Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland

Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (née Lady Dorothy Cavendish; 27 August 1750 – 3 June 1794) was Duchess of Portland and the wife of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.


The Duchess of Portland
Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
by George Romney
Tenure8 November 1766 – 3 June 1794
Born(1750-08-27)27 August 1750
Died3 June 1794(1794-06-03) (aged 43)
London, England
BuriedSt Marylebone Parish Church
Spouse(s)
(m. 1766)
Issue
FatherWilliam Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
MotherCharlotte Boyle, 6th Baroness Clifford

Biography

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Dorothy Cavendish was born on 27 August 1750 to William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and his wife Lady Charlotte Boyle, 6th Baroness Clifford.

Marriage and children

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On 8 November 1766, Cavendish was married to William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland. They were parents of six children:

According to newspaper accounts, she was the mother of nine children, only four of whom were living at the time of her own death.

Later life

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Memorial to the 3rd Duke of Portland and his family at the family vault in St Marylebone Parish Church

The duchess died at her home, Burlington House, Piccadilly, and was buried in St Marylebone Parish Church, Marylebone, London.[4] She “died of a bowel complaint, which she had been subject to for many years, and which terminated in a mortification after a short illness. It was at first suspected, from the violent inflammation in her bowels, that her Grace had eaten water-gruel out of a copper saucepan not properly tinned; but this suspicion is certainly erroneous, as it proved on examination.”[5]

Bentinck was a great-great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II (see ancestry of Elizabeth II)

Ancestry

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Arms

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Coat of arms of Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland
 
Coronet
Coronet of a Duke
Escutcheon
Quarterly 1st & 4th Azure a cross moline Argent 2nd & 3rd Sable three stags' heads cabossed Argent attired Or a crescent for difference (William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland) impaling (William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire).
Supporters
Two lions double queued the dexter Or and the sinister Sable.

References

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  1. ^ The Scots Magazine, Volume 32 for birth and Oxford Journal 28 July 1770 Page 2 for death
  2. ^ Newcastle Chronicle, 07 September 1771, Page 1. "The Duchess of Portland was safely delivered of a son, at his Grace’s house in Charles-street, Berkeley-square"
  3. ^ Caledonian Mercury 28 October 1786 Page 2
  4. ^ "Marylebone Pages 242-279 The Environs of London: Volume 3, County of Middlesex. Originally published by T Cadell and W Davies, London, 1795". British History Online. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  5. ^ Kentish Gazette, 06 June 1794, Page 4