Grace Elliott

Grace Dalrymple Elliott (c. 1754 – 16 May 1823) was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution (Ma Vie sous la Révolution) published posthumously in 1859. She was mistress, first to the future George IV, by whom she is said to have borne an illegitimate daughter, and then to the Duke of Orléans. Elliott trafficked correspondence and helped condemned Royalists and members of the French nobility escape from the First French Republic during the Reign of Terror. She was arrested several times but managed to avoid the guillotine, and was released following the military coup that ended the Terror and resulted in the execution of Robespierre.

In the acclaimed but widely controversial 2001 film adaptation of her memoirs by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer as The Lady and the Duke, Grace Elliot was played by English actress Lucy Russell.

Elliott was born probably in Edinburgh about 1754, the youngest daughter of Grissel Brown (died 30 September 1767) and Hew Dalrymple (died 1774), an Edinburgh advocate concerned in the great Douglas case. Her parents separated around the time of her birth, and she was most likely brought up at her grandparents' house.

She was educated in a French convent, and on her return to Scotland, was introduced by her father into Edinburgh society. Her beauty made such an impression on John Eliot, a prominent and wealthy physician, that he made her an offer of marriage in 1771. She accepted, although Eliot was about 18 years her senior. They were married on 19 October 1771 in London, when she was 17. The couple entered fashionable society, but eventually grew apart due to their difference in age and interests. In 1774 Elliott met and fell in love with Lord Valentia, with whom she entered into an affair. Convinced of his wife's infidelity, John Eliot had the couple followed and eventually sued Valentia for criminal conversation (adultery). He received £12,000 in damages before successfully obtaining a divorce.

With her social reputation destroyed, Elliott became recognised as a member of the demimonde and was forced to earn her living as a professional mistress or courtesan. She was then taken by her brother to a French convent, but she seems to have been brought back almost immediately by Lord Cholmondeley, who became her lover and remained one of her principal protectors throughout her life.

Having met Lord Cholmondeley at the Pantheon in 1776, she began a liaison with him that lasted three years. Their friends included the courtesans Gertrude Mahon and Kitty Frederick. Thomas Gainsborough painted two portraits of her in 1778, which are in the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1782, she had a short, concealed intrigue with the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV) and gave birth to a daughter on 30 March 1782, who was baptised at St Marylebone as Georgiana Augusta Frederica Seymour (d. 1813) but used the name Georgina Seymour.

Elliott declared that the Prince was the father of her child and The Morning Post stated in January 1782 that he admitted responsibility. However, the child was dark in complexion, and when she was first shown to the Prince, he is said to have remarked, "To convince me that this is my girl they must first prove that black is white."

The Prince and many others regarded Lord Cholmondeley as the father of the girl, although the Prince's friends said that Charles William Wyndham (brother of Lord Egremont), whom she was thought to resemble, claimed paternity. Yet others thought she might have been fathered by George Selwyn. Lord Cholmondeley brought up the girl, and after her early death in 1813, looked after her only child.