Charlotte was the daughter of James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster, and his wife, Lady Emily, daughter of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and the second of the famous Lennox sisters.
[1] In Toulouse on 23 February 1789 Charlotte married Joseph Strutt, later Member of Parliament for Maldon and the member of an Essex family that had made their fortune from its milling business.
The couple had three surviving children, a son, John (later the second Baron Rayleigh), and two daughters, including:[1] Lady Rayleigh died in Bath in September 1836, aged 78, and was succeeded in the barony by her son, John.
[1] Her husband was offered a peerage for his services in the Army and Parliament but refused, and instead proposed that the honour be given to his wife.
Hence, on 18 July 1821[2] Charlotte was raised to the peerage as Baroness Rayleigh, of Terling Place in the County of Essex.