Margaret Radclyffe Livingstone Eyre née Lady Margaret Kennedy, later (and mistakenly) called the Countess of Newburgh (6 June 1800 – 3 September 1889) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

philanthropist. Said to be an "archetype of the nineteenth-century charitable Catholic lady" who gave a good portion of her income to good works.

Life

She was born in 1800. Her parents were Margaret (born Erskine) and Archibald Kennedy, twelfth Earl of Cassillis. Her politician (and gambler) father became the first Marquess of Ailsa in 1831. Culzean Castle, South Ayrshire

She married at her

family seat A family seat or sometimes just called seat is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families to ...

Culzean Castle Culzean Castle ( , see yogh; sco, Cullain) is a castle overlooking the Firth of Clyde, near Maybole, Carrick, in South Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, but is ...

in Scotland on 14 November 1817 to Thomas Radclyffe-Livingstone-Eyre. Ten years later her father in law, Francis Radclyffe-Livingstone-Eyre, died. He was a potential holder of the disputed title of the

Earl of Newburgh The title Earl of Newburgh (pronounced "''New''-bruh") was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1660 for James Livingston, 1st Viscount of Newburgh, along with the subsidiary titles Viscount of Kynnaird and Lord Levingston. The viscountcy o ...

and on his death his son, her husband, boldly (and erroneously) took the title of Earl of Newburgh and Margaret became ''Margaret, Countess of Newburgh''. Six years later her husband died and she became a widowed Countess. She sat for a portrait by Orazio de Manara which is now held by the National Trust at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire. left, Our Lady and St Cuthbert Catholic Church in Maybole was opened in 1878 and it was funded by Eyre By 1850 she had converted to the Catholic church and she worked with and was good friends with fellow aristocrats Lady Georgiana Fullerton and

Cecil Chetwynd Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian Cecil Chetwynd Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian (née Lady Cecil Chetwynd-Talbot; 17 April 1808 – 13 May 1877) was a British noblewoman and philanthropist who founded the Anglican Saint John's Church in Jedburgh and the Roman Catholic Saint David ...

. The Marchioness of Lothian like herself was a recent Scottish Catholic convert who had built a church in Jedburgh. Georgiana Fullerton was another recent aristocratic convert who was of independent means. She was a successful writer and all of her royalties went to charity. Eyre spent nearly £500 a year on charitable causes. She supported the Westminster Sisters of Charity and gave out pensions to needy individuals. The gifts were not given ostentatiously but modestly. Eyre did not use the gifts to build up her own position in society. Near where she lived at

Maybole Maybole is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is bypass ...

she almost single-handedly funded a new Roman Catholic church. Eyre went blind in her old age and took to a

bath chair A bath chair—or Bath chair—was a rolling chaise or light carriage for one person with a folding hood, which could be open or closed. Used especially by disabled persons, it was mounted on three or four wheels and drawn or pushed by hand. It ...

, but she could still meet her friends who were not all Catholics. She died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1889. Her biography in the

ODNB The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

describes her as a "archetype of the nineteenth-century charitable Catholic lady".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyre, Margaret Radclyffe Livingstone 1800 births 1889 deaths People from South Ayrshire Converts to Roman Catholicism Daughters of British marquesses 19th-century British philanthropists 19th-century women philanthropists