Elizabeth Onslow, Baroness Onslow Explained

Elizabeth Onslow (1692 – 19 April 1731)^[1] was an English aristocrat and social reformer.

She was the daughter of the merchant John Knight, and niece to Colonel Charles Knight, both of whom derived great fortunes from trading in Jamaica.^[2] She was heir to both men, whose wealth derived from trading and slave plantations in Jamaica.^{[3] [4]}

She was married to Thomas Onslow, 2nd Baron Onslow, at St Paul's Cathedral on 17 November 1708.^[5] He may have used her great wealth to contribute to the rebuilding of his family home, Clandon Park House, as a fashionable Palladian-style mansion.^[6]

She was one of a group of noblewomen who signed their names to the Ladies' petition for Thomas Coram to establish the London Foundling Hospital.^[7] Gillian Wagner speculates that Coram was introduced to her through her husband's cousin Arthur Onslow, who was Speaker of the House of Commons.^[8] Coram called her 'a woman of the truest goodness of mind and heart that I ever knew'. She signed the petition on 8 April 1730.^[9]

Notes and References

1. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Page 3013.
2. Book: Burke, John. A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. 1832. 4th. 2. London. 258.
3. Web site: Richard, 3rd Lord Onslow. Legacies of British Slave-Ownership. 18 November 2018.
4. Web site: Charles Knight. Legacies of British Slave-ownership. 18 November 2018.
5. Book: Visitation of England and Wales. privately printed. 1903. Crisp. Frederick Arthur. 5; notes.. 195.
6. Web site: The Onslow Family at Clandon Park, Part 1. National Trust. 18 November 2018.
7. Book: Coram's children : the London Foundling Hospital in the eighteenth century. McClure, Ruth K.. 1981. Yale University Press. 0300024657. New Haven. 6707267.
8. Book: Gillian., Wagner. Thomas Coram, Gent., 1668-1751. 2004. The Boydell Press. 1843830574. Woodbridge, Suffolk. 88. 53361054.
9. Exhibition catalogue, 'Ladies of Quality and Distinction', The Foundling Museum, London, 2018.https://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/events/ladies-of-quality-distinction/