Frances Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry

Frances Anne was the only child of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Anne MacDonnell, 2nd Countess of Antrim.{{cite web|url=http://www.familysearch.org/ |title=International Genealogical Index |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |accessdate=2008-08-27}} At her father's death in 1813, Frances Anne inherited extensive lands in northeast England as well as some property in County Antrim, Ireland. As much of her English land was in the Durham Coalfield, she had income from coal mining. In his last will and testament, her father had stipulated that she must retain the surname Vane and that whoever married her would have to adopt her surname in lieu of his own.

{{London Gazette |issue=17480 |date=25 May 1819 |title=Whitehall, May 5, 1819 |page=906 |quote=...may, in compliance with the provisions of the last will and testament of the said Sir Henry Vane, Bart. from henceforth continue respectively to use the surname of Vane only, ...}}

In 1819 she married and became the second wife of Charles William Stewart, 1st Baron Stewart, who dutifully changed his name and became Charles William Vane. In 1822 she became a marchioness when her husband succeeded his half-brother Lord Castlereagh to become the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. With her husband, she developed an extensive coal mining operation that included coal mines, a railway, and docks at Seaham.

She became an object of affection for Tsar Alexander I after he happened to see her engagement portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.{{cite book |last1=Vane-Temple-Stewart |first1=Edith |title=Frances Anne: The life and times of Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry, and her husband Charles, third Marquess of Londonderry |date=1958 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |page=42 |quote=By some accident the Emperor of Russia saw it, and having expressed the wish to buy it, they told him it was the picture of a Miss Stephenson.}}

She sought to promote the political career of her eldest son, George Vane-Tempest, and was a patron of Benjamin Disraeli.Letters from Benjamin Disraeli to Frances Anne, marchioness of Londonderry, 1837–1861, edited by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry (1938), p.268

She built Garron Tower north of Carnlough, County Antrim, as a summer residence for herself.

{{cite book |last1=Hill |first1=George |title=An Historical Account of the MacDonnells of Antrim |date=1873 |publisher=Archer and Sons |location=Belfast |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalacmacd00hill/page/371 371] |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalacmacd00hill}}

When her husband died in 1854, she commissioned an equestrian statue showing him as a hussar,Equestrian statue, monument to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. {{Cite web |url=http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/NE/DUDU04.htm |title=Durham, DUDU04, Statue, Monument to Third Marquis of Londonderry |access-date=23 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110618084110/http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/NE/DUDU04.htm |archive-date=18 June 2011 |url-status=dead }} which was unveiled in 1861 and still stands on the market place in Durham, England. The sculptor was Raffaelle Monti.

Through her daughter, Lady Frances Vane, wife of John Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough, she is the great-grandmother of Sir Winston Churchill.

• File:Frances Anne (1800–1865), Marchioness of Londonderry, and Her Son, George 1828 Thomas Lawrence.jpgGeorge Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry (1821–1884)
• Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane (1822–1899); married John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough.
• Lady Alexandrina Octavia Maria Vane (1823–1874), godchild of Alexander I of Russia; married Henry Dawson-Damer, 3rd Earl of Portarlington.
• Lord Adolphus Frederick Charles William Vane-Tempest (1825–1864), politician; became insane, and had to be medically restrained.
• Lady Adelaide Emelina Caroline Vane (c.1830–1882); disgraced the family by eloping with her brother's tutor, Rev. Frederick Henry Law.
• Lord Ernest McDonnell Vane-Tempest (1836–1885), fell in with a press-gang and had to be bought a commission in the army, from which he was subsequently cashiered.

File:The Marchioness of Londonderry in 1831.jpg by Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet]]

Frederick William Robert Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry (1805–1872) was her stepson.

{{ahnentafel

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|1= 1. Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest

|2= 2. Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, 2nd Baronet

|3= 3. Anne MacDonnell, 2nd Countess of Antrim

|4= 4. Sir Henry Vane, 1st Baronet

|5= 5. Frances Tempest

|6= 6. Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim

|7= 7. The Hon. Letitia Morres

|8= 8. George Vane

|9= 9. Anne Machon

|10= 10. John Tempest

|11= 11. Frances Shuttleworth

|12= 12. Alexander MacDonnell, 5th Earl of Antrim

|13= 13. Anne Plunkett

|14= 14. Hervey Morres, 1st Viscount Mountmorres

|15= 15. Lady Letitia Ponsonby

|16= 16. Lionel Vane

|17= 17. Catherine Fletcher

|18= 18. William Machon

|19=

|20= 20. John Tempest

|21= 21. Jane Wharton

|22= 22. Richard Shuttleworth

|23=

|24= 24. Randal MacDonnell, 4th Earl of Antrim

|25= 25. Hon. Rachael Skeffington

|26= 26. Charles Plunkett

|27= 27. Elizabeth Stratford

|28= 28. Francis Morris of Castle Morres

|29= 29. Catherine Evans

|30= 30. Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough

|31= 31. Sarah Margetson

}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web|url=http://www.skylighters.org/seaham/index.html |title=A Brief History of Seaham Harbour |publisher=skylighters.org |accessdate=27 August 2008}}

Letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield, edited by The Marquess of Zetland (1923)

More letters from Martha Wilmot, edited by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry and H. M. Hyde (1935)

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• Jeremiah William Summers, [https://books.google.com/books?id=m6ULAAAAYAAJ&dq The History and Antiquities of Sunderland] (J. Tate), 1858
• K. D. Reynolds, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/41159 Vane, Frances Anne, marchioness of Londonderry (1800–1865)], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, January 2008. Retrieved 29 August 2008
• Diane Urquhart, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cbFbkWP_XF4C&dq The Ladies of Londonderry: Women and Political Patronage] (I. B. Tauris), 2007 {{ISBN|1-84511-410-8}}
• [http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/?redirurl=calculators/ppoweruk/ Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to 2007]. Retrieved 29 August 2008

{{refend}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frances Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry}}

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Category:1800 births

Category:1865 deaths

Category:Irish marchionesses

Category:Daughters of Irish earls

Category:Daughters of baronets

Frances Anne

Frances Anne

Category:Wives of knights

Category:People from the City of Westminster

Category:British businesspeople in the coal industry