View source for Jane Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer

{{Short description|English noblewoman}}
{{for|the Countess of Oxford and Asquith|Margot Asquith}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name               = The Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer
| image              = Jane elizabeth countess-of-oxford1797 john hoppner.jpg
| caption            = Painting of Jane Elizabeth Scott by [[John Hoppner]] (1797)
| birth_name         = Jane Elizabeth Scott
| birth_date         = 1774
| death_date         = {{death year and age|1824|1774}}
| parents            = Reverend James Scott, M.A.
| partner            = [[Francis Burdett]] <br /> [[George Gordon Byron]]
| spouse             = [[Edward Harley, 5th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]]
| children           = Edward Harley, Lord Harley <br /> [[Alfred Harley, 6th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]] <br /> Jane Bickersteth, Lady Langdale <br /> [[Lady Charlotte Bacon]] <br />Lady Anne Harley <br />Lady Frances Vernon Harcourt
}}
'''Jane Elizabeth Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer''' (''née'' '''Scott'''; 1774–1824) was an English noblewoman, known as a patron of the [[Radicalism (historical)#United Kingdom|Reform movement]] and a lover of [[Lord Byron]].
==Life==
She was a daughter of the Reverend James Scott, M.A., Vicar of [[Itchen Stoke]] in [[Hampshire]] and was brought up in favour of [[French Revolution]]ary thought and Reform. In 1794 she married [[Edward Harley, 5th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]] (with her father taking the service), being styled Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer. She was a friend of the [[Caroline of Brunswick|Princess of Wales]]. She frequently took lovers from among the pro-Reform party during her marriage, firstly [[Francis Burdett]] and most notably Lord Byron (the affair lasting from 1812, in the aftermath of Byron's affair with [[Lady Caroline Lamb]], when he was fourteen years her junior, until 1813, when she and her husband went abroad but Byron did not follow as she had hoped). Her marriage was not a love match and her large number of children were known as the "[[Harleian Miscellany]]" due to uncertainties over whether her husband was their father, but the marriage did not break up. Even in the easy-going world of the [[Regency era|Regency]] aristocracy, her affairs were considered to have put her beyond the pale, and few people were prepared to receive her or call on her. Ironically, given their shared interest in Byron, Caroline Lamb was one of her few friends, although Caroline could not resist caricaturing her in her novel ''[[Glenarvon]]''.<ref>Cecil, David. ''Melbourne'' Pan Books. 1969.  p.90-91</ref>
==Children==
[[File:The Countess of Oxford and her daughter, Lady Jane Elizabeth Harley, by follower of John Hoppner.jpg|thumb|The Countess of Oxford and her daughter, Lady Jane Elizabeth Harley (follower of [[John Hoppner]])]]
Among her children were:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=Edmund |url=http://archive.org/details/peeragebritishe01lodggoog |title=The peerage of the British empire as at present existing; arranged and printed from the personal communications of the nobility |last2=Innes |first2=Anne |last3=Innes |first3=Eliza |last4=Innes |first4=Maria |date=1843 |publisher=London, Saunders and Otley |others=Harvard University |page=412}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Bernard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DEGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA266 |title=A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire |date=1883 |publisher=Harrison |page=266 |language=en}}</ref>
*Lady Jane Elizabeth Harley (b. 2 March 1796, d. after 1843); married [[Henry Bickersteth]], raised to the peerage as [[Baron Langdale]].
*Edward Harley, Lord Harley (20 January 1800 – 1 January 1828).
*[[Lady Charlotte Bacon|Lady Charlotte Mary Harley]] (b. 12 December 1801, d 1880); married [[Anthony Bacon (British Army officer)|Anthony Bacon]] in 1823.
*Lady Anne Harley (b. 31 July 1803, d after 1843); married Giovanni Battista Rabitti, Cavaliere San Giorgio.
*Lady Frances Harley (b. 26 January 1805, d. after 1843); married Henry-Vernon-Harcourt
*[[Alfred Harley, 6th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer]] (b. 10 January 1809, d 19 January 1853); married Elizabeth Nugent (daughter of the [[George Nugent, 1st Marquess of Westmeath|Marquess of Westmeath]]) in 1831.
*[[The Honourable|Hon]]. Mortimer Harley (b. 17 December 1811, d. 3 April 1812)
*Louisa Harley (died young)
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Sources==
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=WsfH3SMAbH8C&pg=PA286 ''Byron's letters and journals'', page 286]
*http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/Byron.htm
{{Lord Byron}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harley, Jane, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer}}
[[Category:1774 births]]
[[Category:1824 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English people]]
[[Category:18th-century English women]]
[[Category:19th-century English women]]
[[Category:British countesses|Oxford and Earl Mortimer]]
[[Category:Lord Byron]]
[[Category:Harley family|Jane]]
[[Category:People from the City of Winchester]]
[[Category:Women of the Regency era]]
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