Anna Eliza Brydges ( Gamon, formerly Elletson) was an English aristocrat and plantation owner. She married James Brydges, the third

Duke of Chandos The Dukedom of Chandos is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. First created as a barony by Edward III in 1337, its second creation in 1554 was due to the Brydges family's service to Mary I during Wyatt's rebellion, wh ...

Early life

Anna came from

Datchworth Datchworth is a village and civil parish between the towns of Hertford, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Sited on the Roman road from St Albans to Puckeridge, the village has examples of Saxon clearings in ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. She was the daughter of Richard Gamon and his wife, Elizabeth (née Grace). She had a younger brother, Sir Richard Grace Gamon, who became MP for

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

First marriage and the Hope Plantation

Her first husband was

Roger Hope Elletson Roger Hope Elletson (1727—28 November 1775, Bath, Somerset, Bath) was a Jamaican people, Jamaican Plantation, planter. Early life Roger was the younger son of Richard and Susanna Elletson. The family owned the Liguanea, Hope Estate near Kings ...

(1723-1775), an

Old Etonian Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

who grew sugar on Jamaica and who also served as Lieutenant Governor of the island., UCL Department of History 2020. Elletson died in England in 1775, leaving Anna the

Hope Plantation Hope Plantation, built in 1803, is an early house built in the Palladian mode of the federal style, located on the Carolina Coastal Plain, near Windsor, North Carolina, in the United States. The plantation house was built by David Stone, a ...

near Kingston and the enslaved people who worked it. She was an absentee manager of the plantation into the 1780s, by which time she was joint owner with her second husband. The property passed to

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

, Anna's daughter by her second marriage and still belonged to the family in 1833 when slavery was abolished. The "Chandos inheritance" received by Anna's grandson Richard included £6,630 compensation for the loss of the slaves on the estate. This was awarded to the trustees of his

marriage settlement A marriage settlement in England was a historic arrangement whereby, most commonly and in its simplest form, a trust of land or other assets was established jointly by the parents of a bride and bridegroom. The trustees were established as legal ow ...

Later life

She married the 3rd Duke of Chandos in 1777. This was a second marriage for both parties. They had one child who survived to adulthood, Lady Anne Elizabeth Brydges (born 1779). In 1789, the Duke died from injuries received when his wife inadvertently moved the chair he was about to sit in. In 1791, Anna was declared a

lunatic Lunatic is an antiquated term referring to a person who is seen as mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, or crazy—conditions once attributed to "lunacy". The word derives from ''lunaticus'' meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck". History The ter ...

and confined to her London home, Chandos House. A lengthy

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

in the Irish courts over the management of her property ended dramatically in 1794 with the

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

of the judge Richard Power, accountant-general of the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

, who was accused of misappropriation of funds connected with the suit.

Media interest

In 2015, Anna's ownership of a

sugar plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

was discussed in a television programme, ''Britain's Forgotten Slave-owners'', broadcast by the BBC. The programme was presented by the historian

David Olusoga David Adetayo Olusoga (born January 1970) is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contrib ...

who was filmed at Chandos House. It won a BAFTA award and the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

Public History Prize Winner for Broadcasting.

Notes

:1. Anne Elizabeth married

Richard Temple-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (20 March 1776 – 17 January 1839), styled Earl Temple from 1784 to 1813 and known as the Marquess of Buckingham from 1813 to 1822, was a British landowner and ...

. They were the parents of

Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, (11 February 1797 – 29 July 1861), styled Viscount Cobham from birth until 1813, Earl Temple between 1813 and 1822 and Marquess of Chand ...

References

1737 births 1823 deaths English duchesses by marriage British slave owners Women slave owners {{England-duke-stub