Countess of Mount Edgcumbe
(1838-1874)
Volume 1, page 165, sitting number 862.
[No photograph appears with this entry in the Silvy daybooks].
The Countess of Mount Edgcumbe, née Lady Katherine Elizabeth Hamilton, was the daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn and Lady Louisa Jane Russell. Born in or about 1838, on 26 October 1858 she married William Henry Edgcumbe (1833-1906), 4th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. The couple had four children.
Lady Mount Edgcumbe died on 3 September 1874, 'the cause of death being hemorrhage, produced by the pulmonary disease from which her ladyship had suffered for several years' (West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 17 September 1874).
A report of her death in the Western Times (4 September 1874) went into considerably more detail. 'With deep regret we announce the somewhat sudden death of the Countess of Mount Edgcumbe. Eight years since her ladyship became consumptive, and since then has lived the very quiet life of a confirmed invalid. For some years after the attack the Countess passed the winters and springs away in the warmer climate of France and Italy; but three years since she was strong enough to pass the winter in South Devon, and last year she sojourned at Mount Edgcumbe during that season. This summer she enjoyed the embracing air of Dartmoor at Caseytown, near Tavistock, and shortly before the Prince of Wales' visit to the county last month she repaired to the family seat and bore her share in entertaining his Royal Highness. [...] A week since, however, whilst the Earl was distributing the prizes to the Plymouth Volunteers, a message was brought to him that her ladyship had broken a blood vessel. At this time death was expected, but she rallied and until within a very few minutes of her death her partial recovery to health was confidently anticipated. About half-past four, however, yesterday morning she was suddenly seized with alarming illness, and very soon after the Earl and family had been summoned to her bedside her soul passed away. The breaking of a blood vessel was undoubtedly the cause of death.'