Clementina Johannes Sobiesky Douglas
Clementina Johannes Sobiesky Douglas was born in October 1746 in
Scotland, and died Bef. May 16, 1771 in Waterside, Finsthwaite
Parish, Cumbria, England.
Variously called the “Cumbrian
Princess” and the “Finsthwaite Princess,” Clementina has been
reputed to be the illegitimate daughter of Charles Edward Stuart,
commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788) the Jacobite
“Young Pretender” to the throne of Great Britain, by his mistress,
Clementina Maria Sophia Walkinshaw (c1720 - 1802). The credence to
the myth comes from the names Sobieski, the surname of Charles’
mother, and Douglas, a surname Charles was known to sometimes use as
an alias on his clandestine visits to London after the failure of
the '45.
In truth, the answer may lay in the devotion of
Clementina’s probable father, likely James Douglas, to the Jacobite
cause who in turn gave his daughter her highly suggestive name. The
only conclusive evidence of Clementina comes from the Finsthwaite
Parish church register which recorded her death: “Buried Clementina
Johannes Sobiesky Douglas of Waterside Spinster May the 16th Day
1771.” A man known as "Captain Douglas" lived in Finsthwaite and
left not long after she died
Athough the Prince was often
rumoured to have had more than one child by his mistress Clementina
Walkingshaw (see below) and Jacobite history is strewn with such
theories, it is generally accepted by serious historians that their
(and his) only child was Charlotte, later Duchess of Albany, born in
1753 as Charles himself attested in James III's secretary in 1760 in
which he said..... "before 1745 I lived in London, was between then
and 1747 undone" and went on to speak of "an obstacle in the way,
which has done him (the Prince) no service, and me great hurt". Some
commentators have taken this to refer to the birth of a child to
her, but if so it can hardly have been the Prince's. In any case, it
seems impossible that the daughter of the Pretender could have been
hidden from the British government in the eighteenth century.
Her tombstone inscription reads:
In Memoriam
CLEMENTINA
JOHANNES SOBIESKY DOUGLASS,
of WATERSIDE,
BURIED
16th OF MAY 1771
"BEHOLD THY KING COMETH"
Now, what could that inscription mean?
Children of Charles Edward Stuart and Clemintina Walkinshaw:
Clemintina Johannes Sobieska Douglas (1746-1771) d unm
Charles John Thomas Douglas (1752-1812) married Mary
Hester Harvey and had issue
Charlotte de Johnstone Douglas (b bef 1784) mistress of
Ferdinand de Rohan Prince de Guemene, Archbishop of Bordeaux, by
whom she had 3 children
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
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