Louisa Manners Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart was a peer in the Scottish peerage in a flourishing family. Her father held considerable estates in England largely due to the two marriages of Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale, earlier Tollemache, earlier Murray. Her elder brothers left no surviving issue on their deaths which enabled her to enjoy and help to pass on to her descendants the key family settlement properties: Helmingham Hall and Ham House in England.
The Lady Louisa married John Manners in 1765, the couple having eloped to Scotland from Ham House and Manners having thrown the key to the garden door back over the wall to prevent her from returning. At her father's request the marriage was repeated at St James's Church, Piccadilly. The marriage occurred 11 years into the 20 years of service for which Manners, fifteen years her senior, is mainly remembered, as MP for Newark, Nottinghamshire for 18 years; in the midst of decades of return of the Manners family as co-incumbents for the seat. Her husband succeeded his father in 1772, inheriting Hanby Hall in Lincolnshire and the Buckminster estate in Leicestershire. The couple lived most of their 27-year-marriage, ended by his death in 1792, at Ham House, spending time at the other senior Tollemache family home of Helmingham Hall in Suffolk. They had ten children:
Hon. Charles Manners-Tollemache, of Market Overton, Rutland, and Harrington, Northamptonshire; was authorised by royal licence, dated 6 April 1821, to take the surname of Tollemache instead of Manners, and bear the arms of Tollemache. He died in Eaton Place, London, 26 July 1850, having married, first, at St. George's, Hanover Square, 4 August 1797, Frances, only daughter of William Hay, of Newhall, and niece of George, seventh Marquess of Tweeddale; she, who was born 1775, died 29 March 1801, and was buried at Helmingham 10 April. They had issue:
# Arthur Hugh, born 23 April 1799; died 11 December 1870.
# Wilbraham Francis, born 26 April 1800; commander R.N.; died 6 January 1864; married, 5 October 1841, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Alexander Munro, and by her, who died 13 October 1883, had issue.
# Louisa Grace, died young.
Art
A portrait of Louisa by Sir Joshua Reynolds was engraved by V. Green, and another by Hoppner, as a peasant, has also been engraved. Hoppner's portrait was sold at Messrs. Robinson and Fisher's rooms for 14,050 guineas on 27 June 1901. This portrait originally belonged to Louisa's daughter, Lady Laura Tollemache, from whom it passed to Louisa's granddaughter, Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury, and finally came into the possession of the latter's daughter-in-law, the Lady Charles Bruce, by whose executors it was sold. Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Lady Louisa was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794. Louisa was a notable patron of John Constable, entertaining him at Helmingham, Ham House and London residences at Pall Mall and in Piccadilly. Constable's letters make several references to Lady Dysart and he was evidently at ease with the family. Louisa employed his brother, Golding Constable, as gamekeeper at Helingham. Constable painted copies of Reynolds' and Hoppner's works, including a portrait of Louisa dated 1823. Others to derive works from Hoppner, Lawrence and Reynolds portraits of Louisa include Henry Bone, Charles Knight and Richard Smythe.
Title
The death of John Manners on 23 September 1792, when Louisa was aged forty-seven, bought the of the Manners' Buckminster estate into the Tollemache family. She succeeded her brother Wilbraham in the earldom of Dysart and barony of Huntingtower on 9 March 1821, aged seventy-five, and on 13 March 1821 she, together with her only unmarried daughter, Laura, was authorised by royal licence to take and bear the surname and arms of Tollemache instead of Manners. Her major inheritance in 1821 had appeared unlikely given her many elder siblings in her younger years. In her middle-age she still had three elder siblings who might have been expected to have had progeny to whom the family title and estates could be passed. However, her eldest surviving-to-adulthood brother Lionel Tollemache, 5th Earl of Dysart had died in 1799 aged 64 with no heirs and her brother Wilbraham Tollemache, 6th Earl of Dysart died in 1821 aged 81, also without any legitimate heirs. Her elder sister Frances also died without surviving children. Thus Louisa, long widowed, came into a substantial inheritance at the age of 75. The Tollemache baronetcy became extinct, but Louisa succeeded to the Earldom of Dysart as the 7th Countess of Dysart in her own right. The estates were divided between her and her younger sister, Lady Jane, with Louisa inheriting Ham House and the surrounding estates in Ham, Petersham and Canbury and Jane receiving Helmingham, Suffolk, Cheshire and Northants. Both families took the name of Tollemache.
Death and succession
Increasing blind in her old age, Louisa died at Ham House, Petersham near Richmond-on-Thames, 22 September 1840, aged 95, and was buried at Helmingham on 8 October. She survived her husband by more than half her lifetime and all of her children except her third, Charles. Her will was proved February 1841. She was succeeded by grandson, Lionel Tollemache, 8th Earl of Dysart, son of William, Lord Huntingtower.
