|
OLIVIA See also: English impostor, who claimed the title of Princess See also: Olive of See also: Cumberland, was See also: born at See also: Warwick on the 3rd of See also: April 1772
.
She was the daughter of Robert See also: Wilmot, a See also: house-painter in that See also: town, who subsequently moved to See also: London
.
In 1791 she married her See also: drawing-master, See also: John
See also: Thomas
See also: Serres (1759-1825), marine painter to See also: George III., but in 1804 separated from him
.
She then devoted herself to See also: painting and literature, producing a novel, some poems and a memoir of her See also: uncle, the Rev
.
Dr Wilmot, in which she endeavoured to prove that he was the author of the Letters of Junius
.
In 1817, in a petition to George III., she put forward a claim to be the natural daughter of See also: Henry
See also: Frederick, duke of Cumberland, the See also: king's
See also: brother, and in 182o, after the See also: death of George III., claimed to be the duke's legitimate daughter
.
In a memorial to George IV. she assumed the title of Princess Olive of Cumberland, placed the royal arms on her See also: carriage and dressed her servants in the royal liveries
.
Her See also: story represented that her See also: mother was the issue of a secret See also: marriage between Dr Wilmot and the princess Poniatowski, See also: sister of See also: Stanislaus, king of Poland, and that she had married the duke of Cumberland in 1767 at the London house of a nobleman
.
She herself, ten days after her See also: birth, was, she alleged, taken from her mother, and substituted for the still-born See also: child of Robert Wilmot
.
Mrs Serres's claim was supported by documents, and she See also: bore sufficient resemblance to her alleged See also: father to be able to impose on the numerous class of persons to whom any item of so-called secret See also: history is attractive
.
In 1823 See also: Sir Robert Peel, then Home Secretary, speaking in parliament, declared her claims unfounded, and her See also: husband, who had never given her pretensions any support, expressly denied his belief in them in his will
.
Mrs Serres died on the 21st of See also: November 1834, leaving two daughters
.
The eldest, who married Antony Ryves, a portrait painter, upheld her mother's claims and styled herself Princess Lavinia of Cumberland . In 1866 she took her See also: case into See also: court, producing all the documents on which her mother had relied, but the See also: jury, without waiting to hear the conclusion of the reply for the See also: crown, unanimously declared the signatures to be forgeries
.
Mrs Serres's pretensions were probably the result of an absurd vanity
.
Between 1807 and 1815 she had managed to make the acquaintance of some members of the Royal See also: family, and from this See also: time onwards seems to have been obsessed with the idea of raising herelf, at all See also: costs, to their social level
.
The tale once invented, she brooded so continuously over it that she probably ended by believing it herself
.
See W
.
J
.
Thorns, Hannah See also: Light See also: foot, and Dr Wilmot's See also: Polish Princess (London, 1867) ; Princess of Cumberland's Statement to the English Nation; See also: Annual See also: Register (1866), Case of Ryves v. the Attorney-General
.
|
|
|
[back] DUKE DE LA TORRE AND COUNT OF SAN ANTONIO FRANCISCO... |
[next] QUINTUS SERTORIUS |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.