Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irvine

Anne, Viscountess Irwin lived from c.1696 to 1764. She was a poet and close friend of Horace Walpole.

Family

Anne's father was Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle and her mother was Anne Capel, daughter of the Earl of Essex and granddaughter of the Earl of Northumberland. Anne was raised in Yorkshire. By 1712, her parents were irretreviably separated, and Anne seems to have remained close to her father; some of her letters to him survive. She wrote a poem that was a tribute to her father, "Castle Howard" in 1732.

Anne had no children with her first husband, Rich Ingram, 5th Viscount Irvine, who died in 1721, four years after their marriage. Anne traveled by herself to the Netherlands and France in 1730, and then became an attendant of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales. It was not until 1737 that Anne remarried, after sixteen years of widowhood. She married Colonel William Douglas, despite the disapproval of her family. Her poetry defended women from the usual accusations of being manipulative and inferior.