Jane Wilson

Jane Perceval ( Wilson; 1769–1844), later known as "Lady Carr" after her second marriage, was the wife of Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1809 and 1812, until his assassination.

Early life Jane was the daughter of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, a British Army officer and politician, and his wife Jane ( Weller). She had one brother and two sisters. One of her sisters, Margaretta, married Charles Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden. It was during their courtship that she met Lord Arden's younger brother Spencer Perceval who was living with his brother in a rented house in Charlton. Each of the brothers fell in love with one of the sisters.

Where Sir Thomas approved of the match between Margaretta and the wealthy and successful Lord Arden, he disapproved of the match between Jane and Spencer who was an impecunious barrister on the Midland Circuit. After being told to wait until Jane came of age, Sir Thomas still opposed the marriage as Perceval's career was still not prospering.

Marriage to Spencer Perceval With her father not approving, the couple decided to elope. They married by special licence in East Grinstead. They set up home together in lodgings over a carpet shop in Bedford Row, later moving to Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The fees from his legal practice eventually allowed Perceval to take out a lease on a country house, Belsize House in Hampstead.

Jane and Spencer had 13 children together, of whom 12 survived to adulthood:

Jane (1791–1824) married her cousin Edward Perceval, son of Lord Arden, in 1821 and lived in Felpham, Sussex. She died three years after marrying, apparently in childbirth. Frances (1792–1877) lived with three unmarried sisters. Maria (1794–1877) lived with her three unmarried sisters. Spencer (1795–1859) was, like his father, educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. After Perceval's assassination, Spencer junior was voted an annuity of £1000 , free legal training at Lincoln's Inn and a tellership of the Exchequer, all of which left him financially secure. He became a Member of Parliament at the age of 22 and in 1821 married Anna, a daughter of the chief of the clan Macleod, with whom he had eleven children. He joined the Catholic Apostolic Church and was created an apostle in 1833. He served as a metropolitan lunacy commissioner. Charles (born and died 1796) Frederick James (1797–1861) was the only one of Perceval's sons not to go to Harrow. Due to his fragile health he was sent to school at Rottingdean. He married for the first time in 1827, spent some time in Ghent, Belgium, was a director of the Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance Society and a justice of the peace for Middlesex and for Kent, but generally led a quiet and retired life. Widowed in 1843, he married for the second time the following year. A grandson, Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, who was a Canadian rancher, became the 10th de jure Earl of Egmont (he did not claim the title) and was the father of the 11th earl. She was buried next to her first husband in the Egmont vault at St Luke's Church, Charlton, London.