Lady Almeria Carpenter

http://www.thepeerage.com/p10848.htm#i108474

Lady Almeria Carpenter is the daughter of George Carpenter, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell and Frances Clifton.3

Child of Lady Almeria Carpenter and William Henry Hanover, 1st Duke of Gloucester

• Louisa Maria la Coast+1 b. 6 Jan 1782, d. 10 Feb 1835

Citations

• [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 279. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Family.
• [S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
• [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume VIII, page 340. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.

http://www.sphinxfineart.com/Richard-Cosway-Devon-1742-London-1821-...

Lady Almeria was the lady-in-waiting to Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1736-1807). The Duchess was the granddaughter of Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), considered to be the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, although the term itself was not officially recognised until 1905.

The Duchess was married to George III’s (1738-1820) brother, Prince William Henry, the Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1743-1805) but as their marriage deteriorated Lady Almeria’s great beauty attracted the Duke’s attention and in 1782 she gave birth to his daughter, Louisa Maria La Coast (1782-1835) who was brought up by her father’s steward on a farm at Hampton Court. During the 1780s, the Duke and Duchess toured the continent, on account of their mounting debts and unpopularity at court since their clandestine marriage. They were accompanied by Lady Almeria. Such was her fashionable status that the European Magazine and British Review, a publication which, according to its subtitle, was dedicated to bringing to its readers ‘the Literature, History, Politics, Arts, Manners, and Amusements of the Age’, kept their readers informed of her activities. In December 1783, for instance, it states that ‘Lady Almeria Carpenter, while in Italy rides continually for her health. She took over with her an English horse, that could carry double’.¹ This concern with the minutiae of her life reveals the fascination that this beautiful and enchanting woman provoked among London society and beyond. On their return to England, Lady Almeria continued to live with the Duke and Duchess in Gloucester House where, according to Sir Nathaniel Wraxall (1751-1831), ‘the Duchess remained indeed its nominal mistress, but Lady Almeria its ornament and its pride’.²

Lady Almeria was the eldest daughter of George Carpenter, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel (1723-1762) and she was famed for her beauty, becoming one of the leading figures in fashionable society. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall (1751-1831), author, historian and Member of Parliament, described her as ‘one of the most beautiful women of her time’ and she was painted by a number of the leading portraitists of her age, including Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1793) and John Hoppner (1758-1810).³ A comparable image is James Watson’s (c.1740-1790) Lady Almeria Carpenter, etched after Reynolds’ portrait. As in Cosway’s painting, the focus of the work is the beauty and refinement of the sitter. Lady Almeria’s delicate features and smooth skin figure in both works, as do her style and grace. This focus on the sitter’s appearance is accentuated in Watson’s image as we view her in profile but as a result, the image lacks something of the psychological depth that the direct and smiling stare brings to Cosway’s portrait. The engraving does depict a more detailed costume than Cosway’s elegant classical one, and this chimes in with Lady Almeria’s status as ‘a famous leader of fashion’.⁴

https://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00003285&tree=LEO