Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane

Her father, a stockbroker and clerk to the Treasurer of the Navy, became quite wealthy, and was appointed director of the South Sea Company in February 1715.

[4] Lord William served as Vice-Chamberlain to Caroline of Ansbach but, as the second son, was himself poor enough for the queen to refer to the couple as "handsome beggars".

[5] The marriage was short-lived; Lady William was widowed on 11 July next year,[3] shortly after delivering a stillborn child.

Her husband desperately tried to persuade her to return, paying people to search for her and promising a reward in the newspapers for any information about her location in January 1737.

[3]In her memoirs, the Viscountess Vane mocks contemporary social and moral conventions, and describes her emotional devastation following the death of her first husband.

In a 1752 letter to her daughter, the Countess of Bute, she wrote: "[Lady Vane's] History, rightly considered, would be more instructive to young Women than any Sermon I know.

She died childless on 31 March 1788 at her home in Hill Street, Mayfair, London, and was buried in the Vane family vault in Shipborne, Kent.

Lord Vane, who had remained faithful to her despite the social humiliation caused by her sexual adventures, died the next year.