Laura Pulteney, 1st Countess of Bath

As a young woman, Pulteney spent time at Sudborough in Northamptonshire (later endowing a school there as well as in Clewer, Berkshire) where her neighbour was Archibald Alison, to whom she agreed to be a godmother to his son, William.

Although Pulteney's father never sought political office, he did procure a peerage for her and she was created Baroness of Bath, in the County of Somerset, in 1792,[1] aged twenty-six.

This was rejected and she was further elevated as Countess of Bath, in the County of Somerset, in 1803,[2] although it is a general rule that, wherever possible, peerage titles should not be duplicated.

Her personal estate passed to her cousin, Elizabeth Evelyn Fawcett (daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet and ex-wife of George Markham, Dean of York); she and her husband changed their name to Pulteney.

Their daughter was Isabelle Pulteney Fawcett married firstly to a Swiss banker of the de Palezieux dit Falconnet family and secondly in 1864 to Nicola Serra Count of Montesantangelo.

Portrait of Henrietta Laura Pulteney by Angelica Kauffmann, ca. 1777. Bath, The Holburne Museum.