Lady Elizabeth Vassall Fox Holland

Born into a wealthy Jamaican plantation family in 1771, Lady Holland was born Elizabeth Vassall and later became known as Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland. After an unhappy first marriage to Sir Godfrey Webster, she traveled widely in Europe and eventually married Henry Richard Vassall Fox, the 3rd Baron Holland.

She became famous as the leading hostess of Holland House in Kensington, where politicians, writers, artists, and diplomats gathered for conversation and debate. The circle around her made Holland House an important social and intellectual center in late Georgian and early Victorian Britain.

Lady Holland also left a strong written record of her world through memoirs, travel journals, and correspondence. Those writings, along with her reputation for intelligence, force of character, and sometimes formidable manners, have kept her an interesting figure in British political and literary history.