Lucy Clementina Davies

Lady Lucy Clementina Davies [née Drummond de Melfort] (1795–1879), author, was a Scottish-French descendant of the French branch of the ancient Drummond family, and sister of George Drummond, 5th Earl of Perth (1807-1902) who was also de jure 14th Earl of Perth, 6th Earl of Melfort, 6th Duc de Melfort, Comte de Lussan.

Davies was born at the Château of St. Germain, France, on 21 Nov. 1795. Her father, commonly called Lord Leon Maurice Drummond de Melfort (1761–1826), was fourth son of James, third duke of Melfort in France, and his elder brother would have been thirteenth earl of Perth but for the attainder of his ancestor. Her mother (d 1824) was Marie Elizabeth Luce de Longuemarre. The claim of her brother, George Drummond, to be heir male of the Earls of Perth was admitted by the House of Lords in 1848, and the attainder was reversed in his favour on 28 June 1853, and she herself was granted a patent of precedence as an earl's daughter on 30 Sept. 1853. She was partly educated in Scotland under Miss Playfair, sister of Professor Playfair, and in the various changes of residence of her parents between France and England saw a great deal of life, and at times suffered some hardships.

She married, on 8 Sept. 1823, at Marylebone, London, Francis Henry Davies, a registrar of the court of chancery, who died at Coblentz on the Rhine on 22 Oct. 1863, aged 72. They had one son and two daughters, including Lucy Elizabeth Drummond Sale-Barker, wife of John Sale Barker, barrister-at-law.

She died at the residence of her son-in-law, John Sale Barker, barrister-at-law, 22 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London, on 27 April 1879. She was known as a writer by the publication in 1872 of two volumes entitled ‘Recollections of Society in France and England,’ a work which contains much of her family history and very interesting particulars of the court of France under the Bourbons and the Bonapartes.

References