Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon

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Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon.

Arms of the Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon.

Elizabeth Campbell, Duchess of Argyll & 1st Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon (c. December 1733–December 20, 1790) was a celebrated Irish belle and society hostess.

[edit] Early life

Born Elizabeth Gunning in Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, she was the daughter of John Gunning of Castle Coote and his wife, Bridget (a daughter of the 6th Viscount Mayo) and a younger sister of Maria Gunning.

The family was relatively poor and when the two sisters came of age, their mother urged them to take up acting to earn a living. They then travelled to Dublin, where they were befriended by Peg Woffington, and they worked for sometime in the city's theatres.

For women, the stage was not yet a stepping-stone to becoming the wife of a noble, and being a theater actress was not yet considered respectable. Many actresses of the time doubled as courtesans to wealthy benefactors, many maintaining that lifestyle for long lengths of time, while others used that simply as a means to hopefully obtain a wealthy husband. So the girls were encouraged to attend social events to attract potential suitors. One such event was held at Dublin Castle by the Viscountess Petersham.

However, the two sisters did not have any dresses for the gathering until Tom Sheridan, manager of one of the theatres the young women had acted in, supplied two costumes from the green room, namely Lady Macbeth and Juliet, and they were presented to the Earl of Harrington, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The two sisters then travelled to London in 1751 from Ireland and starred in many West End shows and at New Spring Gardens, as well as being presented at the Royal Court. In both environments, crowds and courtiers would clamor to see both sisters and they became celebrities within months.

[edit] Marriage into nobility

On 14 February (St. Valentine's Day) the following year, Elizabeth met the Duke of Hamilton at Bedford House in London. According to Walpole, the duke wished to marry her that night and he called for a local parson to perform the ceremony. However, without a license, calling of banns and a ring, the parson refused and they were eventually married that night in Mayfair Chapel (which did not require a license) in a clandestine marriage, with a ring from a bedcurtain (whereupon Elizabeth became the Duchess of Hamilton).

When the duke died in 1758, she became engaged to the Duke of Bridgwater but the engagement was cancelled that year for reasons unknown, and on 3 February the following year she married John Campbell, Marquess and Lorne. In 1760, her sister Maria, who had also successfully married into nobility, died due to unwitting use of lead-based makeup products.

From 1761 to 1784, she was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Her husband later succeeded to his father's title of Duke of Argyll in 1770, and Elizabeth became known as the Duchess of Argyll. On 20 May 1776, King George III (a long time admirer of hers) created her Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon in her own right.

She was immortalized in portraits by, among others, artists Sir Joshua Reynolds [1], and Gavin Hamilton. [2] Elizabeth died on December 20, 1790 at her home of Argyll House in London and was buried at Kilmun, Argyllshire.