Caroline Agar-Ellis, Viscountess Clifden

Caroline Agar-Ellis, Viscountess Clifden (27 October 1763 – 23 November 1813),[1] formerly Lady Caroline Spencer, was an English noblewoman.

Croline Agar-Ellis
Viscountess Clifden
BornLady Caroline Spencer
27 October 1763
Died23 November 1813(1813-11-23) (aged 50)
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England
Noble familySpencer
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1792)​
IssueGeorge Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover
FatherGeorge Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
MotherLady Caroline Russell

She was the eldest daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough,[2] and his wife, the former Lady Caroline Russell.[1] In August 1782 she was due to marry George Leveson-Gower, Viscount Trentham, but the wedding was called off and instead she became engaged to George Gordon, Lord Strathavon; this engagement was also broken off.

She married Henry Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden (a former suitor of her sister Elizabeth), on 10 March 1792. They had one son, George Agar-Ellis (1797-1833), who later became Baron Dover.[2] Their only daughter, Caroline Anne (1794-1814), died unmarried.

A portrait of the future Viscountess with her sister Elizabeth, painted in 1791 by George Romney, was commissioned by their father.[3] It purports to show the sisters in the guise of the muses of Music and Painting (with Caroline representing the visual arts).[4] The painting became known as "the Clifden Romney"; when sold in 1896, it raised the third highest price ever paid for a painting in the UK.[5] It later came into the possession of the American businessman and collector Henry E. Huntington.[6]

Viscountess Clifden died at Blenheim Palace, aged 50, and was buried in the family vault of the Dukes of Marlborough, next to her mother.[7]

References
  1. "Lady Caroline Spencer, later Viscountess Clifden". The Huntington. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  2. Bernard Burke (1865). Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Harrison and sons. p. 235.
  3. Ann Bermingham; John Brewer (13 September 2013). Consumption Of Culture. Routledge. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-134-80840-3.
  4. The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality. Ingram brothers. 1896. p. 319.
  5. The Academy. J. Murray. 1896. p. 514.
  6. James Thorpe (18 August 1994). Henry Edwards Huntington: A Biography. University of California Press. pp. 284. ISBN 978-0-520-91366-0.
  7. The Gentleman's Magazine: 1813. E. Cave. 1818. p. 626.
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