Isabella Cecil, Marchioness of Exeter

Isabella Cecil, Marchioness of Exeter, formerly Isabella Poyntz, was the wife of Brownlow Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Exeter, and the mother of the 3rd Marquess.

Biography

She was the daughter of William Stephen Poyntz, a Liberal MP, and his wife, the former Hon. Elizabeth Mary Browne. Isabella's sister, Elizabeth Georgina Poyntz, married Frederick Spencer, 4th Earl Spencer. Another sister, Frances Selina Isabella Poyntz, married Robert Cotton St. John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton, and, on his death, married Sir Horace Seymour, MP. Two of their brothers were drowned in an accident in a boating accident in 1815.
The Poyntz family had homes at Midgham House in Berkshire and Cowdray Park in West Sussex.

Children

Isabella married the Marquess of Exeter in London on 12 May 1824. Their children were:

Lady Mary Frances Cecil, who married Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby, and had no children
William Alleyne Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Exeter
Colonel Lord Brownlow Thomas Montagu Cecil
Commander Lord Edward Cecil
Lord Adelbert Percy Cecil, who was a member of the Plymouth Brethren and died, unmarried, in Canada
Lady Victoria Cecil, who married William Charles Evans-Freke, 8th Baron Carbery, and had children

The 2nd Marquess died in 1867 and his estates passed to the oldest son William. Isabella moved to 32 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, where she died in 1879, aged 76: she was buried with her husband in the Cecil family chapel at St Martin's Church, Stamford.