Georgiana Caroline Clavering-Cowper, Countess Cowper born Georgiana Caroline Carteret (12 March 1715 – 21 August 1780), was an English noblewoman and literary patron.

Countess Cowper was the third daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville and his first wife, the former Frances Worsley. Her first husband, whom she married on 14 February 1732, was John Spencer MP.[1] They had two children:

Spencer died in 1746; according to Horace Walpole, his death was alcohol-related.[2] On 1 May 1750, his widow married William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper, whose first wife, Henrietta Nassau d'Auverquerque, had died in 1747, leaving him with two children. There were no children from this second marriage and William died in 1764, succeeded in the earldom by Georgiana's stepson, George Clavering-Cowper.[3]

She was an admirer of the novelist Laurence Sterne,[4] and a patron of the Irish writer John Carteret Pilkington (1730-1763), whose semi-autobiographical work, The Real Story of John Carteret Pilkington, was published in 1760. Pilkington had been given his middle name in honour of the countess's father, who was his godfather, and named his daughter after the countess in recognition of her service to him.[2] She was godmother to Georgiana Caroline Pilkington (1757-1838), who became the mother of the scientist Admiral William Henry Smyth and the artists Phoebe Earle and Augustus Earle.

Her portrait was painted by Godfrey Kneller.[5] The painting was copied by Mrs Delany, whose sister Anne was also a correspondent of the countess.[4]

She died in 1780, aged 65.[6]

References

  1. ^ "SPENCER, Hon. John (1708-46), of Wimbledon Park, Surr. and Althorp Park, Northants". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b Norma Clarke (26 April 2016). Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street. Harvard University Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-674-73657-3.
  3. ^ Arthur Collins (1779). The peerage of England. 3 vols. p. 354.
  4. ^ a b Alan B. Howes (9 September 2002). Laurence Sterne: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-134-78292-5.
  5. ^ Mary Granville Delany (1862). The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville: With Interesting Reminiscences of King George the Third and Queen Charlotte. R. Bentley. p. 13.
  6. ^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/1, page 153.
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