Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

She spent more than a quarter-century overseeing the restoration of the gardens and rebuilding of the family mansion at Wollaton Hall, now in Nottingham, inherited by her father, Francis Willoughby.

[3] In 1713, at the age of 43, Cassandra married her rich cousin, James Brydges FRS, at Chelsea College Chapel as his second wife.

Brydges' social standing rose the following year when he inherited a barony and baronetcy on the death of his father, 8th Baron Chandos of Sudeley.

[4] Cassandra died childless at the age of 65 and was buried in the Chandos Mausoleum at St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch, Little Stanmore, near the ducal seat of Cannons.

Some of her correspondence from before and after her marriage is preserved at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office, at the North London Collegiate School[6] and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.

Wollaton Hall , family seat in Nottingham of Duchess Cassandra's family, the Willoughbys
Kneller 's 1713 portrait, Chandos family, believed to show Cassandra, rather than the Duke's first wife, mother of the two children in the picture.
Their Cannons House estate in Middlesex, England, seat of the Duke of Chandos
Shaw House , an estate of Cassandra and her husband, Duke James Brydges