Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 7th May 2024

Time: 6 pm – 7.30 p.m.

Venue: Online on Zoom

Description: Joint event: Exeter & District Branch of the Historical Association with the Devon History Society. The Acland family is normally associated with Killerton House (now a National Trust property) near Broadclyst, but it had other properties at Pixton and Tetton in Somerset where Lady Harriet lived. Her husband, John Dyke Acland, a Tory MP and a Colonel in the Devon Militia was made a Major in the 20th Foot and went to war in April 1776 accompanied by his wife Harriet who left her two young daughters behind with her mother, the Countess of Ilchester. This is the story, mostly told in her own words, of her experiences in North America (Canada and further south) in two campaigns (1776 and 1777) culminating in the wounding and capture of her husband in the battle of Bemis Heights near Saratoga in October 1777. With help she arranged for a safe-conduct to take her behind enemy lines to care for her husband who was in Albany’s military hospital in New York State for 9 weeks and one day. Her husband having been given parole, Lady Harriet gave birth to a son in New York on 2 February 1778, and returned to England with her husband, sailing on 23 March. In England further events would happen, including a duel in mid-November shortly after which her husband died. Her descriptions of military and everyday life, including both the lives of settlers and of Indigenous people, in difficult conditions in North America at this time are worth reading (or hearing). Lady Harriet’s daughter Kitty (Elizabeth) married into the Herbert family (of Highclere in Hampshire) and became the 2nd Countess of Carnarvon.

How to book: Log in to Zoom on the day Passcode 268650 810 0749 1685 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81007491685?pwd=VzhxS0FGeGZhZUxrNkljSXFMVC9mZz09

Price: Free to all

Organiser: Robert Guyver (HA) and Marie Leverett (DHS)

Lecturer: Dr Robert Guyver FHA

Region: South-West England

Branch: Exeter & District