Author: Serres, Olivia
Biography:
SERRES, Olivia formerly Olive Wilmott and Olivia Wilmot alias Princess Olivia (1772-1834: ODNB)
The soi-disant “Princess Olivia” was baptized 15 Apr. 1772 at St Nicholas Church, Warwick, as “Olive,” a daughter of Robert Wilmott (sic), a house painter, and his wife, Anna Maria (possibly born Burton; not Brunton, see ODNB). Alarmingly (given her subsequent history), in 1790 two men were executed for burglary based on her testimony. On 1 Sep. 1791, she married her drawing master, marine painter to the king John Thomas Serres (1759-1825). They separated in 1802. A talented artist, she exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution and in 1806 was appointed landscape painter to the Prince of Wales. She published miscellaneous essays, musical pieces, poetry, and novels. In a Life of the uncle who raised her, Johnson’s (q.v.) and Sterne’s acquaintance the Rev Dr James Wilmot, she spuriously asserted that he was the author of the Junius letters and the secret husband of a Polish princess. She began in 1818 to proclaim herself “Princess Olivia,” the illegitimate (from 1835, she claimed legitimate) daughter of the king’s brother the duke of Cumberland and her aunt Olive Wilmot Payne. She declared her absurdities in a series of letters to newspapers (reprinted as An Appeal for Royalty); produced forged papers, including a will of George III; and—adding intrigue to audacity—reported an attempt on her life. The fantasist drove about town in a “handsome equipage bearing the Royal Cornet,” an expense she regretted when in 1821 she was imprisoned for debt. An ex-sheriff of London, J. W. Parkins, published convincing evidence of her fraud. (Her “one royal principle,” he quipped, was “getting into debt without paying.”) That ought to have devastated her claims, but in an attempt to embarrass the monarch radical politicians continued to defend her. She died on 21 Nov. 1834 at Southwark and was buried in the churchyard of St James’s, Piccadilly. Her daughter Lavinia (1797-1871), sincerely believing herself to be the “princess of Cumberland and duchess of Lancaster,” adopted her mother’s absurdities. As with her mother before her, the RLF rejected Lavinia’s appeal for relief. A court in 1866 concluded that Serre’s documents were fabrications and that her pretensions were willful misrepresentations. (ODNB 15 July 2023; RLF 294; Statesman, 13 July 1820; Morning Chronicle, 18 Nov. 1820, 26 Oct. 1821; Public Ledger, 14 Aug. 1823; M. Pendered, Princes or Pretender [1939]) JC
Other Names:
- Mrs. J. T. Serres
- Mrs. Wilmot Serres