Eliza Courtney (20 February 1792 – 2 May 1859) was the illegitimate daughter of the Whig politician and future Prime Minister Charles Grey and the society beauty Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, while Georgiana was married to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire.
The Duchess was forced by her husband to relinquish Eliza, shortly after her birth, to be raised by Charles Grey's parents. The Duchess came to visit Eliza in secret. Eliza named her firstborn daughter Georgiana.
The name Courtney was derived from her maternal grandmother's brother, William Poyntz, having married a co-heiress of the ancient Cornish family of Courtney of Trethurfe and Courtney of Tremeer in 1762.
Read more about Eliza Courtney: Upbringing, Husband, Death
Famous quotes containing the word courtney:
“Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young,
Who loved thee so fondly as he?
He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue,
And joined in thy innocent glee.”
—Margaret Courtney (1822–1862)