In May 1763 [her future husband] Thomas Coutts [aged 27] and Susannah Starkey were married.
Memoirs of Miss Mellon, 1886: "The arrangements for accompanjdng the Kenas to London did not require long preparation; and on arriving there they took lodgings beyond the Bishop's Palace, Lambeth. Here they remained until the vessel in which Mr. Mellon was to sail had gone round to Portsmouth, and in March, 1777, he [[her father] Matthew Mellon] left her to proceed on his voyage — and she never saw him more."
On 11th November 1777 Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans was born to Matthew Mellon. Memoirs of Miss Mellon, 1886: "In the course of shop-gossip the intelligence respecting a new comer was easily obtained; so, before the evening, the history of this gentleman, as far as he had chosen to give it, was universally known. He described himself as 'Lieutenant Mathiew Mellon, of the Madras Native Infantry, who had come to Europe on sick leave, and was travelling through Ireland for chaiige of air.' Who this self-styled Lieutenant Mathew Mellon really luas will always remain a mystery. The name, which sounds unreal, most probably was assumed only while travelling by some young Englishman seeking adventures in Ireland. If it had been a genuine name, surely some connexion of his would gladly have answered the anxious inquiries of the duchess, even supposing his immediate relations were deceased. Mrs. Entwisle [Harriet's mother], who had all the reverence of her country for high rank, used to make the most extraordinary declarations confidentially respecting his being a nobleman!
Around 1815. William Beechey [aged 61]. Portrait of Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans [aged 37].
On 4th January 1815 Susannah Starkey died. Her former husband Thomas Coutts [aged 79] remarried four days later.
Around 1816 Thomas Coutts [aged 80] and Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans [aged 38] were married. The difference in their ages was 42 years.
On 24th February 1822 [her husband] Thomas Coutts [aged 86] died and left his fortune, including his interest in Coutts Bank, to his wife Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans [aged 44].
On 17th July 1825 William Beauclerk 8th Duke St Albans [aged 58] died. His son [her future husband] William [aged 24] succeeded 9th Duke St Albans, 9th Earl Burford, 9th Baron Heddington, 6th Baron Vere of Hanworth in Middlesex.
On 16th June 1827 William Beauclerk 9th Duke St Albans [aged 26] and Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans [aged 49] were married. She by marriage Duchess St Albans. The difference in their ages was 23 years; she, unusually, being older than him. He the son of William Beauclerk 8th Duke St Albans and Maria Janetta Nelthorpe Duchess St Albans.
On 6th August 1837 Harriet Mellon Duchess St Albans [aged 59] died. Her step-grand-daughter Angela Burdett-Coutts 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts [aged 23] inherited the Coutts fortune of around £1.8 million (equivalent to £170,000,000 in 2021).
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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On 29th May 1839 [her former husband] William Beauclerk 9th Duke St Albans [aged 38] and Elizabeth Catherine Gubbins Duchess St Albans [aged 21] were married at Church of St Mary the Virgin Harby, Leicestershire. She by marriage Duchess St Albans. William Beauclerk 9th Duke St Albans donated a new clock, a bible, a prayer book, and £30 with the rector to be invested for the poor. He the son of William Beauclerk 8th Duke St Albans and Maria Janetta Nelthorpe Duchess St Albans.
On 27th May 1849 [her former husband] William Beauclerk 9th Duke St Albans [aged 48] died. His son William [aged 9] succeeded 10th Duke St Albans, 10th Earl Burford, 10th Baron Heddington, 7th Baron Vere of Hanworth in Middlesex.