Lady Sefton, Patroness of Almacks
Elizabeth Craven had four daughters and three sons. The girls were named Elizabeth, Maria-Margaretta, Georgiana and Arabella, and of the four of them Maria was certainly the most socially successful. The Hon. Maria Margaretta Craven, later Lady Sefton. She was popular and after making a brilliant marriage became one of the patronesses of the celebrated Almack's Club, whose balls at Almack's Assembly Rooms were more exclusive than the Court itself. This miniature portrait shows Lady Sefton when young and she is a striking beauty, with some resemblance to her mother in the long neck and shape of the nose. Her hair appears to be very black, but in fact she is wearing a headband of black lace, and a black-trimmed stole, suggesting that she is in mourning. When you look closely her hair is actually chestnut brown, not unlike her mother's. The girls had rather a difficult time as teenagers as their parents separated, and the girls were ...