Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L'Isle and Dudley

Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L'Isle and Dudley (née FitzClarence; 25 August 1796 – 10 April 1837), was the eldest illegitimate daughter of William IV of the United Kingdom and his longtime mistress Dorothea Jordan. She was married to Philip Sidney, 1st Baron De L'Isle and Dudley, and had four surviving children. Shortly before her death in 1837, she served as State Housekeeper in Kensington Palace.

Family and early life Sophia FitzClarence was born on 25 August 1796 on Somerset Street in London, the eldest daughter of Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, by his longtime mistress, the comic actress Dorothea Jordan. Sophia would come to have nine siblings, five brothers and four sisters, all surnamed FitzClarence. While circumstances prevented the couple from ever marrying, for twenty years William and Dorothea enjoyed domestic stability and were devoted to their children. In 1797, they moved from Clarence Lodge to Bushy House, residing at the Teddington residence until 1807. The couple separated in 1811 as William sought to produce legitimate issue.

Marriage and issue On 13 August 1825, Sophia married Philip Sidney, later an M.P. and the 1st Baron De L'Isle and Dudley of Penshurst in the County of Kent. Sidney was a relation of the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley, though he had opted to drop "Shelley" from his surname.

Sophia and her husband had four surviving children, three daughters and a son:

Adelaide Augusta Wilhelmina Sidney (1 June 1826 – 20 September 1904), married her first cousin, Frederick Charles George FitzClarence-Hunloke, son of George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster, no issue Philip Sidney, 2nd Baron De L'Isle and Dudley (28 January 1828 – 17 February 1898), grandfather of the 1st Viscount De L'Isle Ernestine Wellington Sidney (9 January 1834 – 20 September 1910), married Philip Perceval; mother of Major Sir Philip Hunloke, who was the father of Lt.-Col. Henry Hunloke Sophia Philippa Sidney (11 March 1837 – 12 May 1907), married Alexander, Graf von Kielmannsegg, a great-grandson of Johann Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Wallmoden-Gimborn (alleged illegitimate son of George II of Great Britain)

Later life

In May 1831 Sophia, like her sisters, was raised to the status of a daughter of a marquess. In January 1837, she was appointed State Housekeeper of Kensington Palace, where she died three months later. Sophia died in childbirth just after drawing a sketch of her ailing father. She was his favourite child and her death caused him intense grief, exacerbated by the fact that he was completely estranged from her brother, the Earl of Munster. She was remembered as a woman of great wit, charm and gaiety. There is a memorial to her at St John the Baptist, Penshurst; she is interred in the Sidney family vault therein.

The widowed Sidney died in 1851.

Ancestry