Frances Gibson Shepheard Ingram (1734-1807) was a wealthy heiress and landowner who was instrumental in the design of the landscape at Temple Newsam,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. Frances was the illegitimate daughter of the rich

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

merchant, Samuel Shepheard; her mother was called Gibson. Samuel left Frances £40,000 in his will stating that she must not marry a peer, an Irishman or a Scotsman. She married Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount Irwin in 1758 after several years of legal dispute. At Charles's seat in Yorkshire, Temple Newsam, Frances insisted that

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

redesign the parkland. Frances was an active gardener, supervising the planting in the grounds. For instance, surviving correspondence shows she helped her husband mark out where shrubs were to be planted along her gravel walk. Frances collected works of art, including Italian classical landscapes. She was painted as a shepherdess by Benjamin Wilson, reflecting her interest in pastoral landscape. She was also painted by Joshua Reynolds in a pensive mood, leaning on a book, a copy of which is at Temple Newsam. When Charles died in 1778, he left the Temple Newsam estate as well as eighty burgages in

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Sussex to Frances. A resolute Tory, Frances used the burgages to dominate local politics by appointing members to the constituency and telling them how to vote; as well as controlling the local land court. She was challenged by the Whig

11th Duke of Norfolk Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk (15 March 1746 – 16 December 1815), styled Earl of Surrey from 1777 to 1786, was a British nobleman, peer, and politician. He was the son of Charles Howard, 10th Duke of Norfolk and Catherine Brockho ...

who began buying up burgages; but Frances used her local knowledge and her tenacity to triumph over the Duke in a House of Commons hearing that ruled in her favour over the election of 1790. In 1796, she remodelled the south wing at Temple Newsam; and in 1806 the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

visited her there giving her some Chinese wallpaper.

References

{{reflist 1734 births 1807 deaths