Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (11 February 1715 – 17 July 1785) was the richest woman in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

of her time, styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785. The duchess, an heiress on a huge scale had the largest

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

collection in the country, complete with its own curator, the

parson-naturalist A parson-naturalist was a cleric (a "parson", strictly defined as a country priest who held the living of a parish, but the term is generally extended to other clergy), who often saw the study of natural science as an extension of his religious wor ...

John Lightfoot John Lightfoot (29 March 1602 – 6 December 1675) was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Life He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of ...

, and the Swedish

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Sweden, Swedish naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot o ...

. Her collection included costly art objects such as the

Portland Vase The Portland Vase is a Roman glass, Roman cameo glass vase, which is dated between AD 1 and AD 25, though low BC dates have some scholarly support. It is the best known piece of Roman cameo glass and has served as an inspiration to many glass an ...

. Her ambition for her collection was for it to contain and to describe every living species. She was a member of the

Blue Stockings Society The Blue Stockings Society was an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century that emphasised education and mutual cooperation. It was founded in the early 1750s by Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and ...

, a group of social intellectuals led by women and founded by her great friend

Elizabeth Montagu Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson; 2 October 1718 – 25 August 1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were bot ...

Early life

She was the only surviving child of the 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts, and the former Lady Henrietta Holles (1694–1755, the only child and heir of the 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and his wife, the former Lady

Margaret Cavendish Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (; 1623 er exact birth date is unknown– 16 December 1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer, and playwright. She was a prolific writer, publishing over 12 original ...

, daughter of 2nd Duke of Newcastle). Lady Margaret grew up at

Wimpole Hall Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, surrounded by books, paintings, sculpture and in the company of writers such as

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

and

Matthew Prior Matthew Prior (21 July 1664 – 18 September 1721) was an English poet and diplomat. He is also known as a contributor to '' The Examiner''. Early life Prior was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, where he lived with his father George, a Non ...

as well as aristocrats and politicians. As a child, she collected pets and

objects (especially

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by Mollusca, mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters ...

s) and was encouraged by her father and her paternal grandfather, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, to do so.

Marriage and issue

At 19, on 11 July 1734, in Oxford Chapel, Marylebone, she married the 2nd Duke of Portland, her 'Sweet Will', and they later had six children (all born at

Welbeck Abbey Welbeck Abbey is an English country house near the village of Welbeck in the Bassetlaw District of Nottinghamshire. It was the site of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order, and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries a residen ...

): # Lady Elizabeth Bentinck (

, 27 June 1735 – 25 December 1825,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

), who married

Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath Thomas Thynne, 1st Marquess of Bath (13 September 173419 November 1796), of Longleat in Wiltshire, was a British politician who held office under King George III. He served as Southern Secretary, Northern Secretary and Lord Lieutenant of Irel ...

(1734–1796) # Lady Henrietta Bentinck (8 February 1737 – 4 June 1827), who married George Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford (1737–1819) # William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (14 April 1738 – 30 October 1809). # Lady Margaret Bentinck (26 July 1739 – 28 April 1756) # Lady Frances Bentinck (9 April 1741 – March 1743) # Lord Edward Charles Cavendish-Bentinck (3 March 1744 – 8 October 1819), married Elizabeth Cumberland (d. 1837) In 1738–1756 the scholar

Elizabeth Elstob Elizabeth Elstob (29 September 1683 – 3 June 1756), the "Saxon Nymph", was a pioneering scholar of Anglo-Saxon. She was the first person to publish a grammar of Old English written in modern English. Life Elstob was born and brought up in the ...

was their tutor.

As a collector

By the November following her marriage, her collecting had gathered pace, expanding to include the decorative and fine arts as well as natural history. (She was already heiress to the Arundel collection.) Her home in Buckinghamshire, Bulstrode Hall, provided space to house the results, and her independent fortune meant that cost was no object (on her mother's death in 1755 she also inherited the estates of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire). Bulstrode was known in court circles as "The Hive" for the intense work done there on the collections by the Duchess and her team of

botanists This is a list of botanists who have Wikipedia articles, in alphabetical order by surname. The List of botanists by author abbreviation is mostly a list of plant taxonomists because an author receives a standard abbreviation only when that aut ...

entomologists Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

and

ornithologists __NOTOC__ This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also :Ornithologists. A * John Abbot – US * Clinton Gilbert Abbott – US * William Louis Abbott – US * Humayun Abdulali — India * Joseph ...

, headed by herself,

(1736–82, specialising in seashells and insects) and The Revd

(1735–88, her librarian and chaplain, and an expert botanist). Her collection was, unlike many similar contemporary ones, well-curated. In 1766, the Genevan Romantic and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

met Bentinck, admired her knowledge of botany, despite his opinion that women could not be scientific, and offered his services as her "herborist" (plant collector). She corresponded with Rousseau until she sent him a copy of Georg Rumpf's ''Herbarium amboinense'', a botany of Amboyna in what is now Indonesia, as he felt this opposed his ideal of free nature. The Portland Museum at Bulstrode was open to visitors, along with its zoo, aviary and vast botanic garden. Many came: scholars, philosophers, scientists and even royalty, and the collection became a ''cause célèbre''. Her fellow collector

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

commented on it: or, in the words of Mrs Delany (a botanical artist and longtime friend): Her collecting was also encouraged by her creative milieu: the Duchess and

Mary Delany Mary Delany, earlier Mary Pendarves ( Granville; 14 May 1700 – 15 April 1788) was an English artist, letter-writer, and bluestocking, known for her "paper-mosaicks", botanic drawing, needlework and her lively correspondence. Early life Mary ...

were both members of The

Bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...

s, a group of aristocratic women seeking increased intellectual opportunities for members of their sex. Her natural collection was the largest and most famous of its time, with few geographical bounds; it included objects from both Lapland and the South Seas (she patronised

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

and bought shells from his second voyage through dealers). She drew and recorded its specimens, sorting them innovatively in type species and displaying them alongside ancient remains such as the

, which she bought from Sir William Hamilton. Lightfoot later wrote in the introduction to the 1786 auction catalogue that it was her "intention to have had every unknown species in the three kingdoms of nature described and published to the world", but this was thwarted by Solander's death in 1783 and her own two years later. On her death, with her children uninterested in the collection, her son's political career to finance and her creditors' demands to be paid, it was her will that it be sold. The collection was entirely dissolved at an auction of over 4,000 lots at her Whitehall residence from 24 April to 3 July 1786. Hundreds of people attended, although some fine and decorative arts were bought back by her family at the auction, including the

and pieces fro
a silver-gilt dessert service the Duchess had designed herself, crawling with exquisitely modelled insects.
However, the vast majority went, including the whole natural history collection; Walpole records that only eight days included items other than "shells, ores, fossils, birds' eggs and natural history." Only fragments of the Portland Museum's building survive too, since Bulstrode was demolished in the 19th century. The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds some of the personal papers and correspondence of the Duchess of Portland (Pw E), as part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection. The Harley Gallery's Treasury Museum shows changing displays of objects from the Portland Collection.

Foundling Hospital

The duchess was one of the twenty-one

Signatories to the Ladies' Petition for the Establishment of the Foundling Hospital In 1730 Thomas Coram approached aristocratic women with a petition to support the establishment of a Foundling Hospital, which he would present to King George II. The women who signed were of aristocratic backgrounds, and Coram kept a list in his ...

. These 'ladies of quality and distinction' supported

Thomas Coram Sea captain, Captain Thomas Coram ( – 29 March 1751) was an English sea captain and philanthropist who created the London Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit Fields, Bloomsbury, to look after abandoned children on the streets of London. It is ...

's campaign to create England's first

Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital (formally the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children) was a children's home in London, England, founded in 1739 by the philanthropy, philanthropic Captain (nautical), sea captain ...

; she signed his petition to King George II on 7 May 1735. Their recognition of the need for a home for orphans and abandoned children was crucial in encouraging male relatives to support Coram's project. As a result of their influence, he gained signatures from the nobility, professionals, gentlemen and the judiciary for two further petitions in 1737. A Royal Charter was granted in 1739 to which her husband, William Bentinck, was one of the first signatories. Her father, Edward Harley, signed Coram's gentlemen's petition on the same day.

Legacy

Margaret Street in central

is named after her.

References

Bibliography

* R. G. W. Anderson (ed.), Enlightening the British: Knowledge, Discovery and the Museum in the Eighteenth Century, * Madeleine Pelling, 'Collecting the World: Female Friendship and Domestic Craft at Bulstrode Park' in ''Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies'', vol. 41, no. 1 (2018), pp. 101–20. * Madeleine Pelling, 'Selling the Duchess: Narratives of Celebrity in 'A Catalogue of the Portland Museum (1786)' in ''Early Modern Women'', vol. 13 no. 2 (Spring, 2019), pp. 3–32, * Rebecca Stott, ''Duchess of Curiosities, The Life of Margaret, Duchess of Portland'' (The Harley Gallery, Worksop, 2006). {{DEFAULTSORT:Portland, Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of 1715 births 1785 deaths 18th-century British philanthropists

Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (11 February 1715 – 17 July 1785) was the richest woman in Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain of her time, styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her ...

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

People from Welbeck People from Wimpole Age of Enlightenment Daughters of British earls

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

18th-century English antiquarians British naturalists Natural history collectors British conchologists Parents of prime ministers of Great Britain Parents of prime ministers of the United Kingdom Foundling Hospital Wives of knights Members of the Blue Stockings Society