STANHOPE, LADY HESTER LUCY the eldest child of the 3rd Earl Stanhope by his first wife, Lady Hester Pitt, was born on March 12, 1776, and lived at her father's seat of Chevening in Kent until early in 1800, when his excitable and wayward disposition drove her to her grandmother's house at Burton Pynsent. In 1803 she became the chief of the house hold of her uncle, William Pitt. Although her wit and beauty cheered his declining days, her satire created enemies. Lady Hester Stanhope possessed great business talents, and when Pitt was out of office she acted as his private secretary. On his death she was granted a pension of £1,200 a year, dating from Jan. 3o, 1806. On Pitt's death she lived in Montagu Square, London, but in 181o, she left England for ever. After many wanderings she settled among the Druses on Mt. Lebanon, and from the lonely villa of Djoun, 8 m. from Sidon, she wielded an almost absolute authority over the surrounding districts, main tained by her commanding character and by the belief that she possessed the gift of divination. Ibrahim Pasha, when about to
invade Syria in 1832, solicited her neutrality. She died on June 23, 1839. Her disappointments and her dictatorship intensified a temper naturally imperious. In appearance as in voice she resem bled her grandfather, the first Lord Chatham.
Some years after her death there appeared three volumes of Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope as related by herself in Conversations with her Physician (Dr. Meryon, 1845), and these were followed in the succeeding year by three volumes of Travels of Lady Hester Stan hope, forming the Completion of her Memoirs narrated by her Physi cian. They presented a lively picture of this strange woman's life and character, and contained many anecdotes of Pitt and his colleagues in political life for a quarter of a century before his death. See also Mrs. Charles Roundell, Lady Hester Stanhope (Iwo) ; the Duchess of Cleveland, Life and Letters of Lady Hester Stanhope (i914) ; and F. Hamel, Lady Hester L. Stanhope (1913).