Regency Portraits Catalogue

Harriot Beauclerk (née Mellon), Duchess of St Albans (1777?-1837), Actress and banker

Actress; she married (1) in 1815 the banker Thomas Coutts and (2) in 1827 the 9th Duke of Saint Albans.

'... a countrified girl, blooming in complexion, with a very tall fine figure, raven locks, ivory teeth, a cheek like a peach and coral lips. All she put you in mind of was a country road and a pillion!' (Memoirs of Miss Mellon afterwards Duchess of St Albans, ed. Mrs Baron-Wilson, 1840, I, p 162).

Referencesback to top

Baron-Wilson (ed.) 1840, 1886
Memoirs of Miss Mellon afterwards Duchess of St Albans, 2 vols., ed. Mrs Baron-Wilson, 1840 and 1886.

Coleridge 1920
E. H. Coleridge, Life of Thomas Coutts, 2 vols., 1920.

Pearce 1915
C. E. Pearce, The Jolly Duchess, 1915.



This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.