The Scudamore Heiress

Contributed by Hugh Wood

Being a wealthy heiress, Frances Scudamore (1711-1750) could afford to enjoy life, and in doing so she acquired a rather dubious reputation. Alexander Pope said of her ‘My Lady Scudamore really behaves scandalously among us”. She was the sole heir of James Scudamore  3rd Viscount Scudamore of Holme Lacy near Hereford. Although the viscountcy became extinct, when her father died, all his estates devolved on her.

The Scudamore arms are Gules three stirrups leathered and buckled or.
The hatchment opposite is that of Frances’ mother, Viscountess Scudamore (née Digby). It shows their impaled arms on a lozenge, surmounted by a viscount’s coronet, and we can see that she was a widow..

In 1729 Frances married Henry Somerset 3rd Duke of Beaufort who changed his surname from Somerset to Scudamore. Thirteen years later, however, he sued for divorce, citing his wife’s adultery with William Talbot. Nothing daunted, she countersued, claiming that the duke was impotent. Official examiners were appointed by the court, and the duke was able to demonstrate that the claim was false.

Holme Lacy is now a Warner hotel

The divorce was granted and in 1744 she married Charles Fitzroy (d1782), an illegitimate son of Charles Fitzroy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, and great-grandson of Charles II.

His arms were the royal Stuart arms debruised by a baton sinister compony of six pieces argent and azure.

Following his marriage he changed his surname to Fitzroy-Scudamore and quartered the Scudamore arms with his own.

The funeral hatchment of Frances Scudamore (d1750) is very interesting indeed, as it includes the Scudamore arms in two capacities. It shows the quartered arms of Grafton and Scudamore, as mentioned above. The fact that Frances was an heiress who brought the Scudamore arms to her husband’s family is indicated by her arms being included on an escutcheon of pretence. In normal circumstances we would expect the Scudamore arms on this escutcheon to only appear as a quartering in the arms of the next generation, so it is quite unusual to find them already established as a quartering before her death. Her husband survived her by 32 years.

Frances and Charles had one daughter, another only child called Frances, who married Charles Howard 11th Duke of Norfolk in 1771. Soon after their marriage the duchess became insane and she was locked away for over 40 years. She died in 1820, five years after the duke. They had no children.

This sad lady’s hatchment is also at Holme Lacy. Like her mother she was an heiress, bringing her father’s arms to her husband. However this is a very simple pared-down coat of arms. Presumably to avoid overcrowding the lozenge, her husband’s arms are reduced to just the main Howard family arms. Rather more surprisingly, on the sinister side, her mother’s Scudamore arms have been preferred to those of her father. Another surprise is that their arms are shown impaled together, when we would have expected hers to be on an escutchion of pretence. Note the ducal coronet and supporters.

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