Frances Talbot, Countess of Tyrconnell

Frances Talbot, Countess of Tyrconnell ("née" Jennings, previously Hamilton; – 1731) was a maid of honour to the Duchess of York and, like her sister Sarah, a famous beauty at the Restoration court. She married first George Hamilton and then Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell. She was vicereine in Dublin Castle while Tyrconnell was viceroy of Ireland for James II. She went through difficult times after the death of her second husband, who was attainted as a Jacobite, but recovered some of his wealth and died a devout Catholic despite having been raised as a Protestant.
Birth and origins.
Frances was born about 1649 at Sandridge, Hertfordshire, England, as one of the nine children, four sons and five daughters of Richard Jennings and his wife Frances Thornhurst. Her father was a landowner and a Member of Parliament. Her mother was a daughter of Sir Gifford Thornhurst, 1st Baronet. Her parents married in 1643. Of the nine children only Frances and Sarah are noteworthy.
The spelling of her maiden name varied widely. All the three following forms were used during her lifetime: Jennings, Jenings, Jenyns.
Restoration court.
She was about 11 when the Restoration (1660) brought the end of the Commonwealth and restored Charles II to the throne. In 1664, when about 15, Frances was appointed maid of honour to Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York. Anne was the first wife of the James, Duke of York, the younger brother of the King and future King James II. Her beauty earned her the nickname ""La Belle Jennings"." Macaulay describes her as “beautiful Fanny Jennings, the loveliest coquette in the brilliant Whitehall of the Restoration." She figures in the "Mémoires du comte de Grammont" ("Memoirs" for short), written by Anthony Hamilton, younger brother of her future husband George Hamilton, which describes the life at the Restoration court. The three oldest of the six Hamilton brothers, James, George, and Anthony, belonged to the inner circle around the King at Whitehall, as they had been in exile with him.
An incident in which she disguised herself as an orange seller is told in the "Memoirs" and also, with less detail, in Pepys's diary. According to the "Memoirs", she and her friend Miss Price wanted to consult a fortune-teller incognito. They went out disguising themselves as orange sellers.
She was courted by the Duke of York, the future James II, who thought his wife's maids of honour to be his property, but she refused to play such a role. She was also courted by Richard Talbot and by George Hamilton, second son of Sir George Hamilton.
First marriage and children.
In 1665 Frances Jennings married George Hamilton. At that time George was an officer in the Life Guards. Her marriage resembled that of her husband's elder brother James, for whom the king arranged a marriage with a Protestant girl with the purpose of converting him to that religion. The King seemed to have been concerned about the future of his Catholic friends in the army. The King granted the couple a pension of £500 per year. Hers is the sixth of the seven marriages with which end the "Memoirs".
Elizabeth, their first child, was born in 1667 and baptised on 21 March at St Margaret's, Westminster, in an Anglican ceremony.
On 28 September 1667, all Catholic soldiers were dismissed from the Life Guards. Hamilton then took French service. She followed him to France and changed to the Catholic religion.
In 1671 Hamilton recruited a regiment in Ireland and served under Turenne and then under his successors, first Condé and finally Luxembourg. Louis XIV created him a French comte and she therefore became comtesse Hamilton.
According to some the couple had six children, but the only ones known by names seem to be the following three daughters who married:
Elizabeth, the first daughter, was born in England and baptised following the Anglican rite. She married Viscount Rosse, a Protestant loyal to James II, one of the only 5 Protestant lay members of the Irish House of Lords of the Patriot Parliament convoked by James II in 1688. The other two daughters were born in France, baptised in the Catholic church, and married Catholic men.
Early in June 1676 comte Hamilton was killed by a musket-shot in a rear-guard action at the Col de Saverne and she was widowed.
Second marriage.
Frances remarried in 1681 in Paris, taking as her second husband an old suitor she had previously rejected: Richard Talbot. Her husband was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland (viceroy) and the couple lived in Dublin. He oversaw a dramatic expansion of the Irish Army, transforming it from a mainly Protestant to a Catholic force. Talbot was created Earl of Tyrconnell in the peerage of Ireland in 1685 and she became Countess Tyrconnell.
In 1688 during the Glorious Revolution James II fled England and was replaced with Queen Mary and King William. However, in 1689 James II landed in Ireland trying to regain his kingdoms. Soon after his arrival, on 20 March 1689, he made Tyrconnell a duke and she became duchess. This title is in the Jacobite peerage. Nonetheless, Frances is frequently called "Duchess" of Tyrconnell. They had no children.
In 1690, after the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, the king fled to their home and was met by Frances. According to later sources, King James remarked, ‘Your countrymen, madam, can run well’ and Lady Tyrconnell replied, ‘Not quite so well as your majesty, for I see that you have won the race’.
She fled to France and was one of the ladies-in-waiting of Mary of Modena, exiled Queen of England at Saint-Germain.
Her husband died during the Siege of Limerick in 1691.
Later life.
After her husband's death Frances was reduced to poverty and for a while, she had a dressmaker's stall at the New Exchange in the Strand in London. She dressed in white with her face covered by a white mask and was described as "the white milliner". This episode was dramatised by Douglas Jerrold and performed at Covent Garden in 1841 under the title "The white Milliner: A Comedy in two Acts".
Following the accession of Queen Anne, Frances (and her stepdaughter, Charlotte Talbot) had some of her husband's former property restored to them by act of parliament — presumably assisted by her sister's influence with the Queen. Eventually she retired to the Dominican Convent at Channel Row and lived there as a parlour boarder from 1723-1724. She then built a house on North King Street in Dublin and obtained the permission to establish a Poor Clares convent in it.
Death and timeline.
In 1731 Frances died in Dublin at the Poor Clares convent that she had founded. She was buried on 9 March in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.
She also funded a mass to be celebrated daily for ever at the chapel of the Scots College in Paris for the benefit of her soul and for those of both her husbands as can still be read on the memorial plaque affixed to the wall of this church (see photo). The Latin inscription translates into English as:
To God, most good, most great.<br>
To the most illustrious and noble Lady<br>
Frances Jennings,<br>
duchess of Tyrconnell,<br>
Lady-in-waiting of the Queen of Great Britain,<br>
benefactrice of this College,<br>
who founded a daily mass in this sanctuary<br>
to be celebrated for ever<br>
for her soul and those of Sir George<br>
Hamilton of Abercorn, knight<br>
her first husband and Sir Richard Talbot,<br>
duke of Tyrconnell, Viceroy of Ireland,<br>
her second husband.<br>
She died on 17 March 1731.<br>
May she rest in peace.<br>
As the memorial plaque is in France, the text gives the date of her death according to the Gregorian calendar, which had been adopted in France in 1582 but would adopted in England only in 1752. This new-style date (17 March 1731) differs from the old-style date usually found in English texts (6 March 1731).