Maids of Honour to Queen Anne, 1702-1714
S. S.
During the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), she was attended by six Maids of Honour. They were appointed by Royal Warrant and each received a salary of £300[1]. Some of them have peerage and baronetage connections, so I have placed them under footnotes.
· 4 June 1702. Isabella Wentworth[2].
· 4 June 1702. Anne South[3].
· 4 June 1702. Jane Kingdon (d unm 1714)[4].
· 4 June 1702. Letitia Frowde (d unm by 27 July 1706)[5].
· 4 June 1702. Rosamunda/Rosamund Yarborough[6].
· 4 June 1702. Mary Stanhope (b 1686; d 21 Aug 1762)[7].
· 17 July 1703. Anne Duncomb/Duncom[8].
· 27 July 1703. Elizabeth Colyear/Collier (d 12 June 1768)[9].
· 1704. Mary Forrester[10].
· 26 June 1706. Anne Smith (d 1717)[11].
· 27 July 1706. Christian Temple[12].
· 26 Nov 1707. Anne Wyvill[13].
· 1 July 1708. Mary Hale[14].
· 27 May 1709. Jane Warburton (b ca 1680; d 16 Apr 1764)[15].
· 15 Oct 1709. Hon Susannah Yelverton (d unm 1714)[16].
· 26 Nov 1709. Henrietta Maria Scarburgh[17].
· 9 Feb 1712. Sarah Slingsby[18].
[1] LC 3/5, f 1. The biographical particulars of all Maids of Honour from this period are taken from Frances Harris, “’The Honourable Sisterhood’: Queen Anne’s Maids of Honour”, British Library Journal, xix, no 2 (1993), pp 181-98.
[2] LC 5/166, p 73. She was the daughter of Sir William Wentworth MP (d 1689) sister of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. She married Francis Arundel, of Stoke Park, Northamptonshire (Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire (1874-75) sub Wentworth pedigree).
[3] LC 5/166, p 73. She was sister of Elizabeth South, Maid of Honour to Queen Mary of Modena. She married May 1703, — Clopton.
[4] ibid, p 73. She was the daughter of Lemuel Kingdon MP (d 1687).
[5] LC 5/166, p 73; ibid, p 189. Probably daughter of Philip Frowde, Governor of the General Post Office.
[6] LC 5/166, p 73. Paid till 29 Sept 1704 (CTB, xix, 389). She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Yarborough MP, by Henrietta Maria Blagge. She married Oct 1704, Nicholas Pollexfen MP.
[7] LC 5/166, p 73. Vacated by 26 Nov 1707 (ibid, p 210). She was the daughter of Hon Alexander Stanhope FRS, Envoy to The Hague, youngest son of Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield. She married 12 Dec 1707, Charles Fane, 1st Viscount Fane [I].
[8] LC 5/166, p 146. Vacated by 26 June 1706 (ibid, p 188). She was the daughter and coheiress of William Duncombe MP, Comptroller of the Army Accounts (d 1704). She married Apr 1706, Henry Scott, 1st Earl of Deloraine [S], third son of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.
[9] LC 5/166, p 148. Vacated by 26 Nov 1709 (ibid, p 239). She was the daughter of Lt-Gen Walter Philip Colyear, younger brother of David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore [S] and thus niece by marriage of Catherine (née Sedley), 1st Countess of Dorchester suo jure. She married Jan 1709, Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset.
[10] Paid from 29 Sept 1704 (CTB, xix, 389). She was the daughter of Sir William Forrester KB MP, of Dothill, Salop, Clerk of the Green Cloth 1689-1717 (b 10 Dec 1655; d Feb 1718). She married 1700 (aged just 13), Sir George Downing, 2nd Bt, of East Hatley, Cambridgeshire (d June 1711).
[11] LC 5/166, p 188. Vacated by 27 May 1709 (ibid, p 230). She was the daughter of John Smith MP, of Tedworth House, Hampshire, Speaker of the House of Commons 1705-07 (b 1656; d 1723). She mar 31 May 1709, Alexander Grant, of Castle Grant, Elgin, MP for Scotland 1707-08, Invernessshire 1708-10, Elginshire 1710-19 (b aft 1673; d 19 Aug 1719). In 1711, she petitioned for divorce on grounds on non-consummation (Wentworth Pprs, 208).
[12] LC 5/166, p 189. Vacated by 1 July 1708 (ibid, p 219). She was the sister of Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham and the younger daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Bt, of Stowe, Buckinghamshire. She married 8 May 1708, Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Bt, of Frankley, Worcestershire (d 14 Sept 1751).
[13] LC 5/166, p 210. She was the daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, 5th Bt, of Constable Burton, Yorkshire (d 2 Nov 1722). She married after 1714, John Wyvill, of Walton-upon-Thames.
[14] LC 5/166, p 219. Vacated by 15 Oct 1709 (ibid, p 238). She was the sister of William Hale, of King’s Walden, Hertfordshire, MP for Hertfordshire 1669, 1679, 1681 (b ca 1632; d 25 May 1688) and daughter of Richard Hale, of the same, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Garway Draper, of Broad Street, London (Richard Clutterbuck, The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford (1815), iii, 133).
[15] LC 5/166, p 230. She was the daughter of Thomas Warburton, younger son of Sir George Warburton, 3rd Bt, of Arley, Cheshire (d 23 June 1743). She married 6 June 1717 as his second wife, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll [S].
[16] LC 5/166, p 238. She was the daughter of Henry Yelverton, 1st Viscount de Longueville [I].
[17] LC 5/166, p 239. Vacated by 9 Feb 1722 (ibid, p 286). She was the daughter of Charles Scarburgh, of the Board of Green Cloth, by Catherine Fraser. She married Feb 1712, Sir Robert Jenkinson, 3rd Bt, of Walcot, Gloucestershire (d 29 Oct 1717), and was thus ancestress of Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, who was the Prime Minister 1812-27.
[18] LC 5/166, p 286. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Slingsby, 4th Bt, of Scriven Hall, Yorkshire [NS] (d 1726).
Shahaan Shahid
Paul Theroff
As for "4 June 1702. Isabella Wentworth":
Isabella Wentworth apparently gave up her position when she married, but then began looking for a post as Bedchamber Woman.
Letters of Peter Wentworth, Lord Strafford's next brother, to Lord Strafford:
Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford (while still Lord Raby) 1709:
"Mrs Davers is made a Bedchamber Woman, wch my sister Arundel had hopes of, and I am sorry for the disappointment, all her comfort is theres six now wch add to the number of a chance for a Vacancy"
Apparently she got the post, because she was in it when the Queen died.
Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford, Aug 1714:
"My sister A[rundell] has had much setting up and has behaved herself with much more decency after the Breath was out of the Queen's Body then any of the bedchamber women. She's well spoken on by every body, I have heard it mentioned by people that did not know me. Lady Masham, Mrs Hill and Danvers are cry out upon for their behaviour; tho' they roared and cry'd enough whilst there was life, but as soon as there was none they took care of themselves."
S. S.
Paul Theroff
S. S.
Paul Theroff
https://groups.google.com/g/peerage-news/c/S_f8YI5Jk5w/m/WCTpIdHGAwAJ