(1757 - 1806), 1st dau. of 1st E. Spencer; m. 1774 5th D. of Devonshire.
1792 - 3 [dep. England Nov. 1791] Genoa, Turin (May 1792) [Switzerland] Florence (Nov. 1792), Pisa (Jan. - Feb. 1793), Florence (Feb.), Rome (11 Mar. - Apr.), Naples (Apr. - May), Rome, Florence (28 Jun. - ), Lucca [Switzerland, Aug.; England, Sep.]
The Duchess, one of the most glamorous figures of her day, was temporarily banished by her husband both for her extravagance and because she was with child by Charles Grey (the future Prime Minister).1 She set out in November 1791 with Lady Elizabeth Foster, the third member of the Duke of Devonshire's remarkable m?nage ? trois, announcing, for the sake of appearances, that she was accompanying her invalid sister [Lady Duncannon] abroad. Her baby (Eliza Courtney) was born in Aix on 20 February 1792; the following month the Duchess and Lady Elizabeth joined Lady Spencer, the Duchess's mother, and Lady Duncannon at Nice. They proceeded via Genoa and Turin to Switzerland, where they arrived in May.
In October they returned to Italy, arriving in Florence in November. Thomas Pelham (later 2nd Earl of Chichester) escorted the Duchess and Lady Elizabeth and he later complained that attending 'their whimseys' had brought on a long illness. In January and February 1793 they were in Pisa where the Duchess took an understandable interest in the foundling hospital, 'which she complained of to the Tuscan government and by her Grace's representation the abuses were remedied'.2 They were seen in Florence late in February,3 and on 11 March the party reached Rome. By the beginning of April Patrick Moir had been 'closely employed for sometime past with Lady Spencer & her party in the mornings ... in the usual course of viewing & describing the Antiquities',4 and both the Duchess and Lady Elizabeth sat to Hugh Robinson.5 The next month they continued their wanderings to Naples, where Pelham was still with them.6 Here the Duchess, whose favourite hobby was mineralogy, added to her collection of minerals (she and Lady Duncannon had been given private lectures on the subject by Henri Stuve at Lausanne).7 The whole party dined at La Caserta and the King presented the Duchess with an antique stag's head excavated at Herculaneum. While in Naples she received 'a most affectionate letter to desire her to return' from her husband,8 and at the end of May the whole party left Naples for Rome.9 Lady Elizabeth was in Florence by 20 June (when she went with her brother, John, Lord Hervey, and Lady Webster to the opera) and the next day was expressing the (vain) hope that Thomas Pelham would again escort her and the Duchess home, see Pelham; the Duchess, with Lady Bessborough (as Lady Duncannon had meanwhile become) and Lady Spencer arrived on the 28 June.(10) The group disbanded at Lucca; Lady Spencer and Lady Bessborough stayed in Italy, while the Duchess and Lady Elizabeth crossed the St Gotthard into Switzerland in August,11 to reach England in September.
1. See D.M. Stuart, Dearest Bess, 62 - 71, and I. Leveson Gower, Face without a Frown, 174 - 94. 2. Brooke, Observations, 105n. 3. Carr letters MSS (22 Feb. 1793). 4. Forbes jnl.MSS (4 Apr. 1793). 5. Bentham jnl.MSS (Dec. 1793). 6. Holland Jnl., 1:16. 7. Blagden Letters, 260. 8. Connell 1957, 285. 9. Morrison, 1:176 (no.221). 10. Holland Jnl., 1:46, 47, 54. 11. Sketch of a descriptive journey through Switzerland, [1816], 86.