Hannah Lightfoot

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Hannah Lightfoot (October 12, 1730 – before December 1759) is sometimes erroneously named as a first wife of George III of the United Kingdom.

Hannah Lightfoot was born in London, the daughter of Matthew Lightfoot (d. 1733), a shoemaker, and his wife Mary Wheeler (d. 1760). She was a Quaker and married Isaac Axford on 11 December 1753. Her husband Isaac Axford remarried, as her widower, in December 1759, implying she must have died before December 1759.

[edit] Allegations

In an 1866 trial regarding the dubious claims of "Princess Olive" and her daughter "Princess Lavinia", it was alleged that George III married Hannah Lightfoot on April 17, 1759, prior to George III's marriage to Charlotte in 1761, leaving the latter marriage invalid. Lightfoot's purported marriage, contracted before passing of the Royal Marriages Act in 1772, would have made the alleged progeny of that marriage the rightful heirs of the throne of England. However, the marriage certificate produced by Princess Olive's daughter Lavinia at trial proved to be a forgery (with other forged documents entered into evidence it is now in the Royal Archives in Windsor Castle). Such a marriage, had it occurred, would in any case have been bigamous, as Lightfoot was already married to Isaac Axford. Further, there could have been no progeny of that marriage, as Lightfoot is presumed to have died within months of the purported date of April 1759 based on her widowers' remarriage in December 1759.

These claims are sometimes still asserted: see Kreps in references below.

[edit] References

• The Great Pretenders: The True Stories behind Famous Historical Mysteries, Jan Bondeson, W.W. Norton & Co, New York, 2004. ISBN 0-393-01969-1
• Hannah Regina: Britain's Quaker Queen, Michael Kreps: 2002, ISBN-10: 0953350517; ISBN-13: 978-0953350513
• The Fair Quaker: Hannah Lightfoot and her Relations with George III, Mary Lucy Pendered, D. Appleton, 1911.
• A Fountain Sealed: 1897. A historical novel by Sir Walter Besant in which Hannah Lightfoot is the narrator
• Kingdom of Lies, Lee Wood, St. Martin's Minotaur, New York, 2005, ISBN 0-312-34030-3. A mystery novel, set in contemporary times, based on the Hannah Lightfoot story.
• Mystery royal burial site found
• Carmarthenshire-FHS-L Archives, 3-May-2001