, a lady of high rank and higher virtues, the daughter of Theophilus
, a lady of high rank
and higher virtues, the daughter of Theophilus earl of
Huntingdon, was born April 19, 1682. Her mother was
the daughter of sir John Lewis, of Ledstone, in the county
of York. The accession of a large fortune, after the death
wf her brother George earl of Huntingdon, enabled her to
afford an illustrious example of active goodness and benevolence. She fixed her principal residence at Ledstonehouse, where she became the patroness of merit, the benefactress of the indigent, and the intelligent friend and
counsellor of the surrounding neighbourhood. Temperate,
chaste, and simple, in her habits, she devoted her time,
her fortune, and the powers of her understanding, which
was of a high order, to the benefit and happiness of all
around her. “Her cares,
” says her biographer, “extended even to the animal creation; while over her domestics
she presided with the dispositions of apparent, providing
for the improvement of their minds, the decency of their
behaviour, and the propriety of their manners. She would
have the skill and contrivance of every artificer used in her
house, employed for the ease of her servants, and that they
might suffer no inconvenience or hardship. Besides providing for the order, harmony, and peace of her family,
she kept great elegance in and about her house, that her
poor neighbours might not fall into idleness and poverty
for want of employment; and while she thus tenderly regarded the poor, she would visit those in the higher ranks,
lest they should accuse her of pride or superciliousness.
”
Her system of benevolence was at once judicious and extensive. Her benefactions were not confined to the neighbourhood in which she lived; to many families, in various
parts of the kingdom, she gave large annual allowances.
To this may be added her munificence to her relations and
friends, her remission of sums due to her in cases of distress or straitened circumstances, and the noble hospitality
of her establishment. To one relation she allowed five
hundred pounds annually, to another she presented a gift
of three thousand pounds, and to a third three hundred
guineas. She acted also with great liberality towards a
young lady whose fortune had been injured in the Southsea scheme: yet the whole of her estates fell short of three
thousand pounds a-year. In the manors of Ledstone,
Ledsham, Thorpe-arche, and Colhngham, she erected
charity-schools; and, for the support of them and other
charities she gave, in her life-time. Collingham, Shadwell,
and her estate at Burton Salmon. Sht also gave Wool for
building a new church at Leeds; but, that this donation
might not hurt the mother church there, she afterwards
offered a farm near Leeds, of 23l. per annum, and capable
of improvement, to be settled on the vicar and his
successors, provided the town would do the like; which the corporation readily agreed to, and to her ladyship’s benefaction added lands of the yearly value of 24l. for the application of which they were to be entirely answerable to her
kindred This excellent lady also bequeathed at her death
considerable sums for charitable and public uses; amongst
which were five scholarships in Queen’s college, Oxford,
for students in divinity, of 28l. a year each, to be enjoyed
for five years, and, as the rents should rise, some of her
scholars to be capable, in time, of having 60l. per annum,
for one or two years after the first term. She died Dec.
22, 1739. She was fond of her pen, and frequently employed herself in writing; but, previous to her death,
destroyed the greater part of her papers. Her fortune,
beauty, and amiable qualities, procured her many solicitations to change her state; but she preferred, in a single
and independent life, to be mistress 01 her actions, and
the disposition of her income.