Lady Sarah Jersey

1786-1867. Lady Sarah Sophia Fane [Jersey]. Socialite. 

From the drawing by Richard Cosway

• Birth: 1786
• Daughter of the John Fane (10th Earl of Westmorland and a member of the Child's banking family) and Sarah Anne Child. Sarah Anne eloped in 1782 at the age of eighteen with Fane, known as "Rapid Westmorland." The couple were married at Gretna Green, returning to her father to present him with a fait accompli.
• Married George Child Villiers (1773-1854), 5th Earl of Jersey then (Viscount Villiers) on 23 May 1804; he succeeded to the title in 1805
• Sons:
  • George Augustus Frederick Child-Villiers 6th Earl of Jersey (1808-59)
  • Frederick William 
• Inherited Osterley Park, London at the age of 8. Despite spending a large sum on furniture and upholstery at Osterley, they settled at Middleton Park in Oxfordshire, with their London residence in Berkeley Square.
• Acted as senior partner of the Child & Co bank from 1806 to 1867
• Death: 26 January 1867
• Buried: 3 February 1867 at Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire.

Lady Jersey was a Queen of London Society and was sometimes called "Queen Sarah." She was a friend of Lord Byron and a patroness at Almack's where:

Lady Jersey’s bearing... was that of a theatrical tragedy queen; and whilst attempting the sublime, she frequently made herself simply ridiculous, being inconceivably rude, and in her manner often ill-bred. (Gronow)

She was strongly against the Reform Bill:

She is mad in her rage against our Reform, and moves heaven and earth against it wherever she goes according to her powers; but those powers are not what they used to be. I short, she is like the rotten boroughs—going to the devil as fast as she can. (Thomas Creevey, 15 March 1831)

Lady Jersey was immortalised as Zenobia in Disraeli's Endymion,