Kitty Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon


Elizabeth "Kitty" Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon, formerly Kitty Acland, was the wife of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon.

Early life

The only daughter of Colonel John Dyke Acland and his wife, the former Lady Harriet Fox-Strangways, she was the sister of Sir John Dyke Acland, 8th Baronet, who inherited the Acland baronetcy from their grandfather in 1785 and died the same year, aged seven. The baronetcy then passed to a brother of John Dyke Acland senior, who had died in 1778 of injuries received while fighting for the Crown in the American War of Independence.

Personal life

The marriage took place on 26 April 1796, when the future earl was known as Lord Porchester, at St George's, Hanover Square, London. Kitty's marriage settlement included the Acland estates of Pixton and Tetton in Somerset, which passed into the Herbert family. Her husband inherited the earldom in 1811, and she became a countess.
Their children included:
Kitty was preparing to go to Ramsgate for her health when she died at Shooter's Hill in 1813; a death notice stated that "Hundreds whom her boundless charities and ever active benevolence have rescued from poverty and distress will shed tears of grateful sorrow..." Her husband lived until 1833; he died at his London home in Grosvenor Square and was buried at Burghclere. He was succeeded by their eldest son Henry.