Louisa Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart

Louisa Tollemache
Portrait of lady Louisa Manners by John Constable after Reynolds and Hoppner.
Born	Louisa Grace Tollemache (1745-07-02)2 July 1745
Died	22 September 1840(1840-09-22) (aged 95) Ham House
Title	7th Countess of Dysart
Predecessor	Wilbraham Tollemache, 6th Earl of Dysart
Successor	Lionel Tollemache, 8th Earl of Dysart

Louisa Manners Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart (2 July 1745 – 22 September 1840) was a peer in the Scottish peerage.

She was one of the daughters of Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart, the second of three to survive to adulthood. She and her elder sister, Jane, were educated at Mrs Holt's School for Girls in South Audley Street, Mayfair.

The Countess married John Manners in 1765, the couple having eloped to Scotland from Ham House and Manners having thrown the key to the garden door back over the wall to prevent her from returning. At her father's request the marriage was repeated at St James's Church, Piccadilly.

The couple lived most of their lives at Ham House, spending some time at the other Tollemache family seat at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk.

They had ten children:

Charles married, secondly, at St. George's, Hanover Square, 8 August 1803, Gertrude Florinda, daughter of General William Gardiner (brother of Luke, Viscount Mountjoy), and widow of Charles John Clarke; she died 27 September 1864. They had issue :

A portrait of Louisa by Sir Joshua Reynolds was engraved by V. Green, and another by Hoppner, as a peasant, has also been engraved. Hoppner's portrait was sold at Messrs. Robinson and Fisher's rooms for 14,050 guineas on 27 June 1901. This portrait originally belonged to Louisa's daughter, Lady Laura Tollemache, from whom it passed to Louisa's granddaughter, Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury, and finally came into the possession of the latter's daughter-in-law, the Lady Charles Bruce, by whose executors it was sold.Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Lady Louisa was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794. Louisa was a notable patron of John Constable, entertaining him at Helmingham, Ham House and London residences at Pall Mall and in Picadilly. Constable's letters make several references to Lady Dysart and he was evidently at ease with the family. Louisa employed his brother, Golding Constable, as gamekeeper at Helingham. Constable painted copies of Reynolds' and Hoppner's works, including a portrait of Louisa dated 1823. Others to derive works from Hoppner, Lawrence and Reynolds portraits of Louisa include Henry Bone, Charles Knight and Richard Smythe.