Epitaph book, [ca. 1798].

1 v. (4 leaves) ; 19 cm.

English

Ex dono Geoffrey and Mary Waldegrave, October 1964.

This material is available for research.

Maria (Walpole), Countess Waldegrave and Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1736-1807), was an illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and Dorothy Clement, and a granddaughter of Sir Robert Walpole. In 1759, she married James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, with whom she had three children. He died in 1763; and in 1766 she married Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. The Duke was the third son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and a brother of King George III. The marriage was conducted in secret, and helped lead to the passing of the Royal Marriages Act in 1772, which required all the descendants of George II to ask the king's approval before marriage.

Manuscript, in both the Duchess's hand as well as Horace Walpole's, of three elegiac items. Written on the first page in the Duchess's hand is an epitaph of Laura (Keppel) Fitzroy, Duchess of Southampton, accompanied by an elegiac poem about her. This entry is followed by another poem, in the same hand, bidding farewell to life. The final item in the manuscript is a poem pasted in, in Walpole's hand, of an epitaph on his niece and the Duchess's sister, Charlotte (Walpole) Tollemache, Countess of Dysart. The text of this poem differs from that which appears in Walpole's collection of Fugitive Verses.

August 06, 2008

Maria Duchess of Gloucester, Epitaph Book. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Maria Duchess of Gloucester, Epitaph Book. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Epitaphs.