Sophia Bulkeley (née Stewart;

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1660–1718) was a Scottish Jacobite courtier.

Life

She was a younger daughter of Walter Stewart (or Stuart), the third son of

Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre (died 8 March 1617) was a Scottish politician, administrator, and judge. Life He was the son of John Stewart of Minto, Sir John Stewart of Minto, Scottish Borders, Minto and Margaret Stewart sister of James Stew ...

, M.P. for Monmouth, her elder sister being the court beauty

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (8 July 1647Encyclopædia Britannica – 15 October 1702) was a prominent member of the Court of the Restoration and famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England. For her ...

. The Stuarts were royalists, and were in exile in France under the Commonwealth. Sophia returned to England after the Restoration of 1660, and in 1671 became a

maid of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Role Traditionally, a queen r ...

to Queen

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, ...

. About three years later she married

Henry Bulkeley Henry Bulkeley (–1698) was an English courtier and politician. Bulkeley was the fifth son of Thomas Bulkeley, 1st Viscount Bulkeley and Blanche Coytmore. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge and admitted at Gray's Inn in 1654. He w ...

: he was fourth son of

Thomas Bulkeley, 1st Viscount Bulkeley Thomas Bulkeley, 1st Viscount Bulkeley (1585–1659) was a landowner from North Wales who supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. The son of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris and his first wife Mary Burgh, daughter of William, ...

of Baron Hill, near

Beaumaris Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from ...

, and brother of the royalist general Richard Bulkeley. Henry was master of the household successively to Charles II and James II. This marriage therefore placed Sophia in the inner court circles, and due course in 1685 she became lady of the bedchamber to Queen

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the young ...

. About 1680 it was rumoured that

Sidney Godolphin Sidney Godolphin is the name of: * Sidney Godolphin (colonel) (1652–1732), Member of Parliament for fifty years * Sidney Godolphin (poet) (1610–1643), English poet * Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (c. 1640–1712), leading British poli ...

was enamoured of her. In October 1688 she was a witness with Queen Mary at the birth of her son, the young James, Prince of Wales. The

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

saw her move with the Queen and Stuart court to France in December 1688. Sophia Bulkeley remained a Jacobite loyalist, though she had personal reasons to return on occasion to England, something she managed in 1702. She tried to return again to England in 1713, on financial affairs, but was refused papers. She made a final attempt in 1718, which once more failed.

Family

Henry and Sophia Bulkeley had six children. James became a resident in France, and left a family there; * François de Bulkeley,

Lieutenant-general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

; husband of Marie-Anne O'Mahony, daughter of Daniel O'Mahony and Cecilia Weld. * Charlotte; first wife of

Charles O'Brien, 5th Viscount Clare Charles O'Brien, 5th Viscount Clare (1673–1706) was the son of Daniel O'Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare and Philadelphia Lennard. He married Charlotte Bulkeley, daughter of Henry Bulkeley and Sophia Bulkeley, Sophia Stuart, on 9 January 1696, at Sain ...

, and later of Daniel O'Mahony. * Anne (d. 12 June 1751); married

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, 1st Duke of Liria and Jérica, 1st Duke of Fitz-James (21 August 1670 – 12 June 1734) was an Anglo-French military leader, illegitimate son of King James II of England by Arabella Churchill, sister o ...

, illegitimate son of

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulkeley, Sophia 17th-century Scottish people 18th-century Scottish people 17th-century Scottish women 18th-century Scottish women Scottish Jacobites Scottish ladies-in-waiting