Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos (23 April [Date of birth [http://books.google.com/books?id=SP4ZAAAAIAAJ&q=Cassandra+Willoughby&dq=Cassandra+Willoughby&pgis=1 Google books] Johnson, Joan. "Excellent Cassandra: The Life and Times of the Duchess of Chandos." (page 9) Gloucester: Sutton, 1981. Accessed May 20, 2007] , 1670 – July 16, 1735) was a British historian, travel writer and artist.

She was the daughter of Francis Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a writer on natural history, and his wife Emma, the daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgenorth, Shropshire and London. Cassandra became the second wife (1713) of her cousin, James Brydges, who became duke six years later (1719). Before she married she compiled a history of her father's family, "The Continuation of the History of the Willoughby Family." [ Chandos, Cassandra Willoughby Brydges. "The Continuation of the History of the Willoughby Family." Eton: Published for the University of Nottingham by the Shakespeare Head Press, 1958. [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7470356&referer=brief_results# Worldcat.org] Accessed May 20, 2007 ] and is preserved in the Manuscripts Department at Nottingham University Library. Some of her correspondence from before and after her marriage has been preserved (at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office, at North London Collegiate School and at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, Ca.) In addition, there are travel writings and genealogies. She died childless aged forty-three, and was buried at Whitchurch near Canons.

References

* G.E. Cockayne, The Complete Peerage (1910 - 1959), London Rosemary O'Day, Cassandra Brydges, Duchess of Chandos (1670-1735): Life and Letters, Boydell & Brewer, November 2007
* Chandos, Cassandra Willoughby, "The Continuation of the History of the Willoughby Family: Being Vol. 2 of the Manuscript." Ed., A. C. Wood. Eton, Windsor England 1958.
* Johnson, Joan. "Excellent Cassandra: The Life and Times of the Duchess of Chandos." Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, Gloucester, England 1981.