Lady Diana Beauclerk

Not to be confused with the 20th-century Princess of Wales of the same maiden name

Portrait of Diana Beauclerk by Joshua Reynolds, 1763–1765

Lady Diana Beauclerk (née Lady Diana Spencer; other married name Diana St John, Viscountess Bolingbroke) (1734–1808) was an English noblewoman and artist.

Life and work

"Lady and child dancing"

She was the daughter of the Honourable Elizabeth Trevor (d. 1761) and Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough (1706–1758). Her siblings were George, Charles, and Elizabeth. She was raised at Langley Park, Buckinghamshire, where she was introduced to art at an early age. Joshua Reynolds, an artist, was a family friend.

She married Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke (1734–1787) in 1757, and from 1762–1768 was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Her marriage was unhappy and Bolingbroke was notoriously unfaithful. In February of 1768 he petitioned for divorce on grounds of adultery. The petition required an act of parliament, which was passed the next month. Within two days she married Topham Beauclerk of Old Windsor. They had four children:

• Anne (born ca. 1764, and did not survive infancy)
• Elisabeth Beauclerk (20 August 1766 - 25 March 1793)
• Mary Day Beauclerk (20 August 1766 - 23 July 1851), twin of Elisabeth.
• Charles George Beauclerk (20 January 1774 - 25 December 1846).

Their circle of friends included Samuel Johnson, Georgiana Cavendish — who maintained a glittering salon — Edward Gibbon, David Garrick, Charles Fox, James Boswell and Edmund Burke.

Beauclerk illustrated a number of literary productions, including Horace Walpole's tragedy The Mysterious Mother, the English translation of Gottfried August Bürger's Leonora (1796) and The Fables of John Dryden (1797). After 1785 she was one of a circle of women, along with Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Templetown (1746/7-1823), whose designs for Josiah Wedgwood were made into bas-reliefs on jasper ornaments.

Her husband died in 1780 and, due to restricted finances, she began to lead a more retired life. She died in 1808 and was buried in Richmond.

In the mid-1990s a portrait of her hung in Kenwood House, on Hampstead Heath in London, with the caption: "Lady Diana Spencer, known chiefly for the unhappiness of her first marriage."

References

• Surtees, Virginia. 'Beauclerk , Lady Diana (1734–1808).' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 8 May 2007.

Further reading

• Erskine, Beatrice. Lady Diana Beauclerk, her life and her work (London: T.F. Unwin, 1903).

External links

• Lady Diana Beauclerk on Artnet (6 Dec 2010)
• Three children, seated in a landscape, with a basket of wild flowers (Pencil & watercolour - Christie's)

Persondata
Name	Beauclerk, Diana
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1734
Place of birth
Date of death	1808
Place of death