Grace Carteret, 1st Countess Granville

Grace Carteret, 1st Countess Granville (c. 1667[1] – 18 October 1744), formerly Lady Grace Granville, was Countess Granville in her own right and the wife of George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret.

Early life

Grace was born at Stowe, Kilkhampton, Cornwall,[2] the daughter of John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath,[1] and his wife Jane Wyche. Some sources give her date of birth as 1654, which would have made her thirteen years older than her husband. However, their marriage took place in 1675, when she is said to have been "a mere child".[3]

Marriage and issue

She married George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret (1667-1695), who succeeded to his grandfather's baronetcy in 1680 and in 1681 was raised to the status of Baron Carteret.

The Carterets had two sons:

• John Carteret, later 2nd Earl Granville (1690-1763), who was married twice: first, to Frances Worsley in 1710, and second, to Lady Sophia Fermor, in 1744. He had children by both marriages.
• Philip Carteret (1692-1711), who died unmarried while a pupil at Westminster School and was buried at Westminster Abbey.[4]

George Carteret died, aged 28 (or 26), in 1695.[3]

Countess Granville

Grace's brother, Charles Granville, 2nd Earl of Bath, committed suicide a fortnight after the death of their father, and the earldom was inherited by his son, William, a minor. Following William's death in 1711, all Grace's elder siblings having predeceased her, she was created Viscountess Carteret and Countess Granville in her own right in 1714.[5] She was able to pass on both titles to her elder son, John.

Grace Carteret died at the family seat of Hawnes in Bedfordshire, aged 77, a few months after attending her son's second marriage, to Sophia Fermor.[6] She was buried in the vault of General Monk at Westminster Abbey.[4]

References

1. "Grace (née Granville), Countess Granville and Viscountess Carteret". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
2. G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume VI, page 89.
3. Joseph Lemuel Chester (1876). The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church Or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster. Harleian Society. pp. 367–.
4. "Carteret family". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
5. A companion and key to the history of England; consisting of copious genealogical details of the British sovereigns, with an appendix, exhibiting a chronological epitome of the successive holders of the several titles of the ... nobility, etc, with their armorial bearings. 1832. pp. 563–.
6. Horace Walpole (1866). The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. Bohn. pp. 299–.