Countess Grantham Henrietta Butler

Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham

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Henry de Nassau, Lord d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham, PC (1673 – December 5, 1754), a British peer and courtier, was a member of the House of Orange-Nassau and second cousin once removed to King William III of England. He inherited the lordship of Ouwerkerk (known in English as Overkirk and in French as Auverquerque) in Zeeland, and was a count of the Holy Roman Empire.

He was born in The Hague to the Dutch general Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque (called "Lord Overkirk" by the English) and his wife Frances van Aerssen, and baptised there 30 May 1673. On 12 January 1697, he married Lady Henrietta Butler, daughter of the Earl of Ossory and sister of the 2nd Duke of Ormonde. In 1698, during his father's lifetime, he was created 1st Earl of Grantham, Viscount Boston, and Baron Alford by William III.

Despite Grantham's marriage to the sister of one of most notorious participants in the 1715 Jacobite rising, George I appointed him Lord Chamberlain to the household of the Princess of Wales in 1717, and Grantham retained his position when the Prince of Wales succeeded as King George II in 1727 and the Princess became Queen Caroline. He remained her Lord Chamberlain until her death in 1737.

Grantham later involved himself in a project to create an orphanage for abandoned children in London, the first of its kind in the nation. The charity became known as the Foundling Hospital and received its royal charter on 17 October 1739. Lord Grantham was one of its founding Governors.

Lord and Lady Grantham had five children, of whom only two daughters survived to adulthood. The elder, Lady Frances, married Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) William Elliot; the younger, Lady Henrietta, wed William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper.

Grantham owned a house in Albemarle Street, Westminster that is now part of the premises of the Royal Institution, and a country house in Chiswick, called Grove Park.

Lord Grantham died on 5 December 1754 and was buried a week later at St James's Church, Piccadilly, Westminster.