Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester

Also including Sedley's daughter, Lady Catherine Darnley

Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, Countess of Portmore (21 December 1657 – 26 October 1717), daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, was the mistress of King James VII and II both before and after he came to the thrones. After his accession James yielded to pressure from his confessor Fr. Giffard, backed by Lord Sunderland and several Catholic councillors to put her away for a time. While James by his own account took Giffard's intervention "very kindly, he being a truly religious man" he told his councillors sharply "not to meddle in things that in no way related to them."

She was created Countess of Dorchester for life in 1686, an elevation which aroused much indignation and compelled Catherine to reside for a time in Ireland. In 1696 she married Sir David Colyear, Bt., who was created Earl of Portmore in 1703, and she was thus the mother of Charles Colyear, 2nd Earl of Portmore. She died at Bath on 26 October 1717, when her life peerage became extinct. Cathernie was not noted for beauty but was witty and sharp-tongued; after the Revolution of 1688 when Queen Mary refused to receive her at Court, Catherine inquired how Mary, who had broken the commandment to honour her father was in any way better than Catherine who had broken the commandment against adultery.

At the court of Geroge I she met Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth and William III's mistress Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Orkney and exclaimed "God! Who would have thought that we three whores should meet here."^[1]

By James II, Lady Dorchester had a daughter Lady Catherine Darnley (d. 1743), who married James Annesley, 3rd Earl of Anglesey, and after his death married John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. Through Catherine, her daughter by her first husband, she was the ancestress of the Barons Mulgrave and of the Mitford sisters. Through her son, Charles, Lord Portmore, she was the grandmother of Elizabeth Collier, wife of Dr Erasmus Darwin, the physician, scientist and poet.

Ancestry

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Sir Charles Sedley". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sir_Charles_Sedley.