Regency Reader Questions: Females and Illegitimacy

Thank you for the question, Evie, and for being a Regency Reader!

Only legitimate children may succeed to a title in England due to the law of primogeniture.  Typically, it was the male child. There are a limited number of peerages or titles women could inherit from her family.  There are some hereditary peerages in Scotland and some baronies could be inherited by a female if there were no male heirs.  Children of viscounts and barons could be given the Honourable title out of respect, and sometimes courtesy or direct grant could mean a daughter of a duke, marquesses, or earl would style themselves as Lady x.  It’s not a peerage title, but a courtesy title, which essentially means while widely use it doesn’t imply any legal rights to the peerage or title.

I don’t know of any instances where an illegitimate female was given such a courtesy title, but admittedly genealogy and the peerage are not subjects I have steeped myself in.

One of the most famous illegitimate women during the Regency was Dido Elizabeth Belle, the mixed race daughter of Sir John Lindsay and an enslaved woman in the British West Indies.  She lived with her father’s uncle and aunt, the Earl and Countess of Mansfield, alongside another great-niece at Kenwood House.  Lord Mansfield would provide an annuity and sum upon his death to Dido, who had lived in his home for thirty years.  She would marry a French servant, Jean Louis Charles Daviniere, and the couple would reside in a working class neighborhood on the outskirts of London.

King William IV had ten illegitimate children with actress Dorothea Jordan.  Many of these children did marry into the British aristocracy, including Elizabeth who married the Earl of Erroll in 1820.  Her sister Augusta married a younger son of the Marquess of Ailsa.  It wasn’t uncommon for illegitimate children of royalty to be married into the nobility, usually for monetary or political reasons.  However, it would have been unusual for an illegitimate woman born from a nobleman to marry higher in rank.

Generally, illegitimate sons might be admitted to the ranks of society or at the fringes, where women suffered less freedoms.  So the likelihood of an illegitimate woman born to a marquess, earl, or baron, marrying a peer would have been unlikely.  If her legitimacy was not the source of gossip, then its probably conceivable, but high sticklers would have had strong opinions about introduced someone born on the “wrong side of the blanket” to the ton.

I hope that helps!

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