Augusta Gordon
Lady Augusta Gordon (born November 17, 1803 in Bushy House , Teddington , Middlesex as Augusta FitzClarence, † December 8, 1865 ) was a British noblewoman and mother of the writer Wilhelmina FitzClarence .
Life
Augusta was born as the fourth daughter of the British Prince William, Duke of Clarence , later King William IV, and his long-time mistress Dorothea Jordan . Augusta had four sisters and five brothers.
Augusta's daughter Wilhelmina later wrote that Bushy House was a happy and beloved home until it came to an end in 1818 after Prince William's marriage to Princess Adelheid von Sachsen-Meiningen . William and Dorothea separated in late 1811 because the indebted Duke was hoping for a rich marriage. She received £ 4,400 in severance pay and given the job of caring for the daughters. There was not enough money to pay off the debt. In 1815 she went to France to flee from her creditors. On July 5, 1816, she died alone. She had given most of her money to her eldest daughter, but she had come from another man.
Augusta's stepmother was meek and loving to the stepchildren. In 1819 the two youngest sisters were tutored by Baron Franz Ludwig von Bibra, a German with knowledge of the classics and the English language.
Marriage to John Kennedy-Erskine
On July 5, 1827, Augusta married the Hon. John Kennedy-Erskine, a younger son of Archibald Kennedy, 12th Earl of Cassilis . He served as a captain in the 16th Lancers and was the equerry to King William. She had three children from him:
- William Henry Kennedy-Erskine (July 1, 1828– September 5, 1870), married Catherine Jones in 1862 and one of their children was the Scottish writer Violet Jacob ;
- Wilhelmina "Mina" Kennedy-Erskine (June 27, 1830– October 9, 1906), married her cousin William FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster in 1855 and had nine children;
- Augusta Anne Millicent Kennedy-Erskine (May 11, 1831– February 11, 1895), was born after the death of her father, married in 1855 James Hay Erskine Wemyss.
Her husband died on March 6, 1831, just four years later. On May 24, 1831, her father gave her the protocol status of the younger daughter of a marquess with the predicate "Lady". Since their father was now king, the children were now at court more often. This did not please the Duchess of Kent , as in their opinion they had a bad influence on their daughter Princess Victoria .
The young widow and her children lived in Railshead on the Thames next to the house of John's parents. King William visited his daughter frequently to comfort her. She frequently visited the king at Windsor Castle .
Marriage to Frederick Gordon
On August 24, 1836, Lady Augusta married Lord Frederick Gordon, the third son of George Gordon, 9th Marquess of Huntly . Gordon was a seaman and became an admiral in the Royal Navy in 1868 . He and Augusta did not have any surviving children together. In 1843, her husband took the family name "Halyburton" as the general heir to the childless half-brother of his father, Lord Douglas Halyburton (1777-1841).
The in-laws from the first marriage who lived in the neighborhood did not agree to the second marriage and forced the couple to leave the house. Her father granted her an apartment in Kensington Palace and the position of state housekeeper. In this she was the successor of her late sister Sophia . She lived there for many years. In 1847 she went on a three-year trip to the continent and visited Germany, France and Italy. In 1850 she returned to Kensington Palace and introduced her daughters into society. Both daughters married the 2nd Earl of Munster and James Hay Erskine Wemyss in a double wedding in 1855.
literature
- Peter Beauclerk-Dewar, Roger Powell: Royal Bastards . The History Press, Stroud 2008, ISBN 9780752473154 .
- Elizabeth Campbell Denlinger: Before Victoria: Extraordinary Women of the British Romantic Era . Columbia University Press, New York 2005.
- Wilhelmina FitzClarence : My Memories and Miscellanies . Eveleigh Nash, London 1904.
- Flora Fraser: Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III . John Murray, London 2004, ISBN 0719561094 .
- Lois Nyman: The Von Bibra Story . Foot & Playsted, Launceston 1996, ISBN 0-9597188-1-8 .
- Lynne Vallone: Becoming Victoria . Yale University Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0-300-08950-9 .
- Kate Williams: Becoming Queen Victoria: The Tragic Death of Princess Charlotte and the Unexpected Rise of Britain's Greatest Monarch . Ballatine Books, 2010, ISBN 0-345-46195-9 .
- George Newenham Wright: The Life and Reign of William the Fourth . Fisher, Son, & Co, London 1837.
Web links
- William IV (1765-1837), king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and king of Hanover | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
- Jordan, Dorothy [real name Dorothy Phillips] (1761-1816), actress | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
- Lady Augusta Fitz-Clarence on thepeerage.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gordon, Augusta |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | FitzClarence, Augusta (maiden name); Kennedy-Erskine, Augusta; Halyburton, Augusta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British noblewoman and mother of the writer Wilhelmina FitzClarence |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 17, 1803 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bushy House , Teddington , Middlesex |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 8, 1865 |