Social Victorians/People/Derby

Overview

The page for the Stanleys and this page for Earl of Derby are interrelated.

For the discussion of the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House, this page treats the Earl and Countess of Derby. All other Stanleys at the ball except for the Stanley family of the Barony of Alderley and Barony of Eddisbury — regardless of their relationship to the Earl and Countess — are discussed on the Stanley page.

Also Known As

• Family name: Stanley (see also the Stanley page)
• Earl of Derby
  • Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1869 – 21 April 1893)
  • Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (21 April 1893 – 14 June 1908)
  • Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (14 June 1908 – 4 February 1948)
• Lord Stanley
  • Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1851–1869)
  • Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (1869– 21 April 1893)
  • Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (21 April 1893 – 14 June 1908)
• 1st Baron Stanley of Preston, in the County Palatine of Lancaster
  • Frederick Arthur Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley (1886 – 1893)
  • Edward George Villiers Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley (1893–1908), styled Lord Stanley
• Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe
• Frederick Stanley
• Courtesy title of the heir apparent of the earl is Lord Stanley.

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

• Sir Wilfred Laurier

Organizations

• Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire
• Conservative party
• Grenadier Guards, last promotion to Captain
• Freemasons
• Queen Victoria's Militia Aide-de-Camp 1877–1901
• King Edward VII's Militia Aide-de-Camp 1901–1908

Timeline

1889 January 5, Edward George Villiers Stanley and Lady Alice Maude Olivia Montagu married.

1896 November 25, Hon. Victor Albert Stanley and Annie Bickerton Pooley married.

1897 July 2, Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl and Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House, as did a number of their children.

1898 February 15, the Earl and Countess Derby were on a ship traveling away from the U.K., along with the Hon. A. Stanley and Lady J. Stanley as well as, possibly, other friends:

Quite a large number of prominent "Society" names appear in the list of passengers booked by the new P. and O. steamer India, taking passengers for Australia and New Zealand. They include the Earl and Countess of Derby, Viscountess Hampden, Lord Durham, Lady Chelsea [?], Lady St. Oswald, Lady Drummond-Hay and Miss Drummond-Hay, the Hon. A. Stanley, Lady J. Stanley, Mrs. Trench, Sir J. Woodburn and Lady Woodburn. I find, however, that in the majority of cases these distinguished passengers are not traveling beyond Egypt or India. There is, however, a probability that some of them may extend their travels to Australia and New Zealand.

1898 December 10, Lady Isobel Constance Mary Stanley and Sir John Francis Gathorne-Hardy married.

1918 April 18, Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley and Mary Cavendish Grosvenor Crichton married.

Stanleys at the Ball

A number of Stanleys mostly associated with the Earl and Countess of Derby were present at the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball:

1. Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby
2. Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby
3. Lord Stanley: Lord Edward George Villiers Stanley
4. Lady A. Stanley: Lady Alice Maud Olivia Montagu Stanley
5. Hon. F. C. Stanley: Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley
6. The Hon. George Stanley: Lt.-Col. Rt. Hon. Sir George Frederick Stanley
7. Miss Madeline Stanley
8. Lady Isobel Stanley
9. Lord William Stanley: Frederick William Stanley
10. Lady W. Stanley
11. Lady J. Stanley
12. E. Stanley

Further, of these, the following Stanleys were in the presentation album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery:

1. Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby
2. Lord Edward Stanley
3. Lady Alice Stanley
4. Lady Isobel Stanley
5. The Hon. George Stanley
6. Lord William Stanley: called the Hon. Frederick "William" Stanley in the album

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

Constance, Countess of Derby as Duchess of Orleans. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby sat at Table 3 in the first seating for supper and was dressed as the Duchess of Orleans.

Lafayette's portrait (right) of "Constance (née Villiers), Countess of Derby as Duchess of Orleans" in costume is photogravure #103 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 Derby as Duchess of Orleans," with a Long S in Countess and Duchess.

The Lafayette Archive seems not to contain the negative for this portrait.

An image of her in costume appeared in the Queen (bottom right of the page, the numeral 18 below the line drawing, facing slightly to her left, the drawing is similar to her costume in her photograph, headdress (the fontange) and bare shoulders emphasized; the drawing apparently signed by “Rook”).

The Historical Duchess of Orleans

Who Lady Derby might have meant by the Duchess of Orleans is not clear. The peerages would have offered names and dates, and the 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica offers a sense of what was generally available in 1897 to those interested in that kind of research. According to the Britannica, the title Duke of Orléans was created a number of times and Dukes d'Orléans have been close to the monarchs of France from the middle ages to the present. Several had ties to England or were particularly heroic that might have made them an attractive choice for Lady Derby, but no obvious Duchess of Orleans emerges.

Most useful for identifying which Duchess of Orleans Lady Derby may have based her costume on is the costume itself. We can identify the historical period of this costume precisely because the headdress was reproduced clearly enough. Lady Derby's headdress locates this costume at the end of the 17th century, even though, as usual, much of her costume serves Victorian rather than historical standards of beauty.

The Fontange

Queen Mary II, 1688, by John Smith after Jan van der Vaart.

Lady Derby's headdress looks like what is usually called a fontange, an elaborate cap popular in the 1690s and with women in the court of Louis XIV of France. The starched and wired lace, the tall fluting, the presence of lappets (we know they are there from the newspaper description), the piled curls of hair in front and the placement of the cap on the top of the head are unique to the headdress of one period in women's fashion: the 1690s. No other period in the history of women's fashion had anything that looked even remotely like the édifice that was the fontange. These specific features of Lady Derby's cap suggests that her dressmaker was looking at some image from the end of the 17th century of a woman in the court of Louis XIV.

This mezzotint of Queen Mary II of England wearing a fontange (left) is one possibility for an original for Lady Derby's costume although her garments are clearly not copies of Queen Mary's. This image is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was called the Kensington Museum in the late 19th century. According to the V&A, "The print is taken from a portrait of the Queen painted in 1688 by the Dutch painter and engraver Jan van der Vaardt, who moved to England in 1674. The portrait is now at Audley End, Essex." A higher resolution reproduction of this mezzotint can be seen on the V&A website, here.

The V&A says that Queen Mary's headdress is a frelange "while the ribbon bows behind the lace were known as fontanges." Frelange and fontange seem to have been synonymous in 1685 but frelange (or freland) apparently became obsolete by the end of the 17th century; the term costume historians use is fontange.

The lappets for Queen Mary are in front; the gloves are similar, and both women are holding a folded fan.

Newspaper Reports on the Countess of Derby's Costume

Essentially, except for the last 2 descriptions, from the Gentlewoman and the Queen, the small paragraph in the first 3 accounts is a single description of the costume repeated in 3 newspapers that were traditional news outlets rather than periodicals specializing in women's fashion. We are uncertain about a number of terms this description uses, but perhaps the problem is a much more detailed paragraph that got edited into nonsense or perhaps the original writer was unfamiliar with fashion terminology.

• "Duchess of Orleans. Rich blue silk stamped with purple velvet and trimmed with antique lace, edged with gold. Front and vest of gold and white brocade, the former showing bands of gold embroidery laid on horizontally. Train of brocaded velvet to match the bodice, draped down one side with pink satin, and held down here and there with diamond ornaments, coronet-shaped cap of lace sprinkled with diamonds and lappets."
• "Duchess of Orleans. Rich blue silk stamped with purple velvet and trimmed with antique lace, edged with gold; front and vest of gold and white brocade, the former showing bands of gold embroidery laid on horizontally. Train of brocaded velvet to match the bodice, draped down one side with pink satin and held down here and there with diamond ornaments. Coronet-shaped cap of lace, sprinkled with diamonds, and lappets."
• "Duchess of Orleans, [The dress of the Countess of Derby] was of rich blue silk, stamped with purple velvet, and trimmed with antique lace, edged with gold, front and vest of gold and white brocade, the former showing bands of gold embroidery, laid on horizontally. Train of brocaded velvet, to match the bodice, draped down one side with pink satin, and held down here and there with diamond ornaments. Coronet-shaped cap of lace, sprinkled with diamonds, and lappets."
• "Lady Derby (Duchess of Orleans), blue and purple brocade; gold lace."
• The description accompanying the line drawing in the Queen says,

  Made by Mrs Mason, 4, New Burlington Street, W. … No. 18. THE COUNTESS OF DERBY, Duchess of Orleans. — A very lovely gown of rich purple and blue brocaded velvet, with petticoat and stomacher of gold and white brocade, wrought with gold and diamonds; point d’Alençon ruffles; headdress, point d'Alençon, studded with jewels.

Commentary on the Countess of Derby's Costume

• Even though this costume has some elements that are reminiscent of the 1690s, the line, construction, fabrics and embellishments of this dress are Victorian.
  • Some characteristics of this costume suggest a 1690s original:
    • As Blanche Payne shows, the length of the sleeves and the lace ruffles at the elbow are characteristic of the 1690s.
    • The gloves are Victorian but, as Payne shows, they are also typical of portraits of the 1690s.
  • Some characteristics of this costume are Victorian not Baroque:
    • The 1690s corset flattened the front of the woman's torso, deemphasizing the waist and bust. The 1890s corset emphasized the waist and bust by curving the bodice, sometimes very sharply, and pushing the breasts up, rounding them and creating cleavage.
    • The front of the bodice appears to have a busk that is made of something flexible like whalebone. A 1690s busk would have flattened and straightened the front of the stomacher.
    • The Victorian neckline is wide at shoulders and shows a deep cleavage.
    • The draping of the skirt fabric is typical of many periods, including the 1690s and the 1890s, but Lady Derby's costume is missing the many ribbons and complex bows of the late 17th century.
    • The 1890s bustle and the gathered fabric of the 1690s dress create a similar line at the back. Both also had short trains.
    • The way the gloves are pushed into gathers on her arms adds texture.
• The Countess's headdress is a fontange, apparently made of point d'Alençon lace that has been starched and wired. The reporter in the first 3 newspaper accounts describes the fontange as a "coronet-shaped cap of lace" probably because the rounded folds of the starched lace fabric in the headdress widen at the top.
• Portraits from the 1690s often show women wearing pearl necklaces too short to fall onto the décolletage. In the Lafayette photograph Lady Derby's necklaces are short, though some do fall longer than 1690s necklaces would and she is not wearing pearls. Also, she is not wearing the tear-drop pearl earrings that were popular throughout the Baroque period.
• Of what is essentially 3 descriptions, the last two (which were published in the Gentlewoman and the Queen, outlets that would have been familiar with the language of fashion) describe the fabric as a brocade. The single description (published 3 times in traditional news outlets) uses terminology not normally associated with dressmaking. They say the fabric was "stamped," which might be a correct term if it was embossed. We are inclined to put more confidence in the reporting from the Gentlewoman and the Queen.
• Shirring dominates the design of this dress and adds texture to the garment. It is responsible for how puffy and full it is.
  • The very full sleeves are shirred with poufs and ruffles made of lace or fabric.
  • The skirt is pulled back and the lining is folded and gathered into poufs at the edges of the skirt. Large jewelled ornaments hold the poufs in place.
  • The shirred waist of the petticoat and skirt adds fullness to the silhouette.
• The fabric of the skirt does not drape like silk velvet. Perhaps the lining stiffens the drape of the silk if this is in fact velvet, as the Queen's report says.
• The petticoat has the odd design that looks something like fish. The fabric in the skirt, which has a train, also appears on the sleeves and bodice.
• From Lafayette's single photograph and the illustration in the Queen, it is impossible to tell
  • if she is wearing a wig or has had her own hair powdered and piled up.
  • how the dress, skirt and train were constructed.
  • what is embroidered, embossed or dyed.
  • what the layers are on the bodice.

Puzzling Problems with the Accounts in the Traditional News Outlets

• We are not certain of what these terms mean in the descriptions in the 3 traditional news outlets:
  • "Rich blue silk stamped with purple velvet": possibly the reporter did not know the term embossed for fabric but meant that process?
  • The "antique lace" worn by the Countess: like other instances in which reporters use antique as an adjective to describe a lace or fabric, did Lady Derby in this case purchase or own lace from prior times?
  • This entire sentence is problematic: "Front and vest of gold and white brocade, the former showing bands of gold embroidery laid on horizontally." Except for the "gold and white brocade," none of this describes what we see in the portrait or what a reporter knowledgeable about fashion would say.
    • "Front and vest" of the garment: these terms are not right for describing a dress like what Lady Constance is wearing. Front is not technically specific and so generic it could be the front of the skirt. And the Countess does not appear to be wearing a vest in the portrait.
    • In "Front and vest of gold and white brocade, the former showing bands of gold embroidery laid on horizontally," we don't know whether the former refers to the front or the vest.
    • We don't see any "bands of gold embroidery laid on horizontally."
• The Times says "sprinkled with diamonds and lappets," but sprinkled is probably associated only with the diamonds; In the Morning Post and the Evening Standard, a comma separates "sprinkled with diamonds" from "and lappets." We cannot see the lappets on Lady Derby's fontange. If her headdress has lappets — and many fontanges did not have lappets — they are likely hanging down in back.

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby sat at Table 12 in the first supper seating. We know nothing about his costume.

Children of the 16th Countess and Earl of Derby Present at the Ball

The Earl and Countess's had 8 surviving children at the time of the ball.

1. Lord Stanley and Lady A. Stanley — Lord Stanley, probably Edward George Villiers Stanley, is treated on the Stanley page, as is his wife, Lady A. Stanley, probably Lady Alice Maude Olivia Montagu Stanley. Edward Stanley was the eldest son of the Countess and Earl of Derby and the 17th Earl. Both were present at the ball.
2. Admiral Hon. Sir Victor Albert Stanley is not listed as having attended the ball.
3. Hon. Sir Arthur Stanley is not listed as having attended the ball.
4. Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley — Hon. F. C. Stanley, probably Ferdinand Charles Stanley, was the 6th child and the 4th surviving son of the 16th Countess and Earl, was present at the ball and is treated on the Stanley page.
5. George Frederick Stanley — George Frederick Stanley, the 7th child and the 5th surviving son of the 16th Earl and Countess, was present at the ball and is treated on the Stanley page.
6. Colonel Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley is not listed as having attended the ball.
7. Lady Isobel Constance Mary Stanley — Lady Isobel Constance Mary Stanley, 9th child and 2nd daughter of Constance, Countess of Derby and Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, also attended and is discussed on the Stanley page.
8. Lord William Stanley — Lord William Stanley or Hon. W. Stanley, the youngest of the children of the Countess and Earl of Derby, attended the ball and is discussed on the Stanley page.

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Residences

• Family seat: Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool, Merseyside

Family

• Mary Catherine Sackville-West Gascoyne-Cecil Stanley, Countess of Derby (23 July 1824 – 6 December 1900)
• James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury (17 April 1791 – 12 April 1868)

1. Lord Sackville Arthur Cecil (16 March 1848 – 29 January 1898)
2. Lady Mary Arabella Arthur Cecil (26 April 1850 – 18 August 1903)
3. Lady Margaret Elizabeth Cecil (1850 – 11 March 1919)
4. Lord Arthur Cecil (3 July 1851– 16 July 1913)
5. Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Lionel Cecil (21 March 1853 – 13 January 1901)

• Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (21 July 1826 – 21 April 1893)

• Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908)
• Constance Villiers Stanley (1840 – 17 April 1922) [8 sons and 2 daughters, 7 and 1 of whom, respectively, survived to adulthood]

1. Katherine Mary Stanley ( – 21 October 1871)
2. Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (4 April 1865 – 4 February 1948)
3. Admiral Hon. Sir Victor Albert Stanley (17 January 1867 – 9 June 1934)
4. Hon. Sir Arthur Stanley (18 November 1869 – 4 November 1947)
5. Geoffrey Stanley (18 November 1869 – 16 March 1871)
6. Brig.-Gen. Hon. Ferdinand Charles Stanley (28 January 1871 – 17 March 1935)
7. Lt.-Col. Rt. Hon. Sir George Frederick Stanley (14 October 1872 – 1 July 1938)
8. Colonel Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley (8 January 1874 – 10 February 1962)
9. Lady Isobel Constance Mary Stanley (2 September 1875 – 30 December 1963)
10. Lt.-Col. Hon. Frederick William Stanley (27 May 1878 – 9 August 1942)

• Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (4 April 1865 – 4 February 1948)
• Lady Alice Maude Olivia Montagu (1862 – 23 July 1957)

1. Lady Victoria Alice Louise Stanley (24 June 1892 – 26 November 1927)
2. Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Montagu Cavendish Stanley, Lord Stanley (9 July 1894 – 16 October 1938)
3. Colonel Rt. Hon. Oliver Frederick George Stanley (4 May 1896 – 10 December 1950)

• Admiral Hon. Sir Victor Albert Stanley (17 January 1867 – 9 June 1934)
• Annie Bickerton Pooley ( – 14 April 1962)
  1. Violet Alice Stanley (11 Oct 1897 – )
  2. Godfrey Victor Stanley (18 January 1902 – 9 March 1903)
  3. Rosemary Constance Stanley (9 October 1905 – )

• Lady Mary Cavendish Grosvenor (12 May 1883 – 14 January 1959)
• Lt.-Col. Henry William Crichton, Viscount Crichton (30 September 1872 – 31 October 1914)
  1. George David Hugh Crichton (12 May 1904 – 18 May 1904)
  2. Lady Mary Katherine Crichton (8 July 1905 – 2 February 1990)
  3. John Henry George Crichton, 5th Earl Erne of Crom Castle (22 November 1907 – 23 May 1940)
• Colonel Hon. Algernon Francis Stanley (8 January 1874 – 10 February 1962)
  1. Constance Mary Stanley (24 January 1919 – )
  2. F/O Anthony Hugh Stanley (20 February 1923 – 11 March 1943)

Biographical Materials

NRA identifies National Archives references.

• Dr. Stephen Lloyd, FSA, Curator of the Derby Collection. Personal and family papers. Address: Knowsley Hall, Prescot, Merseyside, L34 4AG (0151) 481 3314. Email: s.lloyd@knowsley.com. https://www.thearchivegroup.org/knowsley-hallhttps://www.thearchivegroup.org/knowsley-hall.
• Cambridge University: Parker Library, Corpus Christi College: "Stanley family papers, incl Canadian papers of the 16th Earl of Derby (1841-1908)": NRA 11916 Stanley. ARCHON code: 268. Address: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England CB2 1RH. Email: parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
• The Lancashire Archives, Reference DDK: NRA "53 Stanley" and "See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [99a]." Other collections also point to this last reference. Looking particularly at "estate and Stanley family corresp and papers 13th-20th cent." ARCHON code: 55. Address: Bow Lane, Preston, England PR1 2RE. Email: archives@lancashire.gov.uk
• Liverpool Record Office: "Stanley family, official, political and personal corresp and papers, incl papers of the 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th Earls of Derby." ARCHON code: 138. Address: Central Library and Archive, 3rd floor, William Brown Street, Liverpool, England L3 8EW. Email: archives@liverpool.gov.uk
• West Sussex Record Office, inquiring about a privately-held collection: "misc Stanley family papers, 17th cent-20th cent. NRA 23389 Henderson. ARCHON code: 805408. Address: 3 Orchard Street, Chichester, England PO19 1DD. Correspondence address: County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1RN. Email: record.office@westsussex.gov.uk.
• The National Archives, Archives Sector Development, inquiring about a privately-held collection: "Stanley family corresp and papers, 19th cent." ARCHON code: 800819. Address: The National Archives, Archives Sector Development, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, England TW9 4DU. Email: asd@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
• Librarian and Archivist to the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House Library and Archives: "corresp and papers of Mary, Countess of Derby (1824-1900), 19th cent." ARCHON code: 2173. Address: Hatfield House, Hatfield, England AL9 5NQ. Email: collections@hatfield-house.co.uk. [Mary, Countess of Derby was the mother of the generation who went to the ball, but she did not attend herself.]

Questions and Notes

1. Lady Alice Maude Olivia Montagu was the daughter of Luise Friederike Auguste Gräfin von Alten, who became Duchess of Devonshire on 16 August 1892.
2. Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (21 July 1826 – 21 April 1893) and Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908) were brothers, both sons of the 14th Earl, Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley (19 March 1799 – 23 October 1869).
3. All the Stanleys related to this family except the Earl and Countess of Derby are discussed on the Stanley page.
4. The family of the 16th Earl of Derby lost two children in 1871, one in March and one in October; wonder what happened.
5. Constance Villiers Stanley, Countess of Derby is #36 and Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby is #210 on the complete list of people who attended the Duchess of Devonshire's ball in 1897.
6. Dukes of Orléans were in place until the writing of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Potentially relevant Dukes or Duchesses of Orleans, from the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

   ——, Charles, duke of, French poet, XVII. 851. (1391–1465) ——, Anne Marie Louise d’, duchesse de Montpensier, XVI. 792. (1627–1693) was a contemporary of Gaston and Louis XVI; she was active in the history of the period, is part of a famous love story that did not end well, and was called Mademoiselle. The title was at once [after the death of Jean Baptiste Gaston] revived by Louis XIV., who created his brother PHILIPPE (1640–1701) duke of Orleans and of Chartres, and married him to Henrietta, the sister of Charles II. of England. The court was soon entertained by the details of the quarrels between the duke and duchess, and by the former’s jealousy even of his brother the king, and, when Henrietta, after successfully detaching Charles from the Triple Alliance and negotiating the treaty of Dover, died suddenly in 1670, the duke was universally accused of poisoning her. In the following year he married Princess Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria. [Louis Philippe Joseph (1747–1793), an enemy of Marie Antoinette and friend of the British,] often visited London, and became an intimate friend of the prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.); he brought to Paris the ‘‘anglo-mania,” as it was called, and made jockeys as fashionable as they were in England. He also made himself very popular in Paris by his large gifts to the poor in time of famine, and by throwing open the gardens of the Palais Royal to the people.