Molly Lepell

Molly Lepell (Sep 26, 1706 -Sep 2, 1768), my 7G grandmother, by kind permission of The National Trust Picture Library, copyright NTPL/Christopher Hurst. Gay referred to her as 'youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepell' and Pope was another of her many admirers.

Brig.-Gen. Nicholas Wedig Lepell, was born in Santau, a small town on the right bank of the Elbe. His father was Borchard Lepell and his mother Eleanor, and according to the Rev Sydenham H A Hervey, there was a connection with the von Lepel family, which the writer traced back to the 13th century . He came to England in the entourage of George, Prince of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne , and if he arrived with the Prince in 1683 he would then have been about 17.. He was naturalised by Private Act of Parliament, then the normal route to citizenship, on February 2, 1699 . He married Mary Brooke, orphan daughter of John Brooke of Rendlesham, Suffolk in August 1698 , when he was 32 and she was 25. She was said to be worth £20,000. They had one child, also called Mary, born September 26, 1706 .

Nicholas was said to have received a commission to raise a regiment of foot towards the end of 1711, and was promoted to Brigadier-General five years later . But since he was at the battle of Villaviciosa in Spain on December 10, 1710, already a brigadier , it is more likely that he was given a command after Prince George died in 1708. He died before April 19, 1720, since on that date the marriage settlement between his daughter Mary and John Hervey [HA 507/4/12, Suffolk Record Office] describes Mary Lepell as widow.

Daughter Mary who unlike most women at the time was properly educated in French, German and Latin, as well as being a great beauty and an heiress worth £20,000, married John, Lord Hervey, and they in turn had one child, a daughter named Lepell, who married Constantine John Phips, 1st Baron Mulgrave. Yet again the couple had one girl child, Henrietta Maria, who married Charles, 12th Viscount Dillon. Their son Henry, 13th Viscount Dillon, married Henrietta Browne. Their daughter, also Henrietta Maria, married Edward John 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley, from whom we are twice descended – through a daughter Alice, who married General Augustus Fox Pitt Rivers, and through a son Edward Lyulph 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley.