Ұлыбританияның ең бай әйелі: Портленд Герцогинясы Маргарет Кавендиш Бентинктің өмірі мен мұрасы

British duchess

Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (11 February 1715 – 17 July 1785) was the richest woman in Great Britain of her time, styled Lady Margaret Harley before 1734, Duchess of Portland from 1734 to her husband's death in 1761, and Dowager Duchess of Portland from 1761 until her own death in 1785. The duchess, an heiress on a huge scale had the largest natural history collection in the country, complete with its own curator, the parson naturalist John Lightfoot, and the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander. Her collection included costly art objects such as the Portland Vase. Her ambition for her collection was for it to contain and to describe every living species. She was a member of the Bluestockings, a group of social intellectuals led by women and founded by her great friend Elizabeth Montagu.

She was the only surviving child of the 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, bibliophile, collector and patron of the arts, and the former Lady Henrietta Holles (1694–1755, the only child and heir of the 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and his wife, the former Lady Margaret Cavendish, daughter of 2nd Duke of Newcastle). Lady Margaret grew up at Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, surrounded by books, paintings, sculpture and in the company of writers such as Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Matthew Prior as well as aristocrats and politicians. As a child, she collected pets and natural history objects (especially seashells) and was encouraged by her father and her paternal grandfather, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, to do so.

The duchess was one of the twenty one Signatories to the Ladies' Petition for the Establishment of the Foundling Hospital. These 'ladies of quality and distinction' supported Thomas Coram's campaign to create England's first Foundling Hospital; she signed his petition to King George II on 7 May 1735. Their recognition of the need for a home for orphans and abandoned children was crucial in encouraging male relatives to support Coram's project. As a result of their influence, he gained signatures from the nobility, professionals, gentlemen and the judiciary for two further petitions in 1737. A Royal Charter was granted in 1739 to which her husband, William Bentinck, was one of the first signatories. Her father, Edward Harley, signed Coram's gentlemen's petition on the same day.

Margaret Street in central London is named after her.