(1721 - 95), dau. of the 4th B. Byron; m. 1 1743 4th E. of Carlisle (d. 1758), 2 1759 Sir William Musgrave (diss. c.1761).
- 1768 - 74 - Florence (1768), Bologna (Nov. 1772), Florence (by 14 Nov.), Rome (21 Dec.), Naples (Dec. 1772), Rome (by Mar. - Apr. 1773), Naples (Apr. - May 1773), Rome (by Dec. 1774)
On the death of her husband in 1758 the Countess was accounted 'the youngest, handsomest and wittiest widow in England',1 but her second marriage to Sir William Musgrave the following year was to be dissolved within two years. Much of her time thereafter was spent on the Continent. She was said to have been in Florence in 1768.2 In November 1772 she was at Bologna3 in the company of a Baron de Wenheim,4 presumably the 'unhappy attachment' then mentioned by Lady Mary Coke.5 She went on to Florence where Dr Tissot advised her 'to fix at Rome for the air',6 but she appears to have passed through Rome late in December7 on her way to Naples.8 By March 1773 she was again in Rome where she later presented Lord Winchilsea to the Princess Corsini; in April she went again to Naples.9
In December 1774 she was again in Rome,10 and it was probably on this visit that 'Larcher', the soi-disant Baron de Wenheim, was refused admittance to the Jacobite court, since the Young Pretender's wife denied his claim to noble rank.(11) Lady Carlisle was living in France in 1778 and was finally brought back to England in 1781.(12)
1. Wal.Corr., 37:561. 2. W.H. Smith, Originals Abroad, 97 - 112. 3. Francis jnl.MSS (Nov.5 1772). 4. Orde jnl.MSS (11 Nov. 1772). Gazz.Tosc., 14 Nov. 1772. 5. Coke Letters, 4:129. 6. Wal.Corr., 23:447 and n29. 7. Findlater letters MSS (29 Dec. 1772). 8. Wal.Corr., 23:449. 9. Winchilsea letters MSS (20 Mar., 17 Apr. 1773). 10. Byres letters MSS C (31 Dec. 1774). Thorpe letters MSS (21 Dec. 1774*). 11. Smith (at n2), 102 - 3 ('before the summer of 1778'). 12. Wal. Corr., 7:50, 61; 36:193. Jesse, Selwyn, 3:313, 355.
