On 27th March 1815 [her future husband] George Harcourt [aged 29] and Elizabeth Bingham were married. She the daughter of Richard Bingham 2nd Earl Lucan [aged 50] and Elizabeth Belasyse Duchess Norfolk [aged 45]. He the son of [her future father-in-law] Archbishop Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt [aged 57] and Anne Leveson-Gower [aged 54]. They were sixth cousins.
On 4th January 1821 Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave was born to John Braham [aged 47].
In 1835 John James Waldegrave 6th Earl Waldegrave [aged 49] died. His son [her future husband] George [aged 18] succeeded 7th Earl Waldegrave, 8th Baron Waldegrave Chewton Somerset, 11th Baronet Waldegrave of Hever Castle.
On 25th May 1839 John James Waldegrave and Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 18] were married. She would, a year later, marry his legitimate half-brother George Edward Waldegrave 7th Earl Waldegrave [aged 23]; an example of Married to Two Siblings. He the illegitmate son of John James Waldegrave 6th Earl Waldegrave.
After 25th May 1839 [her former husband] John James Waldegrave died.
Adeline Horsey Recollections. Frances, Lady Waldegrave [aged 18], was a very charming woman I knew in those far-off days. She was the eldest daughter of [her father] John Braham [aged 66], the famous tenor, and she was married four times.
Her first husband was John James Waldegrave, of Navestock, Essex; and in 1840 she married George, seventh Earl of Waldegrave [aged 23]. In 1847 Lady Waldegrave took as her third husband George Granville Harcourt [aged 54], the eldest son of the Archbishop of York. The one love of her life, however, was Mr. Chichester Fortescue [aged 16], and she married him as her fourth husband in 1871. Mr. Fortescue was afterwards Lord Carlingford, but the title became extinct in 1898.
When Lady Waldegrave was a young girl a gipsy told her that she would be married four times and leave her fourth husband a widower. The prediction came true, for she died in 1879, and Mr. Fortescue survived her.
On 28th September 1840 George Edward Waldegrave 7th Earl Waldegrave [aged 24] and Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 19] were married at Gretna Green, Dumfrieshire thereby avoiding the constraint of the 1835 Marriage Act. He being the legitimate younger brother of her first husband John James Waldegrave; an example of Married to Two Siblings. He the son of John James Waldegrave 6th Earl Waldegrave.
In 1841 [her husband] George Edward Waldegrave 7th Earl Waldegrave [aged 24] was imprisoned for six months at Newgate Prison, London [Map] for having drunkenly assaulted a police officer in Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey [Map]. His wife Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 19] and servants joined him during his imprisonment.
Adeline Horsey Recollections. After 1842 Lady Waldegrave [aged 20] resided at Strawberry Hill with her third husband, and she was very fond of the place and its associations with Horace Walpole.
The Strawberry Hill estate and the Walpole Collection had been sold in 1842, but Lady Waldegrave was always trying to obtain any objects from it which came into the sale-rooms from time to time, in order that she might restore them to their old home.
She was a very handsome Jewess, with a perfectly fascinating manner, and she was a great favourite in Society owing to her infinite tact, which made her say and do exactly the right thing at the right moment.
She possessed a keen sense of humour, and one evening when she was at the Dublin theatre with Mr. Chichester Fortescue [aged 18] a wag in the gallery who recognised her called out, "Arrah, my Lady, and which of the four husbands did ye like the best?" Without a moment's hesitation Lady Waldegrave stood up and, turning in the direction of the speaker, called out with delightful sang-froid, "Why, the Irish one, of course". Loud applause greeted this rejoinder, and she was very popular in Dublin afterwards.
On 28th September 1846 [her husband] George Edward Waldegrave 7th Earl Waldegrave [aged 30] died. His uncle William [aged 57] succeeded 8th Earl Waldegrave, 9th Baron Waldegrave Chewton Somerset, 12th Baronet Waldegrave of Hever Castle. His wife Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 25] inherited Strawberry Hill House.
On 30th September 1847 George Harcourt [aged 62] and Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 26] were married. The difference in their ages was 35 years. He the son of Archbishop Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt [aged 89] and Anne Leveson-Gower.
On 17th February 1856 [her father] John Braham [aged 82] died.
The History of William Marshal was commissioned by his son shortly after William’s death in 1219 to celebrate the Marshal’s remarkable life; it is an authentic, contemporary voice. The manuscript was discovered in 1861 by French historian Paul Meyer. Meyer published the manuscript in its original Anglo-French in 1891 in two books. This book is a line by line translation of the first of Meyer’s books; lines 1-10152. Book 1 of the History begins in 1139 and ends in 1194. It describes the events of the Anarchy, the role of William’s father John, John’s marriages, William’s childhood, his role as a hostage at the siege of Newbury, his injury and imprisonment in Poitou where he met Eleanor of Aquitaine and his life as a knight errant. It continues with the accusation against him of an improper relationship with Margaret, wife of Henry the Young King, his exile, and return, the death of Henry the Young King, the rebellion of Richard, the future King Richard I, war with France, the death of King Henry II, and the capture of King Richard, and the rebellion of John, the future King John. It ends with the release of King Richard and the death of John Marshal.
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On 19th December 1861 [her husband] George Harcourt [aged 76] died.
In 1863 Chichester Parkinson Fortescue 2nd Baron Clermont 1st Baron Carlingford [aged 39] and Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 41] were married.
In 1879 Frances Braham Countess Waldegrave [aged 57] died.
On 30th January 1898 [her former husband] Chichester Parkinson Fortescue 2nd Baron Clermont 1st Baron Carlingford [aged 75] died.