Frances Noel, Countess of Gainsborough

Frances Noel, Countess of Gainsborough (née Jocelyn; 20 November 1814 – 12 May 1885) was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria.

Early life and family Frances Noel was a daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden and his wife, the Hon. Maria Frances Stapleton, daughter of Thomas Stapleton, 12th Baron le Despencer.

In 1841, Victoria recreated an old title of Lord Barham's ancestors, naming him 1st Earl of Gainsborough.

In June 1850, she, along with Victoria's children Prince Alfred and Princess Alice, was present when a man hit the queen with a stick outside the gates of Cambridge House. Noel helped the bruised Victoria regain her posture and informed her that the man had been seized by the surrounding crowd. As well as being her namesake, the queen was a godmother to Noel's daughter Lady Victoria. In 1858, Lady Victoria served as a bridesmaid to the queen's eldest daughter the Princess Royal during her marriage to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.

The Earl of Gainsborough died in 1866 at the age of eighty-five. After resigning from her post in 1872, Noel was made an extra Lady of the Bedchamber the following year. In 1885, she died at her residence in Hyde Park Square, London. thumb