Diana (Sackville), Viscountess Crosbie
British, 1756 - 1814
Person TypeIndividual
BiographyDiana Sackville was born on July 8, 1756, the eldest of five children of Lord George Sackville (1716-85) and his wife Diana Sambrooke (1732-78). Her father, a younger son of the Duke of Dorset, was a controversial figure whose Army career ended in court-martial and whose tenure as secretary of state for the colonies (1775-82) was notorious for extreme rigor. As a young woman, Diana Sackville also attracted a fair share of criticism. According to Lady Louisa Stewart, she was "conceited and disagreeable, a sort of pattern Miss who lectured us all upon propriety." Another acquaintance later described her as "a possédée that makes herself perfectly easy wherever she goes, and has so very little doubt of not being welcome everywhere, that she makes no scruple of inviting herself." On November 26, 1777, at her father's house in St. James's, Diana Sackville was married by the Archbishop of Canterbury to John Crosbie, 2nd Viscount Crosbie (1753-1815). Following her husband's succession as 2nd Earl of Glandore in 1781, her reputation for gambling and debt--a reputation shared by the Duchess of Devonshire among others in their social milieu--earned her the nickname "Owen Glendower" (i.e., "Owing Glandore"). "[She] became a most dissapated [sic] fine lady, flirting, gaming, etc. beyond her fellows," Lady Louisa Stewart claimed, adding, "In truth, I suppose she was unusually silly." Age and sad experience ultimately tempered Lady Glandore's frivolity. In a letter of 1786, she rued having "myself felt too severely the misfortune of repeated disappointments in the hope of being a mother." By 1799 the Bishop of Limerick was able to describe her household as "one of the most regular and best conducted that I have ever seen in Ireland" without "a shadow of gaming." Lady Glandore died at Ardfert Abbey, the Irish seat of her husband's family, on August 29, 1814. Lord Glandore died on April 20, 1815, and, leaving no heir, the Earldom of Glandore and Viscounty of Crosbie became extinct.
