Ismania FitzRoy, Baroness Southampton explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honorable
Ismania Catherine FitzRoy, Baroness Southampton
Spouse:Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton
Children:Hon. Ismay Mary Helen Augusta FitzRoy
Frederica Louise Fitzroy
Hon. Blanche Georgiana Fitzroy
Charles Henry Fitzroy, 4th Baron Southampton
Captain Rt. Hon. Edward Algernon FitzRoy
Parents:Walter Nugent, 1st Baron Nugent
Georgiana Elizabeth Jenkinson
Birth Name:Ismania Catherine Nugent
Birth Date:1838 9, df=yes
Birth Place:Ireland
Death Place:Park Place, Englefield Green

Ismania Catherine FitzRoy, Baroness Southampton (née Nugent; 23 September 1838 – 18 August 1918) was an Irish aristocrat, the wife of Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton. She served as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria.

Family and early life

Ismania Catherine Nugent was born on 23 September 1838[1] in County Westmeath in Ireland.[2] [3] Her father was a Baron of the Austrian Empire, Walter Nugent, 1st Baron Nugent, while her mother was his second wife, Georgiana Elizabeth Jenkinson.

Marriage

On 25 February 1862 she married Charles FitzRoy, 3rd Baron Southampton, becoming his second wife. He had no children by his first wife. They had five children.[4]

He died after just ten years of marriage and as a result FitzRoy remained the Dowager Baroness for another 45 years.

Career

In 1878, some years after the death of her husband, she was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria and served in that capacity until 1901. For her service to the Queen she was awarded The Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. However she did not make an entirely good impression on another lady-in-waiting Marie Mallett who wrote in her diary in 1888 that ‘Lady Southampton is most kind but her dullness is beyond description".[5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Peerage.
  2. Web site: A bit of history.
  3. Book: Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles . Armorial Families: A Complete Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, Part 1 . 1895 . T.C. & E.C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works .
  4. Book: Lodge, Edmund . The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing . 1877. Hurst and Blackett .
  5. Book: Lady Marie Mallet. Life with Queen Victoria: Marie Mallet's letters from court, 1887-1901. registration. 1968. Houghton Mifflin.