Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey

Lady Jersey as painted by Daniel Gardner in the early 1770s.

Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey (February 25, 1753 – July 23, 1821, Cheltenham) was one of the more notorious of the many mistresses of King George IV when he was Prince of Wales.

Early life

She was born Frances Twysden, apparently posthumously born daughter of the Rev. Philip Twysden, Bishop of Raphoe (1746–1752) (d. 2 November 1752, allegedly shot while attempting to rob a stagecoach in London)^[1] and his second wife Frances Carter (later wife of General Johnstone), daughter of Thomas Carter of Robertstown, Master of the Rolls. Her disreputable father was third son of Sir William Twysden, 5th Bart of Roydon Hall, by his wife and distant cousin Jane Twisden. The Twysden family was convincingly traced from one Roger Twysden living around 1400.

When she was seventeen, she married George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, son and heir of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey and his wife Lady Anne Egerton. Her husband was nearly twenty years older and was Master of Horse to the Prince of Wales and a Lord of the Bedchamber. The reason for the marriage of Lord Jersey to the daughter of a disreputable Irish bishop has not been explained in contemporary accounts.

Royal affairs

George IV began his affair with Lady Jersey in 1782. She was also romantically involved with members of the English aristocracy, including Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle. It was not until 1794 that she lured the Prince of Wales away from his secret wife, Maria Fitzherbert, whom he had married in a Catholic ceremony that was invalid under the Royal Marriages Act 1772, in order for him to take a wife who could be legally acknowledged. He would, however, continue to be romantically involved with Mrs Fitzherbert until 1811.

Having encouraged the Prince of Wales to marry his first cousin, Caroline of Brunswick in 1794, Lady Jersey nevertheless set out to make Caroline's life difficult. However, the now Princess of Wales (Caroline) had very little regard for George IV, nor he for her, and after the birth of their child, they lived apart during their twenty-five year marriage, leaving a void Frances and other mistresses, including Mrs Fitzherbert, continued to fill.

Since Lady Jersey enjoyed the favour of Queen Charlotte, even the displeasure of George III was not enough to threaten Lady Jersey's position, and she continued to run the Prince of Wales' life and household for some time. In about 1803, her previously undisputed place as senior mistress to the Prince of Wales was challenged by his infatuation with Lady Hertford. Eventually, he replaced Lady Jersey, and she would come to have no active involvement with the royal court.

According to Archaelogia Cantiana,

"The home of the Bishop's daughter Frances, Lady Jersey, a favourite of George IV, became a society gambling rendezvous, at which the reputations of her cousins were in no way enhanced.^[2]

She had remained married to George Villiers throughout. In 1805 George Villiers died, after a long marriage which had produced ten children:

• Lady Charlotte Anne Villiers (1771-1808), married Lord William Russell in 1789, and had issue.
• Anne Barbara Frances Villiers (1772-1832), married William Henry Lambton and had issue, including John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham; married secondly Hon. Charles Wyndham, son of Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont.
• George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773–1859), married Sarah Sophia Fane daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland and Sarah Anne Child, only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co.
• Lady Caroline Elizabeth Villiers (1774–1835), married firstly Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and had issue. She divorced him in the Scottish courts in 1809 and married secondly, George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll.
• Lady Georgiana Villiers, d. young.
• Lady Sarah Villiers (b. 1779), married Charles Nathaniel Bayley in 1799.
• Hon. William Augustus Henry Villiers (1780–1813), died unmarried in America, having assumed the surname of Mansel in 1802, pursuant to the will of Louisa Barbara, Baroness Vernon.
• Lady Elizabeth Villiers, d. unmarried 1810.
• Lady Elizabeth Frances Villiers (1786–1866), married John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, in 1803.
• Lady Harriet Villiers (1788-1870), married Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford in 1806, and had issue.

Her son George's wife, Sarah (also famous as Lady Jersey), was a leader of the ton during the Regency of the Prince of Wales and his reign as George IV.

Lady Jersey died at Cheltenham and was buried at Middleton Stoney.

In fiction

Lady Jersey makes an off-stage appearance in the Aubrey-Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian. The character of Diana Villiers is often described — disapprovingly — as belonging to "Lady Jersey's set," and, of course, the character's last name is probably an allusion to the Countess of Jersey herself.

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