Harriet Cholmondeley (c.1790 - [1] 11 July 1815), sometimes called "Lady" or "The Hon" Harriet Cholmondeley, was the first wife of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham.
| Harriet Cholmondeley | |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Honourable |
| Birth Date: | c.1790 |
| Death Date: | 11 July 1815 |
| Noble Family: | Cholmondeley (illegitimate) |
| Spouse: | John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham |
| Issue: | Lady Frances Charlotte The Hon. Georgiana Sarah Elizabeth The Hon. Harriet Caroline |
| Father: | George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley |
| Mother: | Madame Saint-Albin |
She was an illegitimate daughter of George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley,[2] by his mistress, Madame Saint-Albin, and was brought up in the Cholmondeley household at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire by the marquess and his wife Georgiana, whom he married in 1791. A portrait of her as a child, by John Hoppner, is held by the Tate Gallery.[3]
Lambton, who at the time was a commoner, an army officer and the son of an MP, was under 21 and was refused permission to marry by his guardians. Harriet's father also forbade the marriage.[4] The couple eloped to Scotland and married at Gretna Green on 1 January 1812; they subsequently went through an Anglican wedding ceremony on Harriet's father's estate at Malpas, Cheshire, on 28 January. They had three daughters, all of whom died as young women:
Harriet died, probably of tuberculosis,[5] a few weeks after the birth of her youngest daughter.