westminster, Middlesex); the ceremony, performed by the parish rector Henry-Reginald Courtenay, was witnessed by her father, her married sister Frances Honywood and her aunt Lucy’s husband John Cotes.
• 1790 Anne married George Annesley (1770-1844) on 3 September 1790 at Powderham; the ceremony, performed by the parish rector John Andrew, was witnessed by her father and Thomas Taylor (an old friend of her family, from Denbury in Devon). The couple separated after a few years and Anne’s later partner was John Gawler who changed his name to John Bellenden Ker (1764-1842).
• 1797 Harriet married lord George Thynne (1770-1838) on 9 May at the Courtenays’ London house in Grosvenor-square (Westminster, Middlesex); the ceremony, performed by the parish rector Henry-Reginald Courtenay, was witnessed by her brother William and George Thynne’s father (Thomas earl of Bath).
• 1798 Lucy married John Vaughan (1769-1831) on 2 August at Powderham; the ceremony, performed by the parish rector John Andrew, was witnessed by her brother William, John Vaughan’s father (Wilmot earl of Lisburne) and John’s brother-in-law Lawrence Palk.
• 1800 Matilda married her cousin John Locke ( 1767-1837) on 7 June at the church of St. George, Hanover-square (Westminster, Middlesex); the ceremony, performed by the parish curate Joshua Greville, was witnessed by her cousin Henry Wrottesley and Henry Ley (agent for the Powderham estate).
• 1804 Sophia married a widower, Nathaniel Foy (1773-1817) on 13 December at Powderham; the ceremony, performed by the parish rector Timothy Napleton, was witnessed by her brother William, her cousin William-Charles Clack and Margaret Napleton (eldest daughter of the rector).
• 1805 Louisa married her brother-in-law lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset (1776-1842) on 17 October at Powderham; the ceremony, performed by the parish rector Timothy Napleton, was witnessed by her brother William and her married sister Matilda-Jane Locke. In 1808 lady Bessborough reported from Dublin that the king’s lord-lieutenant, the duke of Richmond, ‘makes desperate love’ to Louisa who was in Ireland with her husband.
• 1812 Caroline married Charles Morland (1773-1828) on 3 January at the church of St. George, Hanover-square (Westminster, Middlesex); the ceremony, performed by his brother Henry Morland, was witnessed by his eldest brother William-Alexander Morland as well as by her second cousin William Courtenay, her widowed aunt Charlotte Rosslyn, her married sister Elizabeth Somerset, Elizabeth’s husband Charles Somerset and their daughter Georgina Somerset (Caroline’s niece).

Not long before Sophia’s marriage, one visitor to Powderham caught ‘a transient view of the three sister Sylphs of the castle; the first, like St. Cecilia, was playing on her harp: the second, like Ariel, singing to the divine harmony of the chords; and the third, like Penelope, employed in adorning the web of the loom.’

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CHILDREN (William’s nieces and nephews)

Nine of the ten married sisters had children – more than 50 between them. If Harriet had any children, they had died before her death in 1836. In the family groups below, the children are listed alphabetically. There is more information about them at Nieces and nephews. As well as many omissions, there may be many errors here.

• Annesley (Anne’s children before her separation from her husband; although they were given his family name, and he acknowledged George Arthur as his son and heir, Anne’s husband believed that John Gawler>Bellenden Ker was probably the father of both children): George Arthur (1793-1841); William (1796-1830).
• Courtenay (Anne’s children with John Bellenden Ker after her separation from her husband): Caroline (1807-81); Emma (1816-66); Francis John (1801-59); Frederick Eardley Bellenden (1804-36); Henrietta (1810-87).
• Foy (Sophia’s children): Edward (1805-78); Sophia Elizabeth (1806-1857).
• Giffard (Charlotte’s children): Ann Barbara (1794-1834); Barbara Denise (1798-1841); Caroline Mallett (1802-1841); Charles Robert (1800-1853); Charlotte (1790-1875); Francis John (1791-1836); Louisa Paulina Charlotte (1807-1879); Lucy Harriet (1792-1843); Robert Edward (1805-1836); Sophia Elizabeth (1793-1880); Thomas William (1789-1861); Walter Peter (1796-1877).
• Honywood (Frances’s children): a stillborn son (1782); Annabella Christiana (1785-1814); Caroline Anne (1787-1827); Charlotte Dorothea (1784-1811); Eliza Augusta (1801-?); Frances Elizabeth (1781-1854); John Courtenay (1807-32); Louisa Catherine (1794-1822).
• Locke (Matilda’s children): Charles George John Courtenay (1803-48); Jane Matilda (1806-1902); John William Thomas (1816-75); Laura Matilda (1812-86); Lucy Matilda Frances Ann (1801-87); Mary Matilda (1805-61); Matilda Harriet Elizabeth (1802-77).
• Morland (Caroline’s children): a stillborn daughter (1814); Caroline Anne (1820-41); William Courtenay (1818-1910).
• Somerset (Elizabeth’s children; after her death in 1815, lord Charles married lady Mary Poulett and they had several children together): a stillborn son (1801); Caroline Isabella (1797-1800); Charles Henry (1800-35); Charlotte Augusta (1799-1864); Elizabeth (1790-1871); Georgiana (1793-1856); Henry (1794-1862); Villiers Henry Plantagenet (1803-55).
• Somerset (Louisa’s children): Augustus Charles Stapleton (1821-54); Blanche (1811-79); Edward Arthur (1817-86); Frances Caroline (1808-90); Georgiana Emily (1819-1910); Louisa Isabella (1807-88); Matilda Elizabeth (1815-1905); Robert Henry (1806-07).
• Vaughan (Lucy’s children): Ernest Augustus (1800-73); George Lawrence (1802-79); John Shafto (1803-81); John Wilmot Courtenay (1799-1818); Lucy Harriet (1809-67); William Mallett (1807-1867).

For Frances Elizabeth Honywood who married Aubone Surtees, see: Isabella Courtenay and her niece.

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INHERITANCE

Their father’s will provided a maintenance allowance for each daughter until her eighteenth birthday or the day of her marriage, whichever came first. On that day she was to receive her ‘portion’: £6,000 for each daughter.

None of the sisters gained from William’s wills and only Sophia is mentioned: his English will provided for the continued payment of an annuity which she had been receiving since her husband died in 1817.

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DEATHS (and wills)

Their mother lady Courtenay died in 1781, and their father lord Courtenay in 1788.

• 1783 Isabella in England on 5 March at her family’s London house (16 Grosvenor-square, Westminster), aged 16; buried on 16 March at Powderham in Devon.
• 1789 Eleanor in England on 22 February at Powderham-castle, aged 16; buried on 28 February at Powderham in Devon.
• 1789 Amelia in England on 18 March at London, aged 10; buried on 30 March at Powderham in Devon.
• 1815 Elizabeth in South Africa on 11 September at Cape Town, aged 49; buried on 13 September at Cape Town; memorial in England at Badminton in Gloucestershire.
• 1821 Lucy in France on 17 December (at the Hôtel du Nord in Paris or ‘at the Chateau of Epiné, near Paris’), aged 51; buried in England on 3 January 1822 at Enfield in Middlesex (the burial register notes that Lucy ‘died at Paris’).
• 1823 Louisa in England on 8 February at Over Norton in Oxfordshire, aged 41; buried on 18 February at Badminton in Gloucestershire.
• 1835 Anne in England on 6 January at Southampton in Hampshire, aged 60; buried on 12 January at Weyhill in Hampshire.
  • 1835 William in France on 26 May at his Paris residence (22 Place-Vendôme), aged 66; buried in England on 12 June at Powderham in Devon.
• 1836 Harriet in England on 13 April, aged 64; buried on 19 April at Haynes in Bedfordshire.
• 1838 Frances in France on 20 August at her residence (18 Rue-des-chanoines) in Caen, Calvados, aged 75.
• 1844 Charlotte in England on 22 November at Chillington-hall, her residence in Staffordshire, aged 80; buried at Brewood in Staffordshire. For her will, see Charlotte Giffard.
• 1845 Sophia in England on 11 January at Chillington-hall, her residence in Staffordshire, aged 64; buried on 16 January at Plumstead in Kent.
• 1848 Matilda in France on 4 August at her residence (60 rue-du-boulangerie) in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, aged 70.
• 1851 Caroline in England on 4 March at her residence (Pickhurst) at Hayes in Kent, aged 75; buried on 13 March at Lamberhurst in Kent.

For information about the wills left by William’s sisters and brothers-in-law, with transcripts of a few of the shorter wills, visit the pages Wills of other people 1: lists and Wills of other people 2: transcripts.

For death notices and obituaries, visit William’s obituaries with notices of other deaths.

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Image

• John Preston Neale: Ford House, 1818. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neale(1818)_p1.216_-_Ford_House,_Devonshire.jpg

John Swete recorded in his journal for 1793: “of late years it hath been alternatively inhabited, by Sir John Honeywood and Lord Charles Somerset, who married Sisters of the present Lord Courtenay.”

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Page history

• 2018 June 26: first published online.
• 2021 April 8: entries under Marriages for Elizabeth and Louisa expanded.
• 2021 April 9: more information added to Children.
• 2021 July 23: more information added to Children (Henrietta Courtenay).
• 2022 June 21: more information added to Sisters (Eleanor).
• 2022 June 26: more information added to Marriages (‘a transient view’).
• 2022 November 14: paragraph added on possibility of other children born outside the marriage between William’s parents.
• 2023 September 6: year of Anne Courtenay’s marriage corrected.
• 2023 October 16: 1838 added as year when Frances died.
• 2024 February 4: Polwhele quotation added at head of page.
• 2024 October 4: paragraph added on the Mary Courtenay who was buried (not baptised) at Powderham in 1784.
• 2024 October 6: information added on dates and places of birth, baptism, death and burial.
• 2024 October 7: Children updated when Nieces and nephews added as new page; information added to Marriages.
• 2025 December 19: Deaths amended (1783 Isabella; 1821 Lucy).