Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham

The Right Honourable
The Countess of Chatham
Portrait by William Hoare c. 1766
In office
30 July 1766 – 14 October 1768
Preceded by The Marchioness of Rockingham
Succeeded by The Duchess of Grafton
Personal details
Born Hester Grenville
(1720-11-08)8 November 1720
London, England
Died 9 April 1803(1803-04-09) (aged 82)
Burton Pynsent, Somerset, England
Resting place Westminster Abbey
Nationality British
Spouse(s)
Parents

Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham, 1st Baroness Chatham (née Grenville; 8 November 1720 – 9 April 1803), who was Baroness Chatham in her own right, was the wife of William Pitt (the Elder), 1st Earl of Chatham, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768.[1]

The sister of George Grenville, who was Prime Minister from 1763 to 1765, she was also the mother of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and a niece of the noted Whig politician Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, who had served as her husband's mentor.

Chatham and Elizabeth Grenville, her sister-in-law, are the only two women in British history to have been both the wife of a Prime Minister and the mother of a Prime Minister.

Early life

Born on 8 November 1720 in London, she was the only daughter of Richard Grenville and Hester Grenville, 1st Countess Temple, and was baptised in St. James's church on 6 December that year.[1] She spent her childhood with her brothers at Stowe House and Wotton House, riding horses and developing an interest in politics.

Marriage

A spinster until her thirty-fourth year, Lady Hester married Whig politician William Pitt, whom she had known for over twenty years as a friend of her brothers, on 16 November 1754 at her home in Argyle Street, London.[1] They spent their ten-day honeymoon at West Wickham, Kent. The marriage was a happy one and the couple moved to a house in Hayes, Kent in 1756. They had five children:

On 4 December 1761, she was created Baroness Chatham, of Chatham, in the County of Kent, with remainder to her sons by William Pitt, who was later created Earl of Chatham in 1766.

Titles from birth to death

  • Miss Hester Grenville (8 November 1720 – 13 September 1749)
  • The Hon Hester Grenville (13 September 1749 – 18 October 1749)
  • Lady Hester Grenville (13 September 1749 – 18 October 1749)
  • Lady Hester Pitt (16 November 1754 – 4 December 1761)
  • The Rt Hon The Baroness Chatham (4 December 1761 – 4 August 1766)
  • The Rt Hon The Countess of Chatham (4 August 1766 – 11 May 1778)
  • The Rt Hon The Dowager Countess of Chatham (11 May 1778 – 9 April 1803)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cokayne, p. 143.

Sources

  • Cokayne, George; et al., The Complete Peerage, III
  • Larsen, Ruth M. "Pitt [née Grenville], Hester, countess of Chatham and suo jure Baroness Chatham". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29986. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Media related to Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham at Wikimedia Commons
  • Lundy, Darryl, Person Page, retrieved 5 March 2017
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Marchioness of Rockingham		 Spouse of the Prime Minister of Great Britain
1766–1768		 Succeeded by
The Duchess of Grafton
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baroness Chatham
1761–1803		 Succeeded by
The Lady Chatham
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