Harriet Cholmondeley


Harriet Cholmondeley, sometimes called "Lady" or "The Hon" Harriet Cholmondeley, was the first wife of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham.
She was an illegitimate daughter of George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, by his mistress, Madame Saint-Albin, and was brought up in the Cholmondeley household at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire by the marquess and his wife Georgiana, whom he married in 1791. A portrait of her as a child, by John Hoppner, is held by the Tate Gallery.
Lambton, who at the time was a commoner, an army officer and the son of an MP, was under 21 and was refused permission to marry by his guardians. Harriet's father also forbade the marriage. The couple eloped to Scotland and married at Gretna Green on 1 January 1812; they subsequently went through an Anglican wedding ceremony on Harriet's father's estate at Malpas, Cheshire, on 28 January. They had three daughters, all of whom died as young women:
Harriet died, probably of tuberculosis, a few weeks after the birth of her youngest daughter.