Grace Elliott

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Grace Elliott
Ville d'Avray, France
Burial placePère Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
NationalityScottish
Occupation(s)Writer, courtesan, spy
Known formistress of the Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Notable workJournal of my life during the French Revolution
SpouseSir John Eliot (divorced)
ChildrenGeorgina Seymour
Parent(s)Grisel Craw (mother)
Hew Dalrymple (father)

Grace Dalrymple Elliott (c. 1754 – 16 May 1823) was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the

Robespierre
.

Early life

Elliott was born probably in Edinburgh about 1754, the youngest daughter of Grissel Brown (died 30 September 1767)

Douglas case. Her parents separated around the time of her birth, and she was most likely brought up at her grandparents' house.[4]

She was educated in a French convent, and on her return to Scotland, was introduced by her father into Edinburgh society. Her beauty made such an impression on John Eliot, a prominent and wealthy physician, that he made her an offer of marriage in 1771. She accepted, although Eliot was about 18 years her senior. They were married on 19 October 1771 in London, when she was 17. The couple entered fashionable society, but eventually grew apart due to their difference in age and interests.[2] In 1774 Elliott met and fell in love with Lord Valentia, with whom she entered into an affair. Convinced of his wife's infidelity, John Eliot had the couple followed and eventually sued Valentia for criminal conversation (adultery). He received £12,000 in damages before successfully obtaining a divorce.

With her social reputation destroyed, Elliott became recognised as a member of the demimonde and forced to earn her living as a professional mistress or courtesan. She was then taken by her brother to a French convent, but she seems to have been brought back almost immediately by Lord Cholmondeley, who became her lover and remained one of her principal protectors throughout her life.

Life in England

Having met Lord Cholmondeley at the

George IV
) and gave birth to a daughter on 30 March 1782, who was baptised at St Marylebone as Georgiana Augusta Frederica Seymour (d. 1813) but used the name Georgina Seymour.

Elliott declared that the Prince was the father of her child and The Morning Post stated in January 1782 that he admitted responsibility. However, the child was dark in complexion, and when she was first shown to the Prince, he is said to have remarked, "To convince me that this is my girl they must first prove that black is white."[6]

The Prince and many others regarded Lord Cholmondeley as the father of the girl, although the Prince's friends said that

George Selwyn
. Lord Cholmondeley brought up the girl, and after her early death in 1813, looked after her only child.

Life in France: French Revolution

Grace Elliott (1754?–1823). Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, 1778. (In the Metropolitan Museum of Art)[7]

George, Prince of Wales, introduced her to the French

Duke de Fitz-James and the Prince of Conde.[8]

Much of what is known about Elliott's life in France is recorded in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution (

Princess de Lamballe carried through the streets. Although Elliott was an associate of the Duke of Orleans (who later took the name Philippe Égalité), her royalist sympathies soon became widely known throughout her district, and her home was frequently searched. It has been recently shown that Elliott was trafficking correspondence on behalf of the British government and assisting in the transportation of messages between Paris and members of the exiled French court in Coblenz and in Belgium.[1][2]

Elliott several times risked her life to assist and hide aristocrats pursued by the Revolutionary government. Shortly after the

Marquis de Champcentz by physically carrying him to her house on the Rue Miromesnil at great risk. During a search of her home, she placed him between the mattresses of her bed and feigned illness. On another occasion, Elliott agreed to take in and hide at her home in Meudon Madame de Perigord and her two children, who were attempting to flee to England. She helped to arrange false travel documents for several people wishing to escape the Revolution. After hiding Champcentz in the attic of her home in Meudon, she managed to fix his passage out of France. In the spring of 1793, however, she was arrested and imprisoned and spent the rest of the Terror in prisons, including the Recollets and the Carmes, where she claims to have met Joséphine de Beauharnais
, although this has been questioned by historians. Her writings detail her harrowing prison experiences, the violent coercion she experienced, and the illness and deprivation endured by her fellow prisoners.

Later life

Although many of her friends met their deaths, including

Ville d'Avray, in present-day Hauts-de-Seine, in May 1823, while a lodger with the commune's mayor.[10]

She was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.[11]

Works

  • Elliott, Grace Dalrymple (2011) [1859], During the Reign of Terror: Journal of my Life during the French Revolution, Cover Art, Roy Niswanger,
    ISBN 9781230200811

Depictions in film and literature

A dramatic portrayal of part of her life is contained in Eric Rohmer's 2001 film The Lady and the Duke. English actress Lucy Russell played Elliott and Jean-Claude Dreyfus played the Duke of Orleans.

Grace Elliott also appears as a major character in Hallie Rubenhold's novel The French Lesson (Doubleday, 2016).

References

  1. ^ a b (Manning 2005)
  2. ^ a b c (Major & Murden 2016)
  3. ^ (Major & Murden 2016)
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8675. Retrieved 23 June 2018. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64354. Retrieved 11 March 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  6. OCLC 936547885.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  7. ^ "Mrs Grace Dalrymple Elliott". Metropolitan Museum.
  8. OCLC 5398468
  9. ^ "Journal of my Life during the French Revolution by Grace Dalrymple Elliott". The Athenaeum (1628): 41–42. 8 January 1859.
  10. ^ (Manning 2005, pp. 349–351)
  11. ^ (Manning 2005, p. 384)
Attribution

Sources

External links
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