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DUCHESS OF ELIZABETH KINGSTON (1720-1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 820 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUCHESS OF

ELIZABETH KINGSTON (1720-1788)  , sometimes called countess of Bristol, was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Chudleigh (d . 1726), and was appointed maid of honour to
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Augusta, princess of Wales, in 1743, probably through the good offices of her friend, William Pulteney,
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earl of Bath . Being a very beautiful woman
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Miss Chudleigh did not lack admirers, among whom were James, 6th duke of Hamilton, and Augustus John Hervey, afterwards 3rd earl of Bristol . Hamilton, how-ever,
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left England, and on the 4th of August 1744 she was privately married to Hervey at Lainston, near Winchester . Both
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husband and wife being poor, their union was kept secret to enable Elizabeth to retain her
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post at court, while Hervey, who was a
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naval officer, rejoined his
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ship, returning to England towards the close of 1746 . The
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marriage was a very unhappy one, and the pair soon ceased to live. together; but when it appeared probable that Hervey would succeed his
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brother as earl of Bristol, his wife took steps to obtain proof of her marriage . This did not, however, prevent her from becoming the
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mistress of Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd duke of Kingston, and she was not only a very prominent figure in
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London society, but in 1765 in Berlin she was honoured by the attentions of Frederick the
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Great . By this time Hervey wished for a
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divorce from his wife; but Elizabeth, although equally anxious to be
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free, was unwilling to face the publicity attendant upon this step . However she began a suit of jactitation against Hervey . This case was doubt-less collusive, and after Elizabeth had sworn she was unmarried, he court in
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February 1769 pronounced her a spinster . Within a month she married Kingston, who died four years later, leaving her all his
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property on condition that she remained a widow . Visiting Rome the duchess was received with honour by Clement XIV.; after which she hurried back to England to defend herself from a charge of bigamy, which had been preferred against her by Kingston's
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nephew, Evelyn Meadows (d .

1826) . The

house of Lords in 1776 found her guilty, and retaining her fortune she hurriedly left England to avoid further proceedings on the
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part of the Meadows
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family, who had a reversionary
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interest in the Kingston estates . She lived for a time in
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Calais, and then repaired to St
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Petersburg, near which city she bought an estate which she named " Chudleigh." Afterwards she resided in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, and died in Paris on the 26th of August 1788 . The duchess was a coarse and licentious woman, and was ridiculed as Kitty
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Crocodile by the comedian
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Samuel Foote in a
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play A Trip to Calais, which, however, he was not allowed to produce . She is said to have been the
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original of Thackeray's characters,
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Beatrice and Baroness Bernstein . There is an account of the duchess in J . H . Jesse's
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Memoirs of the Court of England 1688-176o, vol. iv . (1901) .

End of Article: DUCHESS OF ELIZABETH KINGSTON (1720-1788)
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