Social Victorians/People/Harcourt

"Lulu" (Lewis Vernon Harcourt) by "Spy," Vanity Fair, 26 September 1895

"A retired Leader" (William Vernon Harcourt), Vanity Fair, 11 May 1899

Also Known As

• Family name: Harcourt
• "Historicus," for the Times (William Vernon Harcourt)
• "Lulu" (Lewis Vernon Harcourt)

Organizations

Sir William Harcourt

• Trinity College, Cambridge
• Apostle at Cambridge
• Liberal
• House of Commons

Timeline

1876 December 2, William Harcourt and Elizabeth Cabot Motley married.

1895 September 26, a caricature portrait (top right) of "Lulu" (Lewis Vernon Harcourt) by Leslie Ward ("Spy") appeared in the 26 September 1895 issue of Vanity Fair, as Number 657 in its "Statesmen" series.

1897 July 2, Friday, Lady and Sir William Harcourt and their son Lewis Harcourt attended the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House. (Elizabeth Harcourt is #94 on the list of people who were present; Sir William Harcourt is #128; Lewis Harcourt is #669.)

1899 May 11, a caricature portrait (right) of "a retired Leader" (Sir William Vernon Harcourt) by "Cloister" appeared in the 11 May 1899 issue of Vanity Fair, as Number 707 in its "Statesmen" series.

1899 July 1, Lewis Harcourt and Mary Ethel Burns married.

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

Elizabeth Harcourt

At the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball, Elizabeth Harcourt was seated at Table 4 at the first seating for supper and dressed as a Lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria.

Newspaper Reports

The descriptions in the newspapers are notably similar:

• "a lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria — maize brocade, slashed with white, over a white quilted petticoat."
• "a Lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria. Maize brocade, slashed with white, over a white quilted petticoat."
• "Lady Harcourt represented a lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria, wearing a maize brocade, slashed with white, over a white quilted petticoat."
• "Lady Harcourt (lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria), in maize brocade, slashed with white, over a white quilted petticoat."
• "LADY HARCOURT, as a Lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria, in maize brocade, slashed with white over a white quilted petticoat."

The Queen published a line drawing signed by Rook of Lady Harcourt in costume as a Lady of the Court of Henrietta Maria; the caption says Messrs. Nathan made her dress.

Mrs. Ettie Grenfell as Marie de Medici; Sir William Harcourt as Simon, Lord Harcourt, Lord Chancellor 1710; Arthur Balfour as a gentleman of Holland. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Sir William Harcourt

Simon, 1st Viscount Harcourt by Godfrey Kneller, after 1713

Sir William Harcourt was seated at Table 8 and "went in the robes worn by his ancestor Sir Simon Harcourt, the first Lord, Harcourt, in 1712, as Lord Chamberlain."

Sir William Harcourt was photographed in his costume with Arthur Balfour and Ettie Grenfell. Lafayette's portrait (right) of "Ethel Anne Priscilla ('Ettie') Grenfell (née Fane), Lady Desborough as Marie de Medici; Sir William Vernon Harcourt as Simon, Lord Harcourt, Lord Chancellor 1710; Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour as a gentleman of Holland" in costume is photogravure #272 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery. The printing on the portrait says, "Hon. Sir W. V. Harcourt as Simon, Lord Harcourt, Lord Chancellor 1710. Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P. as a gentleman of Holland. Mrs Grenfell as Marie de Medici."

The portrait (above left) shows Simon Harcourt (December 1661 – 29 July 1727), 1st Viscount Harcourt and Lord Chancellor in his robes, possibly the same robes Sir William Harcourt found and had altered to fit so he could wear them to this ball. Painted sometime after 1713 by Godfrey Kneller, this portrait of the 1st Viscount has been owned by Pembroke College, University of Oxford, since it was bequeathed c. 1774, so perhaps the late-19th-century Sir Harcourt saw it there.

Newspaper Reports

• "Conspicuous" among the men "arrayed in the dresses of their family" was "Sir William Harcourt as Lord Chancellor Harcourt, in a flowing dark wig in the Charles II manner." (The description of his costume in the Times is almost identical in the one in the Carlisle Patriot).
• "Sir W. Harcourt in wig and Lord Chancellor's gown."
• He was dressed "as an early ancestor of his own, wearing a Chancellor’s gown, a precious heirloom in the family."
• "Sir William Harcourt has brought to light a robe worn by his ancestor Chancellor Harcourt, and has had it adapted to his massive figure."
• "In appearing at the Duchess of Devonshire's ball in the costume of a Chancellor, Sir William Harcourt was assuming the guise of an ancestor. It may interest your readers to know that in the patent of the peerage of Lord Chancellor Harcourt, most remarkable compliments were paid by Queen Anne to her Keeper of the Great Seal: 'A gentleman recommended to us by a long descent of progenitors, renowned for their warlike actions ever since the Norman times.' Referring to the Chancellor himself, she says: 'Among the lawyers he is the most able orator, and among the orators the ablest lawyer. To this praise of his eloquence he has added those domestic virtues, magnanimity and fidelity, supported by which he has resolutely persevered in maintaining the cause he had undertaken, and in despising danger, and has kept his engagements of friendship, whether in prosperity or adversity, sacred and inviolable.' Although Sir William's connection with this Chancellor is on the distaff side, there will be many to recognise the traits that distinguished his ancestor in the days of the last Stuart."

Lewis Harcourt as Viscount Nuneham, A.D. 1750. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.

Lewis Harcourt

Lord Harcourt, 1st Earl of Harcourt and 1st Viscount of Nuneham

Lewis Harcourt was dressed as 1st Viscount Nuneham.

Reginald Haines's portrait (right) of "Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt as Viscount Nuneham, A.D. 1750" in costume is photogravure #203 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery ("album"). The printing on the portrait says, "Mr. L. V. Harcourt as Viscount Nuneham, A.D. 1750."

The Historical Viscount Nuneham

Viscount Nuneham was Simon Harcourt (1714 – 16 September 1777), 2nd Viscount Harcourt, the grandson of the 1st Viscount, who was present at the ball in the form of Sir William Harcourt, Lewis Harcourt's father. He was made Earl Harcourt and Viscount Nuneham in 1749.

Edward Fisher painted the portrait (right) of Viscount Nuneham in 1775, so Lewis Harcourt was dressed as a much younger man. This image is almost certainly not the original of Lewis Harcourt's costume.

Demographics

• Nationality: British

Family

• William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt (14 October 1827 – 1 October 1904)
• Maria Theresa Lister Harcourt (Therese) ( – 1 February 1863)

1. Julian Harcourt (6 October 1860 – 2 March 1862)
2. Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922)

• Elizabeth Cabot Motley Harcourt ( – 1 April 1928)

1. Robert Venables Vernon Harcourt (7 May 1878 – 8 September 1962)

• Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922)
• Mary Ethel Burns ( – 7 January 1961)

1. Hon. Doris Mary Thérèse Harcourt (30 Mar 1900 – 1981)
2. Hon. Olivia Vernon Harcourt (5 Apr 1902 – 1984)
3. Hon. Barbara Vernon Harcourt (28 Apr 1905 – 19 May 1961)
4. William Edward Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt (5 Oct 1908 – 1979)

Notes and Questions

1. Elizabeth Cabot Motley was an American and had been married before, to Thomas Poynton Ives. Her father John Lothrop Motley, was Ambassador to the U.K. and to the Netherlands. Ives fought in the U.S. Civil War.