Hester Stanhope

Walmer Castle, Kent 1776-1839

The 20th century spy and Middle Eastern explorer Gertrude Bell has been dubbed the ‘female Lawrence of Arabia’, but she wasn’t the only modern woman to eschew marriage and embark on a life of adventure. Lady Hester Stanhope’s archaeological expedition to Ashkelon (now in Israel) in 1815 is considered the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archaeology.

The socialite-turned-adventurer left England a few years after the death of her uncle, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. She had lived with Pitt at Walmer Castle from 1803 until he died in 1806, taking a particularly keen interest in the gardens. One occasion recalled in Hester’s writings tells how she elicited the help of “all the regiments that were in quarters in Dover… in levelling, fetching turf, transplanting shrubs, flowers”, with her uncle – who had been away – exclaiming on his return: “Dear me, Hester, why this is a miracle! I know ‘tis you so do not deny it.”

By Pitt’s request, Parliament granted Hester a small pension upon his death and when the man she hoped to marry, Sir John Moore, was killed at the Battle of Corunna in 1809, she moved abroad. From 1810 she travelled the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa. Hester wore Turkish or Arabian male dress, gathered immense knowledge of the regions she visited, and was received by rulers as an equal. From 1817 she lived in a deserted monastery, Djoun in Lebanon, became a recluse and studied the occult. Hester died there in poverty in 1839.

“She lived with Pitt at Walmer Castle from 1803 until he died in 1806, taking a particularly keen interest in the gardens”