Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
Encyclopedia
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (Welbeck Abbey
, 11 February 1715 – 17 July 1785, Bulstrode Park
, Buckinghamshire
), styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager
Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785. She was the richest woman in Great Britain
of her time.
(1694–1755, the only child and heir of the 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish). She was also great-great-great-great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II through her mother's side.
Lady Margaret grew up at Wimpole Hall
in Cambridgeshire
surrounded by books, paintings, sculpture and in the company of writers such as Alexander Pope
, Jonathan Swift
and Matthew Prior
as well as aristocrats and politicians. As a child, she collected pets and natural history objects (especially shells) and was encouraged by her father and her paternal grandfather, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
, to do so.
, she married the 2nd Duke of Portland
, her 'Sweet Will', and they later had six children (all born at Welbeck Abbey
):
(1736–82, specialising in shells and insects) and The Revd John Lightfoot
(1735–88, her librarian and chaplain). Her collection was, unlike many similar contemporary ones, well-curated.
'The Portland Museum' at Bulstrode was open to visitors, along with its zoo, aviary and vast botanic garden. Many came: scholars, philosophers, scientists and even royalty, and the collection became a cause célèbre. Her fellow collector Horace Walpole commented on it:
or, in the words of Mrs Delany
(a botanical artist whom the Duchess introduced to the royal court):
Her collecting was also encouraged by her creative milieu: the Duchess and Delany were both members of The Bluestocking
s, a group of aristocratic women seeking increased intellectual opportunities for members of their sex.
Her natural collection was the largest and most famous of its time, with few geographical bounds; it included objects from both Lapland and the South Seas (she patronised James Cook
and bought shells from his second voyage through dealers). She drew and recorded its specimens, sorting them innovatively in type species and displaying them alongside ancient remains such as the Portland Vase
, which she bought from Sir William Hamilton
.
Lightfoot later wrote in the introduction to the 1786 auction catalogue that it was her "intention to have had every unknown species in the three kingdoms of nature described and published to the world", but this was thwarted by Solander's death in 1783 and her own two years later. On her death, with her children uninterested in the collection, her son's political career to finance and her creditors' demands to be paid, it was her will that it be sold. The collection was entirely dissolved at an auction of over 4000 lots at her Whitehall residence from 24 April to 3 July 1786. Hundreds of people attended, although some fine and decorative arts were bought back by her family at the auction, including the Portland Vase
and pieces from a silver-gilt dessert service the Duchess had designed herself, crawling with exquisitely modelled insects. However, the vast majority went, including the whole natural history collection; Walpole records that only 8 days included items other than "shells, ores, fossils, birds' eggs and natural history". Only fragments of the Portland Museum's building survive too, since Bulstrode was demolished in the 19th century.
The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham
holds some of the personal papers and correspondence of the Duchess of Portland (Pw E), as part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection. The Harley Gallery's Treasury Museum shows changing displays of objects from the Portland Collection.
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...
, 11 February 1715 – 17 July 1785, Bulstrode Park
Bulstrode Park
Bulstrode Park is a large park to the northwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Gerrard's Cross in the English Home Counties. It dates back to before the Norman conquest.- First house:The previous house was built in 1686 for the infamous Judge Jeffreys...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
), styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager
Dowager
A dowager is a widow who holds a title or property, or dower, derived from her deceased husband. As an adjective, "Dowager" usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles....
Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785. She was the richest woman in Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
of her time.
Early life
She was a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts, and the former Lady Henrietta HollesHenrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer
Henrietta Harley , Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer was an English noblewoman, the only child and heiress of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish, daughter of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Her hand was sought in marriage...
(1694–1755, the only child and heir of the 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish). She was also great-great-great-great grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II through her mother's side.
Lady Margaret grew up at Wimpole Hall
Wimpole Hall
Wimpole Hall is a country house located within the Parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about 8½ miles southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its 3,000 acres of parkland and farmland are owned by the National Trust and are regularly open to the public.Wimpole is...
in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
surrounded by books, paintings, sculpture and in the company of writers such as Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
and Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
as well as aristocrats and politicians. As a child, she collected pets and natural history objects (especially shells) and was encouraged by her father and her paternal grandfather, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG was a British politician and statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory Ministry. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as First Lord of the Treasury, effectively Queen...
, to do so.
Marriage and issue
At 20, on 11 July 1734, in Oxford Chapel, MaryleboneMarybone Chapel
The Marybone Chapel or Marylebone Chapel also known until 1832 as the Oxford Chapel after its founder Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and now known as St Peter's Vere Street, was a former Anglican church off Oxford Street, London. It was designed by James Gibbs in 1722...
, she married the 2nd Duke of Portland
William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland
William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland KG , styled Viscount Woodstock from 1709 to 1715 and Marquess of Titchfield from 1715 to 1726, was a British peer....
, her 'Sweet Will', and they later had six children (all born at Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...
):
- Lady Elizabeth Bentinck (1735–1825)
- Lady Henrietta Bentinck (1737–1827)
- William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738–1809)
- Lady Margaret Bentinck (c.1740–1756)
- Lady Frances Bentinck (c.1742–1743)
- Lord Edward Charles Bentinck (1744–1819)
As a collector
By the November following her marriage her collecting had gathered pace, expanding to include the decorative and fine arts as well as natural history. (She was already heiress to the Arundel collection.) Her home in Buckinghamshire, Bulstrode Hall, provided space to house the results, and her independent fortune meant that cost was no object (on her mother’s death in 1755 she also inherited the estates of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire). Bulstrode was known in court circles as "The Hive" for the intense work done there on the collections by the Duchess and her crack team of botanists, entomologists and ornithologists, headed by herself, Daniel SolanderDaniel Solander
Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil.-Biography:...
(1736–82, specialising in shells and insects) and The Revd John Lightfoot
John Lightfoot FRS
The Reverend John Lightfoot was an English conchologist and botanist.He was born in Newent, Gloucestershire and educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He gained a BA in 1756 and an MA in 1766....
(1735–88, her librarian and chaplain). Her collection was, unlike many similar contemporary ones, well-curated.
'The Portland Museum' at Bulstrode was open to visitors, along with its zoo, aviary and vast botanic garden. Many came: scholars, philosophers, scientists and even royalty, and the collection became a cause célèbre. Her fellow collector Horace Walpole commented on it:
- "Few men have rivalled Margaret Cavendish in the mania of collecting, and perhaps no woman. In an age of great collectors she rivalled the greatest.”
or, in the words of Mrs Delany
Mary Delany
Mary Delany was an English Bluestocking, artist, and letter-writer; equally famous for her "paper-mosaicks" and her lively correspondence.-Early life:...
(a botanical artist whom the Duchess introduced to the royal court):
- “Surely an application to natural beauties must enlarge the mind? This house with all belonging to it is a noble school for contemplations!”
Her collecting was also encouraged by her creative milieu: the Duchess and Delany were both members of The Bluestocking
Blue Stockings Society (England)
The Blue Stockings Society was an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century. The society emphasized education and mutual co-operation rather than the individualism which marked the French version....
s, a group of aristocratic women seeking increased intellectual opportunities for members of their sex.
Her natural collection was the largest and most famous of its time, with few geographical bounds; it included objects from both Lapland and the South Seas (she patronised James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
and bought shells from his second voyage through dealers). She drew and recorded its specimens, sorting them innovatively in type species and displaying them alongside ancient remains such as the Portland Vase
Portland Vase
The Portland Vase is a Roman cameo glass vase, currently dated to between AD 5 and AD 25, which served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards. Since 1810 the vase has been kept almost continuously in the British Museum in London...
, which she bought from Sir William Hamilton
William Hamilton (diplomat)
Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...
.
Lightfoot later wrote in the introduction to the 1786 auction catalogue that it was her "intention to have had every unknown species in the three kingdoms of nature described and published to the world", but this was thwarted by Solander's death in 1783 and her own two years later. On her death, with her children uninterested in the collection, her son's political career to finance and her creditors' demands to be paid, it was her will that it be sold. The collection was entirely dissolved at an auction of over 4000 lots at her Whitehall residence from 24 April to 3 July 1786. Hundreds of people attended, although some fine and decorative arts were bought back by her family at the auction, including the Portland Vase
Portland Vase
The Portland Vase is a Roman cameo glass vase, currently dated to between AD 5 and AD 25, which served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards. Since 1810 the vase has been kept almost continuously in the British Museum in London...
and pieces from a silver-gilt dessert service the Duchess had designed herself, crawling with exquisitely modelled insects. However, the vast majority went, including the whole natural history collection; Walpole records that only 8 days included items other than "shells, ores, fossils, birds' eggs and natural history". Only fragments of the Portland Museum's building survive too, since Bulstrode was demolished in the 19th century.
The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham
Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham
Manuscripts and Special Collections is part of Information Services at the University of Nottingham. It is based at King's Meadow Campus in Nottingham in England...
holds some of the personal papers and correspondence of the Duchess of Portland (Pw E), as part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection. The Harley Gallery's Treasury Museum shows changing displays of objects from the Portland Collection.
Sources and links
- 2006 exhibition
- Another link to the exhibition
- Her family tree
- R. G. W. Anderson (ed.), Enlightening the British : knowledge, discovery and the museum in the eighteenth century, ISBN 0-7141-5010-X, p83
- Images of her in the National Portrait Gallery
- Biography of Margaret, Duchess of Portland, with links to online catalogues, from Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham