A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Harcourt, Harriet Eusebia
HARCOURT, HARRIET EUSEBIA,
Was born, in 1705, at Richmond, Yorkshire. She travelled over Europe with her father, and at his death, in Constantinople, in 1733, she came back to England; and as she inherited a large property, she began to establish a convent on her Yorkshire estate, and another in the western isles of Scotland. These institutions were composed chiefly of foreign ladies. A system of perfect equality prevailed in these convents, over which each presided in turn. The members could withdraw from the society when they chose, on the forfeiture of the sum of one hundred pounds. They only devoted a portion of their time to religious exercises, and the rest was spent in amusements, the study of the fine arts and sciences, and embroidery.
Miss Harcourt was beautiful and graceful in her person, and had a taste for music, painting, and drawing, which had been highly cultivated. She died at her seat in Richmond, December 1st., 1745, in the thirty-ninth year of her age, bequeathing the greater part of her fortune to her institution, on condition that the society should be supported and continued according to its original design, and to the directions she left in writing. But she had been the soul of the society; after her decease, it was soon dissolved.