Flower Backhouse (died 17 July 1700) was an English court official, notable as First Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne. She was Countess of Clarendon from 1670 until her death. The house at Swallowfield Park (geograph 4365319)

The house at Swallowfield Park (geograph 4365319)

Life

She was the daughter of the philosopher

William Backhouse William Backhouse (17 January 1593 – 30 May 1662) was an English philosopher, alchemist, astrologer, translator, and the esoteric mentor of Elias Ashmole. Born into the wealthy Backhouse family, Backhouse enjoyed an education at Oxford, and w ...

and his wife, the former Ann Richards. (Other sources say she was the daughter of Sir John Backhouse by his wife, the former Flower Henshaw.) She was married three times, her first marriage being to William Bishop of

South Warnborough South Warnborough () is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. In the 2001 census, the population was 407. In the 2016 census, the population was estimated to be 509. South Warnborough is approximately south of ...

, sometime prior to 1662. Following Bishop's death, she married secondly her father's cousin, Sir William Backhouse, Bart., at

St Andrew Holborn __NOTOC__ St Andrew Holborn was an ancient English parish that until 1767 was partly in the City of London and mainly in the county of Middlesex. Its City, thus southern, part retained its former name or was sometimes officially referred to as ...

on 23 November 1662; Backhouse died in 1669. From her second husband she inherited nine shares in the

New River Company The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by roy ...

. She married her third husband, Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury, on 19 October 1670,Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 185. as his second wife. This gained Clarendon the manor and house of

Swallowfield Park Swallowfield Park is a Grade II* listed stately home and estate in the English county of Berkshire. The house is near the village of Swallowfield, some 4 miles south of the town of Reading. The House Swallowfield Park was the home of the Bac ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. Hyde became Earl of Clarendon in 1676. Clarendon was brother to Queen Anne's mother

Anne Hyde Anne Hyde (12 March 163731 March 1671) was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII. Anne was the daughter of a member of the English gentry – Edward Hyde (later created ...

and sometime after her third marriage Backhouse became Anne's First Lady of the Bedchamber. However, Backhouse was hated by Anne's best friend Sarah Churchill, who called her "the madwoman" and may have brought about Anne's later dislike of Backhouse.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backhouse, Flower 1700 deaths First Ladies of the Bedchamber Clarendon Wives of baronets 17th-century English women 17th-century English nobility Court of Anne, Queen of Great Britain