Flower Backhouse
Quick Facts
Biography
Flower Backhouse (died 17 July 1700) was an 18th-century English noblewoman, notable as First Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne.
She was the daughter of William Backhouse and his wife Anne Richards. She inherited nine shares in the New River Company from her father. She married, firstly, William Bishop of South Warnborough, sometime prior to 1662; secondly, her father's kinsman, Sir William Backhouse, Bart. at St Andrew Holborn; and, thirdly, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon on 19 October 1670. This gained Clarendon the manor and house of Swallowfield Park, Berkshire.
Clarendon was brother to Queen Anne's mother Anne Hyde and sometime after her third marriage Backhouse became Anne's First Lady of the Bedchamber. However, Backhouse was hated by Anne's best friend Sarah Churchill, who called her "the madwoman" and may have brought about Anne's later dislike of Backhouse.