Fiona Moorhouse’s recent comments have started me thinking about the four Lord Bellews of the First Creation.
The last, John, as she points out, is buried at St Audoen’s Church in Dublin, where his mother and father are buried. I suppose their headstones will be illegible but I will take a look next time I’m in Dublin. His mother was born Lady Frances Brudenell. She first married the Earl of Newburgh, going up the social ladder to be a Countess, before going down two rungs when she married Richard Bellew after Lord Newburgh died rather young in 1694. But first she sold the Newburgh estate at Cirencester to the Bathhursts, who reside there to this day.
A rich, Catholic widow prepared to move to Ireland was quite a catch for Richard Bellew. I wonder if he knew she was a tribade, a word I had to look up? Be that as it may she bore Richard a son, who was to become the 4th and last Lord Bellew of the First Creation. She left some trouble behind her in England. An Oxford don, William King, claimed she owed him much moolah and took the matter to court. He lost his case but where there’s smoke there’s fire. He exacted revenge.
In 1732, (he) wrote a satire against her, entitled “The Toast”, which portrays her as “a promiscuous bisexual witch and lesbian named “Myra””. It is notable for an early use of the word lesbian in the modern sense.
If anybody has a copy I’d like to read about another Impossible Mrs Bellew.
I believe there was a film made about the impossible Mrs bellew
Starting Gloria Swanson
Yes
https://christopherbellew.com/the-impossible-mrs-bellew/
One curiosity in which you might be interested is that the current and 12th Earl of Newburgh is Italian and a relative of mine. In Who’s Who his full name is given as Principe Don Filippo Rospigliosi, Viscount Kinnaird , Baron Levingston of Flacraig, 11th Prince Rospigliosi (Holy Roman Empire); 11th Duke of Zagarolo, 14th Prince of Castiglione, Marquis of Giuliana, Count of Chiusa , Baron of La Miraglia and Valcorrente, Lord of Aidone, Burgio, Contessa and Trapeto and Conscript Roman Noble, Patrician of Venice, Genoa, Pistoia, Ravenna and Ferrara . When Italy became a republic it seems that titles were supposed to be abolished.
I once tried to persuade him to take his seat in the House of Lords. Had he been a citizen of the Commonwealth it might have been possible. But, of course, as a mere European it was not.
He might like to “prove” his title and be entered on the Roll of the Peerage. I did this for my brother but he might prefer to enlist an officer at the College of Arms. If the title hasn’t been “proved” for a few generations it will be a challenge that he, there are no female Heralds yet, might relish.
Clement IX of this luridly accomplished family was the first and I believe only pope to write a comic opera. He also commissioned Poussin’s A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME and suggest the thematic content. Finally a really good papal motto …none of this totus tuum stuff…C9s motto was “Clement to others,not to himself”. Sadly only a short reign …2 years.