Frances Waldegrave

Frances Elizabeth Anne Waldegrave, Countess Waldegrave (1821–1879) was the daughter of John Braham, the singer.

Frances was born in London on 4 January 1821. She married, on 25 May 1839, John James Waldegrave of Navestock, Essex, who died in the same year. She married secondly, on 28 September 1840, George Edward, seventh earl Waldegrave. After the marriage her husband was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for assault. During his detention she lived with him in the Queen's Bench prison, and on his release they retired into the country. On the death of Lord Waldegrave on 28 September 1846, she found herself possessed of the whole of the Waldegrave estates (including residences at Strawberry Hill, Chewton in Somerset, and Dudbrook in Essex), but with little knowledge of the world to guide her conduct. In this position she entered for a third time into matrimony, marrying on 30 September 1847 George Granville Harcourt of Nuneham and Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. Her third husband, who was a widower and her senior by thirty-six years (being sixty-two at the date of the marriage, while she was only twenty-six), was eldest son of Edward Harcourt, archbishop of York, and a follower of Peel, whom he supported in parliament as member for Oxfordshire.

As Harcourt's wife, Lady Waldegrave first exhibited her rare capacity as a leader and hostess of society. Of her conduct to Harcourt, Sir William Gregory wrote in his Autobiography: "She was an excellent wife to him, and neither during her life with him nor previously was there ever a whisper of disparagement to her character. No great lady held her head higher or more rigorously ruled her society. Her home was always gay, and her parties at Nuneham were the liveliest of the time; but she never suffered the slightest indecorum, nor tolerated improprieties." She delighted in private theatricals, and her favourite piece, which she acted over and over again both at Nuneham and , was the Honeymoon, because it had some allusions to her own position. She always said she should have liked to act Lady Teazle, if it had not been that the references to the old husband were too pointed. The other pieces in which she performed were generally translations of French vaudevilles.

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