Henrietta Anne Clarell

## Henrietta Clarell, Viscountess Jersey

> I can say I had a happy life. God made me go through trials, but He also showed me answers.
>
> Henrietta to her yougest daughter, her namesake

**Henrietta "Henry" Anne Clarell** (née **Ruthven**) was the first born child of Elizabeth and Arthur Ruthven, Viscountess Jersey by marriage from 12 August 1734 until her husband's death in 5 September 1772 and Lady-in-waiting of Princess Anne of Great Britain from 13 January 1724 until the princess wedding in 25 March 1734.

## History

### Birth

**Henrietta "Henry" Anne Ruthven** was born on June 25, 1709, the eldest child of her parents and eldest grandchild in both sides, she was the only one of her siblings to be able to meet her paternal grandparents, since her grandmother passed away in 1710 and her grandfather in 1712.

Until the age of 3 she grew up in a considerable smaller house, but, after her father inherited the dukedom of Devon, she and her parents moved to the Ruthven Manor, a way larger place where Henrietta would remember dearly.

### Chilhood

> "Why can't I see Barbara?" "I told you, Henry, I don't want to see my mother's face, and, as a result, you will not visit your aunt. End of conversation"
>
> An argument between Henrietta and her mother, Elizabeth

As the eldest of her family, Henrietta lived a lonely early childhood, with no close in age cousins or sisters, only a maternal aunt, but her mother didn't have a good relationship with her own mother, so they mostly talked via letters. Because of that, she learned from a young age how to have fun by herself, she became addicted with books and reading and even wrote a novel at age eleven, and all her aunts made sure to read it and recommend to their girlfriends.

When she was 12 Henrietta started to act up, she was treating her younger brother poorly and her mother just couldn't stand being in the same room as her for more than ten minutes. Her father didn't understand why she changed so drastically, and decided it would be for the best to send her away for some time. Arthur and Elizabeth searched for distant relatives on her side that had settled down in the country and would accept their daughter for a couple months, teaching her the basics of how to be a proper lady and a good wife, and hopefully bring their sweet daughter back.

After some research Elizabeth remembered about a distant cousin that she had, a great-grandaughter of Elizabeth and Edward Coventry like her, born Coventry, Baroness Elinor Berrycloth. Elinor and her husband, the 7th Baron Levy, had decided after the birth of their third child, a son, to live apart, and she moved to the countryside with her two daughters, while the Baron and the boy stayed in London. Arthur met with the Lord in February 1722, and they came to an agremeent, Henrietta could stay with his wife and daughters until December, then she wold come back to her family and gather them for Christmas. If she liked the environment and wanted to stay more time, they would talk later.

Elizabeth and Elinor weren't close and barely exchanged letters before that, but, with her daughter being sent away she started a great relationship with her second cousin.

Henrietta wasn't as pleased as her parents with the decision, she begged her dad to stay with her, promised she would change, asked to spend some months instead with her grandparents and aunt, Lady Barbara Coventry, who she was friends with, but it was all in vain. At the morning of March 3rd, 1722, Henrietta said goodbye to her parents, kissed her younger brothers head, and got in her carriage with her luggages and two ladies-in-waiting, Miss Mary Brown, nineteen, and Mrs. Catherine Willow, twenty seven.

### Between March and December 1722

During Henrietta's moths at the Berrycloth Place in Bath she mostly learned how to sew, had extra classes of good conduct and builded up a good friendship with her cousins, Lady Louisa and Lady Maria Berrycloth. The girls had a lot in common, and were almost her age, Louisa being one year her senior and Maria one year her junior.

Henrietta ended up spending her 13th anniversary at Bath, and, when her presents from her family arrived her and the girls had a lot of fun opening them up. Their bond became realy strong with only a couple weeks, and the Baroness always sent happy letters to her cousin about the little ones.

Letters between Henrietta and Elizabeth were also common, and she even told her mother about how Louisa felt sorry for her mother about how disastrous her marriage ended up being.

At the end, when Henrietta was sent back home, she asked her parents to visit her cousins more frequently, but she wanted to stay with them most of the time. The travel also helped her to be more nice towards her two youger brothers, that, at the time, where only nine and one, she began to help her mother at home, and even sewed a small coat for Owen for the winter. Her relationship with her parents got better, and, even thought she never expressed such feelings in words for them, she was extremely happy that her parents loved eachother, principally after listening to Louisa and Maria's stories about their own family life.

### Life as Lady-in-waiting

At December 1723, when Henrietta was fourteen, she received an invite from, by the time, the Princess of Wales. Her eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, needed a new Lady-in-waiting, and young noble ladies were being invited so she could she which would fit better. Henrietta and her mother attended the reunion and the Princess Royal and Henrietta ended up having many things in common, and spent the whole time in a conversation. A couple weeks after, she was formally invited to join the Princess Royal as her Lady-in-waiting.

Between 13 January 1724 until 25 March 1734 Henrietta accompanied the princess in mostly everything that she needed, they ended up becoming good friends and Anne trusted her enough to even talk about her secrets and insecurities. The Princess Royal even joked in a letter, dated March 1729, to her dear friend that, maybe, she could try to have something with her older brother, Frederick, Prince of Wales, so her place at the court would be higher, but Henrietta never truly wanted such thing, as she didn't like the man as stated in letters to her cousin Louisa. But it is know that she had a close relationship with Anne's younger brother, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, while she was married, and her husband had suspicions that their third child, Lord Henry, was actually William's. The friendship ended shortly after the birth of the boy, and Henrietta and William Clarell were in good terms shortly after, and had one more child together three years later. It is unknow if Henrietta chose by herself to cut ties with the Prince or if her husband asked her to do so.

When the Princess Royal was married to the Prince of Orange in 25 March 1734 Henrietta thought she would come with her to the new country, but that was not the case. Anne thought it would be better for her friend to stay with her family, something she could never do, and start her own family in Great Britain. Henrietta was deeply hurt by that decision and their friendship became strained after that. Henrietta and Anne would reconcile only after the death of Anne's second child, Princess Anna, in December 1746.

In the testament of the then Princess of Orange, she left two portraits made by herself to her long life friend, one of them being Henrietta and Anne when they were younger, and another of what Anne thought she would be looking like at that point in life. They never saw eachother ever again after Anne's marriage.

### Marriages proposal

After Anne left England Henrietta felt lonely, her cousins were now married and with children, Louisa was now Baronetess Fernsby of Boxford, and Maria was Mrs. Edward Clarkson. Her own aunt, Barbara, was also married, and she just didn't had any more friends that she could relate to. She started then to feel anxious. After meeting Anne, she thought the rest of her life would be by her friend's side, in a country were she would reign as monarch and she would marry a foreigner, but that was no longer the truth.

Because of that, she decided to ask her mother to find a suitable man for her to marry. Being 24 was a bit of a problem, as some could see her as too old, but she saw her aunt, the Countess of Leicester, give birth to a healthy baby boy at 45, so she had hopes.

Her mother managed to find quite a good number of bachelors who where willing to marry a Duke's daughter. Elizabeth and Arthur wanted their daughter to choose her own husband, but she understood that her decision would be made with a certain close group of options. The men were:

* **Augustus William Fermor** (14 May 1701 - 30 August 1782), 12th Marquess of Ashbrook, heir to his father dukedom of Boltom
* **Charles David Gladstone** (21 January 1706 - 16 June 1770), 11th Marquess of Grey
* **Lord Richard Wellie Gladstone** (3 July 1707 - 10 October 1777), son of the 10th Marquess of Grey
* **Lord James David Gladstone** (24 March 1709 - 5 December 1768), son of the 10th Marquess of Grey
* **William Louis Clarell** (5 June 1712 - 13 February 1772), 4th Viscount of Jersey

The Gladstone boys were distant relatives of Henrietta by her great-great-grandmother, the first Countess of Leicester, Elizabeth Coventry. The four of them were descendents of her father, but Henrietta was from an illegitmate branch, while the Gladstones were the ritghful heirs of James Richard Gladstone, which made them fourth cousins.

The Marquess of Ashbrook had no relations with her, and the Viscount of Jersey was the half-brother of her first cousin, Lord George Nicholas Coventry, via a prior marriage of his mother Lady Maria Louisa Coventry.

After being showed her options, Henrietta firstly, with an act of boldness, cut out of the list Richard and James. She wanted to be able to have a title after marriage, and they both probably would never have one. She also didn't like the fact Augustus was to much older than her, so he was also out. With only two options viable, Henrietta decided she wanted to talk with the possible grooms. She wished to know them at leats a little bit, she would spend the rest of her life with them, and she feared to have a bad marriage like her cousins' parents.

The meeting with Charles was nice, he took her to a beautiful coffee place, he was gentle and even bought flowers to her, but the only topic of conversation he knew was marriage. She wasn't stupid, she knew why they were meeting and what would probably happen to them, but she wanted to laugh, she wanted to smile and have fun conversations. That wasn't possible with Charles. And the fact that hetold her he wished to have ten kids scared the hell out of her, and Henrietta just couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

### Meeting with William Clarell

> "Do you believe in love at first sign?" Her eyes sparkled and she tilied her head to look at him. William wanted to punch himself by such idiot question, but he just couldn't hold it to himself any longer. "Three months ago? No." He stopped breathing for a second, "Now? I could say yes, I guess"
>
> Henrietta and William talking at the park in May 1734

The first time Henrietta and William met was during the weding of his mother, Maria Louisa Medeley, and her uncle, the 4th Earl of Leicester, in 1726. She was only seventeen and he was fourteen, and they barely talked. They were young and he was busy with his older sister, Wilhelmina Maria Clarell, taking care of their younger half-sister, Louisa Anna Medeley. After that, they would only see eachother again after he graduated, in 1734.

When her and William met as adults, it was completly different, different from the first time they met and different from the meeting with Charles that Henrietta had just one week before. It was the beggining of March and the weather was nice. He was youger than her, and she questioned why he would be open to marriage at such young age. She knew it was different for men and women, while being in her mid-twenties was a con for the wedding market, a man being close to thirty was good. And there he was, soon to be 22 and making her laugh in the middle of a park and wishing to marry her 24 person.

After two moths of courtship, she went to see her father and tell him she had made her decision. She wished to marry William Clarell. She mentioned her reasons and why he would be a good partner, she told him how he made her laugh, like he always did with her mom, and also said the possibility of her falling in love with him.

The wedding was settled at 12 August 1734, about three moths after the announcement of the engagement. Her soon to be mother-in-law helped her and her mother with the preparation and William's older sister, Wilhelmina, now Countess of Pearlmore, also traveled from the countryside to be there, even thought she was heavily pregnant.

The newlyweds chose to a big cerimony so that all their family members could be present, and Henrietta was able to invite Princesses Amelia and Caroline and the Queen herself, that happily attended the wedding.

### Married life

During the beggining of the wedding William and Henrietta had a happy relationship, the birth of their three oldest children one after the other was a proof of it, but, after a couple years, mostly after thir fifth year together, all the unconditional love that surrounded the young couple blown away.

At first, they worked hard to keep their marriage alive, but, in letters from William to his half-brother, Thomas Medeley, 7th Duke of Albersmith, it is clear that around 1740 he was having an affair, and, around a year later, Henrietta found out.

After the shock of finding out that her husband was sleeping with another woman years younger than him, Henrietta decided to live apart from him. She moved to a smaller house in the center of London and started to participate in even more parties in the court and ended up starting a friendship with Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. he was twelve years her junior. He was mostly away because of his military career, so him and Henrietta would exchange letters most of the time.

It took a long time for the couple to reconcile since Henrietta refused to go back home while her husband did not apologise for the affair, but he kept dening such thing and saying that she understood everything wrong. They only met eachother again after their eldest child, Lady Frances, asked as a birthday present for her 8th anniversary to see her parents happily together again.

In 16 June 1743 Henrietta and William were both present for Frances' birthday, after the event they both talked, trying to make things better, and they most likely ended up sleeping together again, since nine months later Henrietta gave birth to their fourth chil, a boy, Henry Edmund. Because of that, William had questions about the parentage of the boy, but Henrietta assured that she, unlike him, never ever slept with someone else, and that Henry was his son, and his ice blue eyes, just like William's, were the proof.

Henrietta officially moved back with her husband in December 1743, and four years later she gave birth to their last child, a girl, named after her. Their marriage grew to be happy again, William never cheated on his wife again, and their youger kids never found out about the crisis that their parents had in their relationship. Frances, Arthur and George got used to not ask about that time period, and the Viscount and Viscountess preferred to just pretend that never happened. William passed away before his wife, and after Henrietta died she asked to be burried by his side, so then she could rest the eternity with the man she loved dearly for so long.

### Issue

 Arthur Clarell, 5th Viscount of Jersey
 Lord George Clarell
 Lord Henry Clarell
 Henrietta Ruthven, Duchess of Devon

### Widowhood

During the eleven years of widowhood Henrietta decided to take a simple life, after her son inherited the viscountcie she moved to the same house she stayed during the years of separation from her husband and kept an habit of visiting her children and grandchilfren every week. By being the last surviving child of her parents, she didn't have any siblings to spend her elderly years, only her cousin Louisa and her aunt Barbara.

She enjoyed doing charity in her last years and was always happy to teach her granddaughters how to sew, like her cousin did to her years prior.

She died in her sleep at 73.

## Personality

Since at early age Henrietta was a extrovert kid, she had no problems with talking to strangers and making friends fast, she just willingly chose to not do so. She enjoyed having some time by herself, read books and do walkings around the city with her ladies-in-waiting. During her time in court she started to hate having too many people around her, and she didn't trust most of them. As she got older, around her fifties, she started to wish for more friends and felt lonely most of the time, relying on her children and grandchildren to fulfil the space.

Being also a fashion lover, and, after she joined the life of the court as Princess Anne's Lady-in-waiting, she started to buy even more dresses and using makeup imported from France. Because of that, older people tended to overlook her and judge her as a naive child, even though Henrietta was always extremely smart and knew what to do to get the right people to like her, which shocked those who didn't put faith on her.

Even if she didn't like to be with too many people in the same room, her time as Lady-in-waiting teached her a lot. As she was very easy to talk people usualy went to her during balls and events. After some time she learned who was interessed in the same things and topics as her, which helped things to get easy.

When she left her place as Lady-in-waiting she was already used to be an outspoking person, who knew how to throw a ball and a good hoster. She was gentle and caring with her close family and friends, and funny but serious when necessary.

## Relationships

### Love Interests

#### William Louis Clarell, 4th Viscount of Jersey

Officially, the only person Hernietta ever was romantically involved was her husband. She never, in any letters, said something about having an affair during the years she was separated from him neither talked about having any experience prior her marriage. In fact, in a letter to his half-brother Thomas, William wrote about how Henrietta was "*A smart woman about everything but what husband and wife do after they say yes*". And later, when Henrietta's youger sister was about to get married in 1750, she wrote to Joanna's about her wishes to have a conversation before everything so then "*You will be able to know more than I did when I was in your position.* "*Mother told me barely nothing, maybe for embarrassment, we will just never know*".