Anna Eliza Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos (née Brydges)

Lady Anna Elizabeth Brydges was born on 27 October 1779. She was the daughter of James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos and Anne Eliza Elletson nee Gamon.

She married Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, son of George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham and Mary Elizabeth Nugent, Baroness Nugent of Carlanstown, on 16 April 1796 at Westmorland Chapel, Marylebone, London, England. The marriage was first discussed by the two sets of parents in 1786 when Anna Eliza was only six. In 1799, Anna Eliza's husband took the surname Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville to mark his claim to the Chandos inheritance. F. M. L. Thompson described the Anna Eliza as a 'strong and determined woman, a foil for her weak and incorrigible husband.' When she realised he had sold parts of the Chandos inheritance (in contravention of the marriage settlement), she forced through a resettlement in 1828. The resettlement forbade the sale of Chandos lands to pay off ducal debts. This action preserved lands for the second duke, their son.

By 1827 Anna Eliza's husband was experiencing serious financial problems. She went to live at Avington in Hampshire, the favourite Chandos house. She died on 15 May 1836 at age 56 at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. She was buried on 24 May 1836 at Avington, Hampshire, England.

http://www.thepeerage.com/p1251.htm#i12510

J. V. Beckett, The Rise and Fall of the Grenvilles: Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, 1710 to 1921 (Manchester University Press, 1994), pp.127-130 'The Chandos Inheritance'.

Hannah Young, 'Gender and absentee slave-ownership in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Britain' (unpublished PhD thesis, University College London, forthcoming).