Anne FitzPatrick, Countess of Upper Ossory

Anne FitzPatrick, Countess of Upper Ossory (née Liddell, formerly Anne FitzRoy, Duchess of Grafton; c.1737–1804) was an English noblewoman and the first wife of Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton. Grafton divorced her while serving as prime minister. She was a noted correspondent of Horace Walpole.


The Countess of Upper Ossory
Engraving by David Lucas
Full name
Anne FitzPatrick
BornAnne Liddell
c.1737
Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England
Died1804 (aged 6667)
London, England
Spouse(s)
(m. 1756; div. 1769)

Issue
ParentsHenry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth
Anne Delme

Life

Anne Liddell was born in 1737 or 1738 in Derby to Anne and Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth.[1]

She firstly married Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton on 29 January 1756, at her father's house in St James's Square, by special licence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The marriage was witnessed by Lord Ravensworth and Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Earl of Hertford.[2] Together they had three children:

In 1761 she sent a silhouette that Jean Huber had created of her and her daughter to Horace Walpole. This letter was to be the start of a correspondence of 455 letters between herself and Walpole.[1]

After the Duchess had become pregnant by her lover, John FitzPatrick, 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory, she and the Duke were divorced by Act of Parliament, passed 23 March 1769.[4] Three months later, on 24 June 1769, the Duke married Elizabeth Wrottesley (1 November 1745 – 25 May 1822), daughter of the Sir Richard Wrottesley, 7th Baronet, the Dean of Worcester.[5] Anne married FitzPatrick that same year and they had two daughters:

  • Lady Anne Fitzpatrick
  • Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick

Anne died at her house in Grosvenor Square in 1804.

References

  1. "Anne Fitzpatrick". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/88658. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. The Register of Marriages solemnized in the Parish Church of St James within the Liberty of Westminster & County of Middlesex. 1754-1765. No. 406. 29 January 1756.
  3. Chisholm 1911.
  4. "Augustus FitzRoy". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9628. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Hellicar 1978, p. 28

Sources


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