+ Dowager Countess of Jersey, widow of the 9th Earl
Michael Rhodes
Jersey, was the third wife, and widow, of the 9th Earl of Jersey (b. 15
Feb 1910; d. 9 Aug 1998).
She was the former Bianca Maria Luciana Adriana Mottironi, the elder
daughter of Snr and Signora Enrico Mottironi, of Casalis, Turin, and
niece of Mme. Bianca Mosca, the Mayfair dress designer in whose
business Lord Jersey had an interest.
She and the Earl were married 16 Oct 1947. Jersey's Times obituary (14
Aug 1998) states: "After the war his diverse inerests included a
successful antique and decorating shop. Divorced again in 1946 he fell
in love with a beautiful young Italian girl, Bianca Mottironi, who he
married in 1947. Together they went to Jersey to see the island whence
his title came, and liked it so much that they settled there."
The 9th Earl's previous countesses had been (i) Patricia Richards, an
Australian, whom he married at St Margaret's, Westminster, 12 January,
1932, when she was not yet 19. The marriage lasted 5 years, and ended
in divorce in 1937; (ii) he married secondly, in London, 30 July, 1937,
Virginia Cherrill (b. 12 Apl 1908; d. 14 Nov 1996), the American film
star, who won fame when she played the part of the blind flower girl in
Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights". She was a former wife (i) Irving
Adler, a Chicago lawyer; & (ii) the actor Cary Grant. This 2nd marriage
also ended in divorce in 1946 (Times 31 July 1946).
Her husband had succeeded to the family seats at Osterley Park,
Isleworth; Middleton Park, Bicester (where he later commissioned
Lutyens to build a modern house on the site); and Raglan House, Briton
Ferry, South Wales.
In 1949 her husband gave Osterley Park and 140 acres to the National
Trust. The furntiure and furnishings designed by Robert Adam for the
state rooms at Osterley were sold to the Victorian and Albert Museum.
The Times obituary of the 9th Earl stated that the peer was: "Shy and
gentle, but witty and charming too, Lord Jersey will be remembered as a
man of extraordinary generosity, not only to his friends but by a
number of curators."
Osterley Park was built in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Gresham,
founder of the Royal Exchange. Re-fashioned and largely furnished in
the 1760s and 1770s by Robert Adam for the bankers Francis and Robert
Child, it became what Horace Walpole described as "the palace of
palaces". The Principal Floor with its State Rooms and Long Gallery was
and is the cheif glory. It was Robert Child's granddaughter, the
heiress Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, who in 1804 married trhe 5th Earl of
Jersey.
Tragically some of the Child-Villiers family's best paintings,
including a Rubens celing painting of the Apothesis of the Duke of
Buckingham and a Van Dyk equestrian work of King Charles I were burnt -
and lost - in a warehouse fire on their way to the new Channel Island
home of the Earl and Countess .
In 1951 her husband sold almost all his South Wales property (about
7,500 acres) because of crippling taxation. The land included about 40
farms, town houses, and industrial tinplate and steel works chiefly
centred in Neath, Swansea, Briton Ferry and Port Talbot.
Her husband, known as Grandy to his friends, from his family's courtesy
title of Viscount Grandison, had been in hospital with a broken ankle
early in 1998 when the news came that their son , Viscount Villiers (b.
29 Aug 1948), had died (19 March 1998) following a heart attack aged
49. Lord Jersey never really recovered from the blow, and died 9
August, 1998, aged 88.
The Countess of Jersey was also predeceased by another son, the Hon
Charles Child-Villiers (b. 10 Jan 1952; d. 1991), who suddenly lost his
hearing and died.
She leaves a daughter, Lady Isabella Bianca Rosa , who was born 11 Oct
1950, and a step-daughter, Lady Caroline Ogilvy (b. 9 Apl 1934, who was
christened at St George's Chapel, Windsor, 8 June, 1934).
Her grandchildren are:-
(i) Lady Sophia Georgiana Child Villiers, b. 1971
(ii) The 10th Earl of Jersey, b. 5 Feb, 1976
(iii) Alexandra Venetia Harrison, b. 1977
(iv) Lady Helen Katherine Luisa Child Villiers, b. 1978
(v) Eleanor Monica Child Villiers, b. 1979
(vi) Matthew Alexander Charles Harrison, b. 1980
(vii) Lady Luciana Dorothea Sacha Child Villiers, b. 1981
(viii) Barbara Beatrice Child Villiers, b. 1981
(ix) Hon Jamie Charles Child Villiers, b. 1994
The funeral takes place at Grouville Parish Church, Jersey, Channel
Islands, Monday 21 March, 2005.
Sources: The Times 16 Mar, 2005/Daily Telegraph 16 Mar 2005
Mike Cawood, HND BIT
news:1111021367.6...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> The Dowager Countess of Jersey, who died 11 March, 2005, at her home
in
> Jersey, was the third wife, and widow, of the 9th Earl of Jersey (b.
15
> Feb 1910; d. 9 Aug 1998).
>
>
Earl, on the death of the 9th Earl.
Regards Mike.
Louis Epstein
Not exactly news,since it happened over six years ago (Saturday marks
seven years since the death of the 9th Earl's son who was the 10th
Earl's father).
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.