Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 4: Devonshire

DEVONSHIRE or DEVON (County of)

Volume 4, page 348 (as modified by volume 14):
His widow [Elizabeth, widow of William (Cavendish), Duke of Devonshire (d. 1811)] d. s.p., 30 Mar. 1824, at Rome, aged 64.(a)
Note a:
... As the Duke's mistress, she bore him two illegit. children in his first wife's lifetime. They were known as Caroline and Augustus Clifford, of whom the latter became a Capt. R.N. and married, 20 Oct. 1813, Elizabeth, 2nd da. of Lord John Townshend. In 1811 Capt. Clifford, when quartered at Portsmouth, was foolish enough to claim the precedence of a Duke's son.

According to Amanda Foreman, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire (1998), Elizabeth was survived by both these illegitimate children, and by her first husband John Thomas Foster (d. 1796), she had two sons, Frederick (b. 1777) and Augustus (1780-1848).

[This correction was pointed out by Doug Smith in June 2004.
Item last updated 13 July 2004.]