First I found the two volumes of
The Journals of Elizabeth Fox, née Vassall, Lady Holland, written in
1780 to 1811 and published around 1900. They were of a similar period to
our ancestress, Caroline Girle, and I wondered if there would be any common
characters, to be seen from two different pairs of eyes. For £10,
from a back street bookseller in Twickenham, it was worth a punt.
Anyhow the diaries were interesting, particularly of a very well read and
intelligent though self-educated woman and also of her serious involvement
in the political scene of those times. She seemed sympathetic to the French
revolution and her husband was, seemingly, actively advancing Catholic
Emancipation.
But there was no point of contact with Caroline Girle's diaries. Though
contacts there undoubtedly were. Lady Elizabeth Holland's daughter, Mary
Elizabeth Fox, married a Powys, the 3rd baron of the Lilford branch (as
befitted her station, doubtless) and one of the children of that marriage
changed his name to Fox-Powys. And the Hollands were descended from the
Rich family, an heiress of the last Warwick Rich of whom had married the
last Barrington on the senior line. Though this latter link was not made
until 1817 when Henry Philip Powys married Julia Barrington.
For an interesting sideline on Elizabeth Vassall read her entry from the
DNB, leading nicely to the second addition:
I have managed to purchase the CDROM of the DNB, now at a much reduced
though still heavy price. In it I found articles about 155 people on my
database. Of these 143 are blood relations and 109 are direct ancestors.
The most recent person on the DNB is our rather distant cousin John Cowper
Powys, the author, who died in 1963. Our most recent ancestor is Samuel
Hallifax, bishop of Gloucester in 1780 odd.
There are now 5,831 people in this published database. Additionally I have
details of 254 living people whose details it is now common not to make
public.
The third addition has been typing in a couple more of the articles from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society: