13th Jun 1768 - 18th Jul 1839
Susanna Harriot Hope was born 13/06/1768 and baptised 09/07/1786 at All Saints Derby, where her father Charles Hope was the Rector. At All Saints on 22/05/1786 at the age of 17 she married Joseph Seymour Biscoe. Their daughter Mary was born the following year and they lived for the first seven years of their married life in Derbyshire.
In 1793 they moved to Shoreham House near Sevenoaks in Kent, taking the lease of the property from Robert Home Gordon, a school-friend of Biscoe to whom he had been reintroduced by Richard Lee (q.v.), the son of his guardian Robert Cooper Lee.
Susanna and Robert Home Gordon began an affair which lead to their elopement in October 1794 and a scandalous public divorce case.
Robert Home Gordon was born in Jamaica c. December 1765 and spent most of his early life in Britain living off the profits of his family's Jamaica sugar estates. Following the elopement, Joseph Biscoe sued Gordon for £10,000 for "criminal conversation". He was finally granted a divorce in 1796 and went on to marry Stephana Law (q.v.).
It is possible that Susanna never saw her daughter Mary after leaving Biscoe - Mary was brought up by her father's sister, also called Mary, and in 1807 married Sir Robert Harry Inglis. However, in her will Susanna left both money and effects to her daughter.
No record of the marriage of Susanna and Robert Home Gordon has been found but a codicil to Robert's will implies they were married by 1812.
Robert died in Brighton in 1826. Susanna died in Westminster in 1839.
A portrait of 'Harriet Hope' by the artist Joseph Wright of Derby (also a family friend) from before her first marriage was auctioned by Christie's in 2009. The stretcher of the portrait reportedly carries the name 'Susannah', and no daughter named Harriet appears in online family trees.
Life details from a vivid and thoroughly researched account of the marriage and divorce of Biscoe and Susanna Harriot Hope: Anne M. Powers, A Very Regency Scandal.
Baptism and first marriage of Susannah Harriot Hope at familysearch.org batch nos. C03587-2 and M01623-2.
Deaths of Robert Home Gordon and Susanna Harriot Gordon at Ancestry.com, England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 [database online].
Portrait of Harriet [sic] Hope by Joseph Wright of Derby at Christies.com Sale 7714 Lot 85: Wright portrait of Harriet Hope.
We are grateful to Anne M. Powers for her assistance in compiling this entry.
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Absentee?
British/Irish
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Maiden Name
Hope
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Name in compensation records
Susannah Harriet Gordon
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Spouse
(1) Joseph Seymour Biscoe (2) Robert Home Gordon
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Children
With (1) Mary (1787-)
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Will
Will of Susanna Harriot Gordon widow of Brighton Sussex proved 08/08/1839. PROB 11/1915/37. She asked to be buried at Brighton in the same grave as her beloved husband Robert Home Gordon of Embo N.B. and of Cromwell and Home Castle estates in Jamaica. She left her daughter Mary Inglis 200 guineas and personal effects. She left to Sir Orford Gordon the portrait of her husband by Joshua Reynolds, and to her brother Robert Hope of Derby the interest on £4000 for life. The estates of her husband in Jamaica passed under his will, apparently to Sir Orford Gordon. |
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£7,503 4s 8d
Awardee
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£2,461 9s 4d
Awardee
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£5,981 17s 6d
Awardee
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The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:
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1829 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Lessee
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1832 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
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1829 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Tenant-for-life
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1829 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Tenant-for-life
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Cultural (1) |
Paintings
'Portrait of Miss Harriet Hope', by Joseph Wright of Derby. There has been some ambiguity about the sitter in this portrait, sold at Christie's in 2009.
'Wright painted portraits of Harriet's...
notes → ...
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Wife → Husband
Notes →
The two divorced amidst a public scandal in...
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Wife → Second Husband
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Brighton, Sussex, South-east England, England
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Derby, Derbyshire, East Midlands, England
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Westminster, Middlesex, London, England
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Albemarle Street, London, Middlesex, London, England
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Shoreham House, Sevenoaks (near), Kent, South-east England, England
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1810 - ????
Enslaved young woman in St Peter, Barbados. Manumitted on the eve of Emancipation. Married a butcher in Speightstown.
Document comprises 4 parts, written recto and verso across 5 folios: 1. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 2. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Williamsfield settlement, St Elisabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 3. An inventory of animals at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 4. A cover note outlining the contents of the document.
© Copyright Legacies of British Slavery - UCL Department of History 2024
CITING THIS RECORD:
'Susanna Harriot Gordon (née Hope)', Legacies of British Slavery database, http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/19742 [accessed 22nd December 2024].
