Name Hannah Lowe | Died 1883 | |
Hannah Harrison Barnes (nee Lowe), 1795–1883, is believed by some descendants and others (see below, "The claim") to have been the daughter of George IV of the United Kingdom and his early wife and continuing paramour Maria Fitzherbert, a relationship whose trajectory was defined when the marriage was declared illegal for want of royal approval (as required by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772).
Lowe was born at Knightsbridge, London in 1795 and lived a simple life in Coventry; she married Samuel Barnes and is reported to have worked many years as a ribbon maker, and to have died alone in a workhouse (see below). She died at age 87 in January 1883 (date discrepancy, 26 or 29 January), and was predeceased by her husband Samuel in 1875 (aged 79) with whom she is buried at London Road Cemetery in Coventry.
The claim of royal descent comes from Barnes' extensive personal journal, which establishes that she believed herself to be the daughter of King George IV; the yet unpublished, and personally held document is reported to contain details and dates that corroborate the claim. The matter was investigated for an on-air television segment by a biographer of George IV's early life and academic military historian Saul David, Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham, with some attribution of credibility. Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate issue of King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, died in childbirth at the age of 21, leaving no descendants of this later union approved by King George III.
Given the early and childless death of Princess Charlotte, should the Lowe history be further substantiated, the line descended through the Barnes family joins the list of claimed surviving descendants of King George IV. In addition to James Ord (who was father of American Civil War General Edward Ord and so grandfather of at least 13, also reportedly from the long-term affair with Fitzherbert), the reported list of lineages include the Herveys (of the East India Company, from 1786 liaison with Lady Anne Barnard nee Lindsay), the Croles (from 1798 liaison Eliza Crole), the Hampshires (from 15 year mistress Sarah Brown), and the Candy descendants (from an otherwise unknown Frenchwoman with that name); in each of these cases, largely inexplicable financial care was expressed directly or indirectly to the immediate descendant, by the person of or peers in relation to King George IV. Notably, any such historical claim is accompanied by controversy, and many on the preceding list have been challenged.
A consolidated list based on genealogical research in Coventry has Lowe's descendants to include: