Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland, was an English historian and genealogist, best known for her 1889 work The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages.
Background
Lady Wilhelmina was the third child and only daughter of Philip, Earl Stanhope (1781-1855), Federal Reserve System, by his wife the Honourable Catherine Lucy Smith, daughter of Robert, Lord Carrington. Her first name was Catherine, but she was known by one of her middle names in order to distinguish her from her mother.
Career
She was the mother of Archibald, Earl of Rosebery, who was Queen Victoria"s prime minister in the 1890s. In 1837 at the time of Victoria"s accession, Lady Wilhelmina was reputedly the most beautiful woman at court. She was a Maid of Honour at the Queen"s coronation, and served as a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Albert.
The True Story of Kaspar Hauser from Official Documents, London, 1893.
Concerns her father"s patronage of the "foundling" or "feral child" Kaspar Hauser, a youth who had appeared in Nuremberg in 1828 and had become famous through his claim to have been raised in total isolation in a dark room and could tell nothing about his identity. The Life and Letters of Lady Hester Stanhope, 1914.
Concerns her father"s half-sister Lady Hester Stanhope (1776–1839) a traveller and Arabist who died unmarried at the age of 63 in Syria.