Viscountess Malden
(1823-1905)
8 April 1861

Volume 3, page 57, sitting number 2926.

Born in or about 1822, Emma Martha Meux was the daughter of Sir Henry Meux, 1st Bt.. and Elizabeth Mary née Smith. She was baptised on 10 January 1823 at Bromley in Kent. 

On 24 January 1853 she married Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden, the only son of the 6th Earl of Essex. 

Her husband predeceased his father and never inherited his estates and titles, therefore Lady Malden never became the Countess of Essex. After her husband's death in 1879, at the age of only 52, Lady Malden lived with her unmarried daughter Maude and unmarried son Randolph in the family residence in Knightsbridge. Nine servants completed the household, including a butler, a footman and a hall boy. 

The Dowager Lady Malden died, aged 81, on 22 November 1905 at 39 Lowndes Street in Knightsbridge. 

‘Viscountess Malden, widow of Viscount Malden, died on Wednesday evening 22nd instant from bronchial pneumonia at the age of 81. Lady Malden leaves two sons, the Earl of Essex and the Hon. Randolph Capel [sic], and three daughters, Lady Maud Capel [sic], Lady Evelyn Downey, and Lady Brassey. The funeral will take place at Watford on Saturday at 12 o’clock. A memorial service will be held at the same time at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge’ (Clifton Society, 30 November 1905). 

‘The late Dowager Lady Malden — The death of the Dowager Lady Malden, mother of Lord Essex, took place on Wednesday evening at her house in Lowndes-street. Lady Malden was the daughter of Sir Henry Meux, and was married in 1853 to Arthur, Viscount Malden, eldest son of the sixth Earl of Essex. She was the grandmother of Viscount Malden, who was married under romantic circumstances at Cirencester on September 28th last’ (Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 25 November 1905)