Social Victorians/People/Essex

Also Known As

• Family name: Capell (Capel until 23 July 1880)
• Earl of Essex (England peerage)
  • Arthur Algernon Capell, 6th Earl of Essex (23 April 1839 – 11 September 1892)
  • George Devereux de Vere Capell, 7th Earl of Essex (11 September 1892 – 25 September 1916)
• Countess of Essex
  • Lady Caroline Janetta Beauclerk Capell (23 April 1839 – 22 August 1862)
  • Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle (3 June 1863 – 5 May 1876)
  • Louisa Elizabeth Heneage (25 April 1881 – 11 September 1892)
  • Adele Grant Capell (14 December 1893 – 25 September 1916, when the earl died)
• Courtesy Titles
  • Viscount Malden
    • Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden (23 April 1839 – 10 March 1879)
    • George Devereux de Vere Capell (10 March 1879 – 11 September 1892)
  • Baron Capell of Hadham

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Adele Grant Capell

• Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Edward VII
• Earl Cairns (before the wedding was called off, possibly c. 1883)
• the Duke of Connaught (after 1916)

Organizations

Adele Grant Capell

• Grant Locomotive Works, U.S.A.
• "The Lovely Five"
  1. Adele Capell, Countess of Essex
  2. Mary Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland
  3. Lady Sybil Fane, Countess of Westmorland
  4. The Countess of Lytton
  5. Daisy (Frances Evelyn) Greville, Countess of Warwick

Timeline

1825 July 14, Arthur Algernon Capell and Lady Caroline Janetta Beauclerk married.

1853 January 23, Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden and Emma Martha Meux married.

1863 June 3, Arthur Algernon Capell, 6th Earl of Essex and Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Boyle married.

1881 April 25, Arthur Algernon Capell, 6th Earl of Essex and Louisa Elizabeth Heneage married.

1882 July 12, George Devereux de Vere Capell and Ellenor Harriet Maria Hartford married.

1883?, Adele Grant cancelled her wedding to the Earl of Cairns the day before the wedding was to occur.

1893 December 14, 2:30 p.m., Adele Grant married George Devereux de Vere Capell, 7th Earl of Essex, his second wife. Her uncle R. Suydam Grant gave her away; Archdeacon Farrar led the service, and Arthur Sullivan played the organ.

1897 July 2, Friday, the Earl and Countess of Essex attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House.

1902, George, 7th Earl of Essex bought for Adele the Essex Tiara, providing 759 brilliant and 289 rose-cut diamonds for the design, "which was inspired by a Malaysian headdress" and made by Cartier.

1905 September 28, Algernon George de Vere Capell, 8th Earl of Essex and Mary Eveline Stewart Freeman married.

1916 September 25, George, the 7th Earl died, making Algernon George de Vere Capell the 8th Earl of Essex and Adele the Dowager Countess of Essex.

1920, Adele Capell and her stepson, the 8th Earl of Essex, sold Cassiobury House.

Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball

Robert Devereaux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1590

George Cappell, 6th Earl of Essex

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, George Cappell, 6th Earl of Essex (at 64) was seated at Table 5 in the first seating for supper and dressed as his ancestor, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex in the Queen Elizabeth procession.

• "Earl of Essex (time of Elizabeth), black satin, doublet, trunk, and hose, embroidered in silver and steel, and puffed with turquoise; velvet mantle, with sable; velvet hat and ostrich plume."
• He went "As his ancestor in Elizabethan costume. Black satin doublet and trunk hose embroidered with mantle embroidered with silver and trimmed with sable fur, and velvet hat with ostrich plumes."
• "The Earl of Essex, as his Elizabethan ancestor, wore a black satin doublet and trunk hose, embroidered with silver bullion and steel."

His costume was made by "Simmons and Sons, of the Haymarket."

We do not have a photograph of George, Earl of Essex in costume. The portrait of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (right) was painted in 1590 by William Seger, court painter to Queen Elizabeth I; it has been in the National Gallery of Ireland since 1886. His black overcoat is covered in pearls in complex designs. The National Gallery of Ireland says, "It is thought to be the costume he wore to the Accession Day tilting in 1590 – an annual pageant that commemorated the monarch’s accession to the throne." This is one of several portraits of the 2nd Earl of Essex.

Adele Grant Capell, Countess Essex

Adela (née Grant), Countess of Essex in costume as Berenice, Queen of Palestine. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Titus et Berenice, in the Salon de Vénus in the Palace of Versailles, 1678

Adele Grant Capell, Countess Essex (at 194) was in the Duchess Procession and sat at Table 10 in the first supper seating.

Henry Bullingham's portrait of "Adela (née Grant), Countess of Essex as Berenice, Queen of Palestine" in costume is photogravure #197 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "The Countess of Essex as Berenice Queen of Palestine," with a Long S in Countess and Essex.

The crown the Countess of Essex is wearing suggests a halo and thus, perhaps, a reading of Berenice that exalts her. No image of her with a similar crown has come up.

The Berenice that Adele, Countess of Essex was thinking of is probably Berenice of Cilicia (28 – after 81), the subject of a great deal of art and literature in part because of her relationship with future emperor of Rome, Titus. The 1678 Titus et Berenice (right) is in the Salon de Vénus in the Palace of Versailles. The Countess of Essex also might have seen Racine's 1670 play about Berenice or Pre-Raphaelite Frederick Sandys' 1867 painting. Pietro Metastasio's libretto La Clemenza di Tito has been used for operas by more than 40 composers, not least of whom was Mozart (1791). Berenice's story is discussed in George Eliot's 1876 Daniel Deronda, which is possibly relevant if Adele, Countess of Essex read it.

Berenice is sometimes compared to Cleopatra and Zenobia, both of whom were present at the ball as well, Cleopatra twice.

Demographics

• Nationality: English
• Adele Grant Capell, American

Residences

• Family estate: Cassiobury House, Watford, Hertfordshire (until 1927)
• London residence (as of the 1920s anyway): 72 Brook Street, Mayfair

Family

• Arthur Algernon Capell, 6th Earl of Essex (27 January 1803 – 11 September 1892)
• Lady Caroline Janetta Beauclerk Capell (28 June 1804 – 22 August 1862)

1. Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden (22 July 1826 – 10 March 1879)
2. Lady Adela Caroline Harriett Capel (4 March 1828 – 31 December 18600
3. Hon. Reginald Algernon Capel (3 October 1830 – 31 July 1906)

• Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle ( – 5 May 1876)

1. Hon. Arthur Algernon Capell (27 July 1864 – 18 February 1940)
2. Lady Beatrice Mary Capell (7 December 1870 – 22 January 1954)

• Louisa Elizabeth Heneage ( – 25 January 1914)

• Arthur de Vere Capell, Viscount Malden (22 July 1826 – 10 March 1879)
• Emma Martha Meux Capell ( – 22 November 1905)

1. Lady Evelyn de Vere Capell ( – 14 November 1939)
2. George Devereux de Vere Capell (24 October 1857 – 25 September 1916)
3. Lady Sybil de Vere Capell (29 November 1858 – 20 February 1934)

• George Devereux de Vere Capell, 7th Earl of Essex (24 October 1857 – 25 September 1916)
• Ellenor Harriet Maria Hartford Capell (28 May 1860 – 31 December 1885)

1. Algernon George de Vere Capell, 8th Earl of Essex (21 February 1884 – 8 December 1966)

• Adele Grant ( – 28 July 1922)

1. Lady Iris Mary Athenais de Vere Capell (1895-1977)
2. Lady Joan Rachel de Vere Capell (1899-1979)

Relations

Adele Grant Capell

• Father: David Beach Grant
• Uncle: R. Suydam Grant

Notes and Questions

1. Lady Beatrice Capell is listed as having been invited, along with the Earl and Countess of Essex, to one of the other big social events as well.