The First Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos

Anna Eliza Brydges, only surviving daughter and heiress of James Brydges, third Duke of Chandos and Anne Elletson.

Born: 22 October 1779 [1]
Married Richard Temple on 16 April 1796
Only son, Richard, born 11 February 1797
Died: Stowe 1.00 am, Monday 16 May 1836
Buried: Avington Church Wednesday 25 May 1836.

Anna Eliza led a troubled life that she bore with forbearance, tenderness and a strong sense of duty. Engaged to Richard Temple at the age of six (he was ten), she was to face the sudden death of her father and the insanity of her mother. Caged by strict guardians, Lady Caroline Leigh and Sir Francis Buller, she was prevented from meeting Temple. After a long struggle by the Grenvilles, the guardians gave way and Anna Eliza married Temple when she was just 16. A year later her only child, Richard Chandos, was born.

The marriage was often unhappy. Temple plunged the family into debt. His problems were partly solved by Anna Eliza (with the help of Sir Edward Hyde East) while he was in exile from 1827–29. She died at Stowe caring for Temple rather than at her beloved Avington, where she was buried.

Report of funeral in Hampshire Chronicle.
Reports of death and funeral in Jacksons Oxford Journal
Portraits.

Memorials to Anna Eliza:

De Vere and Lady Clanellan

Anna Eliza was the model for the Marchioness of Clanellan in Robert Plumer Ward’s novel De Vere, and although he assured Richard Temple “that none of his Characters were intended to represent any particular Persons” [2] he confided to journalist Peter Patmore “In the portrait of Lady Clanellan, on her introduction in the first volume, those who know her as well as I do may recognise the amiable Duchess of Buckingham. If they do, I cannot deny it.” [3]

The description was indeed flattering:

None that ever saw the marchioness for an hour, but wished to see her again; and none that had passed a day under her roof, but remembered her for ever. She was of a most illustrious family, and yet her birth was the very least of her recommendations. Others might be as great, but she reigned in the heart, while the trappings of others only caught the eye. In truth, she was the personification of benevolence, not unmixed with very lively observation when folly met her eye; but her benevolence always prevented her observation, keen as it was, from amounting to satire. The marchioness would not hurt anybody: to use a trite phrase, she would not hurt a fly. For these, and a thousand other amiable qualities, the high-born courted, the humble adored her. [4]

Notes

[1] HEH ST 98 Vol 4; entry for 22 October 1828.
[2] HEH STG Correspondence Box 4 (20); 1827/05/26.
[3] My Friends and Acquaintance, V2, Peter George Patmore, 1854, p51.
[4] De Vere; Or, The Man of Independence, Robert Plumer Ward 1827, p157.