Frances Talbot, Countess of Tyrconnell (néeJennings, previously Hamilton; c.1649 – 1731), also called La Belle Jennings, was a maid of honour to the Duchess of York and, like her sister Sarah, a famous beauty at the Restoration court. She married first George Hamilton and then Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell. She was vicereine in Dublin Castle while Tyrconnell was viceroy (lord deputy) of Ireland for JamesII. She lived through difficult times after the death of her second husband, who was attainted as a Jacobite, but recovered some of his wealth and died a devout Catholic despite having been raised as a Protestant.
Birth and origins
Frances was born about 1649[1] at Sandridge, Hertfordshire, England, as the third of the nine children, four sons and five daughters[2] of Richard Jennings and his wife Frances Thornhurst. Her father was a landowner and a Member of Parliament, and so had been her grandfather. Both sat for the Borough of St Albans. Her father sided with the Parliament during the English Civil War.
Her mother was a daughter of Sir Gifford Thornhurst, the first and last Baronet Thornhurst of Agnes Court, and Susan Temple. Frances's parents had married in 1643.[3] Of the nine children only Frances and her sister Sarah are noteworthy. Sarah would become Duchess of Marlborough.
The spelling of her maiden name varies widely. All the three following forms were used during her lifetime: Jennings,[b] Jenings,[15] Jenyns.[16]
Restoration court
Frances Jennings was about 11 when the Restoration (1660) brought the end of the Commonwealth and put Charles II on the throne. In 1664, aged about 15, Jennings was appointed maid of honour to Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York. Anne was the first wife of the James, Duke of York, the younger brother of the King and future King JamesII. Frances's beauty earned her the nickname "La Belle Jennings."[17]Macaulay describes her as “beautiful Fanny Jennings, the loveliest coquette in the brilliant Whitehall of the Restoration".[18] She figures in the Mémoires du comte de Grammont (Memoirs for short), written by Anthony Hamilton, younger brother of her future husband George Hamilton, which describes the life at the Restoration court. The three oldest of the six Hamilton brothers, James, George, and Anthony, belonged to the inner circle around the King at Whitehall, as they were fashionable young men and had been in exile with him.
An incident in which Jennings disguised herself as an orange seller is told in the Memoirs and also, with less detail, in Pepys's diary. According to the Memoirs, she and her friend Miss Price wanted to consult a fortune-teller incognito. They went out disguising themselves as orange sellers.[19][20]
Jennings was courted by the Duke of York, the future James II, who thought his wife's maids of honour to be his property, but she refused to play such a role.[21] She was also courted by Richard Talbot and by George Hamilton, second son of Sir George Hamilton.
First marriage and children
In 1665 Frances Jennings married George Hamilton.[22][23] At that time George was an officer in the Life Guards.[24] Her marriage resembled that of her husband's elder brother James, for whom the king arranged a marriage with a Protestant girl with the purpose of converting him to that religion. The King seemed to have been concerned about the future of his Catholic friends in the army. The King granted the couple a pension of £500 per year.[25] Hers is the sixth of the seven marriages with which end the Memoirs,[26] written by her husband's brother Antoine Hamilton.
Elizabeth, their first child, was born in 1667 and baptised on 21March at St Margaret's, Westminster, in an Anglican ceremony.[27]
On 28September 1667, all Catholic soldiers were dismissed from the Life Guards.[28] Hamilton then took French service. She followed him to France and converted to the Catholic religion.[29][30]
In 1671 Hamilton recruited a regiment in Ireland[31] and served under Turenne and then under his successors, first Condé and then Luxembourg. Her husband was considered a count in France and she therefore became comtesse Hamilton.
The couple seems to have had six children,[32] but the only ones known by name seem to be the following four daughters:
Henrietta seems to have been younger than the three listed above. Not much more is known about her.[39]
Elizabeth, the first daughter, was born in England and baptised following the Anglican rite. She married Viscount Rosse, a Protestant loyal to JamesII in 1685.[34] Her husband was one of the only five Protestant lay members of the Irish House of Lords of the Patriot Parliament summoned by JamesII in 1688.[40] The younger daughters were born in France and baptised in the Catholic church. Frances and Mary married Catholic men. Henrietta does not seem to have married.
Early in June 1676 comte Hamilton was killed by a musket-shot in a rear-guard action at the Col de Saverne[41] and she was widowed.
On 7 July Charles II created the widow Baroness Rosse and Countess of Bantry "for life".[42]
Second marriage
Portrait of Miss Jennings from the Gebbie edition of the Memoirs of Count Grammont[43]
Frances remarried in 1681 in Paris, taking as her second husband an old suitor she had previously rejected: Richard Talbot.[32] Her husband was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland (viceroy) and the couple lived in Dublin.[44] He oversaw a dramatic expansion of the Irish Army, transforming it from a mainly Protestant to a Catholic force. Talbot was created Earl of Tyrconnell in the peerage of Ireland in 1685 and she became Countess of Tyrconnell.[45]
In 1688 during the Glorious Revolution JamesII fled England and was replaced with Queen Mary and King William. However, in 1689 JamesII landed in Ireland trying to regain his kingdoms. Soon after his arrival, on 20March 1689, he made Tyrconnell a duke and she became duchess.[46] This title is in the Jacobite peerage. Nonetheless, Frances is frequently called Duchess of Tyrconnell.[47] They had no children.
In 1690, after JamesII's defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, the king fled to Dublin Castle and was met by Frances.[48] According to later sources, King James remarked, ‘Your countrymen, madam, can run well’ and Lady Tyrconnell replied, ‘Not quite so well as your majesty, for I see that you have won the race’.[49][50]
In 1691 or 1692, after her husband's death, she was allowed to visit England to petition for the possession of the Irish lands that had been settled upon her as her jointure when she married Tyrconnell[54] and which had been confiscated after his attainder in 1689. It might have been at this visit to London that, out of necessity, she had a dressmaker's stall at the New Exchange[55] in the Strand in Westminster. She dressed in white with her face covered by a white mask and was described as "the white milliner".[56] This episode was dramatised by Douglas Jerrold and performed at Covent Garden in 1841 under the title "The white Milliner: A Comedy in two Acts".[57]
Lady Tyrconnell returned to France and was then in 1693 indicted herself of high treason. After Queen Anne had acceded the throne in 1702, she and her stepdaughter, Charlotte Talbot, eventually recovered the lands due to them in 1703 by a private act of Parliament, the Relief of Charlotte Talbot for Forfeited Estates in Ireland Act 1702 (1 Ann. c. 70Pr.) — presumably through her sister Sarah's influence with the Queen. Eventually she retired to the Dominican Convent at Channel Row, Dublin,[58] and lived there as a parlour boarder from 1723–1724.[59] She then built a house on North King Street and obtained the permission to establish a Poor Clares convent in it.[60]
Death and timeline
Memorial plaque in the chapel of the former Scots College in Paris
In 1731 Frances died in Dublin at the Poor Clares convent that she had founded.[61] She was buried on 9March in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.[62][e]
She also funded a mass to be celebrated daily for ever at the chapel of the Scots College in Paris for the benefit of her soul and for those of both her husbands as can still be read on the memorial plaque affixed to the wall of this church (see photo). The Latin inscription translates into English as:
To God, most good, most great. To the most illustrious and noble Lady Frances Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnell, Lady-in-waiting of the Queen of Great Britain, benefactrice of this College, who founded a daily mass in this sanctuary to be celebrated for ever for her soul and those of Sir George Hamilton of Abercorn, knight her first husband, and Sir Richard Talbot, duke of Tyrconnell, Viceroy of Ireland, her second husband. She died on 17March 1731. May she rest in peace.[f]
As the memorial plaque is in France, the text gives the date of her death according to the Gregorian calendar, which had been adopted in France in 1582 but would be adopted in England only in 1752. This new-style date of death (17March 1731) differs from the old-style one usually found in English texts (6March 1731).
Notes
↑This family tree is partly derived from the Abercorn pedigree pictured in Cokayne.[14] Also see the list of children in the text.
↑The memorial plaque in the church of the Scots College in Paris spells her name Jennings.
12Burke states that Frances Talbot was 92 when she died.[62] This age is certainly exaggerated as we know that her parents married in 1643.[3]
↑The original Latin inscription reads: D. O. M. Aeternae memoriae Illustrissiae et Nobilissimae Dominae Franciscae Jennings Ducissae de Tyrconnell Reginae Mag. Brit. Matronae Honorariae, Huius Collegi Benefactricis, quae Missam quotidianam in hoc Sacrario fundavit perpetuo celebrandam, Pro Anima sua et Animabus Dni Georgii Hamilton de Abercorne Equitis Aurati Conjugis sui primi, et Dni Richardi Talbot Ducis de Tyrconnell, Proregis Hiberniæ secundi sui Conjugis. Obiit Die XVII Martii Anno Domini MDCCXXXI. Requiescat in pace.
References
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.6, line 19. "... she was her brother's junior rather than his senior, so that we may conjecture him to have been born about 1647 and her about 1649."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.2, line 14. "Of the nine children, four sons and five daughters, born to her parents..."
12Green 1967, p.24. "...she [Frances Thornhurst] had married Richard Jennings (then spelled Jenyns) in 1643"
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.6, line 8. "The registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, record the baptism of his eldest daughter on February, 25th, 1645, when he had been married about 15 months."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.2, line 20. "John did nothing, beyond succeeding for a brief while to the remains of the family estate, to save himself from obscurity."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.219. "Her sister Barbara had married Edward Griffith, afterwards secretary to Prince George of Denmark."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.7, line 3. "In that year [1653] little Richard was baptised at the Abbey on July, 5th. He died eleven months later..."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.7, line 5. "...the same name was given to another boy, baptised on October, 12th, 1654. The second Richard was cut off even younger, being only ten months at his death."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.7, line 8. "In the spring of the same year, 1655, the burial of the eldest girl of the family, Susanna, is recorded. The same, taken, no doubt, from the maternal grandmother Susanna Temple, was bestowed on another daughter, born on July, 11th, 1656, but within six months she was in her grave."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.7, line 14. "On October 16 of this year [1656] occurred the birth of the youngest son, Ralph..."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.220. "...handing on Sandridge to his junior, Ralph, who followed him to the grave in 1677..."
↑Debrett 1828, p.27. "His grace [John Churchill] m. [married] Sarah, da. [daughter] and co-heiress. of Richard Jennings..."
↑G. E. C. 1910, p.4. "Tabular pedigree of the Earls of Abercorn"
↑Pepys 1894, p.359, line 8. "... that Mrs. Jenings..."
↑Hamilton 1888, p.291. "the best disguise they could think of was to dress themselves as orange girls."
↑Pepys 1894, p.359, line 7. "What freaks the mayds of Honour at Court have: that Mrs. Jenings, one of the Duchesse's mayds, the other day dressed herself like an orange wench, and went up and down and cried oranges; till falling down, or by such accident, though in the evening, her fine shoes were discerned and she put to a great deale of shame;"
↑Hamilton 1888, p.256. "The Duke of York having persuaded himself that she was part of his property, resolved to pursue his claim by the same title whereby his brother had appropriated to himself the favors of Miss Wells; but he did not find her inclined to enter into his service..."
12Burke & Burke 1915, p.54, right column, line 48. "George (Sir), Count of France, and Maréchal du Camp; m. [married] 1665 Frances dau. [daughter] and co-heir of Richard Jennings..."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.201. "The date of this grant was April 20th, 1666, so that the wedding evidently took place in the spring of that year."
↑Paul 1904, p.53, line 27. "...and after the Restoration [George] was an officer in the Horse Guards till 1667...."
↑Sergeant 1913a, p.201. "...the King in particular hastened to show his approval of the marriage by bestowing on Hamilton a pension of £500 a year."
↑Hamilton 1888, p.365. "George Hamilton, under more favourable auspices, married the lovely Jennings;"
12Sergeant 1913a, p.202. "...before a year had passed, a child was born. On March 21, 1667, a daughter was baptized at St Margaret's, Westminster, under the name of Elizabeth..."
↑Clark 1921, p.29. "It therefore became necessary to cashier all Roman Catholics serving in the Royal Guards, and, on the 28th of September, 1667, on the ground that they refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, they were dismissed."
↑Wauchope 2004, p.688, left column. "At some time after the birth of her first child, in 1667, she converted to Catholicism and moved to Paris..."
↑Clark 1921, p.28. "This marriage too, like James Hamilton's, involved a change of religion, but this time it was the bride who changed, becoming a Roman Catholic."
↑O Ciardha 2009, 4th paragraph, 1st sentence. "Charles instructed the lords Justices of Ireland to give Hamilton permission to raise a regiment in Ireland of 1,500 men"
12Bagwell 1898, p.332, right column. "His [Richard Talbot's] wife died in Dublin in 1679 and before the year was out he married in Paris his old love Lady Hamilton whose husband had been killed in 1676 leaving her with six children."
↑Burke 1869, p.3, left column, line 18. "Elizabeth, m. to Richard, viscount Ross;"
123Burke & Burke 1915, p.1721, right column, line 11. "Richard, 1st Viscount Rosse, who was elevated to the peerage, 2July 1681, as Baron of Oxmantown and Viscount Rosse with remainder to the male issue of his great-grandfather; m. [married] 1stly, by licence 27Feb. 1676-7, Anne (d.s.p.) [died childless], dau. [daughter] of Thomas Walsingham, m. 2ndly, 14Oct. 1681, Catherine Brydges (d.s.p. 24Aug. 1682), dau. of George, Lord Chandos. He m. [married] 3rdly, 1685, Elizabeth, eldest dau. [daughter] of Sir George Hamilton (and niece of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough), by whom he had two sons and three daus. He d. [died] 30Jan 1702-3 and was s. [succeeded] by his elder son."
↑Burke 1869, p.3, left column, line 19. "Frances, m. [married] to Henry, Viscount Dillon;"
↑Burke & Burke 1915, p.646, right column, line 44. "Henry, 8th Viscount Dillon, M.P. Westmeath in JamesII's Parliament in Dublin, Lieut, of Roscommon 1689, and col. [colonel] in James's army and gov. [governor] of Galway, m. [married] July 1687, Frances, 2nd dau. [daughter] of Count Sir George Hamilton, by his wife, Frances Jennings, afterwards Duchess of Tyrconnel; by whom, who m. 2ndly, Patrick, eld. [eldest] son of Sir John Bellew, Bt., of Barmeath, he, dying 13 Jan, 1713, left issue a son his successor."
↑Burke 1869, p.3, left column, line 20. "...Mary, m. [married] to Nicholas, Viscount Kingsland."
↑G. E. C. 1910, p.428. "Nicholas (Barnewall) Viscount Barnewall of Kingsland &c [I. [Ireland]], s. [son] and h. [heir] by his 2nd wife. He was b. [born] 15Apr. 1668. He sat in King James's Parl. [I.] in May 1689. He m. [married], 15May 1688, Mary, 3rd and yst. [youngest] da. [daughter] and coh. [coheir] of Sir George Hamilton (Comte Hamilton and Maréchal du Camp in France), by Frances..."
↑Daniell 1911, p.236. "...the creation of Dame Frances Hamilton, the relict of Sir George Hamilton, to be Countess of Berehaven in Ireland, ordaining that Elizabeth, Mary, Frances and Henrietta Hamilton, the daughters of the said Sir George, should enjoy the privileges and precedence of the daughters of a Countess of Ireland."
↑Simms 1986, p.69. "There were five Protestant lay lords—Granard, Langford, Barrymore, Howth and Rosse."
12Sergeant 1913a, p.217. "At the beginning of June he took part in the battle of Zebernstieg and was engaged in covering the French retreat on Saverne when he was killed by a musket-shot."
↑Bryan 2009. "...on 7 July 1676 Charles II granted the new widow the titles of Baroness Hamilton of Rosse and countess of Bantry for life."
↑Hamilton 1888, p.before 289. "Gebbie & Co. Miss Jennings"
12Fryde et al. 1986, p.170, line 10. "1687, 8 Jan. / 12 Feb. / Richard, 1st e. [earl] of Tyrconnell L.D. [Lord Deputy of Ireland]"
12Burke & Burke 1915, p.1934, left column, line 9. (8) Richard, Earl and Duke of Tyrconnell, who by Patent, dated 20June 1685, was created Baron of Talbot's town, Viscount of Baltinglas, and Earl of Tyrconnell, with remainder in tail-male for his nephews;
12Burke & Burke 1915, p.1934, left column, line 12 . "[Richard Talbot] was subsequently, 20March 1689, advanced to the dignity of Marquess and Duke of Tyrconnell by JamesII...
↑For example in the catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery
↑Story 1693, p.88. "My Lady Tyrconnell met him at the Castle-gate, and after he was up stairs, her Ladiship ask'd him what he would have for Supper; who then gave her an Account of what a breakfast he had got, which made him have but little Stomach to his Supper:..."
↑Simms 1969, p.153, footnote. "There is no contemporary record of the well-known story that James said to Lady Tyrconnell 'Your countrymen, madam, can run well' and she replied 'not quite as well as Your Majesty, for I see you have won the race.'"
↑Anonymous 1833, p.325. "'Your countrymen, (the Irish) Madam' said James, as he was ascending the stairs 'can run well.'..."
↑Wauchope 2004, p.688, right column. "Frances sailed to France in August 1690 with her daughters and 40,000 gold coins."
↑Haile 1905, p.69. "Among the ladies who shone at Mary Beatrice's court, none was more beautiful than 'la belle Jennings,' Duchess of Tyrconnell..."
↑Hamilton 1811, p.before 161. "Miss Jennings London Published 1810 by W. Miller and J. Carpenter"
↑Sergeant 1913b, p.568–569. "...she claimed that after her husbands death she had become entitled to her jointure-lands..."
↑Weinreb & Hibbert 2008, p.539, right column. "New Exchange Strand. Built 1608–9 on parts of the garden of Durham Place which had been leased to Robert Cecil. King James opened the exchange and gave it the name 'Britain's Burse'."
↑Walford 1887, p.104, left column, bottom. "The duchess of Tyrconnell, wife of Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy of Ireland under James II, after the abdication of the one and the death of the other, is said to have supported herself for a short time in one of the trades of the place; and she is commemorated by Horace Walpole with his usual piquancy. Pennant speaks of her as 'a female suspected to have been his duchess,' adding that she 'supported herself her for a few days, till she was known and otherwise provided for, by the trade of the place, for she had delicacy enough to wish not to be detected.' She sat in a white mask and a white dress and was known as 'White Milliner.'"
↑O'Heyne 1902, p.78, line 15. "...eight of them [nuns] came to Dublin in March 1717. In September of the same year they took a house in Channel Row (now North Great Brunswick street) where they settled down permanently and opened a school."
↑Sisters 1894, p.[35]. "At this period, 1723–1724, the duchess of Tyrconnell was a parlour boarder."
↑Burke & Burke 1915, p.1934, left column, line 21. "After the death of the Duke, the Duchess was permitted to erect a house (still standing) in King Street, Dublin, as a nunnery for Poor Clares;"
↑Sergeant 1913b, p.384, line 1. "This [her death] took place on March 6th (old style), 1731."
12Burke & Burke 1915, p.1934, left column, line 23. "... and in this obscure retirement, burying all the attractions and graces which once so adorned the Court of England, she d. at the age of 92, and was interred in St. Patrick's Cathedral, 9March 1730 "
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