Elizabeth Catherine Hunter

Elizabeth Catherine Hunter, Lady Clarke, best known as Kitty Hunter, was an English noblewoman. She was the daughter of Thomas Orby Hunter, a member of parliament and lord of the Admiralty. In 1762, she eloped to mainland Europe with Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke, causing a scandal. A year later the couple returned to England and Pembroke reconciled with his wife. Hunter had a son by Pembroke, Augustus Retnuh Reebkomp, who was supported by the Pembroke family and became a naval officer. Hunter was the mistress of Augustus Hervey before marrying army officer Alured Clarke. When Clarke was knighted she became known as Lady Clarke.

Early life Elizabeth Catherine Hunter was born around 1740 and became known by the nickname "Kitty". Her father had inherited Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire, as part of the estate of his uncle, the last of the Orby baronets.

Elopement In February 1762 Hunter and Pembroke danced at a masked ball where the couple are said to have made final arrangements for an elopement the following day. To be with Hunter, Pembroke left his wife, Elizabeth Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery, who was said to be one of the most beautiful women in England. A friend of Hunter's father, commanding a privateer, intercepted the boat and returned it to England. After Thomas Orby Hunter declined to receive his daughter the couple were released and allowed to board another vessel for mainland Europe. The couple ended up in Italy from where Pembroke wrote to his wife stating that he had never been able to love her as well as she deserved and thought it best to separate. He did, however, invite her to join him and Hunter in mainland Europe.

The elopement was one of the biggest scandals of the period and has been called the "most scandalous matrimonial farce of the age". Walpole wrote a short rhyme on the affair, alluding to Pembroke's renown as a skilled cavalryman: "As Pembroke a horseman by most is accounted, ' Tis not strange that his Lordship a Hunter has mounted".

Joshua Reynolds had painted Kitty Hunter in 1761, during the same time as he painted the Countess of Pembroke, the resulting painting was sent to Hunter's father. It depicts Hunter on the night of the masked ball, with a mask in her hand. Hunter appears, disguised as a page, in a painting of Floyd in one of the school's paddocks.

The Pembrokes informally recognised the earl's son with Hunter, Augustus. Pembroke wanted him to adopt his family name of Herbert but his wife objected; the boy was in the meantime known informally by the surname Reeb. Augustus joined the navy and, upon his promotion to captain, was allowed the surname of Montgomery, one of Pembroke's subsidiary titles.

Hunter herself received a smaller allowance of £1,000 per year. This was reduced to £600 in 1771 when Hunter married Captain Alured Clarke, a British army officer. Hunter's allowance was reduced further to £200 in 1781 and ceased, with the payment of a £1,600 lump sum, in 1790 when Clarke was promoted to major-general. Hunter and Clarke had no children. Clarke later rose to the army's top rank, field marshal.