Editing Maria Fitzherbert (section)

==Possible children by George IV==
Some scholars have suggested that Maria Fitzherbert had one or two children by her marriage to the future king. "In 1833, after the King's death, one of [his] executors, [[William Stourton, 18th Baron Stourton|Lord Stourton]], asked her to sign a declaration he had written on the back of her marriage certificate. It read: 'I Mary Fitzherbert ... testify that my Union with George P. of Wales was without issue.' According to Stourton, she, smiling, objected, on the score of delicacy."<ref name=austen/><ref name=david>{{cite book |last=David |first=Saul |title=The Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0871137395 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xvu0QgAACAAJ |access-date=2021-09-28}}</ref> Indeed, during her early days in Brighton with the Prince of Wales, his uncle, the [[Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh|Duke of Gloucester]], and other friends believed Mrs. Fitzherbert to be pregnant.<ref name=austen/>

Members of the Wyatt family claim to be descendants of George IV by her. On Fitzherbert's death, it is stated that her children were adopted by a Scottish family named Wyatt, whose name they assumed. Afterwards, they came south, settling in [[Erith]], [[Kent]]. The Wyatt family, in the person of J. G. Wyatt, a former Erith man who later moved to [[Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan]], Canada, and Isabella Annie Wyatt, claimed title to a portion of the Fitzherbert estate in 1937.<ref>{{cite news |title=Riches? Canadian Claims Right To English Estate |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19370502&id=HSIbAAAAIBAJ&pg=4334,7012488 |format=[[Google News Archive|Google News Scan]] |agency=[[The United Press]] |work=[[The Pittsburgh Press]] |publisher=Press Publishing Co. |location=Pittsburgh, PA |date=1937-05-02 |access-date=2021-09-29}}</ref>

One suggested child of the Prince and his longtime paramour was James Ord (born 1786), whose curious history of assisted relocations and encouragement has been chronicled.<ref name=david/> Ord eventually emigrated to the United States where he worked first near [[Norfolk, Virginia]], as a shipbuilder, next in [[Charles County, Maryland]], in ship construction, and then on a farm outside of [[Washington, D.C.]] He joined the [[Society of Jesus]] in 1806, but left the order in 1811. Soon thereafter, Ord joined the Navy, but he served in the infantry during the War of 1812. Ord lived in [[Allegheny County, Maryland]], from 1815 to 1819, in Washington, D.C., from 1819 to 1837, in [[Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan]], in the mid-1800s, and in [[California]] after 1855. James Ord died in 1873.<ref>{{cite web |title=James Ord and His Family: Beyond 200 Years in America (exhibition) |date=2006-10-31 |url=https://www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/james-ord-and-his-family-beyond-200-years-america |access-date=2021-09-30 |website=[[Georgetown University Library]] |location=Howard W. Gunlocke Rare Book and Special Collections Room |publisher=Georgetown University Library}}</ref>

In addition to James Ord, the long-term relationship between Fitzherbert and George, as prince and king, appears to have led to more than a dozen claims of children conceived out of wedlock.<ref name=camp>{{cite web |last=Camp |first=Anthony J. |author1-link=Anthony J. Camp |title=Maria Fitzherbert's 'Descendants' |url=https://anthonyjcamp.com/pages/mrs-fitzherberts-descendants |website=Anthony J. Camp |date=2020-10-05 |access-date=2021-09-30}}</ref> These join the many additional catalogued cases of George's liaisons,<ref name=camp/> some of which have received further discussion ''vis-a-vis'' largely inexplicable financial care given by King George IV or his peers to the immediate purported descendant.<ref name=david/> {{citation needed span|These lineages include the Herveys (from 1786 liaison with Lady Anne Lindsay, subsequently Barnard), the Croles (from 1798 liaison Eliza Crole, which the generally sceptical A. J. Camp considers "fact"), and the Hampshires (from 15-year mistress Sarah Brown).|date=February 2014}}

[[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Edward VII]], the Prince's great-nephew, granted permission to historian and Fitzherbert biographer [[William Henry Wilkins|William H. Wilkins]] to open her vault at [[Coutts Bank]] in 1906. The release of Wilkins' book later that year prompted several supposed descendants of the Prince and Fitzherbert to claim the latter's substantial estate. A Rebecca Fitzherbert Harris of [[Kenvil, New Jersey]], maintained that through family lore, she was the couple's great-granddaughter via a purported son named Thomas Edward, named after Fitzherbert's first two husbands.<ref name=Harris>{{cite news |title=New York Woman Traces Descent to English King |format=[[California Digital Newspaper Collection]] |work=[[Los Angeles Herald]] |publisher=Los Angeles City and County Publishing Company |volume=33 |number=361 |page=9 |location=Los Angeles |date=1906-09-26 |access-date=2021-09-30 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19060926.2.155&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1}}</ref> In a letter to Edward VII, Harris claimed that Thomas also had a brother and sister who lived for a time with their mother in [[Dublin]].<ref name=Harris/> Thomas was supposedly sent to the United States in 1833 by Fitzherbert, who thought her children would be safer there following her death.<ref name=Harris/> Harris further stated that her family had received an income from an unknown source in the United Kingdom for many years.<ref name=Harris/> Harris requested access to Fitzherbert's papers to pursue her claim of the estate.<ref name=Harris/> Edward VII was noted to have acknowledged Harris's letter but stated that he would not assist her further.<ref name=Harris/>

The second codicil to Maria Fitzherbert's will outlines her two principal beneficiaries and includes a personal note: "This paper is addressed to my two dear children&nbsp;... I have loved them both with the tenderest affection any mother could do, and I have done the utmost in my power for their interests and comfort".<ref name=will>{{cite archive |last=Fitzherbert |first=Maria |author-link=Maria Fitzherbert |item=Maria Fitzherbert: Last Will and Testament |item-url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C198104 |item-url-access=registration |type=Photocopy of handwritten will |item-id=PROB 1/86 |date=12 April 1837 |access-date=30 September 2021 |page=1-2, 8 |collection=Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills of Selected Famous Persons |collection-url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12112 |repository=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] |location=Kew, Surrey |institution=The National Archives}}</ref>

[[File:Plaque marking Maria Fitzherbert's tomb.jpg|alt=|thumb|[[Commemorative plaque]] at Maria Fitzherbert's burial place in [[Brighton]]]]

Their married names were Mary Ann Stafford-Jerningham and Mary Georgina Emma Dawson-Damer.<ref name="will"/> Stafford-Jerningham was nominally Fitzherbert's 'niece',<ref name="will"/> and was raised as Mary Ann Smythe. Dawson-Damer was nominally the daughter of Admiral [[Lord Hugh Seymour]] and Lady Anna Horatia Waldegrave.<ref name="will"/> Seymour had been a close associate of George IV since their youth and Seymour's son [[George Seymour (Royal Navy officer)|George]] was an executor and minor beneficiary of Fitzherbert's will. There is no evidence that either of these women were the natural children of Maria Fitzherbert – indeed, the reference to 'the affection any mother could do' (with stress on mother) could indicate she only saw herself as a mother figure to them and no more.{{original research inline|date=September 2021}} The will does not refer to any sons, though this observation must be seen in its historical context: of the ten illegitimate children of [[Dorothea Jordan]], Anglo-Irish actress and mistress of 20 years to the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, care for the five boys was initially assumed by their father and his households, and custody and care for the girls given to Jordan.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}{{original research inline|date=September 2021}}

Notably, any historical claim of descent is accompanied by controversy, and many preceding have been challenged.<ref name=camp/> Given the death<ref>{{cite web|last=Oberst|first=Charles R|title=The Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales: An Obstetric Tragedy|url=http://www.innominatesociety.com/Articles/The%20Death%20of%20Princess%20Charlotte%20of%20Wales.html|date=Spring 1984|access-date=9 March 2012}}</ref> of Princess Charlotte without surviving children, should the Ord link be substantiated, the line descended through them would join a large number of claimed surviving descendants of King George IV.{{original research inline|date=September 2021}}