Elizabeth, Countess of Home
| Elizabeth Gibbons | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Home | |
| Born | 1703/1704 Jamaica |
| Died | 15 January 1784 London |
| Buried | Westminster Abbey |
| Spouse(s) | James Lawes William Home, 8th Earl of Home |
| Father | William Gibbons |
| Mother | Deborah Favell |
Elizabeth Home, Countess of Home (née Gibbons; 1703/04 – 15 January 1784) was a Jamaican-English heiress. Already rich from her merchant father, she married James Lawes, the eligible son of Jamaica's governor, in 1720. They moved to London, and his death in 1734 left her a wealthy widow. Elizabeth married the spendthrift William Home, 8th Earl of Home in late 1742. He abandoned her soon after and she spent her next years living an extravagant lifestyle; Elizabeth earned the nickname "Queen of Hell" for her "irascible behaviour and lavish parties."
During the 1770s, Lady Home commissioned James Wyatt (and later the brothers Robert and James Adam) to design Home House, a lavish town house in Portman Square, London. It was then considered to have one of the finest interiors in London, and still remains today. She died in 1784 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Neither of her marriages produced any children.
Elizabeth Gibbons was born in Jamaica in 1703 or 1704. She belonged to the island's Creole class, a caste of people born in the West Indies but descended from white settlers. She was the only child and heir of William Gibbons, a West Indies merchant and one of the island's original English planters. Little otherwise is known of him. Her mother Deborah Favell was the daughter of John Favell, a member of Jamaica's Council and Assembly.
In 1720 Elizabeth, then approximately sixteen years old, was married to the twenty-three-year-old James Lawes, son of Nicholas Lawes, the island's governor. Nicholas Lawes was also a wealthy planter who had introduced the island's first printing press as well as the planting of coffee. James Lawes was consequently the most eligible bachelor in Jamaica. He was often in dispute with the island's governor Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland (his father's successor to the post) and would not allow his wife to pay her respects. The couple eventually moved to London, where he received the post of lieutenant governor for the island. However, Lawes died in 1734, several months before he could officially begin the position. They had no children.
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