Sarah Cecil, Countess of Exeter

Sarah Cecil, Countess of Exeter (28 June 1773 – 18 January 1797), formerly Sarah Hoggins, was the second wife of Henry Cecil, Earl of Exeter.[1]

The Marquess of Exeter with his second wife, Sarah, and their daughter, Lady Sophia Cecil. By Thomas Lawrence

Sarah Hoggins was the daughter of Thomas Hoggins, a farmer in the Shropshire village of Great Bolas, and his wife Jane. She was sixteen when she met Cecil, almost twenty years her senior, who at the time was in great debt following his separation from his first wife, Emma, and was living in humble circumstances under the assumed name of John Jones. He lodged with the Hoggins family prior to buying a smallholding in the village.

In April 1790,[2] Cecil bigamously married Sarah Hoggins. The following year he obtained a divorce by Act of Parliament, after which they went through a legal marriage ceremony on 3 October 1791 at St Mildred, Bread Street, London.[1] Sarah became known as "the Cottage Countess".[3]

They had four children:

  • Lady Sophia Cecil (1792-1823), who married Rt. Hon. Henry Manvers Pierrepont and had one child
  • Henry (1793), died in infancy
  • Brownlow Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Exeter (1795-1867), who married Isabella Poyntz and had children
  • Colonel Lord Thomas Cecil (1797-1873), who married Lady Sophia Georgiana Lennox and had no children

The future earl built Bolas House as a home for his new family.[4]

In December 1793, Exeter inherited the Cecil estates from his uncle, moving to Burghley House with his new family. Sarah died shortly after the birth of her third son Thomas, aged only 23.

Sarah is referred to in Tennyson's poem "The Lord of Burleigh" (1835, published 1842); according to the poet, she did not know her husband's true identity until after he inherited Burghley House.[4] The story was also re-told by Elisabeth Inglis-Jones in The Lord of Burghley.[5]

In 1800 Exeter married for a third time, to Elizabeth, former Duchess of Hamilton, the ex-wife of the 8th Duke of Hamilton.

References
  1. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. Page 1363
  2. Great Bolas parish register
  3. Marie Kreft (12 January 2016). "The Cottage Countess of Great Bolas". Bradt Travel Guides. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  4. Chris Upton (15 March 2013). "Burghley House the perfect setting for a fine romance?". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  5. A. P. W. Malcomson (2006). The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic Marriage in Ireland 1740-1840. Ulster Historical Foundation. pp. 253–. ISBN 978-1-903688-65-6.
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