Elizabeth Vesey

Elizabeth Vesey (1715 in Ossory, Ireland – 1791 in Chelsea, London) was a wealthy Irish intellectual who is credited with fostering the , a society of women which hosted informal literary and political discussions of which she was an important member.

Her girlish figure and flirtatious wit earned her the nickname of Sylph. She was daughter of Sir Thomas Vesey, Bishop of Ossory, and his wife, Mary. The Veseys were an important Anglo-Irish family. Her first marriage, sometime before December 1731, was to William Hancock, member for the borough of Fore in the Irish Parliament, who died in 1741.

In 1746 she married again to Agmondesham Vesey of Lucan, a wealthy cousin and a Member of the Irish Parliament for Harristown, County Kildare, and Kinsale, County Cork, He was accountant-general of Ireland. Elizabeth had no children from either marriage. Agmondesham was continuously unfaithful to Elizabeth but she maintained the façade of a happy marriage. She nursed her husband through attacks of epilepsy, but depended for her support upon a circle of female friends. Vesey's well-known friends included Mary Delany, whom she met in Ireland, Margaret, Duchess of Portland, Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Carter, Frances Burney, and Hannah More. Her closest companion was a sister of her first husband, a Miss Handcock whose first name is not known. The shy Miss Handcock carried out most of the duties of domestic household management for Elizabeth. She was always noted politely by Vesey's correspondents, but she seems to have stayed in the background in the salon.

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