Social Victorians/People/Lyttelton

Also Known As

• Family name: Lyttelton
• Occasionally misspelled as Lyttleton, Littleton, or Littelton
• Baron of Frankley

Timeline

1839 July 25, Mary Glynne and George William Lyttelton, 4th Lord Lyttelton married.

1869 June 10, Sybella Harriet Clive and George William Lyttelton, 4th Lord Lyttelton married.

1885 May 21, Octavia Laura Mary Tennant and Alfred Lyttelton married.

1892 April 18, Edith Sophy Balfour and Alfred Lyttelton married.

1897 July 2, Friday, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton and Mrs. Edith Lyttleton attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House, as did the The Hon. S. Lyttelton.

Thomas Gresham, 1544

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

Sir Thomas Gresham

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, the Hon. Spencer (George William Spencer) Lyttelton (at 332), was dressed as Sir Thomas Gresham in the Queen Elizabeth procession.

Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (c. 1519 – 21 November 1579) founded the Royal Exchange, in London, and advised King Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth I. The portrait (right) was painted in 1544, when Sir Thomas Gresham was 26 years old and is in London; other portraits of him are in the Netherlands.

Mr. Alfred and Mrs. Edith Lyttelton

Mr. Alfred Lyttelton (at 579) and Mrs. Edith Lyttelton (at 580) were also present. Edith Lyttelton was dressed as a parson's daughter, dressed "in white satin, strapped with narrow ribbon, and trimmed real lace."

The Hon. Mrs. Edith Lyttelton, in costume after a picture by Romney. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Portrait of Mrs Edward Taylor, National Gallery of Ireland

Lafayette's portrait of "Dame Edith Sophy Lyttelton (née Balfour) after a picture by Romney" in costume is photogravure #194 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "The Hon. Mrs A. Lyttelton after a picture by Romney."

Not certainly the original for the costume worn by Edith Lyttelton, George Romney's Portrait of Mrs. Edward Taylor was acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland in 1918, so it is not certain right now if or where Mrs. Lyttelton might have seen it. The National Gallery acquired a Romney popularly called The Parson's Daughter, also called A Lady in a Brown Dress, in 1878, and a print was for sale in 1897. The Lady in a Brown Dress shows a bust of the subject, who is wearing a brown dress with the white lace around her neck and no flamboyant hat like the one worn by Edith Lyttelton. The Gentlewoman associates what Mrs. Lyttelton was wearing with the picture in the National Gallery at the time; we have no evidence that Edith Lyttelton had anything to do with this attribution.

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Family

• George William Lyttelton, 4th Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley (31 March 1817 – 19 April 1876)
• Mary Glynne (22 July 1813 – 17 August 1857)

1. Hon. Meriel Sarah Lyttelton (1840 – 22 April 1925)
2. Hon. Lucy Caroline Lyttelton (1841 – 22 April 1925)
3. Charles George Lyttelton, 8th Viscount Cobham (27 October 1842 – 9 June 1922)
4. Rev. Hon. Albert Victor Lyttelton (29 June 1844 – 4 April 1928)
5. General Rt. Hon. Sir Neville Gerald Lyttelton (28 October 1845 – 6 July 1931)
6. Hon. Spencer (George William Spencer) Lyttelton (12 June 1847 – 5 December 1913)
7. Hon. Lavinia Lyttelton (1849 – 9 October 1939)
8. Rt. Rev. Hon. Arthur Temple Lyttelton (7 January 1852 – 19 February 1903)
9. Hon. Robert Henry Lyttelton (18 January 1854 – 7 November 1939)
10. Rev. Hon. Edward Lyttelton (23 July 1855 – 26 January 1942)
11. Hon. Mary Catherine Lyttelton (1857 – 21 March 1875)
12. Rt. Hon. Alfred Lyttelton (7 February 1857 – 5 July 1913)

• Sybella Harriet Clive (20 June 1836 – 9 December 1900)

1. Hon. Sarah Kathleen Lyttelton (12 May 1870 – 1 October 1942)
2. Hon. Sybil Lyttelton (17 February 1873 – 2 October 1934)
3. Hon. Hester Margaret Lyttelton (26 December 1874 – 26 March 1958)

• Rt. Hon. Alfred Lyttelton (7 February 1857 – 5 July 1913)
• Octavia Laura Mary Tennant (1862 – 24 April 1886)

1. Alfred Christopher Lyttelton (1886 – 1888)

• Edith Sophy Balfour ( – 2 September 1948)

1. Mary Frances Lyttelton ( – 24 October 1982)
2. Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos (15 March 1893 – 21 January 1972)
3. Anthony George Lyttelton (3 June 1900 – 17 December 1901)

Questions and Notes

1. It seems likely from a search in newspapers.com and the Times that The Hon. George William Spencer Lyttelton may have been called Spencer Lyttelton. A historical Mr. Spencer Lyttelton died in 1889. I find Spencer Lyttelton on a yacht in Jamaica in 1892, at events of the Royal College of Music in 1892 and later in the decade, etc. One article calls him "the Hon. G. W. Spencer Lyttelton." He never married.
2. Alfred Lyttelton's first wife was Octavia Laura Mary Tennant, Margot Asquith's sister. His second wife is a Balfour, but she does not seem to have been in the immediate family of Arthur Balfour.