"THE FAIR QUAKER"
Stolid, unimaginative, and slow of thought, that Prince of Wales, who
was afterwards George III, is one of the last persons in the world to be
suspected of a love intrigue. Yet, by some strange irony, he has been
generally accepted as the hero of an _affaire-de-coeur_ in his youthful
days, and this is not the less remarkable because, so far as is known,
belief has been induced only by persistent rumour. No direct evidence,
personal or documentary, has ever been brought forward in support of the
story; and there is no mention of it in the memoirs of George's
contemporaries: even Horace Walpole, who referred to George as "chaste,"
never mentioned it, and it is inconceivable that that arrant
scandal-monger could have been acquainted with such a tit-bit of court
gossip and have refrained from retailing it. None the less there is a
marked reluctance to dismiss as baseless the alleged connexion between
George and Hannah Lightfoot, for, on the principle that there is no
smoke without fire, it seems extremely unlikely that the story can
have become so generally accepted unless it had at least some foundation
of truth.
[Illustration:
_By permission of Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., Ltd._
_From the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds_
MISS AXFORD
(_supposed to be a portrait of Hannah Lightfoot_)]
Mr. Thoms, who many years ago made an exhaustive study of the
subject[110], states that the first mention of it in print was to be
found in a letter to the editor of "The Monthly Magazine, or British
Register" for April, 1821, that is, after the death of George III; and
this, coupled with the absence of any reference to the story in the
memoirs of the day, threw very grave doubt on the authenticity of the
alleged romance. Since the appearance of Mr. Thom's _brochure_, however,
this particular reason for scepticism has been removed, for earlier
allusions have been discovered. "The Citizen" for Saturday, February 24,
1776, contains the following advertisement:--"_Court Fragments_. Which
will be published by 'The Citizen' for the Use, Instruction and
Amusement of Royal Infants and young promising Noblemen. 1. The history
and adventures of Miss L-hf--t, the Fair Quaker; wherein will be
faithfully portrayed some striking pictures of female constancy and
princely gratitude, which terminated in the untimely death of that lady,
and the sudden death of a disconsolate mother." The next recorded
reference is in the "Royal Register" for 1779, when the matter is
referred to as one familiar to most persons. "It is not believed even at
this time, by many people who live in the world, that he [King George]
had a mistress previous to his marriage. Such a circumstance was
reported by many, believed by some, disputed by others, but proved by
none; and with such a suitable caution was this intrigue conducted that
if the body of the people called Quakers, of which this young lady in
question was a member, had not divulged the fact by the public
proceedings of their meeting concerning it, it would in all probability
have remained a matter of doubt to this day."
[110] William J. Thoms: _Hannah Lightfoot, Queen Charlotte and the
Chevalier D'Eon. Dr. Wilmot's Polish Princess. Reprinted with some
additions, from "Notes and Queries," 1867._
Robert Huish, who wrote a life of George III, that, published in 1821,
must have been in part, at least, written during the monarch's life, was
also acquainted with the legend, for, though he does not mention the
girl's name, he makes a very obvious allusion to Hannah Lightfoot. He
states that after the Prince of Wales, at his mother's express desire,
declined to entertain George II's proposal for him to marry Princess
Sophia of Brunswick and stated he would wed only a Princess of the House
of Saxe-Gotha, his thoughts turned to love. "The Prince, though
surrounded with all the emblems of royalty, and invested with sovereign
authority, was nevertheless but a man, subject to all the frailties of
his nature, impelled by the powerful tide of passion," writes Huish in
his grandiloquent fashion; and, after some extravagantly phrased remarks
on the temptations that surround an heir-apparent, continues, "His
affections became enchained; he looked no more to Saxe-Gotha nor to
Brunswick for an object on which to lavish his love; he found one in the
secret recesses of Hampton, whither he often repaired, concealed by the
protecting shades of night, and there he experienced, what seldom falls
to the lot of princes, the bliss of the purest love. The object of his
affections became a mother, and strengthened the bond between them."
The reference to the affair in the letter of a correspondent "B" to "The
Monthly Magazine" has, at least, the merit of being more explicit than
that of the historian. "All the world is acquainted with the attachment
of the late King to a beautiful Quakeress of the name of Wheeler. The
lady disappeared on the royal marriage, in a way that has always been
interesting, because unexplained and mysterious. I have been told she is
still alive, or was lately. As connected with the life of the late
sovereign, the subject is curious; and any information through your
pages would doubtless be agreeable to many of your readers." It appears
that the writer of this letter attributed too much knowledge to "all the
world," for, as will now be shown, it is remarkable how little was
known. The subject once started, however, there were plenty of people
ready to carry on the discussion.
In the July number of the same periodical "A Warminster Correspondent"
states that the name of the girl was not Wheeler but Hannah Lightfoot,
that Hannah had lived at the corner of St. James's Market, with her
mother and father, who kept a shop ("I believe a linen-draper's"), that
the Prince of Wales saw her, fell in love, and persuaded Elizabeth
Chudleigh, one of his mother's maids of honour,[111] to act on his
behalf. "The royal lover's relations took alarm, and sent to inquire for
a young man to marry her," he continues. "Isaac Axford was a shopman to
Barton the grocer, on Ludgate Hill, and used to chat with her when she
came to the shop to buy groceries. Perryn, of Knightsbridge, it was
said, furnished a place of meeting for the royal lover. An agent of Miss
Chudleigh called on Axford, and proposed that on his marrying Hannah he
should have a considerable sum of money. Hannah stayed a short time with
her husband, when she was taken off in a carriage, and Isaac never saw
her more. Axford learned that she was gone with Miss Chudleigh. Isaac
was a poorheaded fellow, or, by making a bustle about it, he might have
secured to himself a good provision. He told me, when I last saw him,
that he presented a petition at St. James's, which was not attended to;
also that he had received some money from Perryn's assignees on account
of his wife." Isaac, it seems, set up as a grocer at Warminster, his
native place, but retired from business before his death, which took
place about 1816 in the eighty-sixth year of his age; having long
before, believing his wife to be dead, married a Miss Bartlett, of
Keevil, North Wilts. "Hannah was fair and pure as far as I ever heard,"
the Warminster correspondent concludes, "but 'not the purest of all
pures' in respect of the house of Mr. Perryn, who left her an annuity of
L40 a year. She was, indeed, considered as one of the most beautiful
women of her time, disposed to _en bon point_."
[111] Elizabeth Chudleigh (1720-1788), married, first, Augustus Hervey
(afterwards third Earl of Bristol), and, second, Evelyn Duke of
Kingston.
The editor of "The Monthly Magazine" now became interested in the
matter, and himself took some trouble to elucidate the facts. "On
inquiry of the Axford family, who still are respectable grocers on
Ludgate Hill, we traced a son of the person alluded to in the letter, by
his second wife, Miss Bartlett, and ascertained that the information of
our correspondent is substantially correct. From him we learn that the
lady lived six weeks with her husband, who was fondly attached to her,
but one evening when he happened to be from home, a coach and four came
to the door, when she was conveyed into it and carried off at a gallop,
no one knew whither. It appears the husband was inconsolable at first,
and at different times applied for satisfaction about his wife at
Weymouth and other places, but died after sixty years in total ignorance
of her fate. It has, however, been reported that she had three sons by
her lover, since high in the Army; that she was buried in Islington
under another name--and even that she is still living."[112]
[112] _The Monthly Magazine_, July, 1821.
"A retreat was provided for Hannah in one of those large houses,
surrounded with a high wall and garden, in the district of
Cat-and-Mutton Fields, on the East side of Hackney Road, leading from
Mile End Road, where she lived, and, it is said, died."--_Notes and
Queries_, 1st series, vol. 8, p. 87.
The research of the editor of "The Monthly Magazine" bears out in the
main his correspondent's statements, and if in one account it is said
that Axford was shopman to Barton the grocer on Ludgate Hill, and in the
other that he was the son of a grocer on Ludgate Hill, these may be
reconciled by the acceptance of the theory that the man was not serving
his apprenticeship in his father's business. It is far more unlikely
that Hannah should go from St. James's Market to Ludgate Hill to
purchase her groceries. It is agreed that Hannah stayed with her husband
for a while after marriage, and it is not unnatural that the Axford
family should suppress the mention of money paid to their forbear and of
the circumstances that induced the payment. A more serious discrepancy,
however, comes to light. "A Warminster Correspondent" remarks that
Axford knew Hannah was with Miss Chudleigh; the family declares he was
ignorant of what happened to her, but say at the same time he "applied
about his wife at Weymouth." Why Weymouth, where George III sometimes
went, if he did not know what had happened to her? Why not Barnstaple,
or Leeds, or Edinburgh?
But now contradictions come fast and furious. "Isaac Axford never
co-habited with his wife. She was taken away from the church door the
same day they were married, and he never heard of her afterwards" states
a contributor to the September number of "The Monthly Magazine"; adding
that Hannah was frequently seen at the door of the St. James's Market
shop by the Prince of Wales as he drove by in going to and from
Parliament and that Axford (who was shopman to Bolton the grocer in
Ludgate Hill) subsequently presented a petition to the King about her in
the park, but obtained little address. The same writer clears Hannah's
reputation so far as Perryn is concerned, by stating that they were
relatives, and thus furnishing an innocent motive for the legacy.
As confusion became worse confounded, some level-headed man asked a
series of questions,[113] of which the most pertinent were: "When and
where did the marriage take place of Hannah Lightfoot, a Quaker, to I.
Axford? Where is the evidence that she was the same Quaker who lived at
the corner of St. James's Market, and was admired by Prince George?"
Facts, however, were just what were not forthcoming, though "Inquirer"
(who claimed to be a member of the Lightfoot family), in a letter to the
October issue of the magazine actually gives a date.
[113] _The Monthly Magazine_, September, 1821.
"Hannah Lightfoot, when residing with her father and mother, was
frequently seen by the King when he drove to and from Parliament House,"
"Inquirer" says. "She eloped in 1754, and was married to Isaac Axford at
Keith's Chapel, which my father discovered about three weeks after, and
none of her family have seen her since, though her mother had a letter
or two from her--but at last died of grief. There were many fabulous
stories about her, but my aunt (the mother of Hannah Lightfoot) could
never trace any to be true." "Inquirer" states that "the general belief
of her friends was that she was taken into keeping by Prince George
directly after her marriage with Axford, but never lived with him," and
adds, "I have lately seen a half-pay cavalry officer from India, who
knew a gentleman of the name of Dalton, who married a daughter of Hannah
Lightfoot by the King, but who is dead."[114]
[114] "With respect to the son born of this marriage, and said to be
still living at the Cape of Good Hope, I think ... there must be some
mistake. I was at the Cape of Good Hope in 1830, and spent some time at
Mr. George Rex's hospitable residence at the Knysna. I understood from
him that he had been about thirty-four years in the colony, and I should
suppose he was about sixty-eight years of age, of a strong, robust
appearance, and the exact resemblance in features to George III. This
would bring him to about the time, as stated in Dr. Doran's work, when
George III married Hannah Lightfoot. On Mr. Rex's first arrival at the
colony, he occupied a high situation in the Colonial Government, and
received an extensive grant of land at the Knysna. He retired there, and
made most extensive improvements. His eldest son named John--at the time
I was there, lived with his father, and will now most probably be the
representative of George Rex."--William Harrison: _Notes and Queries_,
February 9, 1861.
The statement contradicted by Mr. Harrison had appeared in _Notes and
Queries_, October 24, 1868: "When the Duke of Edinburgh went sporting in
Cape Colony he was attended by George Rex and family, according to _The
Times_ account."
So far, then, Hannah Lightfoot (or Wheeler, or, as another writer says,
Whitefoot) was seen by the Prince of Wales on his visits to Parliament
(or, as it is otherwise stated by one who declared that the Prince would
not have passed by St. James's Market on his way to Parliament, or on
his way to the Opera), who fell in love with her, and secured the aid of
Miss Chudleigh to persuade her to leave her home, but his family, being
alarmed, paid Isaac Axford, shopman to Barton (or Bolton) to marry her,
and then she was at once (or after six weeks) taken into keeping by the
Prince. This is not very plain sailing, but the incident took place more
than sixty years before the discussion arose, and the discrepancies are
not unnatural after that lapse of time; but at least there has been
given the place and date of the marriage of Hannah with Isaac--Keith's
Chapel, 1754. Alexander Keith was a clergyman who married parties daily
between the hours of ten and four for the fee of one guinea, inclusive
of the licence, at the Mayfair Chapel to which he gave his name. These
marriages were irregular or "Fleet" marriages, and Keith's carelessness
in conducting them subjected him in October, 1742, to public
excommunication, when, in return, he as publicly excommunicated the
bishop of the diocese, and Dr. Trebeck, the rector of the neighbouring
St. George's, Hanover Square, on being told a stop would be put to his
marrying. "Then," said he, "I'll buy two or three acres of ground, and,
by God, I'll _underbury_ them all!" However, the Marriage Act of 1753
put a stop to his trade.
As a matter of fact, according to the Register of Marriages at St.
George's Chapel, Mayfair, published in 1889 by the Harleian Society,
Hannah Lightfoot married Isaac Axford, of St. Martin's, Ludgate, at
Keith's Chapel on December 11, 1753. Therefore, her intrigue with George
must have taken place when he was fifteen years of age!
So far as "The Monthly Magazine" is concerned the discussion ceased in
1822, but a new point was raised two years later in "An Historical
Fragment relative to her late Majesty Queen Caroline," for, according to
this work, Hannah Lightfoot had married not Axford, but the Prince of
Wales. "The Queen (Caroline) at this time, laboured under a very curious
and, to me unaccountable, species of delusion. She fancied herself in
reality neither a queen nor a wife. She believed his present Majesty to
have been actually married to Mrs. Fitzherbert; and she as fully
believed that his late Majesty George the Third was married to Miss
Hannah Lightfoot, the beautiful Quakeress, previous to his marriage with
Queen Charlotte; and as that lady did not die until after the birth of
the present King and his Royal Highness the Duke of York, her Majesty
really considered the Duke of Clarence the true heir to the throne."
The marriage of Hannah Lightfoot and the Prince of Wales is insisted
upon in the scurrilous "Authentic Records of the Court of England for
the last Seventy Years" (which includes in its list of contents such
items as "The Bigamy of George the Third" and "The Infamous and
cold-blooded MURDERS of the Princess Charlotte, and of Caroline, Queen
of England") and in "The Secret History of the Court of England." "The
unhappy sovereign while Prince of Wales was in the daily habit of
passing through St. James's Street and its immediate vicinity," so runs
a passage in the "Secret History." "In one of his favourite rides
through that part of the town he saw a very engaging young lady, who
appeared by her dress to be a member of the Society of Friends. The
Prince was much struck by the delicacy and lovely appearance of this
female, and for several succeeding days was observed to walk out alone.
At length the passion of his Royal Highness arrived at such a point that
he felt his happiness depended upon receiving the lady in marriage.
Every individual in his immediate circle or in the list of the Privy
Council was very narrowly questioned by the Prince, though in an
indirect manner, to ascertain who was most to be trusted, that he might
secure, honourably, the possession of the object of his ardent wishes.
His Royal Highness, at last, confided his views to his next brother,
Edward, Duke of York, and another person, who were the only witnesses to
the _legal_ marriage of the Prince of Wales to the before-mentioned
lady, Hannah Lightfoot, which took place at Curzon Street Chapel,
Mayfair, in the year 1759. This marriage was productive of _issue_."
Later in the same book it is stated that George III, after his marriage
with Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, reproached himself with
cowardice because he had not avowed the earlier and secret union. "At
this period of increased anxiety to His Majesty, Miss Lightfoot was
disposed of during a temporary absence of his brother Edward, and from
that time no _satisfactory_ tidings ever reached those most interested
in her welfare. The only information that could be obtained was that a
young gentleman, named Axford, was offered a large amount, to be paid on
the consummation of his marriage with Miss Lightfoot, which offer he
willingly accepted. The King was greatly distressed to ascertain the
fate of his much-beloved and legally-married wife, the Quakeress, and
entrusted Lord Chatham to go in disguise and endeavour to trace her
abode; but the search proved fruitless." The "Secret History" contains
other references to this story, and it is narrated how the King, during
his madness in 1765 frequently demanded the presence of "the wife of his
choice," and showed the utmost disgust when the Queen was brought to
him; and how, on another occasion he is declared to have implored not to
be disturbed with "retrospection of past irreparable injury." Many years
later, Dr. Doran gives credence to the report that when Queen Charlotte
sent for her eldest son on hearing of his marriage with Mrs.
Fitzherbert, he said, "My father would have been a happier man if he had
remained true to his marriage with Hannah Lightfoot."
In "The Appeal for Royalty" (1858) there are given copies of two
marriage certificates; the first dated Kew Chapel, April 17, 1759,
signed "George P., Hannah"; the second "at this residence at Peckham,"
May 27, 1759, signed "George Guelph, Hannah Lightfoot;" the officiating
clergyman being J. Wilmot, and the witnesses William Pitt and Anna
Taylor. The same book contains also a copy of Hannah's will.
"Hampstead, July 7, 1763.
"Provided I depart this life, I recommend my two sons and my
daughter to the kind protection of their Royal Father, my husband
his Majesty George III, bequeathing whatever property I may die
possessed of to such dear offspring of my ill-fated marriage. In
case of the death of each of my children, I give and bequeath to
Olive Wilmot, the daughter of my best friend, Dr. Wilmot, whatever
property I am entitled to, or possessed of at the time of my death.
Amen.
"(signed) HANNAH Regina.
"Witnesses J. DUNNING.
"WILLIAM PITT."
These documents in "The Appeal for Royalty" have, however, been proved
in a court of law to be "gross and rank forgeries," and, indeed, their
authenticity can never, for a moment, have been accepted. Nor do the
statements in the "Historical Fragment" concerning Queen Charlotte carry
conviction, even though Bradlaugh, in his "House of Hanover," remarks
that "Hannah Lightfoot died in the winter of 1764," and "in the early
part of the year 1765, the King being then scarcely sane, a second
ceremony of marriage with the Queen was then privately performed by the
Rev. A. Wilmot at Kew Palace."
Still, there remains the fact that the statements in the "Authentic
Records" and in "The Secret History" corroborate each other; but it
would be strange if this were not so, for there is little doubt that,
though the first was issued anonymously and the second bears upon the
title-page Lady Anne Hamilton, the real author of both was Mrs. Olivia
Serres. When it is added that in all probability Mrs. Serres also wrote
the "Historical Fragment" and that her daughter, Mrs. Ryves, was
responsible for "The Appeal for Royalty," it is seen that in all
probability the marriage of Hannah to the heir-apparent was made (and,
most likely, invented) by one person only.[115]
[115] The arguments as to the authorship of the various works to which
reference is made are set forth in the Appendix to Mr. Thoms's
_brochure_.
Mrs. Olivia Serres (1772-1834) was the daughter of James Wilmot, who, as
stated above, claimed to have married Hannah Lightfoot and the Prince of
Wales. She married in 1791 the marine painter, John Thomas Serres. She
claimed in 1817 to be a natural daughter of Henry Frederick, Duke of
Cumberland, and three years later declared herself the Duke's legitimate
daughter, when she assumed the title of Princess Olive of Cumberland.
Her daughter, Lavinia Janetta Horton de Serres, afterwards Mrs. Ryves,
called herself Princess Lavinia of Cumberland and Duchess of Lancaster,
and published "The Appeal for Royalty" and other writings relating to
her claim to the title.
That George III may have married Hannah Lightfoot is not in itself
unthinkable, for royalty has before and since allied itself to maids of
low degree. George III's brother, Henry, Duke of Cumberland, married
Mrs. Horton, while William, Duke of Gloucester, chose for his wife the
Dowager Countess of Waldegrave, and even after the passing of the Royal
Marriage Act the prince who was afterwards George IV went through the
ceremony of marriage with a lady belonging to the Roman Catholic Church,
thus defying the provisions of that Bill and of the Act of Settlement.
If George III married Hannah Lightfoot, then, as there was then no Royal
Marriage Act, Hannah Lightfoot was Queen of England. There is, however,
no evidence to establish even a justifiable suspicion of a marriage
between the Prince of Wales and Hannah Lightfoot. It is incredible that
the Great Commoner should have been a witness, and it is not to be
believed that in disguise he sought for the girl. Still, Pitt may not
have been a witness and neither with or without disguise may he have
sought for Hannah, and yet the story may not be without some
foundation. It must be admitted, however, that even the many statements
as to an intrigue between the couple have been based upon hearsay: no
one who knew Hannah during the time it is alleged she was the Prince's
mistress has spoken, and the nearest approach to direct testimony has
been obtained from one who knew Axford or others who knew members of the
Lightfoot or Axford families. Yet Jesse, Justin McCarthy, and other
writers on George III, accept the theory of the intrigue, and without
reserve, though it is in contradiction to all that is known of the young
man's character at that time. Indeed, George Scott, his tutor, told Mrs.
Calderwood that while the Prince of Wales "has the greatest temptation
to gallant with the ladies, who lay themselves out in the most shameful
manner to draw him in," their efforts did not attract the Prince, for he
realized that "if he were not what he was they would not mind him"; and,
at the period of the supposed romance Scott declared that his erstwhile
pupil "has no tendency to vice, and has as yet very virtuous
principles;" while further contradiction of the rumour may be found in a
letter written in 1731 by George III to Lord North about his son's
entanglement with "Perdita" Robinson, "I am happy at being able to say
that I never was personally engaged in such a transaction."
[Illustration:
_Photo by Emery Walker_
_From the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds_
LADY SARAH LENNOX SACRIFICING TO THE MUSES]