Hannah Lightfoot

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Joshua Reynolds : Portrait of Hannah Lightfoot , around 1750

Hannah Lightfoot (born October 12, 1730 in London , † December 1759 or 1768) was an English Quaker and allegedly legitimate wife of the prince and later King George III.

Life

Hannah Lightfoot came from a recognized Quaker family, her parents being the shoemaker Matthew Lightfoot and his wife Mary Wheeler. She met the Prince of Wales in the late 1740s and gave birth to two sons and a daughter.

Over a hundred years later, rumors circulated that Georg had married the Quaker Hannah Lightfoot on April 17, 1759. In this case Georg would have been a bigamist and all children from the marriage with Princess Sophie Charlotte von Mecklenburg-Strelitz would have been declared illegitimate. But it turned out that Hannah Lightfoot couldn't have been married to Georg at all. She had been the wife of Isaac Axelford since 1753 and died in December 1759, which means that a marriage in April 1759 could not have had any children. The alleged marriage was mentioned in 1866 in a court case against the daughter of the impostor Olive Wilmot , who had pretended to be "Princess Olive". A marriage certificate that was presented was revealed to be a forgery ; this is now in the royal archives of Windsor Castle .

literature

  • Alison Weir: Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy , London (1999)
  • Jean Plaidy: The Prince and the Quakeress , Trowbridge, WIL, United Kingdom ISBN 0-3302-4689-5
  • Michael Kreps: Hannah Regina: Britain's Quaker Queen , Cardinal Press, London ISBN 0-9533-505-1-7

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lightfoot, Hannah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English quaker and legitimate wife of the prince and later King George III.
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 1759 or 1768