History - Family Portraits
Isabella, Viscountess Irwin (nee Machell) (1670 - 1764). Attributed to John Closterman (1660 - 1711), 48½ x 39 (123 x 99)
Isabella was the daughter and heiress of John Machell of Hills, Sussex. Her fortune included the fine Elizabethan
house and the parliamentary pocket borough of Horsham. After her husband's premature death in 1702 she
continued to reside at Temple Newsam supervising the education of her nine sons.
On the marriage of her second son Rich, fifth Viscount Irwin, to Lady Anne Howard in 1718 she moved to Windsor
where she lived until her death at the age of 94 having outlived all her children. She exerted a powerful
influence over all her family, particularly in their choice of spouses and in attempting to mend the financial
losses resulting from the bursting of the South Sea Bubble in 1720.
Temple Newsam 12.2/1993
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