Isabella Cecil, Marchioness of Exeter

Isabella Cecil, Marchioness of Exeter (6 March 1803 – 6 March 1879), formerly Isabella Poyntz, was the wife of Brownlow Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Exeter, and the mother of the 3rd Marquess.

The Most Honourable The Marchioness of Exeter
Miniature of Isabella, Marchioness of Exeter, by William John Newton (1830). Held in the Burghley House collection
Born	Isabella Poyntz 6 March 1803
Died	6 March 1879 (aged 76)
Resting place	St Martin's Church, Stamford
Spouse(s)	Brownlow Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Exeter ​ ​ (m. 1824; died 1867)​
Children	Mary Ryder, Countess of Harrowby William Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Exeter Col. Lord Brownlow Cecil Commander Lord Edward Cecil Lord Adelbert Cecil Victoria Evans-Freke, Baroness Carbery
Parent(s)	William Stephen Poyntz Hon. Elizabeth Mary Browne

Biography

She was the daughter of William Stephen Poyntz, a Liberal MP, and his wife, the former Hon. Elizabeth Mary Browne.[1] Isabella's sister, Elizabeth Georgina Poyntz, married Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer. Another sister, Frances Selina Isabella Poyntz, married Robert Cotton St. John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton, and, on his death, married Sir Horace Seymour, MP.[2] Two of their brothers were drowned in an accident in a boating accident in 1815.[3]

The Poyntz family had homes at Midgham House in Berkshire and Cowdray Park in West Sussex.

Children

Isabella married the marquess in London on 12 May 1824.[4] Their children were:

• Lady Mary Frances Cecil (died 1917), who married Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby, and had no children
• William Alleyne Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Exeter (1825-1895)
• Colonel Lord Brownlow Thomas Montagu Cecil (1827-1905)
• Commander Lord Edward Cecil (1834-1862)
• Lord Adelbert Percy Cecil (1841–1889), who was a member of the Plymouth Brethren and died, unmarried, in Canada[5]
• Lady Victoria Cecil (1843-1932), who married William Charles Evans-Freke, 8th Baron Carbery, and had children

The marquess died in 1867. Isabella died in 1879, aged 76, and was buried with her husband in the Cecil family chapel at St Martin's Church, Stamford.[6]

References

1. 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 III, page 11.
2. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Page 825.
3. "POYNTZ, William Stephen (1770-1840), of Cowdray Park, Suss. and Midgham House, Berks". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
4. The Scots Magazine ... Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran. 1824. p. 768.
5. "Biography of Lord Adalbert [sic] Cecil, 1841–1889. (Spiritual Songsters)". Stempublishing.com. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
6. Nikolaus Pevsner; John Harris; Nicholas Antram (1989). Lincolnshire. Yale University Press. pp. 692–. ISBN 978-0-300-09620-0.