The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 16 March 1822
“Brooks’s, 16th March.
“I can’t get the better of my chagrin at not
having done myself justice upon Canning the other night. . . . I dined at
Ly. Anson’s yesterday. We had
Coke* and Ly.
Anne, Miss Coke,
Lord and Ly.
Rosebery, Digby and Lady
Andover,† Hinchcliffe (Ld.
Crewe’s nephew), Mr. Lloyd and
myself. I sat next Lady Anson by her desire. I was
introduced both by her and Coke to Lady
Anne, who, to my mind, has neither beauty nor elegance nor
manners to recommend her, but if ever I saw a deep one,
it is her. She was perfectly at her ease. On the other hand, I never saw more
perfect behaviour than that of all the ladies of the family. Miss
Coke I thought was low. We had, however,
a very merry dinner, and I went upstairs and staid till eleven. I kept up a
kind of running fire upon Coke, and Ly.
Anson kept her hand upon my arm all the time, pinching me and
keeping me in check when she thought I was going too far. . . . I was at
Whitehall last night—Ly. Ossulston,
Miss Lemon, Ferguson, Sefton and
Vaughan, and then I came here (Brooks’s), and
was fool enough to sit looking over a whist table till between 4 and 5 this
morning. Sefton and I walked away together, he having won
by the evening a thousand and twenty pounds.”
Emma Bennet, countess of Tankerville [née Colebrooke] (1752-1836)
The daughter of the banker Sir James Colebrooke, first baronet; in 1771 she married
Charles Bennet, afterwards fourth Earl of Tankerville. She was the cousin of the Sanskrit
scholar Henry Thomas Colebrooke.
Anne Amelia Coke [née Keppel] (1803-1844)
The daughter of William Charles Keppel, fourth earl of Albemarle; when she married Thomas
William Coke in 1822 she was younger than some of his granddaughters. In 1843 she married
Edward Ellice.
John Crewe, first baron Crewe (1742-1829)
Whig MP for Stafford and Cheshire; he was a stout supporter of Charles James Fox, who
rewarded him with a peerage in 1806.
Lady Jane Elizabeth Digby [née Coke] (d. 1863)
The daughter of Thomas William Coke, first Earl of Leicester; in 1796 she married Charles
Nevinson Howard, son of the Earl of Suffolk; after his death she married in 1806 Admiral
Sir Henry Digby.
Sir Ronald Craufurd Ferguson (1773-1841)
Scottish officer who served in India and fought with a Highland brigade; he was MP for
Dysart (1806-30) and Nottingham (1830-41).
Henry John Hinchliffe (1768 c.-1848)
Son of John Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough; he was educated at Westminster School and
Trinity College, Cambridge; he was a judge in the Admiralty Court in Jamaica.
Archibald John Primrose, fourth earl of Rosebery (1783-1868)
Son of the third earl, educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge; he succeeded his father
in 1814 and sat in Parliament as a Scottish representative peer (Whig) until being created
a peer of the United Kingdom in 1828.
