Eleanor Coade (1733-1821) - artificial stone manufacturer extraordinaire

Close up view of the head of the Coade stone
statue of George III, Weymouth seafront © A Knowles

Profile

Eleanor Coade (3 June 1733 – 16 November 1821) was a Georgian businesswoman who successfully ran an artificial stone manufactory in London. There are many examples of Coade stone which still exist today including the King’s Statue, Weymouth. You can read more about Eleanor Coade and eleven other inspirational Georgian women in my book: What Regency Women Did For Us.

Available from Amazon here: What Regency Women Did for Us
 

 Early life

Eleanor Coade was born on 3 June 1733 in Exeter, Devon. She was the daughter of George Coade, a wealthy, non-conformist wool merchant, and his wife, Elizabeth Enchmarch. Eleanor had a younger sister, Elizabeth. In 1759, the family fortunes changed when George was declared bankrupt and they relocated to London.

Eleanor's Coade stone

By 1766, Eleanor, still unmarried, was operating as a linen draper. Three years later, seemingly unaffected by her father’s second bankruptcy, she bought an artificial stone manufactory situated at King’s Arms Stairs, Lambeth. Eleanor’s factory could produce in artificial stone almost anything that could be made in real stone, but at a cheaper price. Her products included decorative wall panels, vases and statues. She later diversified into scagliola – fake marble.

Eleanor was able to turn around the failing factory and make it successful. What set her business apart from other artificial stone manufactories was the quality and design of her products. She refined the formula for artificial stone – what she called lithodipyra – and carefully controlled the firing process, making her stone frost-resistant. She also employed top designers, most importantly, fellow non-conformist, the sculptor John Bacon (1740-1799).

View of Coade stone statues including the River God Thames inside the
kiln from European Magazine and London Review Volume 11 (1787)

In the 1780s, she took her cousin John Sealy into partnership and the business became known as Coade and Sealy.

The Coade Stone Gallery

Eleanor used every opportunity to promote her business. In the late 1790s, she built a gallery at the south bank end of Westminster Bridge where the public could come and view her products. She even sold guidebooks to visitors so that they could take a self-guided tour. The gallery participated so successfully in the peace illuminations of 1801 and 1802 that it was mentioned in The Times.

Eleanor drew people into her business by advertising in the newspaper when she had spectacular commissions on display, such as the colossal statue of Lieutenant-General Lord Hill, or new pieces for sale which she hoped would generate a lot of interest, such as the Warwick Vase.

Entrance to Coade and Sealy's Gallery of Sculpture
from European Magazine and London Review Volume 41 (1802)

The final years

When John Sealy died in 1813, the firm’s name reverted to Coade. Eleanor took on a distant relative, William Croggon, to manage the manufactory, but she did not make him her partner, nor did she leave him the business on her death.

Eleanor died at her home in Camberwell, Surrey, on 16 November 1821 aged 88 years. Her will included bequests to many charities and clergymen, and to numerous single women who were less fortunate than herself.

Coade stone

Coade stone has proved its durability by the number of pieces that have survived 200 years of facing the elements. Here are some that I have come across in my travels:

King’s Statue, Weymouth

A statue of George III on Weymouth seafront.

Statue of George III, Weymouth, Dorset

The River God, Ham House, Richmond

Statue of the River God, Ham House, Richmond

Coade stone lion in the visitor centre, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

The lion was designed by Benjamin West as a trial piece for the pediment in the King William Courtyard commemorating the achievements of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Coade stone lion, Old Royal
Naval College, Greenwich, London

Belmont House, Lyme Regis

This house was given to Eleanor by her uncle Samuel Coade and is decorated with Coade stone.

Belmont House, Lyme Regis, Dorset

Coade stone reliefs on Norwegian embassy, London

Coade stone relief, Norwegian embassy, London

Coade stone relief, Norwegian embassy, London

Coade stone torchere from Carlton House – one at Athelhampton House, Dorset

Coade stone torchere,
Athelhampton House, Dorset (2016)

Gothic conservatory, Carlton House, London, showing the Coade stone
torcheres in situ from Ackermann's Repository (1811)

Coat of arms on the front entrance of Saltram, Plymouth, Devon

Saltram, Plymouth, Devon

Twinings tea house, Strand, London

Entrance to Twinings tea house, Strand, London

Borghese Vase in Temple of Flora, Stourhead

Coade stone Borghese Vase in Temple of Flora, Stourhead

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian historical romance set in the time of Jane Austen. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 

Sources used include:
Ackermann's Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics (1811)
Kelly, Alison, Mrs Coade's Stone (1990)
Roberts, Sir Howard, and Godfrey, Walter H, Survey of London Volume XXIII - South Bank & Vauxhall Part 1 (1951)
The European Magazine and London review, volume 11 (1787)
The European Magazine and London review, volume 41 (1802)
The Times online archive

 

All photos © regencyhistory.net

A Regency History guide to titles for married daughters of dukes, marquesses and other peers

From left: Lady Anne Barnard, Lady Elizabeth Foster and Lady Caro Lamb
(for details of each picture, see below)

Last month I blogged about the correct way to refer to dukes and lesser peers in narrative. You can find that blog post here. This post tackles the subject of titles of married daughters of peers. 

My previous post provoked a lot of discussion. The most searching question I was asked (by my husband Andrew who is used to me muttering about titles being used wrongly) was whether titles were used correctly at the time or whether these rules were just the ‘correct’ way and abused as much as the rules of grammar are today. In response to this, I have included some examples from contemporary newspapers and magazines to illustrate whether the rules seem to have been applied or not.

I have studied the rules and drawn up some charts which show what title the married daughter of a peer takes, based on my interpretation of these rules. 

Married daughters of dukes

If the daughter of a duke marries a peer, she takes his title. If she marries the eldest son of a peer, she takes his title, but in the case of the heir of an earl or lesser peer, she may choose to keep her own title until her husband inherits. In all other cases, she keeps her own title, even if she marries the younger son of a duke, as the daughter of a peer ranks higher than a younger son of the same level of peerage.

Let us take the fictitious example of Lady Augusta Hampton, daughter of the Duke of Wessex, and her marriage to Charles North of Swanage of varying rank. 

Did they follow the rules?

There were very few dukes (only 18 English dukes at the end of the Regency period) and as most of their daughters married peers, I have struggled to find records of these rules coming into play.

The only example I have found is in a newspaper report on the presentations at the Queen’s Drawing Room in The Times on 13 April 1810 and this appears to show them being used wrongly. Among those presented to the Queen were Lord and Lady Leveson Gower.

Granville Leveson Gower was the younger son of the Marquess of Stafford. At this date, he had no peerage of his own. His wife was Harriet, the daughter of the Duke of Devonshire. According to the rules, I would have expected to see them listed as Lord Granville Leveson Gower (title from his father) and Lady Harriet Leveson Gower (title from her father), but in this report, both Christian names were omitted. It is hard to tell whether this is significant or just a space saving exercise in the newspaper!

Harriet, Countess Granville, by Thomas Barber
the elder (1809-10), at Hardwick Hall,
National Trust via Wikimedia Commons

Married daughters of marquesses

If the daughter of a marquess marries a peer, she takes his title. If she marries the eldest son of a peer, she takes his title, but in the case of the heir of an earl or lesser peer, she may choose to keep her own title until her husband inherits. If she marries the younger son of a duke, she may choose to take his title or keep her own. In all other cases, she keeps her own title.

In this example, Lady Augusta Hampton is now the daughter of the Marquess of Denmead who is marrying Charles North of Swanage of varying rank.

As with dukes, there were similarly few marquesses in the Regency and I have no records of examples to share.

Married daughters of earls

If the daughter of an earl marries a man of equal or greater rank, she takes his title. In all other cases she retains her own title.

Lady Augusta Hampton is now the daughter of the Earl of Harting who is marrying Charles North of Swanage of varying rank.

Were these titles actually used? 

Earl’s daughter marrying a commoner

There were many more earls than dukes or marquesses in the Regency and there are plenty of instances of daughters of peers marrying commoners and retaining their titles. For example, Lady Anne Lindsay, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Balcarres, married a commoner, Andrew Barnard, and became known as Lady Anne Barnard (You can read about her here.)

Lady Anne Barnard from South Africa a Century Ago (1910)

Lady Elizabeth Foster is another example. The untitled Elizabeth Hervey married the untitled John Foster, but when her father became 4th Earl of Bristol, she was entitled to be known as Lady Elizabeth Foster – the title by which she is best known.

Lady Elizabeth Foster, later Duchess of Devonshire,
in South Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth

Earl’s daughter marrying heir of viscount

Caroline Ponsonby was the daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, Viscount Duncannon. When her father became 3rd Earl of Bessborough, Caroline became known as Lady Caroline Ponsonby, and she kept this title on her marriage to William Lamb, who had no courtesy title as the eldest surviving son of Viscount Melbourne. As Caroline died before William inherited, she never shared his title.

Lady Caroline Lamb
from Wives of the Prime Ministers (1844-1906)

Earl’s daughter marrying baronet

Lady Anne Lowther, daughter of William Lowther, Earl of Lonsdale, married Sir John Beckett, Baronet. In an illustrative memoir in La Belle Assemblée in 1829, she was referred to as Lady Anne Beckett.

Married daughters of viscounts

If the daughter of a viscount marries a man of equal or higher rank, she takes his title. If she marries a man of lower rank, she retains her own title.

The Honourable Augusta Hampton is now the daughter of the Viscount Droxford who is marrying Charles North of Swanage of varying rank.

Married daughters of barons

If the daughter of a baron marries a man of equal or higher rank, she takes his title. If she marries a man of lower rank, she retains her own title.

A note about the use of “The Honourable”

The daughter of a peer ranks lower than the eldest son of the same level of peer and higher than the younger sons of the same level of peer. However, where both titles are “The Honourable” but the wife’s rank is higher (those entries marked *), I have not been able to determine whether she would use her Christian name or her husband’s or neither. It should be noted that the title “The Honourable” is never used in speech and according to Black’s, their visiting cards would simply state Mr North and Mrs North, without title or Christian names.

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian historical romance set in the time of Jane Austen. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

Sources used include:

A Member of the Aristocracy, Manners and Rules of Good Society (1888) (1916)

A Member of the Aristocracy, Manners and Tones of Good Society pre 1880

Bell, John, La Belle Assemblée (John Bell, 1806-1837, London)
Black, Adam and Charles (publishers), Titles and forms of address - a guide to their correct use (9th edition)(1955)

Debrett, John, The Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1820)

Lamb, Charles (?), A book explaining the ranks and dignities of British Society (1809)

Laura Wallace’s excellent guide to titles

Lady M – The Life and Loves of Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne by Colin Brown - a review

Lady M is the story of Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (1751-1818), a powerful and ambitious Georgian socialite and political hostess for the Whigs. Lady Melbourne is much less known than her son William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who became Prime Minister to William IV and Queen Victoria, or her intimate friend, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. 

In Lady M, Brown paints a vivid picture of the powerful Lady Melbourne and the society in which she lived. I enjoyed reading this comprehensive biography but feel that it is let down by a number of errors and a poor index. 

The ruthless Lady Melbourne

Having blogged about Lady Melbourne’s life back in 2013 (you can find the post here), I came to this biography with a good understanding of Lady Melbourne’s immoral and ruthlessly ambitious character. Brown’s book did nothing to change this.

Lady Melbourne’s identity is characterised by the way she related to the important people in her life – her husband, her children, her lovers and her intimate friends. Her desire for status over faithfulness is illustrated by her relationship with her husband – the weak and extravagant Sir Peniston Lamb. She was seemingly indifferent to his adulterous relationship with the actress Sophia Baddeley and remained ambitious to improve his – and therefore her own – rank and position.

Lady Melbourne had numerous lovers, most importantly George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont; George, Prince of Wales (the future George IV); and Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford. She did not seem to give or require exclusivity. 

George, Prince of Wales, by Hoppner
© The Wallace Collection

Her most enduring passion was for her children and she was severe on anything or anyone that threatened her ambitions for them. Her relationship with her daughter-in-law, Lady Caroline Lamb, was stormy. She was furious at Lady Caro’s lack of discretion in her affair with Lord Byron and how it threatened William’s political career. 

What I liked about Lady M

I love to see quotes from original sources and in this, Brown did not disappoint. There is evidence throughout the book of Brown’s extensive research with numerous quotes from contemporary letters and memoirs, including some from manuscript sources in the Chatsworth Archives and the Lamb papers in the British Library.

There is a good-sized colour plate section in the middle of the book which includes some contemporary prints and portraits as well as up-to-date photographs of places connected with Lady Melbourne, including Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire, Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire and Melbourne House in Whitehall.

 

Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire © Colin Brown

Though I wasn’t surprised to learn of the Melbournes’ ongoing financial difficulties (so many Georgian peers seemed to struggle with money), I don’t think I realised the extent of this before reading Lady M.

The detail included in the chapter devoted to the military encampment on Cocks Heath was largely new to me. The encampment was visited by many ladies of consequence including Lady Melbourne, the Duchess of Devonshire and the scandalous Lady Worsley. It was here that Lady Melbourne’s son William was conceived with Lord Egremont.

Where’s the family tree?

I feel there are several things that let the book down. Although the contents section lists a family tree – a very useful tool for a historical biography – the family tree itself is missing!

A bevy of errors

It is a hard task writing a historical biography. Not only do you need to research the life of the chosen person; you also need to understand the world in which they lived and the myriad of people with whom they interacted. There is danger in almost every sentence. A throwaway comment or line written from memory may prove to be inaccurate if every single fact and name is not checked and double-checked. 

I know how easy it is for errors to creep in during the editing stage and typos to pass unnoticed. If it was not for my editor spotting my typo in What Regency Women Did For Us, I would have had Jane Austen born in Stevenage instead of Steventon!

In my opinion, Lady M would have benefitted from a beta reader who is familiar with the characters and period. Too many errors crept into the manuscript that someone like me would have spotted (and did). It is not my intention to list every mistake I found. Some were clearly typos eg calling Lady Elizabeth Foster’s illegitimate daughter by the Duke of Devonshire Caroline St James instead of Caroline St Jules. Others, however, were not. I will mention a few.

Special licences

Lady Melbourne was married by special licence – not, as Brown says, because she was a minor, but because this enabled her to be married in the house of the Lord Bishop of Peterborough. A special licence was the only way to be married anywhere else other than the parish church. As a minor, she could have been married in the parish church by ordinary licence with her father’s consent or by banns if her father did not file an objection. 

George III in Sidmouth?

Having written extensively about George III’s recuperation in my home town of Weymouth in Dorset (you can read about George III in Weymouth here), I was considerably surprised to read that the king went to Sidmouth in Devon instead! And though he certainly brought a good deal of popularity to Weymouth through his repeated visits, the king could hardly be said to have started the fashion for sea bathing there.

Titles

 Writing a historical book about the aristocracy is always a tricky business as there are rules about titles and it is not easy to get them right. I recently re-researched the subject. You can find my blog post here: A Regency History guide to dukes, marquesses and other titles.

Peers (from left to right): duke, marquess, earl, viscount, baron
from A book explaining the ranks and dignitaries of British Society (1809)

I spotted a number of instances in Lady M where titles were used incorrectly. A person’s title should only include their Christian name if the title comes from their father. For example, when she was single, Lady Sarah Lennox was so called as she took her title from her father, the 2nd Duke of Richmond, but Lord Byron was a baron in his own right and should never be referred to as Lord George Gordon Byron. 

It should also be noted that the wife of a duke should never referred to as Lady So and So, but always as the Duchess of So and So. For example, when talking about the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, the Duchess should not have been referred to as Charlotte, Lady Richmond, but as Charlotte, Duchess of Richmond, or Charlotte Lennox, Duchess of Richmond, or simply as the Duchess of Richmond (and her husband, the 4th Duke of Richmond, was called Charles, by the way, and not George – that was his father). Whilst getting titles right is not a deal breaker for most people, it is a detail that I like get right.

Poor indexing

In my opinion, for a historical biography to be useful as a reference book, it needs a comprehensive and easy-to-use index so that names of people and places can be easily looked up. Unfortunately, I found the index to Lady M sadly lacking. 

Having written a historical book myself, I know how difficult it is to decide how to index names, especially when you are referring to the nobility whose titles may change over their lifetimes, but whatever policy is chosen, it is essential to apply it consistently with plenty of cross-references.

The naming policy in the index is all over the place. Sometimes a person is listed under their title eg Lady Oxford is listed under Oxford; other times under their surname eg Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, is listed under Russell. Bizarrely, sometimes a person is listed under their rank eg Frederick, Duke of York, is listed under Duke, or even, in the case of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, under her Christian name with no reference to her surname at all. George III is listed under King whilst Queen Victoria is listed under Victoria. 

Some people appear in the index multiple times eg Lady Bessborough appears under Spencer, Ponsonby, Duncannon and Bessborough, whilst others you might have expected to find an entry for eg William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, don’t appear to be there at all. I would have expected to find one entry for a person under either title or surname with cross-references under the other and previous titles if necessary eg I would have expected to find a ‘see Russell, Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford’ entry under Bedford. 

This is also where the correct use of titles comes into play again. Several of the index entries incorrectly include Christian names in the title eg Lady Harriet Duncannon. The entry for George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont is even worse. He is incorrectly listed under Egremont as Lord George Egremont and there is no mention of his surname at all! 

One final gripe. There is only one index entry for Lady Jersey, but there are two different Lady Jerseys referred to in the text – Sarah Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey and Patroness of Almack’s, and Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, her mother-in-law.

In summary

Lady M is a comprehensive biography but it is let down by a number of errors and a poor index.