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OLIVIA SERRES (1772-1834)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 683 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLIVIA See also:

SERRES (1772-1834)  , an See also:English impostor, who claimed the See also: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 See also: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-See also: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 See also:Junius . In 1817, in a See also:petition to George III., she put forward a claim to be the natural daughter of See also:Henry See also:Frederick, See also: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 See also:secret See also:marriage between Dr Wilmot and the princess See also:Poniatowski, See also:sister of See also:Stanislaus, king of See also: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 See also:item of so-called secret See also:history is attractive . In 1823 See also:Sir Robert See also:Peel, then See also:Home Secretary, speaking in See also: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 See also:idea of raising herelf, at all See also:costs, to their social level . The See also: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 See also:Attorney-See also:General .

End of Article: OLIVIA SERRES (1772-1834)
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