Henrietta Antonia Clive, Countess of Powis (née Herbert; 3 September 1758 – 3 June 1830), was a British writer, mineral collector, and botanist. Her time in India, while her husband was Governor of Madras, was inspirational to her for all three of these pursuits.
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Early life and background
Born in Oakly Park, at Bromfield, Shropshire, into a landed and titled family, she was the daughter of Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis, and Barbara Herbert, granddaughter of William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis. Her family owned a property in London and significant estates in Wales and Shropshire. Her birthplace was sold to Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, in 1771, so Lady Henrietta spent her teenage years at the family's ancestral home, Powis Castle.
Mineral collection and botany
In 1798, Henrietta's husband, Lord Edward Clive, was appointed Governor of Madras. Lady Clive followed him to India. It is not known when she first began taking a scientific interest in collecting and cataloguing rocks and minerals but she was certainly pursuing this interest by the time she arrived in India and continued it after she returned to Britain. She was one of the first aristocratic woman to pursue this hobby. As her collection was growing, Lady Clive contacted prominent collectors and mineral dealers, such as James Sowerby, John MacCulloch and the Countess of Aylesford. Her records show that many specimens had been given to her by her children. The minerals in Lady Clive's collection, numbering up to 1,000, are arranged systematically by chemistry, as was usual in the early 19th century. In 1817, she organised her collection in two handwritten catalogues, using numbers to identify each specimen and helping the collection remain remarkably complete to this day. A quarter of the original collection is now kept at the National Museum Wales as one of the most important historic mineral collections, having been donated by her great-grandson, George Herbert, 4th Earl of Powis, in 1929.