Duchess of Roxburghe
(1814-1895)
Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria
26 June 1861
Volume 4, page 134, sitting number 4605.
Susanna Stephania, 6th Duchess of Roxburghe was the only child of Lieutenant-General Sir James Charles Dalbiac, KCH. On 29 December 1836 she married the 6th Duke of Roxburghe; they had four children, including James Henry Robert Innes-Ker, 7th Duke of Roxburghe.
In 1868 she was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, and from 1892 she was acting Mistress of the Robes to her Majesty. She held three classes of the order of Victoria and Albert.
She died, aged 81, on 7 May 1895 at 1 Hereford Gardens, Park Lane, her London residence. 'Her Grace had been somewhat indisposed for a week, suffering from an influenza cold, upon which bronchitis supervened' (Aberdeen Press and Journal, 8 May 1895).
'Her Grace was the only child of the late Lieutenant-General Sir James Charles Dalbiac, K.C.H., was born about the year 1814, and married in 1836 the sixth Duke of Roxburghe, who died in 1870. The appointment of Mistress of the Robes is customarily held by a duchess whose political views, or the political views of her husband, are in agreement with those of the Government of the day. When Mr Gladstone took office in 1892 there was no lady of rank of duchess who held the requisite political opinions, and the difficulty was surmounted by the appointment of the Dowager Duchess of Roxburghe as Acting-Mistress of the Robes. Her Grace was at one time a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen, and received the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert.
'The late Duchess was a woman of deep religious convictions, high principle, and a charming old-world courtesy. Her charities were numerous and unostentatious, and it is no mere conventional phrase to say that her death will be widely and sincerely mourned. She leaves two children, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Charles John Innes-Ker, and Lady Susan Grant-Suttie, widow of Sir James Grant-Suttie. The funeral will take place in Scotland to-morrow' (The Times, 8 May 1895).