| Notes |
- Amelia was the youngest of 8 children of the 4th Duke of Marlborough. The
Duke was opposed to Amelia's marriage to Henry Boyce because he was
considered below her station. Her father at first persuaded her to give
him up, but "during the last days of her mother's long illness, Lady
Amelia was observed conducting clandestine interviews with her lover in
the park. Lord Francis intervened and Amelia told him that she intended
to wait until some time after her mother's death, when she would ask her
father for his consent to her marriage. We hear no more details - but
Lady Amelia Spencer was married to Captain Boyce in September 1812. And
it was well indeed that the aging and now lonely Duke did not alienate
another daughter, for in this same year death swept away 47-year-old
Elizabeth (married to her cousin John Spencer); and a year later Caroline
(wife of Viscount Clifden) would die, aged forty-four - so only two of the
five lively daughters, Anne, Countess of Shaftesbury, and Amelia Boyce,
would remain to enlighten his darkling years". QUOTE from "The Profligate
Duke" by Mary Soames, pages 137 - 138 Her sister Charlotte also married
beneath her station. She married Edward Nares, who's father was a former
MP for Oxford. She never visited Blenheim again (see notes for
Charlotte). On page 28 of the Soames' book, Amelia at age 22 was described
as "rather pretty, but looks formal and not at ease. They say the Duchess
has always been a most disagreeable mother, indeed, some go so far as to
say an unnatural one, ...".
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1785 - 1829 (44 years)
