| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Countess of Guilford | |
| Birth Name: | Anne Speke |
| Birth Place: | Ilminster, Somerset, Great Britain |
| Death Place: | Bushy House, London, Great Britain |
| Resting Place: | Church of All Saints, Wroxton |
| Nationality: | English |
| Known For: | Wife of the Prime Minister 1770–82 |
| Children: | 7, including George North, 3rd Earl of Guilford, Francis North, 4th Earl of Guilford and Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford |
| Mother: | Anne Speke (née Williams) |
| Father: | George Speke |
Anne North, Countess of Guilford (née Speke; 1740 – 17 January 1797) was an English woman of the 18th century, best known as the wife of Frederick, Lord North, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1770 and 1782. During his term in office, she was known as "Lady North"; she became Countess of Guilford when her father-in-law died in 1790.
Anne was born around 1739–1741 in Ilminster, Somerset, to George Speke MP and his third wife Anne (née Williams). Her father died in 1753, when Anne was about 12 years old, and she inherited the former Drake estates in Devonshire, as well as Dillington House.[1] [2] [3]
On 20 May 1756, aged about sixteen,[4] Anne married Frederick, Lord North, who was the eldest son of Lord Guilford and was then the MP for Banbury. He was about eight years her senior. Her inheritance was worth about four thousand pounds a year. Jokes in society mocked the couple's lack of good looks, Lady Harcourt saying that the short and plump Lord North was “beautiful in comparison to the Lady the world said he is to marry.” However, their marriage appears to have been a happy one.[5]
She gave birth to their first child, George Augustus, on 11 September 1757. A daughter, Catherine Anne, followed in 1760, and another son, Francis, in 1761, and a second daughter, Charlotte. In 1766 Lord North became Paymaster of the Forces and Anne gave birth to their third son, Frederick. Lord North became Chancellor of the Exchequer the following year, serving in that post until 1782.
Lord and Lady North had seven children:
In 1770 Lord North became First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister of Great Britain) and formed a government that was mostly Tories. His government saw the American Revolutionary War, which meant that Britain lost most of its North American colonies. Lord North was forced from office by a motion of no confidence in 1782, following defeat at the Battle of Yorktown.
In 1786 she met with Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams, then US Ambassador to Great Britain) in London, and Abigail wrote an unflattering description of Lady North and her daughter Anne in a letter to Lucy Cranch:
Lord North began to go blind in 1786,[8] and retired from active politics in 1790, in which year he succeeded to the title of Earl of Guilford, making Anne a countess.[2] Visiting the North family in 1787, Horace Walpole said that he "never saw a more interesting scene. Lord North's spirits, good humour, wit, sense, drollery, are as perfect as ever—the unremitting attention of Lady North and his children most touching. … If ever loss of sight could be compensated, it is by so affectionate a family."[9] Lord North died in 1792.[10]
The Countess of Guilford died in 1797 in Bushy House, Teddington, London, and was buried in Wroxton.[11] Writing about her mother, Charlotte Lindsay reminisced that she