Eleanor Agnes Hobart, Countess of Buckinghamshire (''née'' Eden; 1777 – October 1851) was the eldest child of

Lord Auckland Baron Auckland is a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in 1789 when the prominent politician and financial expert William Eden was made Baron Auckland in the Peerage of Ireland. In ...

. As a young woman, she was rumoured to have been engaged to

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...

, the Prime Minister, but he disavowed the connection and never married.

Early life

Eleanor was born the eldest child of

William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, PC (Ire), FRS (3 April 174528 May 1814) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1793. Early life A member of the influential Eden family, Auckland was a younger son ...

, and his wife, Eleanor Elliot, daughter of

Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, of Minto Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet, (of Minto) (September 172211 February 1777) was born at Minto, Roxburghshire, and was a Scottish statesman, philosopher and poet. Early life Elliot was born in September 1722 in Minto, Roxburghshire. He was on ...

. Her mother was a sister of

Gilbert Eliott, 1st Earl of Minto Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto, (; 23 April 175121 June 1814), known as Sir Gilbert Elliott, 4th Baronet until 1797, and The Lord Minto from 1797 to 1814, was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Comm ...

Relations with Pitt

Pitt and Eleanor met at her father's home at

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

, during Pitt's repeated visits there from his own home at nearby

Holwood House Holwood House is a country house in Keston, near Hayes, in the London Borough of Bromley, England. The house was designed by Decimus Burton, built between 1823 and 1826 and is in the Greek Revival style. It was built for John Ward who later em ...

, near

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

in Kent, but early in 1797 Pitt quashed spreading rumours that he intended to marry her by writing to Auckland: :"My Dear Lord... It can hardly, I think, be necessary to say that the time I have passed among your family has led to my forming sentiments of very real attachment towards them all, and of much more than attachment to one whom I need not name.... Nor should I do justice to my own feelings.... if I did not own that every hour of my acquaintance with the person to whom you will easily conceive I refer... has convinced me that whoever may have the good fortune to be united to her is destined to more than his share of human happiness. :"Whether I could have had any ground to hope that such might have been my lot, I have to reproach myself for ever having indulged the idea as far as I have done without asking myself carefully and early enough what were the difficulties in the way of it being realised.... Having now at length reflected as fully and as calmly as I am able... I am compelled to say that I find the obstacles to it decisive and insurmountable...." Auckland replied: :"We had from an early period every reason to believe that the sentiments formed were most cordially mutual: and we saw with delight that they were ripening into an attachment which might lay the foundation of a system of most perfect happiness...." He also tried to get Pitt to reveal what was the "insurmountable obstacle" he mentioned, but Pitt's only answer was that "further explanation or discussion can answer no good purpose."

Marriage

In 1799, she married

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, (6 May 17604 February 1816), styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician. Life Buckinghamshire was born at Hampden House, the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshir ...

, becoming his second wife. They had no children. Lord Buckinghamshire died in February 1816 at the age of 55, after falling from his horse.

References

1851 deaths 18th-century English people 19th-century English people Buckinghamshire Daughters of barons

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

Hobart family William Pitt the Younger 1777 births {{GB-earl-stub