Martha Bruce, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine

Martha Bruce, Countess of Elgin and Kincardine (1739 – 21 June 1810), born Martha White and known for most of her life as Lady Elgin, was the wife of Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin and 9th Earl of Kincardine, mother of the collector Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and governess to Princess Charlotte of Wales, daughter of the future King George IV, at the time second in line to the throne.

The only child of Thomas White, or Whyte, a banker of Kirkaldy and London, Martha White married Charles Bruce, who was already Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, at Edinburgh on 1 June 1759. Their eight children were Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766–1841), known for the removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens; Lady Martha Bruce (1760–1767); Lady Janet Bruce (1761–1767); William Bruce, Lord Bruce (15 January 1763 – 27 March 1763); William Bruce, 6th Earl of Elgin (1764–1771); Charles Andrew Bruce (1768–1810), briefly a Governor of Prince of Wales's Island; James Bruce (1769–1798), briefly a Member of Parliament; and Lady Charlotte Bruce (28 May 1771 – March 1816), who married Captain (later Admiral) Philip Charles Durham.

In 1762, Lady Elgin's portrait was painted by the fashionable Allan Ramsay, who the same year painted King George III.

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