One of my current research projects is the life of Emily Lamb, Lady Cowper, later Lady Palmerson. Below, her portrait by Sit Thomas Lawrence.

Emily was painted about 1805, either just before or after her wedding to Peter, Earl Cowper.

A few years later, she was painted by William Owen.

Emily grew up with her parents, brothers and sister in Melbourne House, in Whitehall, directly south of Horse Guards.

The Melbourne family's country home was Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.

They also spent some time at Melbourne Hall, in Yorkshire?

Emily's mother was Elizabeth Milbanke, Viscountess Melbourne.  She was a social leader in London and close friend of the Duchess of Devonshire.

This popular print of the day showed Lady Melbourne, the Duchess of Devonshire and Mrs. Damer as the three witches in MacBeth, a reference to their alleged manipulation of London society and their 'meddling' in politics.

Though all her children were accepted as her husband's, it was widely believed that Emily and her brother William, the future Prime Minister, were sired by Lord Egremont.

William had a very strange marriage with Laldy Caroline Ponsonby, daughter of the Earl of Bessborough and Harriet Spencer Ponsonby, sister of Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire.

Lady Caroline Lamb was a flighty sprite who had several affairs, most scandalously with Lord Byron, for whom she had a passion beyond explanation.

No matter what Caro did, William forgave her and they defied Emily's efforts -- along with many others -- to separate them. Caro died at Brocket in 1828 and she is buried at St. Ethelreda's Church in Hatfield.

Not long after Caro died, William's father (1st Viscount Melbourne) died and William became Lord Melbourne, by which title he was known when he became Prime Minister.

  When Emily married she became the Countess Cowper and presided over a home in Gorge's St. near Hanover Square and the country estate of Panshanger, now demolished, which was not far from Brocket in Hertfordshire.  The Cowper family had an amazing collection of art including two Raphael Madonnas, both now in the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Although Emily and Lord Cowper had five chilren, she was devoteed to her long time lover Harry, Viscount Palmerston.

Lord Palmerston, who inherited his title at age 18??, was truly a lady's man, known as Cupid in London Society. But he truly loved Emily and she loved him. They married two years after the death of Lord Cowper.