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Jane Elizabeth Digby Ellenborough el-Mazrab

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Jane Elizabeth Digby Ellenborough el-Mazrab Famous memorial

Birth
Charminster, West Dorset District, Dorset, England
Death
11 Aug 1881 (aged 74)
Damascus, City of Damascus, Damascus, Syria
Burial
Damascus, City of Damascus, Damascus, Syria Add to Map
Memorial ID
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English Aristocrat. Throughout her life in the 19th century, Jane Elizabeth Digby Ellenborough el-Mazrab, who is usually known as Lady Jane Ellenborough, would be a constant figure in European society pages, reporting her many colorful adventures. She learned as many as nine languages and establishing a reputation as an artist and bon vivant. Married at age 17 to Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough, she left him early on to pursue adventures in Continental Europe after having a child, which died at age two, with another man. She later married Baron Karl Vennigen in Munich, with whom she would have two more children. Growing restless with her hostess role, she would leave Vennigen for Greek Count Spiridion Theotoky. Vennigen challenged Theotoky to a duel over her, but Theotoky survived and later married her in Greece, where they had a son, Leonidis, who died at age six. Following Leonidis' accidental death and Theotoky's many affairs, she left the Greek nobleman for Albanian brigand hero Xristodoulos Hadji-Petros, commander in the Greek War for Independence. This scandal caused Hadji-Petros to fall from the good graces of the Greek royal family, and she left him to study Middle Eastern culture in Syria. While there, she met Arab nobleman Sheik Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab, who would be her fourth and final husband. Impressing the Mezrab family with her knowledge of horses, she eventually became a leading figure in Arab society, visiting Europe several times in Islamic garb and critiquing Richard Burton's "Arabian Knights." One of her last journal entries reads: "It is now a month and 20 days since Medjuel last slept with me! What can be the reasons?" She died of a fever.
English Aristocrat. Throughout her life in the 19th century, Jane Elizabeth Digby Ellenborough el-Mazrab, who is usually known as Lady Jane Ellenborough, would be a constant figure in European society pages, reporting her many colorful adventures. She learned as many as nine languages and establishing a reputation as an artist and bon vivant. Married at age 17 to Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough, she left him early on to pursue adventures in Continental Europe after having a child, which died at age two, with another man. She later married Baron Karl Vennigen in Munich, with whom she would have two more children. Growing restless with her hostess role, she would leave Vennigen for Greek Count Spiridion Theotoky. Vennigen challenged Theotoky to a duel over her, but Theotoky survived and later married her in Greece, where they had a son, Leonidis, who died at age six. Following Leonidis' accidental death and Theotoky's many affairs, she left the Greek nobleman for Albanian brigand hero Xristodoulos Hadji-Petros, commander in the Greek War for Independence. This scandal caused Hadji-Petros to fall from the good graces of the Greek royal family, and she left him to study Middle Eastern culture in Syria. While there, she met Arab nobleman Sheik Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab, who would be her fourth and final husband. Impressing the Mezrab family with her knowledge of horses, she eventually became a leading figure in Arab society, visiting Europe several times in Islamic garb and critiquing Richard Burton's "Arabian Knights." One of her last journal entries reads: "It is now a month and 20 days since Medjuel last slept with me! What can be the reasons?" She died of a fever.

Bio by: Stuthehistoryguy


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  • Maintained by: Find a Grave
  • Originally Created by: AJ
  • Added: Aug 5, 2003
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7736895/jane_elizabeth_digby_ellenborough-el-mazrab: accessed ), memorial page for Jane Elizabeth Digby Ellenborough el-Mazrab (3 Apr 1807–11 Aug 1881), Find a Grave Memorial ID 7736895, citing Protestant Cemetery, Damascus, City of Damascus, Damascus, Syria; Maintained by Find a Grave.