Unusual grant of rank as earl's daughter to Cecil Hamilton, 1789

[Paul Theroff]

At some point, Miss Cecil Hamilton, one of the youngest of the many daughters of Rev. Hon. George Hamilton (1718-1787), was granted the rank and style of an earl's daughter. This seems to have been done at the behest of her first cousin, the 9th Earl/1st Marquess of Abercorn, who later married her in 1792.

Wikipedia says that the rank and title were granted 27 October 1789. A footnote cites "The London Gazette". See:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/13143/page/673

Elizabeth, Lady Holland, wrote in 1798:

"The scandalous world are occupied with Lady Abercorn's adventures. Ld. A. seems to take the affair coolly and is inclined to behave well. The first is a disappointment, as people hoped his pride would be so galled that he would afford some sport to the wags... His absurd vanity has made him more conspicuous than he could have been otherwise. Before he married the lady in question he loved her. Some strange fancy induced him to wish her to have the rankl and title of an earl's daughter; he obtained it for her. Somebody asked Mr. Pitt how he would grant so strange a request. He said he thought himself lucky to be let off so cheaply, for when he came, he looked so menacing and seemed so big with an important demand, that he thought he meant to ask for the Electoral vote for the Empire. (It was just upon Leopold's death.)"

Lady Holland's account is of course merely hearsay, but shows what was said about it not long after it happened. Her statement that it was "just upon Leopold's death" must be incorrect. Leopold didn't become emperor until his brother Josef died in 1790, and then died himself in 1792, but perhaps it was at a time when Josef's death was contemplated, or perhaps Pitt himself had a confused memory about it.

[S. S.]

The grant of rank was due to Lord Abercorn's excessive worrying about rank and class distinction. George W. E. Russell's comment on his wikipedia page sums him up: 

"This admirable nobleman always went out shooting in his Blue Ribbon, and required his housemaids to wear white kid gloves when they made his bed. Before he married his first cousin, Miss Cecil Hamilton, he induced the Crown to confer on her the titular rank of an Earl's daughter, that he might not marry beneath his position; and, when he discovered that she contemplated eloping, he sent a message begging her to take the family coach, as it ought never to be said that Lady Abercorn left her husband's roof in a hack chaise" (Collections & Recollections (1899), p 77).

Also see the late Leigh Rayment's remarks: 

Abercorn was obsessively rank-conscious and went to great lengths to remind the common people of his exalted status. Even before he succeeded to the Earldom, when he was travelling in Europe, he had cards printed which described him as "D'Hamilton, Comte Hereditaire d'Abercorn". His livery was very similar to that of the Royal Family and, when someone remarked upon this similarity, he replied that that the Royal Family had copied it from the Hamiltons.
For his second wife, he married his cousin, Miss Cecil Hamilton, but before doing so he persuaded Pitt the younger, then Prime Minister, to elevate her to the status of an Earl's daughter so that he might not marry beneath himself. In the event, the marriage was not a happy one and, when he discovered that his wife was about to elope with her lover, he was anxious that aristocratic conventions be observed and begged her to take the family carriage to meet her lover "as it ought never to be said that Lady Abercorn left her husband's roof in a hack chaise".
Abercorn's style of living was, even in that prodigal time, extremely lavish. Sir Walter Scott, a friend of the family, once met a procession of five carriages, twenty out-riders and a man on horseback wearing the blue ribbon of the order of the Garter, all on their way to dine at a public house. Since a mere public house could not be relied upon to provide food of the quality to which Abercorn was accustomed, his cook had been sent on ahead to oversee preparations.
He would not accept anything from a servant who had not previously dipped his fingers in a bowl of rose-water, and the housemaids had to wear white kid gloves while making his bed.
Visitors to his home at Bentley Priory, Stanmore, were accorded the run of the house and were free to do whatever they liked, provided they did not speak to their host. Only at meals would Abercorn speak to any guests - at all other times, guests were to ignore him. On one occasion, he was anxious to invite some guests, but when they replied that they couldn't afford the journey, he sent them a cheque. However, when they arrived, Abercorn, having watched their arrival from behind some curtains, decided he did not like what he saw and disappeared from the house until their visit had ended.

For further reading see:-
* The Emperor of the United States of America and Other Magnificent British Eccentrics by Catherine Caufield (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981)
* Brewer's Rogues, Villains Eccentrics by William Donaldson (Cassell, London 2002)

S.S.

[Paul Theroff]

Here is an account of this from a History of Harrow School:

"His  career  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  ended  by  his  succession
to  his  uncle's  title  in  1789.  Henceforward  he  was  chiefly  known  to  society  as  a
magnificent  nobleman,  living  in  the  pomp  which  became  a  descendant  of  the  Kings
of  Scotland,  and  the  representative  in  the  male  line  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton.
His  strong  sense  of  personal  dignity  showed  itself  in  some  amusing  traits.  It  is
recorded,  for  instance,  that,  having  formed  an  attachment  to  his  relative.  Miss
Cecil  Hamilton,  he  thought  it  necessary,  before  marrying  her,  to  induce  Pitt  to
obtain  for  her  the  rank  and  precedence  of  an  earl's  daughter,  a  concession  to
which,  not  unnaturally,  the  king  assented  with  a  very  ill  grace.  His  intimacy
with  Pitt  gave  rise  to  the  suggestion  that  the  Minister's  embarrassed  finances  were
aided  by  his  opulent  friend — a  calumny  which  Lord  Aberdeen  denounced  as,  on
the  face  of  it,  absurd.  Lord  Abercorn's  influence  with  Pitt  was,  however,  remark-
able. With  reference  to  it,  a  friend,  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  the  Emperor
Joseph,  observed  that  "  it  was  lucky  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  Emperor  of  Germany,
as  Pitt  would  certainly  have  done  his  best  to  make  him  so."