Louisa Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn


Louisa Jane Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, VA was a member of the British aristocracy. She was the sister of Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, and among her descendants are two British princesses and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

Biography

She was the wife of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, and the daughter of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, by his second wife, Lady Georgiana Gordon. She was the mother of Louisa Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch, and therefore the paternal great grandmother of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and the maternal 2nd great-grandmother of Prince William of Gloucester and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester. She was also the mother of James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Abercorn.

Early life, marriage, and family

Lady Louisa Jane Russell was born on Wednesday, 8 July 1812. She was the sixth child of eight, and a second daughter for John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford and Lady Georgiana Gordon.
On Thursday, 25 October 1832, at Gordon Castle, in Morayshire, Scotland, Louisa married James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn, the son of James Hamilton, Viscount Hamilton, and Harriet Douglas. Louisa and James had fourteen children, among them seven daughters, all of whom were ordered to marry into the peerage and no one beneath the rank of an earl:
In 1881, Louisa was invested as a Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert.
Louisa was still living at the time of the birth of her second great-grandson, the future Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, on 2 July 1903.

Death

The Duchess of Abercorn died at Coates Castle, Coates, West Sussex, England on Friday, 31 March 1905, aged 92. She survived her husband by almost twenty years.
She was interred on Wednesday, 5 April 1905, in Chenies, Buckinghamshire; she left an estate worth over £24,000.

Titles, honours, and awards