Lady Jersey in miniature
In 2015 we were contacted by Jayne Parkes who had inherited a wonderful historical booklet from her mother and wanted to know whether we could tell her anything about it. Jayne very kindly agreed to let us share her booklet with you.
A souvenir booklet
The booklet is labelled ‘Souvenir’ and contains a miniature of a lady and a lock of hair.
Miniature of Lady Jersey in souvenir booklet © Jayne Parkes
Lock of hair of Lady Jersey in souvenir booklet © Jayne Parkes
This would be interesting enough in itself, but in addition the booklet includes the following note:
Note in Lady Jersey souvenir booklet © Jayne Parkes
The text reads:
Pocket book with miniature & lock of hair of Sarah (nee Fane) Countess of Jersey given by her to my mother Louisa Mrs Hope (afterwards Viscountess Beresford)
A J B Beresford Hope (signed)
May 6 1883
nb the almanack (?) lines (?) date 1817
Lady Sarah Sophia Fane daughter of John 10th Earl of Westmorland born March 4, 1785, married May 23 1804 George 5th Earl of Jersey, died Jan 26 1867
Who was Lady Jersey?
The note states that the subject of the miniature is Sarah Child Villiers (née Fane), Countess of Jersey (1785-1867), one of the leading figures of Regency society.
The reference to 1817 is unclear, but the details below it concern the birth, marriage and death of Lady Jersey and this information tallies with other sources.
But is the miniature really of Lady Jersey? Below is a close up of the miniature compared with a portrait of Lady Jersey that appeared in The Illustrated Belle Assemblée for 1844 on the left and a print of her on display at Osterley Park on the right. The similarity is very good.
Left: Lady Jersey from The Illustrated Belle Assemblée (1844); Centre: Miniature shown above © Jayne Parkes; Right: Lady Jersey from a print on display at Osterley Park
Who was Viscountess Beresford?
The miniature was given to Louisa, Viscountess Beresford. In 1837, The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic printed a portrait of the Viscountess together with a brief history of who she was and, very usefully, a list of her children by her first marriage.
Louisa Beresford, Viscountess Beresford from The Court Magazine and Monthly Critic (1837)
Louisa Beresford was the youngest daughter of William Beresford, 1st Lord Decies and Archbishop of Tuam, and his wife Elizabeth Fitzgibbon. William Beresford was the brother of George de la Poer Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford.
Louisa married Thomas Hope of Deepdene, Surrey, on 16 April 1806. Thomas Hope was a merchant banker, art collector and author. His most famous publication was Anastasius (1819).
Deepdene, Surrey, the seat of Thomas Hope, from Select Illustrations of the County of Surrey by GF Prosser (1828)
Louisa and Thomas had three sons:
Henry Thomas Hope
Adrian John Hope
Alexander James Beresford Hope.
Thomas Hope died on 2 February 1831 leaving his wealth and art collections to his eldest son Henry.
William Carr Beresford
Viscount Beresford engraved by P Lightfoot from picture by G Bradley in Life of Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington by WH Maxwell (1840)
On 29 November 1832, Louisa married her first cousin William Carr Beresford, the illegitimate son of her uncle, the Marquess of Waterford. William was a General in the British Army, Colonel of the 16th Regiment of Foot and Governor of Jersey and had held the rank of Field Marshal in the Portuguese Army.
He served in the Peninsular Wars under the Duke of Wellington and held the chief command in the Battle of Albuera, for which he was honoured with the title of Baron Beresford of Albuera on 17 May 1814. He was given the title of Viscount Beresford on 28 March 1823.
William and Louisa had no children and on his death in 1854, William's estates passed to Louisa’s youngest son, Alexander, who took the additional name Beresford from this time. It is Alexander’s signature—AJB Beresford Hope—that is on the note shown above.
Who painted the miniature?
Close-up of signature on miniature of Lady Jersey in souvenir booklet © Jayne Parkes
The miniature is signed Dun. Nicholas-François Dun (1764-1832) was a French painter who worked mostly in Naples in Italy. 1
There is another portrait by Dunn from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website shown below. As you can see, the signature is virtually identical.
Portrait of a Woman, said to be Madame Récamier (1777-1849) by Nicolas François Dun (c1812-14)
There are some other paintings by Dun here.
Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew, who co-writes this blog.
If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.
Note
Sometimes Dun’s name is spelt Nicolas without the ‘h’.
Sources used include:
Courthope, William, editor, Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1838)
Court Magazine and Monthly Critic (1837)
