Penelope Pitt

Penelope Ligonier, née Penelope Pitt (1749–1827), was an English aristocrat and socialite, and first wife of Edward Ligonier, Earl Ligonier of Clonmell. She was the eldest daughter of Penelope Atkins and George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers. Both her parents were 'noted for their extraordinary physical beauty', but their family life was unhappy due to her parents' turbulent marriage. Horace Walpole, an admirer of Penelope Atkins, alleged that George Pitt 'had heaped on her every possible cruelty and provoking outrage', and alleged that after their separation he prevented her from seeing their four children. During the 1760s, while George Pitt was serving as envoy-extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Turin, Penelope was enrolled in a convent school in Lyon, where she met Edward Ligonier. They were married at the British Embassy in Paris on 16 December 1766. When they relocated to Cobham Park after their marriage they continued to entertain an international circle of friends, one of whom was Count Vittorio Amadeo Alfieri, an Italian poet and dramatist, with whom she began an affair. The discovery of her infidelity by her husband in 1771 led to a duel Alfieri and Ligonier in Hyde Park, followed by a criminal conversation trial which made public the salacious testimony of servants, and extracts from the couple's passionate love letters. A fictionalised version of the relationship appeared titled Lord Lelius and the Fair Emelia, or, The Generous Husband, and Alfieri would later include a sensational account of his liaison with Lady Ligonier in his memoirs. Ligonier would eventually divorce her via the expensive and protracted process of a private parliamentary bill of divorce. However, due to rumours of previous relationships between Penelope and members of her household staff, Count Alfieri refused to marry her and salvage her reputation.