Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (formerly
Elizabeth Christiana Hervey, later
Lady Elizabeth Foster), (13 May 1759 - 30 March 1824), is best known as the close friend of
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. Elizabeth supplanted the Duchess, gaining the Duke's affections and later marrying him.
Life
Lady Elizabeth was the daughter of
Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, and was familiarly known as "Bess". She was born in a small house in
Horringer,
St Edmundsbury,
Suffolk,
England. In 1776, she married Irishman
John Thomas Foster (born 1747). He was a first cousin of the brothers
John Foster, last Speaker of the (united) Irish House of Commons, and
Bishop (William) Foster. When her father acceded to the earldom of Bristol until 1779, she became
Lady Elizabeth Foster. The Fosters had three children; two sons, Frederick (3 October 1777 - 1853) and
Augustus John Foster (December 1780 - 1848), and a daughter Elizabeth, who was born premature on 17 November 1778 and lived only 8 days. The couple lived (after 1779) with her parents at
Ickworth House, the ancestral Bristol home. The marriage was not a success, and the couple separated within five years, plausibly after Foster had a relationship with a servant. Foster retained custody of their sons, and did not allow the boys to see Bess for 14 years. In May 1782, Bess met the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire in
Bath, and quickly became Georgiana's closest friend.
From this time, she lived in a
ménage à trois with Georgiana and her husband,
William, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, for about twenty-five years. She bore two children by the Duke: a son, Augustus (later
Augustus Clifford, 1st Baronet), and a daughter, Caroline St. Jules, who were raised at
Devonshire House with the Duke's legitimate children by Georgiana. Lady Elizabeth finally married the Duke in 1809, three years after the death of his first wife, during which time she had continued to live in his household.
Bess is also said to have had affairs with several other men, including
Ercole Cardinal Consalvi,
John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset,
Count Axel von Fersen,
Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, and
Valentine Richard Quin, 1st Earl of Dunraven. There is some evidence that Quin fathered an illegitimate son by her, who became the noted physician,
Frederick Hervey Foster Quin.
Bess also had literary pretensions, and was a friend of the French author
Madame de Staël, with whom she corresponded from about 1804.
Children
With John Thomas Foster:
- Frederick (3 October 1777 - 1853)
- Elizabeth (17 November 1778 - 25 November 1778)
With
William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (prior to their marriage):
- Caroline Adelaide Rosalie (1785 - 1830), who later as Caroline St Jules married George Lamb
Titles
- Miss Elizabeth Hervey (1759–1776)
- Mrs John Foster (1776–1779)
- The Lady Elizabeth Foster (1779–1809)
- Her Grace The Duchess of Devonshire (1809–1824)
Bibliography
- Vere Foster (editor), The Two Duchesses.., Family Correspondence relating to.., Blackie & Son, London, Glasgow & Dublin, 1898.
::Vere Foster (1819-1900), her grandson, was a renowned Irish philanthropist and educationalist.
- Brian Masters, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Hamish Hamilton, 1981, (pages 298-299, re. Wintour).
- Caroline Chapman & Jane Dormer,Elizabeth and Georgiana, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2002.
