Wilhelmina Fitzclarence, Countess of Munster (1830–1906)

Wilhelmina FitzClarence, née Kennedy-Erskine, later Countess of Munster, was born in Montrose, Scotland. Her parents were Lady Augusta FitzClarence, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, and her husband, the Hon. John Kennedy-Erskine. Wilhelmina travelled as a young girl throughout Europe, visiting the courts of France and Hanover. In 1855, she married her first cousin, William George FitzClarence, 2nd Earl of Munster, with whom she had nine children. Lady Munster became a novelist and short story writer late in her life. In 1889, age nearly 60, she published her first novel, Dorinda; her second, A Scotch Earl, followed two years later. In 1896, she published Ghostly Tales, a collection of tales on the supernatural. She also wrote an autobiography entitled My Memories and Miscellanies, published in 1904.