Eliza Courtney
Born	February 10, 1792(1792-02-10) Aix-en-Provence
Died	May 2, 1859 (aged 67) Norwood, Surrey
Nationality	English
Spouse(s)	Lt. Col. Robert Ellice
Children	Georgiana Ellice, Eliza Ellice, Alexandra Ellice, Robert Ellice, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Henry Ellice
Parents	Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

Eliza Courtney (1791/92 – 2 May 1859) was the natural daughter of the Whig politician and future Prime Minister Charles Grey by the society beauty Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She was raised by her paternal grandparents.

Upbringing

Her mother with an elder sibling

_{Her father}

Eliza Courtney was born in France, in Aix-en-Provence on 20 February 1792. She was brought to Northumberland in northern England and adopted by her father's parents, her Grey grandparents. Unlike the natural children of her real mother's husband, the Duke of Devonshire, Eliza was spared being part of the Devonshire House set in London. Her mother, Georgiana, could not acknowledge her and saw her rarely; several anguish ridden poems from mother to daughter survive. Two are reproduced below:

And yet remote from public view

A flower there is of timid hue,

Beneath a sacred shade it grows,

But sweet in native fragrance blows.

From storms secure, from tempests free,

But ah! too seldom seen by me.

For scarce permitted to behold

With longing eyes each grace unfold.

My bosom struggles with its pain

And checks the wishes form'd in vain ;

Yet when I perchance supremely blest,

I hold the floweret to my breast,

Enraptur'd watch its purple glow

And blessings (all I have) bestow.

The gentle fragrance soothes my care

And fervent is my humble prayer

That no dread evil may beset

My sweet but hidden violet.

(December 1805) (copied from Lord Bessborough's Georgiana, 1955, appendix IV)

Unhappy child of indiscretion,

poor slumberer on a breast forlorn

pledge of reproof of past transgression

Dear tho' unfortunate to be born

For thee a suppliant wish addressing

To Heaven thy mother fain would dare

But conscious blushes stain the blessing

And sighs suppress my broken prayer

But in spite of these my mind unshaken

In present duty turns to thee

Tho' long repented ne'er forgotten

Thy days shall lov'd and guarded be

And should th'ungenerous world upbraid thee

for mine and for thy father's ill

A nameless mother oft shall assist thee

A hand unseen protect thee still

And tho' to rank and wealth a stranger

Thy life a humble course must run

Soon shalt thou learn to fly the danger

Which I too late have learnt to shun

Meanwhile in these sequested vallies

Here may'st thou live in safe content

For innocence may smile at malice

And thou-Oh ! Thou art innocent

(copied from Foreman, 1998, page 267/8. From: Verses copied by Lady Charlotte Cholomondeley in her common place book, circa 1816. Lady Charlotte (Seymour) was the mother-in-law of Eliza's daughter Georgiana).

The name Courtney was derived from her maternal grandmother's brother, William Poyntz, having married a co-heiress of the ancient Cornish family of Courtney of Trethurfe and Courtney of Tremeer in 1762.

Husband

In 1809 her quasi-sister but actual-aunt Lady Hannah Althea Grey (d.1832) married the MP and trader the Rt. Hon. Edward "Bear" Ellice (c.1783–1863). Five years later, on December 10, 1814 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Eliza married Lt. Col. Robert Ellice (1784–1856), a younger brother of her "brother-in-law" Edward Ellice. Their father was the Scots-born Alexander Ellice (1743–1805) of Bath, London and Montreal, a partner in the Schenectady, New York firm of Phyn, Ellice & Co.

In March 1814 Lord Broughton recorded meeting Eliza at dinner and described her as:

the daughter of the late Duchess of Devonshire by Lord Grey, ... a fine girl, sensible and talkative, and easy mannered.

Robert Ellice had been promoted to the military rank of "ensign" on November 8, 1798; to the rank of Captain on May 4, 1801; to Major on May 12, 1808; to Lt. Colonel March 16, 1809; to Colonel August 12, 1819; to Major-General on July 22, 1830; to Lieutenant-General November 23, 1841; to Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot (the 2nd Warwickshire) on November 2, 1842; and to General on June 20, 1854. At some point he served in South America and was present at the capture of Buenos Aires.

Ellice was acting Governor-General of Malta for five-and-a-half months, from May 13 to October 27 of the year 1851.

In the 1856 Webster's he is listed as having a residence at 57 Park Street, Mayfair.

Children

(thought to have comprised two sons and three daughters)

Georgiana

Her daughter Georgiana (d. October 12, 1907) married on November 4, 1846 Hugh Horatio (May 15, 1821 – December 4, 1892), son of Lt. Col. Hugh Henry Seymour (1790–?) by his wife Charlotte, daughter of the 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley. (Lt. Col. Hugh Seymour was son of Admiral Hugh Seymour (1759–1801), who was fifth son of the first Marquess of Hertford). (A younger brother of Col. Hugh Seymour was Colonel Sir Horace Seymour (1791-1851), an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales).

Their grandson was the British Minister in Tehran (1936-1939) and British Ambassador to China (1942-1946), Sir Horace James Seymour, G.C.M.G., C.V.O. (1885-1978). One of Sir Horace's grandsons, James Seymour (1956–), is married to Anya Hindmarch (1968–).

Eliza

Another daughter, Eliza (1818 – 8 March 1899, Pelham house, Lewes), married Henry Bouverie William Brand (1814–1892) in 1838. After a distinguished speakership of the House of Commons he was created Viscount Hampden; later still he inherited from his brother the Barony of Dacre, as 23rd in line. Descendants (described in Wikipedia) include the present Lord Monk Bretton; Sarah, Duchess of York; and the late Viscount Hampden.

Alexandra

She married the Rev. H. Harvey. (see Bessaborough, 1955, appeandix IV, p.295).

Robert

Robert (1 Jan 1816 - 19 December 1858) the eldest son married Eglantine Charlotte Louisa (d. 18 April 1907) third daughter of Lt-General Robert Balfour of Balbirnie in March 1853.

In 1880 their son, the Bear's great-nephew, Major Edward Charles Ellice, D.S.O. (1917 or 1918), J.P., M.P. (1903-6, Liberal, St. Andrews Boroughs), (1858-1934) succeeded his first cousin once removed, Edward Ellice II, to the Ellice estate at Invergarry, Inverness-shire. In April 1889 he married another first cousin once removed, like him she was a descendant of Eliza Courtney, Margaret Georgiana (d.1929) (her brother was Viceroy of India and was created Marquess of Willingdon) daughter of Frederick Freeman Thomas by his wife Mabel, daughter of 1st Viscount Hampden.

Their fifth son, Russell (1902- ) succeded his father, his four elder brothers having perished young: three of them in the 1914-1918 war. (One was in the Cameron Highlanders (killed in action), one was in the Grenadier's (killed in action) and the third was lost on HMS Bulwark).

Sir Charles

The younger son, Lt. Gen. Sir Charles Henry Ellice, KCB (Florence, 1823 – 1888) followed his father into the 24th Regiment of Foot and was sometime quarter-master general and then adjutant-general. He married Louisa Caroline, a daughter of William Henry Lambton and a niece of the 1st Earl of Durham. Thom's Upper Ten Thousand for 1876 lists him as of Horningsheath, Bury St Edmunds. He was subject of Vanity Fair treatment, October 20, 1877.

Death

She died, a widow, in Norwood, Surrey, aged 67.

"Norwood in Surrey" in this case is either Upper Norwood; South Norwood; West Norwood; or Sydenham.

Biography

• Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman, HarperCollins, London, 1998. ISBN 0-00-655016-9
• Brian Masters, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Hamish Hamilton, 1981.
• The Earl of Bessborough (editor), Georgiana, John Murray, London, 1955.
• Anthony Brand, Henry and Eliza, printed privately in Haywards Heath, 1980 (197 pages, paperback). Letters between her daughter and son-in-law.
• Peter Townend (ed), Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition, London 1970 (1978, 3rd impression).
• see the film The Duchess (film), 2008.

External

• Poem by Benjamin Kennicott, D.D. (1718-1783) describing the near death of Kelland Courtney's wife in 1743.
• Link to note on Envoy Stephen Poyntz, PC
• Eliza's brother-in-law, the Bear.
• Eliza's nephew-by-marriage Edward Ellice (1810-1880), son of the Bear. See Edward Ellice II.

• Edward Ellice's first wife

Other

• Phyn, Ellice and Company of Schenectady, by R. H. Fleming in Contributions to Canadian Economics, Vol. 4, 1932 (1932), pp. 7-41.
• The New Annual Army List and Militia List for 1854, the 17th annual volume, by Major Henry G. Hart, John Murray, Albermarle street, London, 1854.
• Webster's Royal Red Book; or Court and Fashionable Register, for January, 1856, Webster & Co., 60 Piccadilly, London.
• The Upper Ten Thousand, for 1876, A biographical handbook of all the titled and official classes of the Kingdom with their addresses, compiled and edited by Adam Bisset Thom, Kelly & Co., London. (First published 1875).
• Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 1952, edited L. G. Pine, London, (sub. Ellice of Invergarry, page 744-745)

Ancestors

Some Ancestors