The Wife of a Banker

You gotta love Harriot Mellon!

Born of uncertain parentage to an "actress" who slept around, this little girl starts life upon the wicked stage and succeeds well enough to catch the eye of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Thanks to a solid career at Drury Lane, Harriot becomes a young woman of independent means. Catches the eye of a shabby old gent. He turns out to be wealthy Thomas Coutts, banker to the Royals. (If you decide to marry, m'dear, he advised her, first be sure to put your money in trust.)

Four days after the death of his first wife, 80-year-old Coutts marries his young mistress. At his death seven years later, he leaves a will disinheriting his daughters and leaving “all I might possess or that I hereafter might acquire or be entitled to at my death, wholly & solely to my dear wife, irrevocably.”

Harriot becomes senior partner of the bank, founded in 1629, and a noted partygiver.

There's much more to the story, including how Harriot winds up as the Dutchess of St. Albans. You can read more here.

Harriot was one of the prettiest bankers you would ever want to meet. And when she died, she left Coutts' granddaughter a fortune twice as large as she had received from old Thomas.

Updated April 13, 2011