Theodosia Meade, Countess Of Clanwilliam
Theodosia Hawkins-Magill (1743 – 1817), later Countess of Clanwilliam, was a great heiress and landowner in County Down, Ireland.
She was daughter and heir of Robert Hawkins-Magill (d. 10 April 1745), of Gill Hall, Dromore, County Down, by his second wife, Anne Bligh, daughter of John (Bligh), first Earl of Darnley.
She married John Meade (21 April 1744 - 19 October 1800 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin) on 29 August 1765, son and heir of Sir Richard Meade, 3rd Bart., of Ballintober, co. Cork, by Catherine, daughter of Henry Prittie, of Kilboy, co. Tipperary. Sir John Meade, 4th Bart., was created Baron Gillford, of the manor of Gillford, co. Down, and Viscount Clanwiliam, of co. Tipperary, on 17 November 1766, and Earl of Clanwilliam on 20 July 1776; all in the peerage of Ireland. Previously he had been MP for Banagher, 1764-66. Between them (hers being the far greater share) their estates in 1799 were said to be worth £14,000 per annum, which made them approximately the 11th largest landowners in Ireland.
She was born 5 September 1743 and died at Brighton 2 March 1817. When young she was painted by both Reynolds and Gainsborough.
- (Theodosia's aunt, Lady Theodosia Bligh, who married William, 2nd Lord Brandon, in 1745, was known as Titty, this may also have been a name used for her).
She lived at Gill Hall and at Burrenwood; a cottage ornée put up near Castlewellan on some land half way between her mother's house* (*Mrs Pendarves/Mary Delany of Bernard Ward and the former Lady Anne Hawkins-Magill: 'He wants taste and Lady Anne is so whimsical that I doubt her judgement') at Castle Ward (the mother had married (December 1747) Bernard Ward after the early death of her first husband, Robert Hawkins-Magill (d.1745)), the Greenore Ferry, Rathfriland, and her ancestral seat at Gill Hall.
Burrenwood is comparable with the Swiss cottage at Cahir (Tipperary); Derrymore, Bessbrook, Co. Armagh (National Trust, of Northern Ireland); and the Petit hameau de la Reine at Versailles.
Burrenwood stands between the forest parks of Tollymore and Castlewellan, beside the Mourne mountains and just inland from Dundrum bay at Newcastle.
Read more about Theodosia Meade, Countess Of Clanwilliam: Gill Hall, Near Dromore, Heraldic Note, Ancestors, References
Famous quotes containing the words theodosia and/or countess:
“This is a woman’s industry. No man will vote our stock, transact our business, pronounce on women’s wages, supervise our factories. Give men whatever work is suitable, but keep the governing power.... Here is a mission, let it be fulfilled.”
—Amanda Theodosia Jones (1835–1914)
“Strange that the vanity which accompanies beauty—excusable, perhaps, when there is such great beauty, or at any rate understandable—should persist after the beauty was gone.”
—Mary A. [Elizabeth, Countess Von] Arnim (1866–1941)