In this post, I thought we would play a quick game of ‘six degrees of separation’. For anyone who is unaware of the concept, you will no doubt be familiar with the phrase ‘it’s a small world’ and it so it is. It’s been quite surprising that throughout my research, I’ve noticed just how relatively small London was in the 18th century. Everyone who was anyone knew each other and this has become especially obvious whilst exploring the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle.
So, in today’s game I show the close connection between Prince George (later George IV) and Dido Elizabeth Belle. On the face of it, they would appear to be poles apart, George, the then-future monarch and Dido the daughter of a ‘mulatto slave’. But the distance between them is only a few steps.
We begin the game with Prinny, who, in the early 1780s had a relationship with the lovely courtesan, Grace Dalrymple Elliott, who gave birth to a daughter who, Grace claimed was his. Georgina was the only illegitimate child that Prinny made payments to, so perhaps that was his way of acknowledging that she was his.
The Frick, New York.
Now, Grace counted amongst her closest friends, Lady Seymour Worsley, for those who haven’t come across her before, she’s the one who found herself in court in February 1782, for criminal conversation, a euphemism for sex.
Amongst the men with whom Lady Worsley allegedly had an affair, was George, Viscount Deerhurst, later to become the 7th Earl of Coventry. Deerhurst was a bit of a ‘player’ and had previously eloped to Gretna Green with Lady Catherine Henley.
His father the then, 6th Earl of Coventry, totally disapproved of his son’s behaviour and banished him from the family home, so George took himself off to stay on the Isle of Wight, at Appuldurcombe, the home of Sir Richard Worsley and his wife, Lady Seymour Worsley – big mistake! He apparently ended up having a relationship with Lady Worsley (he was one of many, she was rumoured to have had well in excess of 20 lovers), but it was her infidelity with George Maurice Bisset that was the final nail in her coffin and she found herself in court, but George, Viscount Deerhurst, also found his name on this list of people with whom she had allegedly had ‘criminal conversation’.
Lord Mansfield was the trial judge in the case of Crim. Con. and he was also the guardian of Dido Elizabeth Belle. The trial took place in February 1782, so no doubt Dido, aged 20, would have been fully aware of the case.
To add to the royal connection, Lord Mansfield, counted George III amongst his friends and a regular visitor to Caenwood (Kenwood) House, so it’s perfectly feasible that the royal family would have met or at least seen Dido. So it really was a small world.
Try this game for yourselves and if you can make connections like this from people in the 18th century I would love to hear from you as there must be plenty more out there.
All Things Georgian 
Great post! I’m new to the “old” term of “criminal conversation” – so interesting. Thank you!
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I’ve been enjoying all the recent posts and meant to say so. This is a fun one to think about. I keep coming across Charles James Fox as I research Wedgwood, and Fox seems to have been quite the connector among the Whig society.
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Aww thank you so much Sophie. It was such a small world in Georgian London, it makes absolute sense that Fox would have been a connector!
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Hello I Am curious. I read a comment on blog I forgot what is was called but it was about dido and her father. The comment said captain sir Lindsay’s was not necessarily her father is this true?
Also belle was born in 1961 so did Maria belle get pregnant is the same year. In one of your blog it said a Spanish ship was captured and Maria belle was in there in 1962.
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Thank you for your question. Certainly we haven’t come across any references to Sir John Lindsay not being Dido’s father. Dido was born 1761 – there’s more information in this article we have written that might be of interest – https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2018/06/26/revealing-new-information-about-dido-elizabeth-belles-siblings/
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Hello Sarah, i recently saw that Dido’s grandmother Amelia Murray died around 1770s which mean she might visit dido? is there a will that bestow Dido with inheritance?
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There’s is no evidence as yet, to indicate that Lady Amelia ever visited England, both she and her husband, who died in 1762 lived in Scotland, so unless Dido visited Scotland, it seems highly unlikely hat they met.
Lady Amelia died in 1774 and was buried on 18 February 1774, in Edinburgh, although I noticed that some people have mistakenly recorded her death and burial as having taken place in London – that Amelia Lindsay was a child!
There do not appear to have been wills for either Lady Amelia or her husband, that I have come across to date.
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aw too bad then, thanks Sarah for your hardwork, I have been trying to update Dido Belle’s wikipedia page, so i’m trying to find some new information to add to Dido Belle and Lady Elizabeth wikipedia page 🙂
would be nice if I can find more about Lady Amelia relationship with Dido
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My absolutely pleasure. It’s important to try to piece together as much as possible about Dido’s life and that of her relatives. I am working on a piece right now about her mother, which will come out in due course.
Wikipedia – hmm, they aren’t very keen on updating their webpages using blog posts to be honest, despite my work being accurate and fully sourced. My research has been cited in other authors publications, but Wiki seem less keen!
They would prefer it if I wrote an academic paper about Dido, which I have no desire, right now, to do, as I prefer my findings to be readily available to the public, so you may well find that citing ATG it will be challenged and removed as a source, but please feel free to try.
As for Lady Amelia – back to the drawing board, methinks. I would like to think that she met or was aware of Dido, but I can find absolutely no proof that this was the case … yet.
I know that Dido’s half sibling, Elizabeth, was raised in Scotland, Elizabeth ultimately marrying a Scotsman and remaining in Scotland her entire life, but there doesn’t appear to be anything to indicate she knew Dido; even John, who may have been raised in Scotland, didn’t name Dido, his half sister in his will, but I never give up hope. I do suspect, without proof at this stage, that these two siblings knew Lady Amelia.
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wow nice, I really can’t wait to know more about Maria Belle’s life, I read recently from your article that she was still alive and live a wealthy life in Pensacola.
yes Wikipedia sometimes asked for better source and weren’t keen on blog posts, but Dido’s wikipedia page is compiled mostly from way way less credible blog post and websites, and they didn’t remove them so this might be allowed unless they come with new restrictions and remove the 30 references from random news website posts.
Lady Amelia is quite an elusive figure, would be cool if you find anything.
it’s interesting that Dido’s half sibling are unaware of Dido.
but I need to know the motive of Captain Lindsay, I wonder why Captain Lindsay brought only Dido to live at Kenwood, when his other children are also born around the same time.
then I come across “An account of a protegée of the 1st Lord Mansfield by Gene Adams” where he stated, “Lady Elizabeth’s mother had died tragically early leaving the father with an infant to care for, a serious problem in view of his position as Ambassador in Austria and Paris. He must have been intensely grateful for the help given by the head of his family at Kenwood. Presumably the offer to care for Dido as well as Elizabeth was partly to provide her cousin with a playmate and later a kind of personal attendant, and also of course to better the circumstances of Dido herself. It is not known if Dido was willingly parted from her mother, but materially speaking it would certainly have helped both mother and child.”
what hasn’t clicked to me until now is why did Lindsay didn’t let Dido be raised by her own birth mother, when she was clearly alive and had been provided with a really high class lifestyle in Pensacola by Lindsay himself.
Gene Adams seemed to suggest that it was for Lady Elizabeth to have a companion, then why Lindsay didn’t take his other children to give Lady Elizabeth more companion, the plot thickens and I’m also quite puzzled why he didn’t gave Dido his last name since he brought her to live with his uncle.
and that lead us to Dido’s half sibling being unaware of Dido, so the public even their extended families weren’t aware of that Dido was Lindsay’s daughter and the great niece of Lord Mansfield?
if I remember correctly, in the movie, everyone was aware of Dido’s lineage
wow I typed a lot, Dido’s life just got more and more interesting and nuanced
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I think Maria Belle’s situation will raise more questions than it will answer, right now to be honest, but that will become clear once the article is ‘live.’ Right now I am trawling my way through a 1,000 page document looking for a needle in a haystack regarding Maria – wish me luck in finding what I’m searching for!
You asked why Dido was raised at Kenwood and not John and Elizabeth. Perhaps because the age gap between Dido and Lady Elizabeth was so small, and that Gene Adam’s was correct in that Dido was taken to Kenwood as a playmate for Elizabeth. Despite the size of Kenwood, it might have been a bit much for Lord and Lady Mansfield to have had 4 youngsters in their care! Maybe we will never know the answer to that, nor Sir John’s motives with any of it.
I have frequently questioned Dido’s surname not matching Sir John’s as the other children’s have, but I really can’t understand that one, unless it was her mother’s wish that she retained, Belle or Bell the name given at her baptism.
As to whether Elizabeth and John knew their sibling, who knows, but John named his sister, Elizabeth in his will, so he knew she was married and to whom, which makes me believe they grew up together in Scotland and were fairly close, especially as John lent her husband money.
Sir John may have told them they had a half sister living in London, but it’s guesswork rather than having anything tangible to confirm it, which is something I dislike to be honest. We know that John went off to India as an army officer the year his father died, so it’s possible he had left prior to Sir John’s death as I don’t know the month he sailed and therefore didn’t read the newspaper referring to Dido, or it’s equally feasible he did know – guesswork, I’m afraid.
I do think that extended family and close friends were aware of Dido’s situation and that it to an extent confirmed in 1788 with the death of her father when Dido is mentioned in the newspapers, as his natural daughter, a mulatto who has been brought up in Mansfield’s family almost from her infancy (Whitehall Evening Post, 7 Jun 1788). The Public Advertiser, 10 June 1788 also mentions Dido, ‘… amiable disposition and accomplishments have gained her the highest respect from all his Lordship’s relations and visitants’.
Much of their lives remain speculation, so for now, I’ll try to stick with piecing together the factual information and leave others to speculate on motives etc! 😊
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okay wish you luck Sarah! hope you find it and yes the plot surrounding Dido Elizabeth Belle thickens! interesting part of history for sure.
shame it would be interesting to learn the reason. if Maria Belle was alive and rich, I think it would be better that Dido stayed with her mother.
another elusive detail, shame we can only suspect and not really knew the exact reason to why Dido wasn’t given the last name Lindsay,
yes I forgot about that detail my bad, it seems Dido’s half sibling was close after all, wished they would contact Dido if they knew about it, since they were both in UK at that time and can easily arrange a meeting with Dido.
Thanks Sarah for more through useful information, you can write a book about Dido from the amount of material you have on her 🙂 and people from around her life
p.s I found this passage on the internet search about Lord Stormont and wonder where is this from your Georgian WordPress.
“Lord Stormont up to this time was very close to the French Royal Family even attending the new king’s wedding to Marie Antoinette in May 1774—in fact his uncle”
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Many thanks, I’ll keep on with the research as documents appear regularly, so who knows what might appear in the future.
Lord Stormont attending the king’s wedding to Marie Antoinette – I have read that, but haven’t found a primary source to confirm it. I know that h knew Marie Antoinette well, from everything I have read, but that’s as far as it goes, right now.
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