the 29th May following, and was buried in the family vault at Bridford. Mr. Bouverie erected a monument to her memory in the parish church of Coleshill, with an affectionate epitaph:—
Sacred to the most endeared memory of
THE HON. HARRIOT BOUVERIE,
daughter and only child of Sir Mark Stuart Pleydell, Bart.,
by Mary his wife.
In person, manner, disposition, and uncommon understanding, most amiable.
In gentleness, candour, and humility — in prudence, sincerity, and beneficence —
in substantial and uniform piety —
most exemplary;
the accomplished woman — the universal friend — the real Christian.
As a daughter, she was obedient, she was affectionate;
As a parent (short, alas ! her trial), tender, solicitous.
The ornament of her own family, —
the admiration of that into which she married, —
loving and beloved with entire unvaried affection,
an honour to the marriage state,
she blessed a husband who can never enough lament
the loss of so incomparable a wife.
Gulielmus Bouverie, praehonorabilis viri Vicecomitis Folkestone
Alius natu maximus, infeliciter superstes, cum lacrymis posuit.
Britfordiae comi. Wilton in sepulchro suis sacro
depositi sunt cineres.
Mary, Lady Pleydell, was the daughter of Robert Stuart, and granddaughter of John Stuart, Esq. of Ascog, in Bute. Her first cousin was Mrs. John Alleyne (née Mary Terrill), sister-in-law of Sir John Guy Alleyne, Bart. This Mrs. Alleyne had a daughter, Rebecca, who on 5th September 1751 became the second wife of Hon. William Bouverie, and died as Rebecca, Viscountess Folkestone, on 4th May 1764, her husband having succeeded his father as the second Viscount on 17th February 1761. The noble widower married, thirdly, on 22d July 1765, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Hales, Bart., and widow of Anthony Duncombe, Lord Feversham (who had been also Baron of Downton, in Wiltshire). Although the third wife, she was the first Countess, for on the 31st October following, William, Viscount Folkestone, was created Earl of Radnor[1] and Baron Pleydell-Bouverie, of Coleshill.
Sir Mark Pleydell died in 1768, having bequeathed Coleshill to his grandson Jacob, by courtesy Viscount Folkestone, at the same time granting a remainder (to which, however, it has never been necessary to have recourse) in favour of the other Bouverie heirs, on condition that each inheritor of Coleshill should, with his children, adopt the double surname of Pleydell-Bouverie. The first Earl of Radnor died 28th January 1776, in his fifty-first year. His successors in his titles and estates have attained to a greater age. The second Earl of Radnor (the son of Harriot Pleydell), Jacob Pleydell Bouverie, M.A., F.R. and A.S., formerly M.P. for Salisbury, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, died 27th January 1828 in his seventy-eighth year. This nobleman’s praises were sounded by an enthusiast for church decoration, the Rev. Thomas Ford, D.C.L., vicar of Melton-Mowbray. It seems that Rev. John Morres, M.A., had been tutor to Lord Folkestone (afterwards third earl). Lord Radnor in 1798 presented this clergyman to the rectory of Nether Broughton, and signalised the deed by giving “a very superb set of communion plate” to his church. Dr. Ford, on 22d May 1799, wrote to Mr. Nichols, suggesting that an engraving of the vessels should be inserted in the Gentleman’s Magazine, with the following letter:—
- ↑ The noble family of Robartes had in 1679 acquired the title of Earl of Radnor, which expired with the fourth Earl in 1764.
