Margaret Clive

Margaret Clive, Baroness Clive (née Maskelyne; 26 October 1735 – 28 December 1817) was a British society figure. She went out to India to meet an admirer and married a military hero. She was in Bengal as their family became incredibly wealthy. When they returned to England the aristocracy did not welcome "new money".

Life Clive was born in Kensington Gore in London in 1735, the youngest of four children born to Elizabeth (born Booth) and Edmund Maskelyne (1698–1744), who served as a barrister-at-law and counsel to the Secretary of State's Office. Her elder brother was the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne. She lived at home until she was about thirteen when her mother died, and she was sent to stay with relatives in Wiltshire, where she started school when she was about fourteen. Mrs Saintsbury of Cirencester taught her and she was gifted at French.

She went out to India at the suggestion of her brother Edmund with the intention of chasing Robert Clive, who was a colleague. When she set out he was a man who reportedly had fallen in love with her portrait; when she arrived Robert Clive was a hero. Her voyage was not in vain as she married him at St. Mary's Church in (then) Madras on 18 February 1753. They returned to England, but they returned in 1755 for five years as the British East India Company consolidated its position in Bengal.

Clive died in Oakly Park, Bromfield, Shropshire, in 1817. Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis (1754–1839), succeeded his father Richard Clive (4 March 1755 – bur. 19 October 1755), died young Jane Clive (15 June 1756 – September 1759), died young Robert Clive (13 October 1759 – June 1760), died young Hon. Rebecca Clive (15 September 1760 – December 1795), married in 1780 to Lt.-Gen. John Robinson, MP Hon. Charlotte Clive (19 January 1762 – 20 October 1795), died unmarried Hon. Margaretta Clive (15 August 1763 – August 1814), married 11 April 1780 Lt.-Col. Lambert Theodore Walpole (killed in 1798 Wexford Rebellion), great-nephew of Robert Walpole Hon. Elizabeth Clive (30 October 1764 – bur. 18 December 1764), died young Lt.-Col. Hon. Robert Clive (14 August 1769 – 28 July 1833), MP for Ludlow; died unmarried