Elizabeth Stuart-Wortley, Baroness Wharncliffe

Caroline Elizabeth Mary Stuart-Wortley, Baroness Wharncliffe (née Crichton), was born in 1779 and died in 1856. She was born in Ireland and held the title Lady Caroline Crichton from 1789 until her marriage. She was an aristocrat of the British peerage and an artist specializing in landscape and figurative drawings and paintings.

She was the daughter of John Crichton, 1st Earl Erne, and his second wife, Lady Mary Caroline Hervey. Lady Mary Caroline Hervey was the daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, and the elder sister of Lady Elizabeth Foster. As a child, Caroline Elizabeth Mary Crichton was the subject of four portraits that are part of the National Trust Collection.

On 30 March 1799, she married James Stuart-Wortley, who was later created the 1st Baron Wharncliffe. They had four children: John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, who became the 2nd Baron Wharncliffe; Hon. Charles Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie; Hon. James Archibald Stuart-Wortley, who served as Solicitor-General; and Hon. Caroline Jane Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie. Their daughter Caroline Jane married Hon. John Chetwynd-Talbot on 30 August 1830.

Her husband, Lord Wharncliffe, died in December 1845 at the age of 69. Their eldest son, John, succeeded to the barony. John’s son, Edward, became the 3rd Baron Wharncliffe and was later elevated to Earl of Wharncliffe in 1876. Lady Wharncliffe’s death occurred in April 1856.

As an artist, Lady Wharncliffe produced approximately 55 works, including a landscape painting and a series of sketches of models. Many of her artworks are housed in the Tate Collection and Archive.

A biography titled "The first Lady Wharncliffe and her family (1779-1856)" was published in 1927 by her grandchildren Caroline Grosvenor and Charles Beilby, Lord Stuart of Wortley. Additionally, her personal correspondence is preserved in the National Archives.