Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Jane Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (née Sheridan; 5 November 1809 – 14 December 1884), was the wife of Edward, Duke of Somerset.[1]

Duchess Georgiana at the Eglinton Tournament

Life

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Jane Georgiana Sheridan was the third daughter of Thomas Sheridan and his wife the novelist Caroline Callander, daughter of Sir James Callander of Craigforth and Ardkinglas. She was the younger sister of Helen Lady Dufferin, songwriter, composer, poet, and author, and Caroline Norton, society beauty, feminist, social reformer, and author.[2] Georgiana, Helen, and Caroline were the granddaughters of Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.[3][4]

Known for her loveliness, the Duchess was chosen to be the "Queen of Beauty" at the Eglinton Tournament in 1839.

According to the memoirs of Lady Dorothy Nevill, the Duchess unsuccessfully attempted to introduce guinea pigs to the English culinary scene.[5]

She married Edward, Duke of Somerset (then Lord Seymour) on the 10th of June 1830, when he was twenty-five and she was twenty. They had two sons and three daughters:

The Duchess was survived by her husband by less than a year. She is interred at Gerrard's Cross, Buckinghamshire.

References

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  1. ^ "Romances Of The Peerage: The Sheridan Graces". Kalgoorlie Miner. Vol. 17, no. 5067. Western Australia. 30 December 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 19 May 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpII, p.82, note d.
  3. ^ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI, p.86.
  4. ^ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI, p.86, note f.
  5. ^ Nevill, Dorothy (1907). Nevill, Ralph (ed.). Leaves from the Note-Books of Lady Dorothy Nevill. pp. 14–15.
  6. ^ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI, p.87, note b.