Hannah Harrison Lowe

Who was Hannah Harrison Lowe?

Hannah Harrison Barnes, 1795–1883, is believed by some descendants and others to have been the daughter of George IV of the United Kingdom and his early wife and continuing paramour Maria Fitzherbert, a relationship whose trajectory was defined when the marriage was declared illegal for want of royal approval.

Lowe was born at Knightsbridge, London in 1795 and lived a simple life in Coventry; she married Samuel Barnes and is reported to have worked many years as a ribbon maker, and to have died alone in a workhouse. She died at age 87 in January 1883, and was predeceased by her husband Samuel in 1875 with whom she is buried at London Road Cemetery in Coventry.

The claim of royal descent comes from Barnes' extensive personal journal, which establishes that she believed herself to be the daughter of King George IV; the yet unpublished, and personally held document is reported to contain details and dates that corroborate the claim. The matter was investigated for an on-air television segment by a biographer of George IV's early life and academic military historian Saul David, Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham, with some attribution of credibility. Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only legitimate issue of King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, died in childbirth at the age of 21, leaving no descendants of this later union approved by King George III.