Evelyn Devonshire, an Interfering Duchess
...the world can always use a few feisty and interfering old grannies!
If you have been a Mostly British History reader for a while, you may have picked up on my absolute love and adoration of Deborah Mitford, who became Duchess of Devonshire. Not only was she an absolute wonder, she (along with her husband) also became arguably the best historic home custodian in modern history. She is largely responsible for reinventing the Chatsworth Estate (along with the other Devonshire estates) in to what it is today. In her memoirs, she mentions “Granny Evie” who was Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire (born Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice), her husband’s grandmother. As the title of this article suggests, she describes her as “interfering” amongst other things. More recently, when reading “Letters from a Prince” for my series here on Substack, I found that the Prince of Wales too described her in a very similar way to Deborah, also using the word “interfering” and I thought wow, this is a lady I need to look into!
What I love so much about reading letters and diary entries is that you really do get a picture of what the person thought without it being edited. When you find that two people are describing the person in the same way, one must think that in fact, the descriptions are accurate and not something from a disgruntled party. After a basic search of Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, I in fact found more descriptions of her saying that she was “cold, authoritarian and frugal.”
In his letters to Freda, The Prince describes her by saying “…the Duchess really is a ‘beta’ sweetheart, & so pompous and interfering, no wonder she is unpopular on this side…”(This letter was during his royal tour of Canada where the Duke of Devonshire was the Governor General.) In her book All in One Basket- Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire remembers how authoritarian she was. She recalls feeling sorry for the poor land agents that “Granny Evie” dealt with as she had a “running fight with all of them,” and that the agent at Hardwick Hall where she lived out her life, regularly got stern notes from the Dowager Duchess. Debo then jokingly quips that “Granny Evie” was as interfering as she is now! (At the time she wrote this, she was the Dowager Duchess just as “Granny Evie” was in her reminiscences.)
As the daughter of a Marquess, and a Duchess through her marriage, Evelyn had a lot of strict ideas about class. She was particular about who courted her children and in his letters the Prince begrudgingly wrote to Freda that he knew the Duchess would be expecting him to dance with her daughters (that he was not at all interested in). One of her daughters, Lady Dorothy, married Harold Macmillan and in her writings, Duchess Deborah said that Duchess Evelyn was not happy about the match, even though he went on to become Prime Minister! Her son Lord Charles, married Adele Astaire, the sister and performing partner of Fred Astaire. Although I’ve not seen any commentary on it, I feel that if the Duchess was upset with her daughter marrying a future Prime Minister, she must have really had some colorful opinions about her son marrying an American dancer!
And while these descriptions are no doubt very accurate to who Duchess Evelyn was, I think it is also important to highlight another side of her. In her memoir “Wait for Me!” Deborah Mitford wrote extensively about the struggle of double death duties on the Cavendish family fortune after her brother-in-law died in World War II and her father-in-law unexpectedly passed at a very young age. This left Debo and her husband Andrew as the new Duke and Duchess with a seemingly insurmountable tax bill and an enormous empire to run in their very early 30s. At the time, Chatsworth was not in great shape and hadn’t been lived in for a long time, leaving them with some tough decisions. One of those tough decisions was to let go of Hardwick Hall. She describes how handing over this incredible estate was a huge gut punch to the family, and how “Granny Evie” who lived there, was incredibly graceful and understanding when the decision was made. The Estate was passed and is now owned by the National Trust, who allowed Duchess Evelyn to live there for the rest of her life. Duchess Evelyn, much like her granddaughter-in-law, Debo, was instrumental in the restoration of many of the Devonshire Family Treasures including those at Hardwick Hall. Duchess Deborah also shares that while very stern, “Granny Evie” was always loving to her and her children. Her children would often visit “Granny Evie” at Hardwick and she even let them once go to town coloring on a tapestry. (Can you imagine!) She was also very frugal and even when her husband, Duke Victor was struggling after a stroke and things were tight, it is noted that she tried her best to keep everything up to par working hard to preserve their estates. These descriptions made me feel for her, a Victorian born woman, with relatively little power, trying to keep the massive family holdings and estates going. It must have been very hard work at a time when women had very little power.
When I think of her…I think of a real life, and much more stern “Granny” from Downton Abby. While she may have wanted the respect she thought she deserved, she was also willing to work very hard for her family and their future. Descriptions show, that just like all of us, she was an interesting mixture of traits, and while it might be very easy to write her off as snobbish and difficult as the start of this article suggests, I think that does a disservice to the other side of her. Her toughness was likely what helped her carry on through World Wars, losses of her spouse, children and grandchildren, and more. I also think her amazing for being rather ahead of her time when it came to conserving her family collection which masses of people now enjoy today. While the lives of those with immense privilege seem like a fantasy to many, it is important to remember that nobody is without their difficulties and that the world can always use a few feisty and interfering old grannies!
I absolutely love this painting of The Dowager Duchess restoring tapestries at Hardwick!
To read about more Duchesses of Devonshire, make sure you check out these previous posts!
Deborah (Mitford), Duchess of Devonshire
Georgiana (Spencer), Duchess of Devonshire
Until Next Time,
McKenzie
I enjoyed reading!