Lady Eglinton
(1828-1860)
1860

Volume 1, page 11, sitting number 47. 

[This is among Silvy’s earliest sittings. Since Volume 1 of the daybooks is undated, it is worth noting that the Daily News reported on Monday 6 March 1860 that ‘The Earl and Countess of Eglington and Winton have arrived at Grillion’s Clarendon Hotel, Albemarle-street, from Eglinton Castle.’ Therefore sitting number 47 and subsequent sittings could not have taken place before 6 March 1860.]

Born on 4 March 1828 Lady Adela Caroline Harriett Capel was the only daughter of Arthur Algernon Capell, the sixth Earl of Essex, and his wife Lady Caroline Janette née Beauclerk, daughter of the eighth Earl of St Albans. 

On 3 November 1858 in Dublin she became the second wife of Archibald Montgomerie, the 13th Earl of Eglinton, then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Their marriage produced two daughters.

Lady Eglinton died on 31 December 1860. According to several newspaper reports, the cause of death was rheumatic fever. Some reports say she died at the Windsor Hotel in Edinburgh but other newspapers give Eglinton Castle in Ayrshire as the place of death. 

‘DEATH OF THE COUNTESS OF EGLINTON — We deeply regret to announce the death of the Countess of Eglinton, which took place yesterday morning at Edinburgh. Her Ladyship had given birth to a son on the 7th ult. and was doing well till about a fortnight ago, when she caught cold. She was the second wife of Lord Eglinton, to whom she was married in 1858, and was the youngest daughter of the sixth Earl of Essex’ (Glasgow Herald, 1 January 1861). 

‘SUDDEN DEATH OF THE COUNTESS OF EGLINTON — It is with deep regret that we announce the sudden death of the Countess of Eglinton. The Earl and Countess of Essex received a telegram on Monday from Scotland, informing them of the sudden death of the countess, their daughter, who died at nine o’clock on Monday morning, at Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire. The lamented countess, so untimely cut off, was, to all appearance, in excellent health on Sunday, and, with her noble husband, was about to receive a large circle of distinguished visitors at the Castle (Morning Herald, 2 January 1861).

Her husband died, aged 49, only a few months later on 4 October 1861 as the result of ‘a severe shock of apoplexy’ (Fife Herald, 3 October 1861).