Harley, Henrietta Cavendish Holles, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer (1693 -1755)

Henrietta, was the only daughter and heir of John Holles, Duke of Newcastle and Margaret, third daughter and coheir of Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. She married, 31 August 1713, Edward Lord Harley who succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Oxford in 1724 and died in 1741. “A dull, worthy woman, the countess disliked most of the wits who surrounded her husband, and she `hated' Pope’. She had an only daughter, Margaret Cavendish Harley, born 11 February 1715. She married, 11 July 1734, William, 2nd Duke of Portland. On the death of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, his cousin, Edward Harley Esq,, eldest son of his father's brother, succeeded according to the limitations of the patent. The widow of the 2nd Earl lived at Welbeck, where she spent £40,000 on improvements, and arranged and annotated the family portraits, and employed Vertue to catalogue her husband's collections of paintings. She sold his manuscripts to the nation for £10,000, well below their value, so that they should not be dispersed. The curiosities, including the medals and portraits were sold at auction in March 1742, and the library was sold to the London boookseller Thomas Osbourne for £13,000.