Biography of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury 1656-1741

Before March 1645 [his father] Robert Bruce 2nd Earl Elgin 1st Earl Ailesbury [aged 18] and [his step-mother] Diana Grey Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 15] were married. She the daughter of Henry Grey 1st Earl Stamford [aged 46] and Anne Cecil Countess Stamford [aged 49]. He the son of [his grandfather] Thomas Bruce 1st Earl Elgin [aged 46] and [his grandmother] Anne Chichester. They were fifth cousins.

In 1656 Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury was born to [his father] Robert Bruce 2nd Earl Elgin 1st Earl Ailesbury [aged 29].

On 21st December 1663 [his grandfather] Thomas Bruce 1st Earl Elgin [aged 64] died. His son [his father] Robert [aged 37] succeeded 2nd Earl Elgin, 2nd Baron Bruce of Whorlton in Yorkshire. [his step-mother] Diana Grey Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 33] by marriage Countess Elgin.

On 31st August 1676 Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 20] and Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 21] were married. She the daughter of Henry Seymour and Mary Capell Duchess Beaufort [aged 45]. He the son of Robert Bruce 2nd Earl Elgin 1st Earl Ailesbury [aged 50]. They were fourth cousins. She a great x 5 granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

In 1679 [his son] Robert Bruce was born to Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 23] and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 24]. He died aged six in 1685.

On 29th May 1682 [his son] Charles Bruce 4th Earl Elgin 3rd Earl Ailesbury was born to Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 26] and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 27]. He married (1) before 1717 his fourth cousin once removed Anne Savile, daughter of William Savile 2nd Marquess Halifax and Elizabeth Grimston, and had issue (2) July 1717 his second cousin Juliana Boyle, daughter of Charles Boyle 2nd Earl Burlington and Juliana Noel Countess Burlington (3) March 1739 his fifth cousin once removed Caroline Campbell Countess Elgin and Ailesbury, daughter of John Campbell 4th Duke Argyll and Mary Drummond Bellenden, and had issue.

In 1685 [his son] Robert Bruce [aged 6] died.

In 1685 James Butler 2nd Duke Ormonde [aged 19] and [his sister-in-law] Mary Somerset Duchess Ormonde [aged 21] were married. She the daughter of Henry Somerset 1st Duke Beaufort [aged 56] and [his mother-in-law] Mary Capell Duchess Beaufort [aged 54]. He the son of Thomas Butler 6th Earl Ossory and Emilia Nassau Beverweert Countess Ossory [aged 49].

On 20th October 1685 [his father] Robert Bruce 2nd Earl Elgin 1st Earl Ailesbury [aged 59] died. His son Thomas [aged 29] succeeded 3rd Earl Elgin, 2nd Earl Ailesbury, 2nd Viscount Bruce of Ampthill in Bedfordshire, 3rd Baron Bruce of Whorlton in Yorkshire, 2nd Baron Bruce of Skelton in Yorkshire. [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 30] by marriage Countess Elgin, Countess Ailesbury.

On 24th June 1686 Henry Horatio O'Brien and [his sister-in-law] Henrietta Somerset Countess Suffolk [aged 17] were married. She the daughter of Henry Somerset 1st Duke Beaufort [aged 57] and [his mother-in-law] Mary Capell Duchess Beaufort [aged 55]. He the son of Henry O'Brien 7th Earl Thomond [aged 66] and Sarah Russell Countess Thomond [aged 48]. They were fourth cousin once removed.

On 21st July 1688 James Butler 1st Duke Ormonde [aged 77] died. His grandson James [aged 23] de jure 2nd Duke Ormonde, 2nd Marquess Ormonde, 13th Earl Ormonde, 6th Earl Ossory. [his sister-in-law] Mary Somerset Duchess Ormonde [aged 24] by marriage Duchess Ormonde.

In 1689 [his daughter] Elizabeth Bruce 3rd Countess Cardigan was born to Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 33] and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 34]. She married 15th May 1707 her half fourth cousin once removed George Brudenell 3rd Earl Cardigan and had issue.

John Evelyn's Diary. 15th January 1689. I visited the Archbishop of Canterbury [aged 71], where I found the Bishops of St. Asaph [aged 61], Ely [aged 51], Bath and Wells [aged 51], Peterborough [aged 61], and Chichester [aged 65], the Earls of Aylesbury [aged 33] and Clarendon, Sir George Mackenzie [aged 53], Lord-Advocate of Scotland, and then came in a Scotch Archbishop, etc. After prayers and dinner, divers serious matters were discoursed, concerning the present state of the Public, and sorry I was to find there was as yet no accord in the judgments of those of the Lords and Commons who were to convene; some would have the Princess [aged 26] made Queen without any more dispute, others were for a Regency; there was a Tory party (then so called), who were for inviting his Majesty [aged 55] again upon conditions; and there were Republicans who would make the Prince of Orange [aged 38] like a Stadtholder. The Romanists were busy among these several parties to bring them into confusion: most for ambition or other interest, few for conscience and moderate resolutions. I found nothing of all this in this assembly of Bishops, who were pleased to admit me into their discourses; they were all for a Regency, thereby to salve their oaths, and so all public matters to proceed in his Majesty's name, by that to facilitate the calling of Parliament, according to the laws in being. Such was the result of this meeting.

In 1691 Thomas Coventry 2nd Earl Coventry [aged 29] and [his sister-in-law] Anne Somerset Countess Coventry [aged 17] were married. She the daughter of Henry Somerset 1st Duke Beaufort [aged 62] and [his mother-in-law] Mary Capell Duchess Beaufort [aged 60]. He the son of Thomas Coventry 1st Earl Coventry [aged 62] and Winifred Edgecumbe [aged 54]. They were sixth cousins.

In 1697 [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 42] died.

On 27th April 1700 Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 44] and Charlotte Argenteau Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 21] were married at Brussels [Map]. She by marriage Countess Elgin, Countess Ailesbury. The difference in their ages was 22 years. He the son of Robert Bruce 2nd Earl Elgin 1st Earl Ailesbury.

In 1704 [his daughter] Marie Thérèse Bruce was born to Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 48] and [his wife] Charlotte Argenteau Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 25].

Around 1706 Thomas Howard 8th Duke of Norfolk [aged 22] was in secret negotiations for a marriage to Elizabeth [aged 17], daughter of Thomas Bruce [aged 50], 2nd earl of Ailesbury. When her brother, Charles [aged 23], the future 3rd earl, discovered the intrigue he was horrified. He insisted that he would never give his consent to her marrying a Catholic, though he seems to have been just as worried about the 'worldly concerns' of Catholics who were 'in a very precarious way', as about their religious beliefs, citing the bill to limit their rights of inheritance which was then before Parliament. Instead, Norfolk began his pursuit of Maria [aged 13], then only thirteen, daughter of Nicholas Shireburn 1st Baronet [aged 47].

On 15th May 1707 [his son-in-law] George Brudenell 3rd Earl Cardigan [aged 21] and Elizabeth Bruce 3rd Countess Cardigan [aged 18] were married at St Martin in the Fields Church [Map]. She by marriage Countess Cardigan. She the daughter of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 51] and Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury. They were half fourth cousin once removed.

On 23rd July 1710 [his wife] Charlotte Argenteau Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 31] died.

Before 1717 Charles Bruce 4th Earl Elgin 3rd Earl Ailesbury [aged 34] and Anne Savile [aged 25] were married. She the daughter of William Savile 2nd Marquess Halifax and Elizabeth Grimston. He the son of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 60] and Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury. They were fourth cousin once removed.

In July 1717 Charles Bruce 4th Earl Elgin 3rd Earl Ailesbury [aged 35] and Juliana Boyle [aged 20] were married. She the daughter of Charles Boyle 2nd Earl Burlington and Juliana Noel Countess Burlington [aged 45]. He the son of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 61] and Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury. They were second cousins.

In 1736 [his daughter] Marie Thérèse Bruce [aged 32] died.

1738. François Harrewijn [aged 38]. Portrait of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 82].

In March 1739 Charles Bruce 4th Earl Elgin 3rd Earl Ailesbury [aged 56] and Caroline Campbell Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 18] were married. The difference in their ages was 38 years. She the daughter of John Campbell 4th Duke Argyll [aged 46] and Mary Drummond Bellenden. He the son of Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 83] and Elizabeth Seymour Countess Elgin and Ailesbury. They were fifth cousin once removed.

On 16th December 1741 Thomas Bruce 3rd Earl Elgin 2nd Earl Ailesbury [aged 85] died. His son Charles [aged 59] succeeded 4th Earl Elgin, 3rd Earl Ailesbury, 3rd Viscount Bruce of Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Caroline Campbell Countess Elgin and Ailesbury [aged 20] by marriage Countess Elgin, Countess Ailesbury.

Adeline Horsey Recollections. The wicked Countess and her lover lived at Cliveden [Map] - "the bower of wanton Shrewsbury and of love" - and her spirit is supposed to haunt the beautiful riverside retreat, but I am thankful to say she has never appeared in the old home of her innocent girlhood. Her portrait by Sir Peter Lely hangs in the White Hall at Deene, and is a fine example of the artist's well-known very décolleté style of "robes loosely flowing, hair as free", with the usual mise en scène of a beauty of Charles II's time. The [his former son-in-law] third Earl of Cardigan was Master of the Buckhounds to Queen Anne; he married a daughter of the Earl of Ailesbury, and their fourth son inherited the Ailesbury title and estates. Lord Cardigan's eldest son married the heiress of the Duke of Montagu in 1766¹. He was a friend of Horace Walpole, the influence of whose pseudo-Gothic tastes may still be seen in the south front of Deene [Map], built at this time, and which now incorporates the great ball-room built for me by my dear husband.

Note 1. Married on 7th July 1730. He was created Duke in 1766.