Blount, Mrs. (fl.1733)

Letter from Mrs Blount to her daughter Mary, the wife of the 9th Duke of Norfolk, concerning Mrs. Blount's sister "Harriet" (Henrietta) and the details of her marriage settlement (the marriage not being to the family's liking). Henrietta is also in ill-health. The letter is probably written in the Spanish Netherlands, perhaps at Brussels, a centre for the English recusant community at that time.

1733

1 letter

Mrs Blount was the wife of Edward Blount of Blagdon, Devon, and had several daughters who married into the nobility: Mary Blount (d.1773) married Edward Howard (1686-1773), who became 9th Duke of Norfolk in 1732, very shortly before the date of this letter. Henrietta Blount (d.1782) married a Peter Proli of Antwerp, presumably the affair that caused the family dissent described in this letter. He died not long after, leaving her a widow at some time before 1739, in which year she became the second wife of Philip Howard (1688-1750), younger brother of the 9th Duke of Norfolk. Elizabeth Blount (d.1778) married Hugh Clifford (1700-1732), who became 3rd Baron Clifford in 1730. She is referred to in the letter as "yr sister Clifford". By this time she was already a widow. She had two sons, Hugh, who became 4th Baron Clifford in 1732 aged 5, and Thomas, born in 1732 after the death of his father, to which the property discussed in this letter wsa eventually to descend.