Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos (23 April[1] 1670 – 16 July 1735) was a British historian, travel writer and artist.
She was the daughter of Francis Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a writer on natural history, and his wife Emma, the daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgnorth, Shropshire and London. In 1713, at the age of forty-three, Cassandra became the second wife of her wealthy cousin, James Brydges, FRS, whose mother was a Barnard. Brydges' social standing rose the following year when he was made Earl of Carnarvon and inherited a barony and baronetcy when his father, the 8th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, died; in 1719 he became Duke of Chandos, and Cassandra the Duchess.
The National Gallery of Canada has a portrait of Cassandra and her husband by Sir Godfrey Kneller dated 1713 which also features Brydges' two sons by his first wife.[2] Cassandra died childless aged sixty-five, and was buried at St Lawrence, Whitchurch near the ducal seat Cannons.
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Before she married she compiled a history of her father's family she titled The Continuation of the History of the Willoughby Family which is preserved in the Manuscripts Department at Nottingham University Library. Some of her correspondence from before and after her marriage has been preserved at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office, at the North London Collegiate School [3] and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, in San Marino, California. In addition, there are travel writings and genealogies.