Description
Lady Charlotte Lindsay, née North (c.1771-1849) is depicted seated close to the end of her bed reading a book positioned very close to her face. Her birth date is given as c.1771 which would make her about 74 when the picture was drawn. Her sister Lady Anne North married John Baker Holroyd whose son George became father to Susan, so lady Charlotte would have been Susan’s great Aunt.
Charlotte was the daughter of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford KG, PC (1732-1792), in 1800 she married Lt.-Col. John Lindsay (d. 1826), son of James Lindsay, fifth Earl of Balcarres. She was Lady in Waiting to Queen Caroline. Her father was better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790. He was Prime Minister of GB from 1770 to 1782 and led GB through most of the American War of Independence. He also held several other cabinet posts, including Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Lady Susan Harriet Harcourt, née Holroyd (1829-94) was the daughter of George Augustus Frederick Charles Holroyd, 2nd Earl of Sheffield (1802-1876) and Harriet, daughter of Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood. She married the naturalist and politician Edward William Vernon Harcourt, and the pair travelled extensively, during which excursions Lady Susan drew copiously. She provided the illustrations for her husband’s book ‘A Sketch of Madeira’ published in 1851. Examples of her pen and ink drawings from 1845-6 can be viewed online by the Royal Collection. The drawings are housed in an album compiled by Queen Victoria (or probably Queen Victoria’s mother, Victoria Duchess of Kent).
