biography
| name: |
Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1776–1839)
|
| biography:
| British traveller, the eldest daughter of Charles, 3rd Earl Stanhope. In 1803, until his death in 1806, she stayed with her uncle, William Pitt, as personal secretary and head of his household. On Pitt's death the king gave her a pension, but she missed the excitement of public life. After the deaths in 1809 of her brother and Sir John Moore, whom she loved, she left England (1810), and in 1814 settled on Mt Lebanon. She adopted Eastern manners and male dress, intrigued against politicians and diplomats, and became a financially bankrupted figurehead of the Druze mountain community. Several biographies have been written about her, including that of her personal physician, C L Meryon, Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope (1845) and Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (1846). |
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