Elizabeth Ilive

Elizabeth Ilive
portrait by Thomas Phillips
Born1769 Edit this on Wikidata
Died30 December 1822 Edit this on Wikidata
SpouseGeorge Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont Edit this on Wikidata
ChildrenGeorge Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield, Henry Wyndham, Charles Wyndham, Frances Wyndham, Charlotte Wyndham, Lady Elizabeth Wyndham Edit this on Wikidata

Elizabeth Wyndham (née Ilive or Iliffe; c.1769 – 30 December 1822), styled the Countess of Egerton after 1801, was an English polymath. She was given an award from the Royal Society of Arts for the design for a "cross-bar lever" that she had invented, for the purpose of lifting stones.

She was the mistress and later wife of George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont. She was the mother of eight of his children.

Early life

Elizabeth Ilive came from Oxford, and her father may have been a printer and/or a master at Westminster School. Thomas Hamilton Ayliffe was her younger brother.

Marriage and issue

Ilive became one of Wyndham's mistress in 1785. The earl lived openly with his various mistresses and acknowledged paternity of more than 40 illegitimate children.

They were married in 1801, but only one of their children, a daughter who died in infancy in 1803, was born in wedlock. Soon afterwards, the couple separated.

The children born to the couple prior to their marriage were:

Scientific interests

In 1798, Elizabeth Ilive submitted to the Royal Society of Arts the design for a "cross-bar lever" that she had invented, for the purpose of lifting stones. This resulted in the award of a silver medal. A portrait of Elizabeth, by Thomas Phillips, RA, is held at her former home, Petworth House. It depicts Elizabeth with a diagram of her invention.

Art

The artist William Blake lived near Petworth for a while, and Elizabeth is thought to have commissioned several works from him. The unnamed woman in Blake's Vision of the Last Judgment is believed to represent her.

Her husband, the earl, was a patron of J. M. W. Turner, and Elizabeth is believed to have assisted Turner with the creation of pigments in her own "laboratory". Evidence for this includes the existence of receipts for artists’ supplies, glass and earthenware retorts, imploding bottles, Magdeburg hemispheres, and yellow powder.

References

  1. ↑ Haggarty, Sarah (2010). Blake's gifts : poetry and the politics of exchange. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780521117289.
  2. ↑ Burke's Peerage & baronetage. Vol. 1 (106 ed.). Crans, Switzerland : Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books). 1999. p. 958. ISBN 978-2-940085-02-6.
  3. 1 2 3 Esther Chadwick (20 March 2018). "William Blake at heaven's gate". Apollo Magazine. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  4. ↑ "The 3rd earl and his mistress". National Trust. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Elizabeth Ilive - a woman ahead of her time". National Trust. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  6. ↑ Charles Mosley (ed.), Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th edition, 1999, entry "Egremont".
  7. ↑ E. Walford (1882). The County Families of the United Kingdom. Рипол Классик. p. 358. ISBN 978-5-87194-361-8. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  8. ↑ 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 1289.
  9. ↑ Phil Hewitt. "Petworth House exhibition celebrates remarkable scientist who was ahead of her time". Chichester Observer. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  10. ↑ "Elizabeth Iliffe, Countess of Egremont". National Trust. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  11. ↑ Maev Kennedy (10 January 2018). "Rare William Blake works to be exhibited in Sussex, where he lived". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "New release of Sussex parish records reveals..." The Genealogist. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2018.

Further reading