She was the only child and heiress[1] of John Hoskins of Oxted (1640–16 May 1717), and his wife, the former Catherine Hale (1673–1703), daughter of William Hale MP.[2] Her mother's brother was the judge, Sir Bernard Hale,[3] and her first cousins were the army generals Bernard and John Hale.[4]
Marriage and children
She married Cavendish, then an MP and known as the Marquess of Hartington, on 27 March 1718. The Marquess inherited the dukedom in 1729.
In 1733, Devonshire House (formerly Berkeley House), their London home, burned down while in the process of refurbishment, possibly because of the builders' carelessness.[9] They employed William Kent to design their new residence,[10] which stood until the 1920s, when much of the contents was transferred to Chatsworth House, the family seat in Derbyshire.
Later life
The duke died in 1755 and was succeeded by their eldest son, William, to whose marriage to the exceptionally wealthy Lady Charlotte Boyle Catherine was bitterly opposed. However, at her husband's death, since Charlotte had died the previous year and the young duke did not remarry, Catherine remained mistress of Chatsworth[11] until her grandson, the 5th Duke, married 17-year-old Georgiana Spencer in 1774.
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 346.
^L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 211
^R. B. McDowell and John A. Woods (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke. Volume IX: Part One. May 1796-July 1797. Part Two. Additional and Undated Letters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), p. 202.
