Isabella (Ingram) Seymour Conway, Viscountess Beauchamp, later Marchioness of Hertford

British, 1760 - 1834

BiographyThe Hon. Isabella Anne Shepheard Ingram was born in 1760, the eldest of five daughters of Frances Gibson (Shepheard) (1734-1807) and her husband Charles Ingram (1727-78), 9th Viscount Irvine of Temple Newsam House, Yorkshire. As no son was born to the family, Isabella became co-heiress with her four sisters to their father's estate on his death in 1778. Two years earlier, on May 20, 1776, she had married, as his second wife, Francis Seymour Conway, Viscount Beauchamp (1743-1822). In 1793 her husband was created 1st Earl of Yarmouth (1793-4), and on June 14, 1794 he became 2nd Marquess of Hertford. Contemporary accounts attest to the remarkable beauty of Lady Hertford, who was widely acknowledged to be one of the most attractive women in England. Her fame grew from about 1802, when it became common knowledge that George, Prince of Wales (who became Prince Regent in 1811), was in love with her. For the next nineteen years (until the Prince's attentions strayed to Lady Conyingham), her influence over him was so complete that she was known as the "Queen of the Regency." Royal favor brought her husband a number of honors and positions. He was successively made Master of the Horse (1804-06), Knight of the Garter (1807), and Lord Chamberlain of the royal household (1812-21). On her mother's death in 1807, Lady Hertford inherited Temple Newsam House, and her husband obtained permission on December 18, 1807 to take the surname of Ingram before his own family name of Seymour. Widowed in 1822, Lady Hertford turned her attention to improvements at Temple Newsam, which included the creation of a Chinese drawing room and a Jacobean-revival Great Hall with simulated oak paneling. She died there on April 12, 1834.

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