No. 38 Berkeley Square

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WEDDING

Various as the events connected with Berkeley Square have been, it seems that on only one occasion has a marriage service been performed in it.

This occurred at No. 38 (which was later refronted to become a red-brick house), the residence of Lord Rosebery, where the fifth Earl of Jersey was married to Lady Sarah Fane, eldest daughter of John, tenth Earl of Westmorland.

She was a celebrated beauty, and as Memoirs and Diaries of the time shows, a famous leader of fashion for fifty years.

At that time No. 38 belonged to Lady Westmorland's father, Robert Child, who had bought it from the Duke of Manchester for £10,000 in 1767. It became hers the next year as heiress of the Childs of Osterley, whose name her daughter's husband, Lord Jersey, subsequently took.

This Lady Jersey, who died on 26th January 1867, is not to be confused with Frances, wife of the fourth Earl and favourite of George IV, who became perhaps the most hated woman of her time in this country.

It is a curious fact that Miss Child had eloped from this same house with her future husband, Lord Westmorland, in 1782.

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