Her ancestors were Roman Catholic and had had pronounced Jacobite leanings; one of them was Maréchal de camp Arthur Dillon, a supporter of the Old Pretender who lived in exile in France.

In 1814, Henrietta and her family moved to Florence, capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany,[2] where she attended the receptions of Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, the widow of the Young Pretender.

[4] Her non-English upbringing was prominent and her grandson, the philosopher Bertrand Russell, commented: My grandmother's outlook, throughout her life, was in some ways more Continental than English.

Maria wrote to her to applaud that she had admonished her son John Stanley for calling Indian people, "niggers".

She presided over an intellectual and political salon, and was one of the original 'lady visitors' of Queen's College, London, founded by Maurice in 1848.

One of the few executive committee members who dared confront Davies, Lady Stanley vehemently opposed the construction of a chapel, and instead favoured improving staff salaries and equipment.

[2] In 1888, she helped found Sydenham High Junior and Senior Schools with Maria Grey, Mary Gurney and Emily Shirreff.

[7] Bertrand Russell, her grandson, feared her ridicule and described her as "an eighteenth century type, rationalistic and unimaginative, keen on enlightenment, and contemptuous of Victorian goody-goody priggery".