Rosa Frederica FitzGeorge (' Baring, ''formerly'' Arkwright; 9 March 1854 – 10 March 1927) was an English socialite.

Origin

Rosa was born on 9 March 1854 at Norman Court in

West Tytherley West Tytherley is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. Its nearest town is Stockbridge, which lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north-east from the village, although its post town is Salisbury ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England. She was the second daughter of William Henry Baring, JP and Elizabeth Hammersley. Her elder brother, Francis Charles Baring, married Isabella Augusta Schuster (a granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Orkney), and her younger brother, William Bingham Baring, married Georgina Margaret Campbell (daughter of Charles Hallyburton Campbell).G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, ''The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14'' (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/1, page 589. Her paternal grandparents were Frances ( Poulett-Thomson) Baring and William Baring (a younger son of the famous Sir Francis Baring of the

Barings Bank Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London, and one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...

). Her maternal grandparents were Charles Hammersley and Emily ( Poulett-Thomson) Hammersley, and her uncle was Thomas Weguelin, partner of Thomson, Bonar, and Company of London, Director and Governor of the Bank of England.Drummond, Helga. ''The Dynamics of Organizational Collapse; The Case of Barings Bank, New York'' (2008) Routledge Her grandmothers were sisters, both being daughters of London merchant John Buncombe Poulett-Thomson of

Waverley Abbey House Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, the Bishop of Winchester. Located about southeast of Farnham, Surrey, it is situated on a flood-plain; surrounded by current and previous channel ...

, and sisters to

Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, (13 September 1799 – 19 September 1841) was a British businessman, politician, diplomat and the first Governor General of the united Province of Canada.

.Sir Bernard Burke, C.B. LL.D., ''A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition'' (1883; reprint,

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), page 531.

Personal life

Rosa married twice and, reportedly, was not friendly with the families of either of her two husbands.

First marriage

On 29 August 1878, she was married to Capt. Frank Wigsell Arkwright at

Sanderstead Sanderstead is a village and medieval-founded church parish at the southern end of Croydon in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, and formerly in the historic county of Surrey, until 1965. It takes in Purley Downs and S ...

, Surrey Court,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was a son of Robert Wigram Arkwright and Sophia Julia ( Greig) Arkwright. They had two children: * Esmé Francis Wigsell Arkwright (1882–1934), who married Audrey Violet Hatfeild Harter, daughter of James Francis Hatfield Harter, in 1909. They divorced. He married Violet Eveleen ( Sutton), former wife of Maj.-Gen. Albemarle Cator and daughter of Capt. Francis Richard Hugh Seymour Sutton and Lady Susan Elizabeth Lascelles (a daughter of the 4th Earl of Harewood), in 1920. * Vera Nina Arkwright (1883–1948), who, following her parents' divorce, grew up with her Baring grandparents though she is said to have become the surrogate god child of

Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge Margaret Evelyn Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge (8 April 1873 – 27 March 1929) was the sixth child and third daughter of the 1st Duke of Westminster and the wife of the 1st Marquess of Cambridge. She was known before her marriage as The L ...

, wife of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Teck. Vera married Frederick Blantford Bate in 1916. They divorced in 1929, and that same year she married Italian Cavalry Officer Prince Alberto Lombardi. Rosa and Frank divorced in 1885.

Second marriage

She married secondly on 25 November 1885 to Col. George William Adolphus FitzGeorge, in Paris. The eldest of the three sons of Prince George,

Duke of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

and his mistress Louisa Fairbrother, he was a grandson of King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. According to the Marquise de Fontenoy her marriage to Col. FitzGeorge "gave great offense" to his father, Prince George. George and Rosa were the parents of: * Mabel Iris FitzGeorge (1886–1976), who married Robert Shekelton Balfour in 1912. After his death in 1943, she married Prince Vladimir Galitzine, in 1945. * George Daphne FitzGeorge (1889–1954), who married to Sir George Foster Earle, in 1915. They divorced in 1926. * George William Frederick FitzGeorge (1892–1960), who married Esther Melina Vignon in 1915. They divorced in 1927 and he married Frances Bellanger, daughter of Robert Bellenger, in 1934. They divorced in 1957. She made "plenty of capital of the royal blood in the veins of her husband" and as the daughter-in-law of the Duke of Cambridge, Rosa flourished in New York and Chicago as "Lady FitzGeorge" using the title in pursuit of wealthy American families to find a husband for her daughter Vera. Derived From George died on 2 September 1907.

Death

Rosa FitzGeorge died on 10 March 1927 in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

, France.

Descendants

Through her daughter Vera, she was a grandmother to Bridget Bate Tichenor, a Magic Realist painter who lived in Mexico from 1956 to 1990. Through her daughter Iris, she was a grandmother to Gen. Victor FitzGeorge-Balfour, the UK Military Representative to NATO.

References

External links

Ancestry of Elizabeth Hammersley

Hammersley connection
{{DEFAULTSORT:FitzGeorge, Rosa Frederica Baring 1854 births 1927 deaths People from Test Valley Rosa Frederica Rosa Frederica Baring FitzGeorge