Catherine Sarah Dorothea (Pakenham) Wellesley (1773 - 1831)

Born 14 Jan 1773 in Dublin, Ireland

Ancestors

Wife of Arthur Wellesley KG GCB GCH — married about Apr 1806 in St. George's, Dublin, Ireland

Descendants

Died 24 Apr 1831 at age 58 in Apsley House

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Catherine Pakenham was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

Hon. Catherine Sarah Dorothea Pakenham was born in 1773, the daughter of Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford and Catherine Rowley.

She married Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, son of Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington and Hon. Anne Hill, on 10 April 1806 at St. George's Church, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland. ^[1]

She died on 24 April 1831 at Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, Mayfair, London, England. She was also reported to have died on 25 April 1831. She was buried at Stratfield Saye House, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. ^[2]

From 10 April 1806, her married name became Wellesley. On 28 October 1814 Lady Elizabeth Yorke writes of her from Paris 'her appearance, unfortunately, does not correspond with one's notion of an ambassadress or the wife of a hero, but she succeeds uncommonly well in her part.'^[3]

Miss Edgeworth says 'charming, amiable Lady Wellington! As she truly said of herself, she is always "Kitty Pakenham to her friends". After comparison with crowds of other beaux spirits, fine ladies and fashionable scramblers for notoriety, her graceful simplicity rises in our opinion, and we feel it with more conviction of its superiority.'^[4]

In later years, Catherine and the Duke lived a good deal apart, although they were never formally separated. Fortescue states that she 'was not the right wife for him'. Guedella writes to the same effect at much greater length. Wellington himself complains to Mrs Arbuthnot 'of the distress it was to him to be united to a person with whom he could not possibly live on any terms of confidential intercourse ... he had repeatedly tried to live in a friendly manner with her ... but that it was impossible, that she did not understand him ... and that he found he might as well as talk to a child ... she had so high an opinion of herself and thinks herself so excessively clever that she never tries to accommodate herself to him ... her mind was trivial and contracted and, in short, that they never could assimilate in anything.'^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Cokayne, G.E.; Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed.. 13 volumes in 14. 1910-1959. Reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000.
2. ↑ Brain Tompsett, Royal Genealogical Data, online http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/genealogy/royal/. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogical Data.
3. ↑ .E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 456. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
4. ↑ .E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 456.
5. ↑ Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 457.

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