Lady Juliet Tadgell

Lady Ann Juliet Dorothea Maud Tadgell (née Wentworth-Fitzwilliam; born 24 January 1935),^[1] previously Marchioness of Bristol, is a British heiress, race horse breeder and landowner. She consistently appears on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated net worth of £45 million, based on family assets she inherited in 1945.

Early life

Lady Juliet was born to Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton, the only son of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam and his wife Olive Plunket. Through her mother, Juliet is a granddaughter of Benjamin Plunket, Bishop of Meath, and a great-granddaughter of Lord Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin.

When she was thirteen, her father inherited the title of Earl Fitzwilliam and she became Lady Juliet. By this time, her parents' marriage was strained, and there was talk of divorce. In 1948 Earl Fitzwilliam died in a plane crash in France with his lover, Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, the widow of the heir to the Dukedom of Devonshire and a sister of the future U. S. President John F. Kennedy. As her father's only child, Lady Juliet, still aged only thirteen, inherited his whole unentailed estate and his huge art collection. The following year, she and her mother left their main house most of its contents were sold.^[2]

Marriages and family life

In 1960 Lady Juliet married Victor Hervey, 6th Marquess of Bristol, 20 years her senior, 18 days after he inherited his title upon his father's death. He had been divorced the previous year and in his 20s was adjudicated a bankrupt, declared the "No.1 Playboy of Mayfair", and jailed for jewel robbery. The couple had two children:

• Lord Nicholas Hervey (26 November 1961–26 January 1998)
• Lady Ann Hervey (26 February 1966), stillborn

The couple divorced in 1972. In 1974 she married Somerset de Chair. De Chair was former Conservative MP for South West Norfolk and Paddington South. The couple had one child:

• Helena de Chair (b. 1977), a writer on a trade magazine for the oil industry. She married the Hon. Jacob Rees-Mogg, son of former Times editor William Rees-Mogg, on 13 January 2007 at Canterbury Cathedral^[3][4] They have three sons, Peter Theodore Alphoge (b. 2007), Tom (b. 2010), and Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam (b. 2012) and one daughter Mary (b. 2008).^[5][6]

After de Chair's death Lady Juliet married for a third time in 1997 to architectural historian Christopher Tadgell. The couple live at Lady Juliet's estate of Bourne Park, near Canterbury.^[2]

On 26 January 1998, two days after her 63rd birthday, her son Nicholas committed suicide.

Lady Juliet holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oxford. Her daughter Helena attended the University of Bristol, and her son Nicholas was educated at Eton College followed by Yale University.

Wealth and inheritance

As the only child of the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, Lady Juliet inherited his estates, which have since passed into a trust for her benefit, and include his vast art collection, including seven paintings by George Stubbs and six by Anthony van Dyck and properties in England, Ireland and the United States.^[3] She consistently makes the Sunday Times Rich List, rising in 2009 to 1550th in the ranking with £35 million, although she suffered a £10 million drop that year because of the recession.^[7] She ran a stud farm and continues to own some racehorses.^[8]

Styles from birth

• 24 January 1935 – 15 February 1943: The Hon. Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam
• 15 February 1943 – 23 April 1960: The Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam
• 23 April 1960 – 1972: The Most Hon. The Marchioness of Bristol
• 1972 – 1974: Juliet, Marchioness of Bristol
• 1974 – 1997: The Lady Juliet de Chair
• 1997 – present: The Lady Juliet Tadgell

References