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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2000-09 > 0968786375


From: "elizabeth abbott" <>
Subject: Re: George III's first wife Hannah Lightfoot
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:19:35 -0700


My g.g.gf had such admiration for "good King George III" that he gave
himself an annual holiday on George's birthday. If George had an early
marriage to someone he really loved - before dynastic considerations
demanded he marry Charlotte, it doesn't change the picture of him being a
devoted family man too much. About any possible children - as George had
porphyria would this gene be traceable in descendants and be one way to
help identify them?

Liz

-----Original Message-----
From: John Steele Gordon <>
To: <>
Date: September 12, 2000 6:54 AM
Subject: Re: George III's first wife Hannah Lightfoot


>scp wrote:
>
>> The BBC has an interesting piece on the discovery of what appear to be
the
>> 'secret graves' of George III's 'secret grandaughter' and daughter:
>>
>>
http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/wales/newsid%5F916000/916965.stm
>> _________
>>
>> Does anyone have the details on the children?
>
>This is two hundred years off topic, but there is something to be
>learned here, perhaps.
>
>In Christopher Hibbert's biography, "George III" there is a footnote on
>page 29:
>
>There is a persistent legend that 'the boiling youth' has already had an
>affair with a young Quaker woman, Hannah Lightfoot. Mary Lucy Pendered
>in 'The Fair Quaker, Hannah Lightfoot' accepted the story that the
>affair had resulted in three children. In a later book, 'The Lovely
>Quaker,' John Lindsay asserted that a marriage had taken place and that
>one of the children of this marriage--and consequently the legitimate
>heir to the throne--was one George Rex, who became a wealthy and
>influential resident of the Cape of Good Hope and who, undoubtedly, bore
>a marked resemblance to King George III.
>
>After studying parish registers, wills and records of land tenure,
>however, Professor Ian Christie has been able to trace back George Rex's
>authentic pedigree as far as his paternal grandfather and the parents of
>this grandfather's wife and to show that George Rex--his surname being a
>true family name, not a latin pun--was the son of John Rex, a London
>distiller. The books linking him to George III and Hannah Lightfoot are,
>Professor Christie has written, 'based on evidence which is without
>exception hearsay or else suspicious in origin . . . There is no
>documentation for the most salient facts. This leads to wholly
>speculative assumptions that various records have been destroyed'
>(Christie, 'The Family Origins of george Rex of Knysna').
>
>It might be noted that George III, unlike the other Hanoverian kings and
>a U.S. president, had no trouble keeping his trousers buttoned. He seems
>to have been completely faithful to Queen Charlotte and they were to all
>appearances, a devoted couple.
>
>JSG
>--
>http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jsggenealogy/Jsgordon
>
>

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