Henrietta Laura Pulteney, 1st Countess of Bath

Wikipedia Biographical Summary

"(Henrietta) Laura Pulteney, 1st Countess of Bath (26 December 1766, Westminster – 14 July 1808, Brighton) was a British peeress and heiress...

...Born Henrietta Laura Johnstone, she was the only child of the wealthy William Johnstone, later Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet, and his wife, Frances Pulteney, daughter of Daniel Pulteney. When her mother inherited the estate of her kinsman, Harry Pulteney (who had previously inherited them from William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath) in 1767, her parents took the name Pulteney...

...Although Pulteney's father never sought political office, he did procure a peerage for her and she was created Baroness of Bath, in the County of Somerset, in 1792, aged twenty-six. Despite her mother's family having previously held the earldom of Bath until its extinction in 1764, a marquessate of Bath had been created for the 3rd Viscount Weymouth in 1789. Some peers attempted to have her peerage cancelled due to the unprecedented use of the same place name in two separate peerages for separate people. This was rejected and she was further elevated as Countess of Bath, in the County of Somerset, in 1803, although it is a general rule that, wherever possible, peerage titles should not be duplicated. On 17 July 1794, she married her father's first cousin, Sir James Murray, 7th Baronet and he took the additional surname of Pulteney...

...When Lady Bath's father died intestate in 1805, his personal estate was divided between her and his second wife. Lady Bath inherited two thirds and property in England and America. She died just over three years later in 1808, possibly from consumption and was buried in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey. Her personal estate passed to her cousin, Elizabeth Evelyn Fawcett (daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet and ex-wife of George Markham, Dean of York); she and her husband changed their name to Pulteney. Her landed estates passed to William Vane, 3rd Earl of Darlington. As she had no children, her titles became extinct."

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Laura Pulteney, 1st Countess of Bath', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 November 2012, 12:15 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laura_Pulteney,_1st_Count...> [accessed 25 November 2012]