Fancourt. Olivia

Submitted by edpope on

O Fancourt 1.12.1798 at hers with Chandler. In Godwin's 1796 list for 1798 / 4.12.1798 again / 9.12.1798 again / 21.12.1798 tea at hers / 26.12.1798 dine at hers with Chandler / 27.12.1798 tea at hers adv Chandler / 18.1.1799 call on Chandler & O Fancourt (neither in) / 19.1.1799 Chandler & O Fancourt dine / 31.1.1799 Mrs F affirms that the subjects of the Mahometan princes in India are all Moors, & the subjects of the Hindoo princes all Hindoos / 1.2.1799 dine at Fancourt's / 22.6.1799 tea at O Fancourt's with Chandler, Circus with C(handler) & O(livia) / 10.9.1799 dine at hers w. Chandler / 14.9.1799 dine at West End with her & Chandler / 11.12.1799 call on Chandler (not in) & her / 24.12.1799 call on O Fanct (not in) / 26.12.1799 dine at hers w. Chandler / 1.1.1800 dine at hers w. Chandler / 6.1.1800 dine at Fancourt's w. Chandler / 11.5.1802 call on her

Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt bach otp = St Michael Crooked Lane 28.8.1785 Ann Carlos of St Clement Danes widow (witness Cassivelaun Fancourt Carlos), affidavit London Met Arch MJ/SP/1791/04/070, Jacob Cassivelaun F = Olivia Devenish 26.5.1793 Fort St George, Madras, Jacob Cassivelaun Fancourt assistant surgeon 71st Regt in India list for 1800 but absent 1803. Newspaper reports of a trial of her servant at the Old Bailey on 6.12.1798 suggest that she had returned to England with her husband, (e.g. Evening Mail 7.12.1798) but the transcript of the trial (OldBailey Online) only gave his name as the owner of the stolen property, as would have been the legal case with a wife's property. She took the witness stand and claimed that some of the stolen items were made under her inspection at Madras. The servant was acquitted. Lists of passengers arriving from India in the William Pitt in eight newspapers between 1.8.1798 and 5.8.1798 named Mrs Fancourt, though one paper named Mr Fancourt instead (none had Mr & Mrs). And the Star of 9.8.1798 carried a notice dated 24.1.1798 Fort St George that J C Fancourt Asst Surgeon had been appointed to duty with the 8th Regt Native Infantry. Mrs Fancourt of Old Burlington St subscr to Joseph Wildman's Force of Prejudice 1800. Thomas (Stamford) Raffles DNB 1781-1826 married 14.3.1805 at St George Bloomsbury Olivia Mariamne Fancourt widow, witnesses Richard S Taylor, Charles Hamond, Marianne Etherington, Maria Waltham. The DNB gives her dates as 1771-1814 and says she was "ten years his senior but strikingly beautiful, vivacious and intelligent". By some accounts her father was Irish and her mother Indian. It seems probable that her husband died in India at some point after the trial of 6.12.1798, and that the two entries above where Godwin dropped the initial O also referred to her. Godwin was presumably introduced to Mrs Fancourt by John Westbrook Chandler and they seem to have fallen out over her. She was possibly Chandler's mistress or at least he took a close interest in reining in her extravagance and objected to the number of guests at her dinners on 1.1.1800 and 6.1.1800. See his letters to Godwin (Abinger c5 f64-70) of 18.1.1800, 20.1.1800 and 22.1.1800 and the letter from Chandler in Aberdeen of 9.1.1801, and draft of Godwin's reply 20.1.1801 (Abinger c6 f123-4) and reply from John Phillips (see Phillips) of 24.1.1801 (Abinger c6 f132-3). Some of these letters are wrongly titled Thomas or M Chandler probably because the J W of his signature was hard to read. Godwin called on Mrs Fancourt once more the following year.

See Victoria Glendinning's "Raffles" (2012) which has more info on Mrs Fancourt but apparently didn't spot the Godwin connection