Mary Elizabeth Southwell

Southwell, Mary Elizabeth (baroness de Clifford) née Bourke, ?—c.1845

by Benjamin Colbert

Lady Mary Elizabeth Bourke was the second daughter of the Most Reverend Joseph Deane Bourke, 3rd Earl of Mayo and archbishop of Tuam (1736-94), and Elizabeth Bourke, née Meade (d. 1807).

She married Edward Southwell, 21st Lord de Clifford (1767-1832) on 19 February 1789 at St. Anne’s Church, Dublin. The marriage brought two families of the highest nobility together. Her mother-in-law, the dowager Lady de Clifford (1743-1828), later became governess to Princess Charlotte.

Lady Mary Elizabeth Clifford led a life less in the public eye. Her Short Journal of a Tour appears to be the only surviving literary artefact in her name and was probably printed for private circulation.

She died on 18 May 1845 at Carlton House Terrace, London.

Sources:

‘Illustrative Memoir of the Right Honourable Mary Elizabeth, Baroness de Clifford’. Belle Assemblée 8.48 (Dec. 1828): 231-38. Print.

Lundy, Daryl, comp. The Peerage: A Genealogical Survey of Britain as Well as the Royal Families of Europe. 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2018.

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